Singer D4vd displays coldness in court when seeing photos of Celeste Rivas Hernandez’s remains
A Los Angeles Police Department detective detailed the disturbing discoveries found in musician D4vd’s Tesla vehicle during a preliminary hearing held inTuesday, July 21, 2025. The testimony shocked those present in the courtroom.
The artist, whose real name is David Burke, faces serious charges, including murder, continued sexual abuse of a child under 14 and unlawful mutilation of human remains, in connection with the death of Celeste Rivas Hernandez, who was 14.
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Detective Joshua Byers of the LAPD Robbery and Homicide Unit informed the Los Angeles Superior Court judge that he was summoned on September 8, 2025, to a tow yard in Hollywood. The call was made following the discovery of Rivas’ remains in the front trunk of Burke’s Tesla.
The car had been impounded on a Hollywood Hills street three days before the remains were discovered.
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Byers described his expectation upon arriving at the scene: “I expected to find a body in the trunk. The information I received was gathered when I arrived at the scene.”
Inside the front compartment of the vehicle, investigators located a partially open black vinyl body bag and a trash bag with blue handles.
Several graphic images of the crime scene were displayed on the screen during the hearing. The photos showed a trash bag containing limbs, a body bag, and the victim’s bloodied head and torso.
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Burke, while viewing the photos, showed no visible emotion. He stared intently at each photograph, holding his gaze as the images were presented. The artist seemed to look most intently at a specific image, which showed the young woman’s right hand with the word “Shhh…” written on her index finger.
The indictment states that Burke, 21, fatally stabbed the runaway teenager from Lake Elsinore, California, on April 23, 2025. This event allegedly occurred one day after an intense argument between the two about the singer’s relationships with other women, and just days before the release of his debut album.
The musician then dismembered and discarded parts of the victim’s body using items purchased online on platforms such as Amazon and Home Depot. Among the materials purchased were a shovel, two chainsaws, a body bag and reinforced laundry bags.
Documents from the preliminary hearing indicate that Burke also purchased a blue inflatable pool “to prevent her blood from splashing on the garage floor,” using the chainsaw and other tools to dismember the body.
Prosecutors allege that Rivas and Burke met in January 2022, when she was 11, and began a sexual relationship in November 2023, when she was 13 and he was 18.
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Burke could be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole or face the death penalty. The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office has not yet decided whether it will seek the death penalty in the case.
