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The singer was arrested at his Hollywood Hills residence on Thursday afternoon and is currently being held without bail
The case is scheduled to be presented to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office on Monday, April 20, for formal filing consideration. (Image: X)
The US music industry is reeling following the arrest of David Anthony Burke, better known as the 21-year-old alternative-pop singer D4vd. The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) took the “Romantic Homicide” artist into custody on suspicion of murdering Celeste Rivas Hernandez, a 14-year-old girl who had been missing for over a year. The case, which has seen a seven-month forensic investigation, hinges on a gruesome discovery made inside the singer’s seemingly abandoned vehicle.
How abandoned Tesla prompted murder probe?
The investigative breakthrough occurred in September 2025, not through a typical raid, but via a routine traffic enforcement action. Burke’s 2023 Tesla Model Y was parked on a residential street in the affluent Bird Streets neighbourhood of the Hollywood Hills. Under Los Angeles municipal code, vehicles cannot remain stationary on a public street for more than 72 hours. When the Tesla exceeded this limit, it was towed to a nearby impound lot.
Shortly after the vehicle arrived at the yard, workers noticed a “foul odour” and a swarm of insects surrounding the front storage compartment, or “frunk”. Upon the arrival of LAPD detectives, a search of the vehicle revealed two black cadaver bags. Court documents unsealed this week reveal a harrowing scene: the first bag contained a severely decomposed head and torso, while a second bag underneath held severed limbs. Forensic testing later confirmed the remains belonged to Celeste, who had vanished from her Lake Elsinore home in early 2024.
What is the current status of the case against D4vd?
Burke was arrested at his Hollywood Hills residence on Thursday afternoon and is currently being held without bail. While the singer was on a national tour when the car was first impounded, the LAPD’s Robbery-Homicide Division spent the intervening months building a digital and physical trail. This included subpoenas for Burke’s family members and the analysis of encrypted Discord messages where a user named “Celeste” was allegedly identified as the singer’s girlfriend as early as 2022.
In a statement released shortly after the arrest, Burke’s high-profile legal team—including Blair Berk and Marilyn Bednarski—maintained his absolute innocence. They asserted that the “actual evidence” would show Burke was not the cause of the teenager’s death. The case is scheduled to be presented to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office on Monday, April 20, for formal filing consideration. For now, the “Withered” world tour has been indefinitely suspended as one of the internet’s fastest-rising stars faces a potential life sentence.
April 18, 2026, 00:54 IST
