On 8 September 2025, a worker at a Los Angeles tow yard called police about a strong odour coming from an impounded Tesla. Officers opened the front trunk and found the decomposed remains of a teenage girl. The car was registered to David Anthony Burke, the musician who performs as d4vd. The girl was later identified as 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, who had been reported missing from Lake Elsinore, California.
Read the memorial entry connected to this case, with focus on Celeste's life beyond the investigation.
A dedicated current-affairs documentary that follows Celeste's disappearance, the investigation and the evidence made public ahead of the preliminary hearing. Released while the case was still taking shape, it is best viewed as an early account, not a definitive reconstruction.
Celeste's remains were found one day after what would have been her fifteenth birthday. In April 2026, seven months after the discovery, Burke was arrested and charged with murder, continuous sexual abuse of a child under fourteen and unlawful mutilation of human remains. The District Attorney's Office also filed special-circumstance allegations involving lying in wait, financial gain and the killing of a witness. His lawyers say he did not cause Celeste's death.
Who Celeste Rivas Hernandez Was
Celeste was born on 7 September 2010 and grew up in Lake Elsinore, a Riverside County community southeast of Los Angeles. She was in seventh grade when her family first reported her missing in 2024. Neighbours remembered a girl with school friends, long curly hair and braces, far removed from the anonymous figure later reduced in headlines to a car and a famous musician.
After Burke was charged, Celeste's parents, Jesus Rivas and Mercedes Martinez, spoke publicly about their daughter. They remembered her as beautiful and strong, a girl who loved to sing and dance, and said Friday nights at home meant watching movies together. Their appeal was for justice, but their words also reclaimed what the case had begun to obscure: Celeste was their daughter, loved for the ordinary moments of a life that should have continued.
A Pattern of Missing Reports
Celeste was reported missing on more than one occasion. Court filings say Riverside County authorities contacted Burke about one of those disappearances on 17 February 2024. He told investigators, according to the account filed with the court, that he had not known she was a minor and that their last communication had been several days earlier. Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies later went to his home and told him Celeste was thirteen.
She returned home two days later. Court records say Burke subsequently paid one of Celeste's junior-high classmates to give her another phone after her parents had taken her device away, allowing the two to keep communicating. That claim has not been tested at trial.
Celeste's family reported her missing again on 5 April 2024. In the months that followed, court filings say, she spent considerable time with Burke and travelled with him. Celeste eventually returned to her family home, but the two remained in contact.
What Prosecutors Allege
The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office says Burke began sexually abusing Celeste in November 2023, when she was thirteen and he was eighteen. The charge of continuous sexual abuse concerns conduct said to have taken place before she turned fourteen. The charge remains unproven and is not a finding by a judge or jury.
Filings portray the relationship as secretive and controlling, with Celeste increasingly troubled by Burke's contact with other women. Court papers say that by April 2025 she had threatened to reveal what had happened between them, potentially endangering his rapidly growing career. Prosecutors cite that as a possible motive. The defence denies that Burke killed her and disputes that reading of the evidence.
The Night of 23 April 2025
The timeline presented by prosecutors begins with an argument by text on 22 April. The next evening, Burke arranged a rideshare from Lake Elsinore to the Hollywood Hills house he was renting. Records presented in court put Celeste's arrival at about 10:10 p.m.
Her phone then went silent. The District Attorney's Office contends that Burke killed Celeste at the property on or around 23 April, causing penetrating injuries with a sharp object. It says messages later sent to her phone asking where she was were meant to make it appear that he did not know what had happened.
The following day, a shovel was delivered to the house, according to evidence presented at the hearing. Later purchases included body bags, chainsaws and an inflatable pool. Investigators testified that several of those items were recovered when the property was searched. The defence rejects that interpretation of the purchases.
The Tesla at the Tow Yard
Prosecutors say Celeste's remains stayed in the front trunk of Burke's Tesla for more than four months. By late summer 2025, the vehicle had been left on a residential street in the Hollywood Hills. After it appeared to be abandoned, it was ticketed and eventually towed.
On the morning of 8 September, a tow-yard employee noticed the odour and called police. Officers found Celeste's remains inside bags in the front trunk. Graphic descriptions later heard in court are not repeated here. The basic circumstances of the discovery are enough to explain why the case so quickly drew attention around the world.
Identification and Medical Findings
The condition of the remains meant that forensic testing was needed to identify Celeste. Investigators also relied on a small finger tattoo that her family recognised. The Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner later concluded that she died from multiple penetrating injuries caused by one or more objects and ruled the death a homicide.
The findings were completed in December 2025, then kept from public release under a court-ordered security hold. They were disclosed on 22 April 2026, two days after the charges were announced. The medical examiner determined how Celeste died and classified the death; those findings alone do not identify who inflicted the injuries.
Arrest and Charges
Burke was arrested on 16 April 2026. Four days later, the Los Angeles County District Attorney charged him with murder, continuous sexual abuse of a child under fourteen and unlawful mutilation of human remains. Special circumstances attached to the murder count could expose him to California's most severe penalties if he is convicted.
Burke pleaded not guilty and remains in custody without bail. His attorneys say the evidence will show that he did not cause Celeste's death. The District Attorney's Office has not announced whether it will seek the death penalty. At this stage, every count is a charge, not a conviction.
What the Preliminary Hearing Has Revealed
The preliminary hearing opened in Los Angeles on 21 July 2026. It has a narrow purpose: Judge Charlaine F. Olmedo must decide whether there is enough evidence for the case to move toward trial. It is not a trial, and there is no jury deciding guilt.
On the first day, homicide Detective Joshua Byers testified about digital records, online purchases and items taken from Burke's home. The court also heard evidence about trips Burke is said to have made to a rural area of Santa Barbara County, where Celeste's passport was later found.
Forensic witnesses described blood evidence recovered from the Hollywood Hills garage and the Tesla. Testing linked some of it to Celeste, according to testimony. Defence lawyers pressed witnesses on collection, storage and documentation, challenging both the chain of custody and the conclusions put forward in court.
Financial witnesses were called to address the claim that disclosure of the relationship could have threatened a career worth millions of dollars. The defence objected to parts of that questioning. The judge has not yet decided whether Burke will be ordered to stand trial.
Where the Case Stands
As of 23 July 2026, the preliminary hearing is still underway. Burke has not been convicted of any offence connected to Celeste, and no trial jury has tested the evidence heard so far. The next decision is whether Judge Olmedo finds probable cause to move the charges forward.
Testimony is developing day by day, so accounts of the hearing remain provisional. Claims in filings or from the witness stand can still be challenged, narrowed or excluded as the case proceeds. Reality Uncut will update this section once the judge rules.
Celeste, Beyond the Case
Celeste's name has become linked to a Tesla, forensic evidence and a criminal case involving a musician with a vast online audience. Those details explain the intense public interest. They are not the measure of her life.
Her family remembered a strong girl who sang, danced and spent Friday nights watching films with the people who loved her. She was a student with braces and friends, and her life existed long before strangers began debating evidence online. Whatever happens in court, Celeste Rivas Hernandez belongs at the centre of this story as a child whose future was taken away, not simply as someone found in a vehicle.
Open the legally cautious defendant profile connected to this ongoing case.
Los Angeles County District Attorney: Singer d4vd charged in Celeste Rivas Hernandez case
Los Angeles County Medical Examiner: Cause and manner of death determination
Associated Press: Timeline of the investigation and allegations
Associated Press: Celeste's family and Lake Elsinore community remember her
Associated Press: Identification after the discovery in the impounded Tesla