D4vd Arrested After a Seven-Month Investigation: How We Got Here

By Jon Blistein

Jon Blistein

Seven months after a severely decomposed body was found in the trunk of an impounded Tesla, heavily armed Los Angeles police officers descended upon a house in the Hollywood Hills to make an arrest. The platinum-selling singer D4vd, owner of the Tesla and long suspected to be linked to the alleged crime, was taken into custody shortly after 4:30 p.m. local time on Thursday and booked on suspicion of murdering 14-year-old Celeste Rivas.

The arrest of the singer, whose real name is David Anthony Burke, marks a culmination of sorts for what could well be the first of many phases in one of the most sensational and grisly Hollywood sagas in recent memory. In the months since Rivas’ body was discovered, there’s been near-total silence from authorities like the LAPD, District Attorney’s Office, and Medical Examiner. Meanwhile, there’s been a near-constant drip of information, rumor, and speculation from tabloids and internet sleuths. 

On Monday, LAPD detectives will present their case to the DA’s office for filing consideration. Prosecutors are expected to review the facts and evidence and determine whether there is enough to officially bring charges against Burke. “We will share an update on Monday once a filing decision has been made,” the DA’s office said Thursday night. 

Meanwhile, Burke’s legal team — led by prominent L.A. criminal defense attorney Blair Berk — denied the singer was a killer. “Let us be clear, 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,” they said in a statement. “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. We will vigorously defend David’s innocence.”

With official criminal proceedings potentially on the horizon, many more details about the case may soon emerge. For now, though, here’s a timeline that digs into everything we’ve learned so far, and how we got to this point. 

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Sept. 8, 2025

A little after noon, LAPD responded to a call from a tow yard in Hollywood about a “foul odor” coming from an impounded Tesla. When the car’s front trunk was opened, detectives discovered decomposing human remains in a black plastic bag. At the time, the police were unable to share any details about the victim, due to both the deterioration of the body and the lack of any identification. 

What was determined at the time, though, was that the 2023 Tesla Model Y with Texas license plates was registered to David Anthony Burke. Reps for Burke, who was on tour when the body was discovered, issued a statement saying he was “cooperating” with authorities. 

Sept. 9

The day after the body was discovered, the L.A. County Medical Examiner issued a statement describing the victim as a female with wavy black hair whose body was “severely decomposed.” The statement said the person “appears to have been deceased inside the vehicle for an extended period of time.” 

The victim’s height was listed at 5 feet 2 inches, but the medical examiner was unable to determine her eye color, age, or ethnicity. She was described as wearing a tube top and black leggings, as well as yellow metal stud earrings and a yellow metal chain bracelet. The report also noted a distinct tattoo on her right index finger that read, “Shhh…”

That same night, Burke performed in Minneapolis. Fans posted videos showing the singer tossing Labubus into the crowd and hyping his hit song “Crashing,” featuring Kali Uchis. He did not address the death investigation during the show. 

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Sept. 16

California authorities identified the victim as Celeste Rivas, a 15-year-old from Lake Elsinore, California. She’d been reported missing by her family the previous year. While the Rivas family declined to speak with reporters, TMZ reported at the time that her mother said her daughter had been dating someone named “David” before her death. 

Despite identifying Rivas, authorities did not share a confirmed, or even suspected, cause of death. The Medical Examiner said the determination was still “deferred,” pending further investigation. 

Mid-September to mid-November

Following Rivas’ identification, the investigation quickly ramped up in both official and unofficial capacities. Police searched a house in the Hollywood Hills near where the Tesla had been found. After several hours, the cops left with multiple items, including a computer. After the search, the home’s owner, Mladen Trifunovic, confirmed to Rolling Stone that he’d been renting the home to Burke’s manager since February 2024. Burke’s Instagram account also contained multiple images from inside the home. 

New details also came out about the Tesla, which had been towed from the affluent Bird Streets neighborhood in the Hollywood Hills. Residents told Rolling Stone that the car had been spotted in various places around the neighborhood, going back as far as May 2025. The city finally towed the car after a citizen complained that the car had been abandoned for more than 72 hours. (Some sources said the car had been parked in its final spot for at least three weeks.)

Meanwhile, speculation and rumor swirled around Burke’s alleged links to Rivas. TMZ, for instance, surfaced a photo of Burke in Lake Elsinore, close to where Rivas lived before her disappearance. They also highlighted an allegedly leaked and unreleased D4vd song floating around the web called “Celeste.” And they uncovered a photo of Burke that appeared to show him with a “Shhh…” tattoo on his finger similar to the one Rivas had. 

Authorities, however, remained tight-lipped. At the end of September, the LAPD released a statement explaining the lack of named suspects, charges, or arrests. They noted the Medical Examiner still had not “determined the cause or manner” of Rivas’ death, meaning it was technically still “unclear” if there was “any criminal culpability beyond the concealment of her body.” 

Amid the investigation, a planned deluxe edition for D4vd’s debut album, Withered, was shelved and the last two shows on his North American tour were canceled. Burke’s campaigns with the fashion companies Crocs and Hollister were also yanked.  

Nov. 18

Sources close to the investigation confirmed to NBC News and ABC that Burke had been identified as a suspect in Rivas’ death. No arrests were made and no charges were filed. 

Late November 

While police publicly declined to characterize Rivas’ death as a homicide, the case was described as “an investigation into murder” in court documents filed by a LAPD detective. Joshua Byers made the comments in a declaration requesting a court order that would prevent the Medical Examiner from releasing Rivas’ autopsy findings. The judge granted the request, a decision the ME’s office expressed frustration with in a rare public statement. 

“The Department’s mission is to have full transparency with the community by providing information about our cases to empower people to make changes that save lives,” Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Odey Ukpo said. “Since becoming the department head, I’ve worked on eradicating the practice of placing security holds on Medical Examiner cases simply by law enforcement request. The practice of security holds is virtually unheard of in other counties and has not been proven to improve outcomes in the legal system.”

Around the same time, the cops released a separate statement meant to “dispel some misinformation” spreading online: Claims that Rivas’ body had been frozen or refrigerated before it was moved into the Tesla, and that she had been decapitated. The cops shot down both of those claims. 

But they did acknowledge another tidbit — regarding an alleged trip Burke took to Santa Barbara —discussed on a podcast episode featuring TMZ founder Harvey Levin and prominent criminal defense attorney Mark Geragos. “We have evidence that D4vd travelled to the Santa Barbara area sometime during the Spring of 2025,” the cops said. “The reason for that trip is still under investigation, and we’ve drawn no conclusions at this point about the relevance of the trip to this case.”

The police also said they wanted Rivas’ autopsy findings sealed “to ensure detectives from Robbery-Homicide Division learned of important information surrounding her death before the media and the public. The order was not sought to undermine transparency.”

Nov. 26

The Los Angeles Times confirmed that the L.A. County district’s attorney’s office had been presenting evidence in the Rivas case to an investigative grand jury. While investigative panels can be used to subpoena witnesses, compel evidence,  and recommend charges, they cannot return an indictment. 

Jan. 26, 2026

One of Burke’s friends, the influencer Neo Langston, was arrested in Montana and hauled back to Los Angeles after failing to appear at a grand jury hearing as a witness. Langston was eventually released on $60,000 bail and reportedly appeared in front of the grand jury in early February. 

Feb. 12

The 1st District Court of Appeals in Texas denied three petitions filed by Burke’s father, mother, and brother requesting the judge overturn a lower court ruling requiring the family — who live in Texas — to comply with California grand jury subpoenas. 

Feb. 25

After appealing the 1st District’s ruling to the Texas Criminal Court of Appeals, the Burke family earned a stay on the original lower court ruling. (As of mid-April, the matter is still pending, and subpoenas remain in limbo, the family’s lawyer told Los Angeles Magazine.) 

Feb. 26

The Burke family’s dispute over the subpoenas did lead to the unsealing of court records that, for the first time, formally identified Burke as the “target” of a grand jury investigation into the alleged homicide of Rivas. The documents described Burke as someone who “may be involved in having committed” a crime listed as “one count of murder.” 

The documents, obtained by Rolling Stone, also contained new details about the condition of Rivas’ remains, including that “the arms and legs had been severed from the body.

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