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Following reports of a bad smell emitting from an impounded car at a Hollywood towyard, LAPD detectives discovered a dismembered body that was later identified as the 14-year-old Rivas Hernandez. The car was registered to Burke and had been towed from the Hollywood Hills, after appearing to be abandoned.
Rivas Hernandez had last been seen in Lake Elsinore, 60 miles from downtown LA, and was reported missing in 2024. The LA medical examiner later determined that she'd been dead in the vehicle for “an extended period of time before being found".
Burke’s case will be presented to the district attorney’s office on Monday.“Prosecutors will review the facts and evidence to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to file charges,” according to a statement issued yesterday by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office to the New York Times.
Burke's legal team made a statement to The Guardian, maintaining their client's innocence: “There has been no indictment returned by any grand jury in this case and no criminal complaint filed. David has only been detained under suspicion. The 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."
The Houston-raised, and homeschooled Burke rose from a string of viral TikTok hits and was eventually signed to Darkroom Records and proclaimed as "the next Billie Eilish" by CEO Justin Lubliner. He collaborated with the likes of SZA and Kali Uchis and was touring when Hernandez’s body was discovered. Speaking to Best Fit in 2022, he explained: “I’m such a weird person. I’ve been home-schooled for four years, so it’s like I’m cut off from society. I just create characters: every song is a different character, a different perspective, because I never want people to identify me with one genre. I want d4vd to be a genre in itself, so I try to be as versatile as I can with the sounds that I use and how I convey emotion."
English (US) · 