Singer D4vd, whose legal name is David Burke, has been arrested on suspicion of murder in connection with the death of a 14-year-old girl whose body was discovered inside his car, the Los Angeles Police Department said on Thursday.
The case stems from September 2025, when the decomposed body of teenager Celeste Rivas Hernandez—who had been reported missing from Lake Elsinore in 2024—was found in the trunk of an impounded Tesla registered to the singer.
Burke rose to fame after going viral on TikTok in 2022 with "Romantic Homicide.”
The case is expected to be presented to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office on Monday.
Rivas Hernandez had been just 13 years old and in seventh grade when her family reported her missing for a final time on April 5, 2024, from Lake Elsinore, a small city roughly 70 miles southeast of Los Angeles. Her body was found Sept. 8, 2025—one day after what would have been her 15th birthday. Authorities listed her age as 14 at the time of her death in court documents.
The 2023 Tesla Model Y, registered to Burke at a Texas address belonging to his family, had been towed from an upscale Hollywood Hills neighborhood where it sat seemingly abandoned. When officers searched the vehicle at a tow yard, they found a cadaver bag "covered with insects and a strong odor of decay," according to grand jury subpoena documents. Investigators "partially unzipped the bag and observed a decomposed head and torso," the documents state.
The condition of the body was deeply disturbing. "Upon removing the cadaver bag from the front storage compartment, it was discovered the arms and legs had been severed from the body," the document states. "A second black bag was discovered underneath the cadaver bag. Upon opening the second bag, the dismembered body parts were discovered."
Investigators from the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's Office responded to the scene. No cause of death has been publicly released. In November, LAPD obtained a court order barring Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Odey Ukpo from disclosing the results of the autopsy.
Burke had been under scrutiny for months before his arrest. The existence of a secret Los Angeles County grand jury investigation—and his designation as its target—came to light Feb. 25, when his mother, father, and brother filed an objection in a Texas court to subpoenas demanding they testify in California. A Texas judge ultimately ruled the family members could not ignore the subpoenas and ordered them to appear in California and testify.
Grand jury documents described Burke as the target of a probe into "one count of Murder.”
Burke, a Houston native, built a devoted Gen Z following with his genre-blending sound, mixing indie rock, R&B and lo-fi pop. His 2022 TikTok breakthrough "Romantic Homicide" climbed to No. 4 on Billboard's Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart, earning him a deal with Darkroom and Interscope Records. He released his debut EP "Petals to Thorns" and a follow-up, "The Lost Petals," in 2023, and his first full-length album, "Withered," last year.
NTD News was unable to reach Burke Thursday evening for comment.