Los Angeles, April 20, 2026 US singer D4vd, whose legal name is David Burke, has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, whose dismembered and decomposed body was found in his abandoned Tesla last September, prosecutors announced Monday.
Charges and Gruesome Discovery
The Los Angeles County District Attorney's office revealed that Burke, 21, faces first-degree murder charges for the killing of Rivas Hernandez, who was reported missing by her family in 2024 when she was just 13 years old. Authorities described her as a "runaway" at the time of her death.
According to court documents, investigators from the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's Office made a horrific discovery when they examined a bag removed from Burke's Tesla. "The arms and legs had been severed from the body," the records state. The girl's remains were found in an advanced state of decomposition, nearly a year after she was last seen alive.
Defense Claims Innocence
Burke's legal team has vehemently denied the charges. In a statement issued after his arrest last week, his attorneys said: "Actual evidence in this case will show that David Burke did not murder Celeste Rivas Hernandez and he was not the cause of her death."