Singer D4vd is ‘target’ in investigation of killing of girl whose decomposed body was found in Tesla
Alt-pop singer D4vd, whose legal name is David Burke, is the focus of a Los Angeles County grand jury investigation into the killing of a 14-year-old girl. The decomposed body of the teenager was discovered last year inside a Tesla, which had been towed from the Hollywood Hills.
Court documents, obtained on Wednesday, identify the 20-year-old Houston-born artist as the “Target” of the inquiry. These documents include grand jury subpoenas issued on 15 January, which seek testimony from three of his relatives: his mother, father, and brother.
While the grand jury investigation has been kept under wraps in California, the subpoenas were made public following an appeal in Texas by the singer’s family. The filings explicitly state that the “Target may be involved in having committed the following criminal offenses against the laws of the State of California, to wit: One count of Murder.” Authorities had not previously named D4vd – pronounced “David” – publicly as a suspect in the case.
The long-dead body of Celeste Rivas Hernandez was found on Sept. 8, a day after she would have turned 15. She was a 13-year-old seventh grader when her family reported her missing in 2024 from her hometown of Lake Elsinore, about 70 miles (112 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles. Authorities give her age as 14 when she was killed in the court documents.
The subpoena says police investigators searching the 2023 Tesla Model Y in a tow yard found a cadaver bag “covered with insects and a strong odor of decay.”
It says “detectives partially unzipped the bag and observed a decomposed head and torso.”
Investigators from the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office responded to the scene.
“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 says. “A second black bag was discovered underneath the cadaver bag. Upon opening the second bag, the dismembered body parts were discovered.”
Representatives for D4vd did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday, and they have not previously responded to emails seeking comment on the case.
District attorney’s representatives also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A judge in Texas said the three family members could not ignore the subpoenas and must appear to testify.
The Tesla had been towed from an upscale neighborhood in the Hollywood hills where it had been sitting, seemingly abandoned.
The singer was in the middle of a U.S. tour and continued to play several shows after her body was found. But he eventually canceled the rest of his concerts and a European tour after his connection to the case became widely reported.
The Medical Examiner’s Office had previously said only that the body was found severely decomposed and had likely been “deceased inside the vehicle for an extended period of time before being found.”
In November, Los Angeles police got a judge to prevent Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Odey Ukpo from releasing the findings of the autopsy, and no cause of death and little else about the investigation has been revealed.
D4vd gained popularity among Gen Z fans for his blend of indie rock, R&B and lo-fi pop. He went viral on TikTok in 2022 with the hit “Romantic Homicide,” which peaked at No. 4 on Billboard’s Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart. He then signed with Darkroom and Interscope Records and released his debut EP “Petals to Thorns” and a follow-up, “The Lost Petals,” in 2023.
When the body was discovered, D4vd had been on tour in support of his first full-length album, “Withered.” Later, the last two North American shows, in San Francisco and Los Angeles, along with a scheduled performance at LA’s Grammy Museum, were canceled, as was the European tour that was to have begun in Norway.
