LOS ANGELES, April 20 (Reuters) – David Burke, a 21‑year‑old musician known professionally as D4vd, has been charged with the murder of 14‑year‑old Celeste Rivas, Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman said on Monday.
Hochman said the remains of Rivas were found last year in the front trunk of a car registered to D4vd. She had been missing for nearly a year-and-a-half when her decomposed remains were discovered in September 2025.
The vehicle had been parked for weeks in a Hollywood Hills neighborhood before being towed to an impound lot, where workers reported a foul odor.
D4vd gained fame in 2022 after songs he recorded on his phone for his Fortnite gaming videos went viral on TikTok, with the hit “Romantic Homicide” helping him sign a deal with Interscope Records. He was scheduled to be arraigned on Monday afternoon.
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In September 2025, the family of missing California teen Celeste Rivas Hernandez spoke up about her death after a decomposed body found in the trunk of American singer D4vd’s abandoned Tesla in Los Angeles was identified as hers.
For the unversed, police confirmed on that the body found in an abandoned Tesla, registered under the name of singer David Anthony Burke, 20, known professionally as D4vd, last week, has been identified as Celeste Rivas Hernandez, a 15-year-old girl who was reported missing in Lake Elsinore, California.
According to the LA County Medical Examiner’s Office records, obtained by a foreign publication, Hernandez’s date of death has been listed as September 8, whereas the cause of death has been deferred, due to her body being ‘severely decomposed’.
Following the confirmation that the human remains found in the LA impound Tesla of D4vd are of Hernandez, her family has now shared a statement on her death. “As many of you know, Celeste Rivas Hernandez has been identified as the body found last week; her family is heartbroken and devastated by this tragic loss,” read the statement shared on her GoFundMe page.