What to know about singer D4vd’s arrest in 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez’s killing
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Seven months after a 14-year-old girl’s body was found in D4vd’s towed SUV, the alt-pop singer has been arrested on suspicion of killing her, authorities said.
Detectives arrested the 21-year-old, whose legal name is David Burke, on Thursday on suspicion of murder in the investigation of the killing of Celeste Rivas Hernandez, Los Angeles police said. Authorities had not publicly named Burke as a suspect previously. Investigators are expected to present a case to prosecutors on Monday, police said. Burke’s lawyers have declared his innocence.
Here are a few things to know about the case:
Singer was arrested, but is not currently charged
Burke was arrested at about 4:30 p.m. Thursday, police said, at a home near the Chateau Marmont, the legendary Hollywood hotel that has been home to decades of industry scandal and lore. It is about two miles from the upscale Hollywood Hills street where Burke’s Tesla and Rivas Hernandez’s body were found.
He was booked into a jail in South Los Angeles with no bail several hours later.
Prosecutors say on Monday when they receive the case they will review it to decide whether there is enough evidence for charges.
Burke’s defense attorneys stressed that Burke has only been detained under suspicion, no indictment had been returned and no criminal complaint has been filed.
“Let us be clear — the actual evidence in this case will show that David Burke did not murder Celeste Rivas Hernandez and he was not the cause of her death,” the lawyers said.
Celeste Rivas Hernandez was reported missing at age 13
The seventh grader’s family reported her missing in 2024 from her hometown of Lake Elsinore, about 70 miles (112 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles. Her long-dead body was found in an apparently abandoned Tesla Model Y impounded on Sept. 8, a day after she would have turned 15. Authorities in court documents list her age at death as 14.
In a tow yard, a bag covered with insects and a strong smell was discovered, and police found a decomposed head and torso when they opened it. Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office investigators discovered the limbs had been severed, and in a second bag found dismembered body parts.
No cause or time of death has been publicly revealed, and it is not clear whether they have been determined with any specificity, a potential hurdle to prosecution.
After the medical examiner revealed its initial findings, police in November got a judge to block the agency from releasing any more information. That court order remained in place Friday.
Singer popular with Gen Z for indie rock, R&B and lo-fi pop blend
D4vd, pronounced “David,” went viral on TikTok in 2022 with the hit “Romantic Homicide,” which peaked at No. 4 on Billboard’s Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart. After signing with Darkroom and Interscope Records, D4vd released his debut EP “Petals to Thorns” and a follow-up, “The Lost Petals,” in 2023.
D4vd said in an interview last year that he was homeschooled after moving from New York to Texas at age 8 and while he appreciates art from Houston and New York, his artistry was shaped more by the internet.
“I was such an internet kid. The internet is really what I claim as my home,” he said, explaining that he was online every day, doing schoolwork, making songs and videos and posting on social media. “My neighborhood was Instagram and the society was the internet.”
When Rivas Hernandez’s body was found, D4vd was on tour supporting his first full-length album, “Withered,” and “Locked & Loaded,” Fortnite’s first official anthem, which he partnered with Epic Games on, had just been released. An email seeking comment Friday from Epic Games was not immediately answered. The last two North American shows of the tour, in San Francisco and Los Angeles, along with a scheduled performance at LA’s Grammy Museum, were canceled, as was the European tour that was to have begun in Norway.
Secret grand jury investigation revealed after singer’s family objects to testifying
The singer had been under a secret grand jury investigation looking into the death of Rivas Hernandez. The status of that part of the case isn’t clear.
Often when a grand jury is convened, an indictment with charges comes before an arrest. But, as Burke’s lawyers noted, none has been issued.
In Los Angeles County, prosecutors can charge a defendant then take their evidence before a judge in a public preliminary hearing to decide whether a trial is warranted. Or they can go to a grand jury, which circumvents the process, keeps it secret, and puts the case on a direct path to trial.
A grand jury may be used because its subpoena power can compel witnesses to talk in ways that police can’t. There were several unwilling witnesses in this case.
The grand jury’s existence — and the designation of D4vd as its target — was revealed when his mother, father and brother filed an objection in a Texas court to subpoenas demanding they come to Los Angeles to testify. The Associated Press obtained documents in the case in February that had been sealed in California. The filing said the Tesla was registered in the singer’s name at the Texas address of his subpoenaed family members.
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Associated Press Writer Sarah Brumfield contributed from Cockeysville, Maryland.