(L.A.) Celeste Rivas Hernandez, Young Teen Girl, Found Decomposing in D4vd’s Tesla
Case Number: 2025-14252
Los Angeles County is reporting the death of a 15-year-old Hispanic female whose body was found inside a vehicle.
The coroner’s office identified the teenage girl as Celeste Rivas Hernandez of Lake Elsinore, California.
Manner of Death: Homicide
Cause of Death: Multiple Penetrating Injuries Caused by Object(s)
The investigator at the Department of Medical Examiner assigned to this case is Karen Tapia, the forensic pathologist Ansel Nam.
RIP CELESTE ABIGAIL RIVAS HERNANDEZ (September 7, 2010 – September 8, 2025)
Formal pronouncement of death was made on Monday.
The decedent was reported missing from Lake Elsinore in April 2024. At that time, she was 13 years old, in 7th grade, stood 5 feet 3 inches, and weighed 120 pounds.
Her dismembered body was found decomposing inside the front trunk of a Tesla registered to singer David Anthony Burke, who goes by the moniker D4vd (pronounced “David”). The vehicle had been impounded after apparently being abandoned in Hollywood Hills.
Posts on Reddit reveal that David wrote and recorded a song about her where he mentions her name twice. He has the same tattoo “Shhh” as what she had on her right index finger. Her mother confirms the girl had a boyfriend named David.
Comment
by from discussion
inplayboicarti
“He was dating an underaged girl with evidence of them together on social media and discord, he had matching tattoos with her, the girl gets reported missing and then is found in the trunk of his car which he never reported stolen. Wrote a song named Romantic homicide with the lyrics “At the back of my mind I killed you and didn’t shed I single tear”and released it on YouTube on her birthday.”
It actually seems like she died from a drug overdose while they were getting high together. He hid her body in his Tesla, which was stolen. He didn’t report it stolen because had he done so, the body would’ve been discovered. The car thief finds the body and abandons it.
David is likely to be charged with:
- Concealing Accidental Death (Hiding/Mutilating Corpse)
- Evidence Tampering (Destroying/Concealing Evidence)
If the authorities aren’t convinced it was an accidental death, he could be charged with either:
- Involuntary manslaughter (if death was caused by reckless behavior, e.g., supplying drugs that led to overdose), or
- Voluntary manslaughter or second-degree murder (if evidence suggests intent or gross recklessness)
The most he would get is 11 years in California state prison.