The case surrounding singer D4vd has taken a significant and deeply troubling turn, after prosecutors in Los Angeles formally charged him with the murder of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez.
The 21-year-old artist has pleaded not guilty to the charges, which were announced months after the teenager’s remains were discovered in a car registered to him.
Authorities allege the singer – real name David Anthony Burke – was involved in a sexual relationship with Celeste and have also charged him with lewd acts involving a minor and mutilating a body.
He was also charged with murder for ‘financial gain’ and with murder of a witness to an investigation, the Los Angeles district attorney said.
As more details emerge — including the circumstances of Celeste’s disappearance, the delay in identifying her cause of death, and the prosecution’s claim this could qualify for the death penalty — the case has raised urgent questions about what happened in the months before her body was found.
In September, Los Angeles police first made the grim discovery after being called to inspect an impound lot following reports of a ‘foul odour coming from a vehicle.’
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Reports then emerged that forensic experts had determined the victim was a girl aged between 14 and 15, but were waiting to release her name until her family was located and contacted.
A day on, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner identified the body as 15-year-old Celeste Rivas.
Now, people following the horrifying story have plenty of unanswered questions.
Who is D4vd?
David Anthony Burke is far more successful and well-known than many adults realise, as his fame is mostly online and among teenagers.
Born in 2005 and raised between Queens, New York, and Houston, Texas, the 21-year-old singer-songwriter first turned to music as a workaround: his Fortnite video montages, which he created and posted to YouTube, were repeatedly muted online due to copyright strikes.
At his mother’s urging, he started writing his own songs to bypass this impediment.
In 2022, two of his homemade tracks, Romantic Homicide and Here with Me, went viral on TikTok, and each now has over a billion streams on Spotify alone.
Soon enough, D4vd was signed to Darkroom and Interscope, the same label family that had broken Billie Eilish.
By 2023, he’d already released two EPs (Petals to Thorns and The Lost Petals), establishing himself as an experimental voice in the indie-pop and R&B space, performing at major events like Coachella, and drawing massive crowds of young fans.
Additionally, his song Locked & Loaded was the official anthem of Fortnite, one of the most popular video games in history.
Tracks like Feel It – featured on Amazon Prime’s Invincible – have also earned him a loyal fanbase.
In April 2025, he released Withered, his debut album. At the time the news about Rivas Hernandez broke, D4vd had 34.6million monthly listeners on Spotify alone and nearly 4million followers on TikTok.
His enormous online following created an interesting component in the early days of this case, as many young fans began to talk amongst themselves about times they thought they’d seen Celeste in the artist’s livestreams or other supposed ‘clues’ in the mystery of her disappearance and death.
For the industry, D4vd remains a reminder of how the digital age can create stars overnight: a teenager uploading songs for video game clips suddenly standing on festival stages. Now, this case suggests a darker side to that overnight fame.
Who was Celeste Rivas Hernandez?
Celeste Rivas Hernandez was a 14-year-old girl from Lake Elsinore who had been missing for months before her death became the centre of a major homicide investigation.
Before she was identified, the teenager was described as having wavy black hair, 5 feet 2 inches tall, and weighing 120 pounds.
She was found wearing a tube top, black leggings, a yellow metal bracelet, and metal stud earrings. She also had a tattoo on her right index finger that read: ‘Shhh…’.
The teenager’s mother told TMZ that her daughter had a boyfriend named Dave before her disappearance.
She was last seen in April 2024, when she was just 13 years old. According to authorities, Celeste told her family she was going to watch a movie but never returned home, prompting a missing persons search that would go unresolved for months.
Court records later confirmed she was 14 at the time of her death.
Her remains were discovered in September inside a vehicle in Los Angeles, in what police later described as an advanced state of decomposition, complicating efforts to determine exactly how she died.
Her cause of death has still not been publicly confirmed and remains under investigation.
Forensic work was ultimately used to identify Celeste, bringing a name to a case that had initially left many unanswered questions.
Officials have since acknowledged that the condition in which she was found, along with the significant gap between her disappearance and discovery, meant crucial evidence was lost, delaying both identification and key forensic conclusions.
Her death has since been described by prosecutors as ‘brutal and horrific’, with the case now moving through the courts following charges brought against singer D4vd, who has pleaded not guilty.
Celeste’s family have spoken out following developments in the case, with her father saying he was thankful ‘justice for Celeste’ may now be within reach.
What has D4vd been charged with and how did he plea?
Prosecutors in Los Angeles have charged the 21-year-old singer with the murder of Celeste Rivas Hernandez.
In addition to the murder charge, Burke is accused of lewd and lascivious acts involving a minor under 14, as well as mutilating a body. Authorities have also alleged that he engaged in a sexual relationship with the teenager prior to her death.
He entered a plea of not guilty following his arrest, and his legal team has said they intend to ‘vigorously defend’ him as the case moves forward through the courts.
Is he facing the death penalty?
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Yes, prosecutors have indicated that the case could be eligible for the death penalty due to what are known as ‘special circumstances’ attached to the murder charge.
According to the district attorney, these include allegations such as lying in wait, committing the crime for financial gain, and murdering a potential witness. Under California law, such factors can elevate a murder charge and allow prosecutors to seek the most severe penalties available.
During a press conference announcing the charges, Los Angeles district attorney Nathan Hochman described the case as a ‘brutal and horrific murder’, adding that it represents ‘a parent’s nightmare’.
The court ordered the coroner to share the report on the teen’s death, which has been barred from public release.
In a statement to CBS, the Rivas Hernandez family said it was ‘committed to ensuring that Celeste’s voice is heard and her memory is honored throughout this process.’
What happens next?
With Burke having pleaded not guilty, the case will now proceed through the criminal justice system, beginning with pre-trial hearings where evidence and legal arguments are examined.
Prosecutors will continue building their case, while the defence is expected to challenge the allegations and the evidence presented. A trial date has not yet been confirmed.
Officials have also made clear that the investigation has been complex, with LA police chief Jim McDonnell noting on Monday that delays were partly due to the condition in which Celeste was found and the time elapsed before her discovery, which impacted the availability of forensic evidence.
He said: ‘I want to be clear about something. My duty is not to fuel speculation. It’s to deliver justice, and that requires patience and discipline on everybody’s part.’
‘This investigation was driven by a single purpose to secure justice for Celeste Rivas and for those who loved her. We had to be certain that nothing we did or said would ever jeopardise this case.’
As proceedings continue, more details are expected to emerge about the timeline of events leading up to Celeste’s death, and the evidence that will ultimately be presented in court.
A version of this article was originally published on September 18, 2025.
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