Details are emerging about the arrest of the musician known as D4vd in the 2025 murder of teenager Celeste Rivas Hernandez in Hollywood.
David Anthony Burke, 21, was taken into custody in Hollywood shortly after 4:30 p.m. and booked into the LAPD’s 77th Street Jail a few hours later.
Images, posted on social mediaMembers of the Robbery Homicide and Gang and Narcotics divisions are shown wearing tactical gear and carrying rifles approaching a house on a tree-lined road. The street is located off Sunset Boulevard, a celebrity-filled street where the likes of Kendall Jenner and Emily Blunt live and where Jimmy Kimmel once described himself as the neighborhood watch captain.
On Thursday afternoon, a procession of LAPD vehicles moved up the narrow path, blocking access to the road on both sides of the property. Sometime after 4:30 p.m., detectives from the Robbery Homicide Division and heavily armed members of the Gang and Narcotics Division, who specialized in high-profile arrests, came in and banged on the front door and announced they were LAPD and there was David Burke, known as D4VD, and ordered him to come out and surrender.
The singer surrendered and was formally arrested at 5 pm
In an image of the arrest, an officer is seen using a handheld battering ram to force entry into the front gate of a home.
According to the LAPD, Burke is being held without bail and the case will be presented to the LA County District Attorney’s Office on Monday for consideration. Burke’s attorneys, Blair Burke, Marilyn Bednarski and Regina Peter, released a joint statement following his arrest, saying, “Let’s be clear – the actual evidence in this case will show that David Burke did not murder Celeste Rivas Hernandez and that he did not cause her death.”
Authorities have not released any details about the evidence that led to the arrest.
David Anthony Burke is performing.
(Cyril Zingaro/Associated Press)
Timeline of the case
27 August: LA parking officers first ticketed a Tesla in the Hollywood Hills neighborhood, leaving some residents worried.
September 8: The severely mutilated body of a girl was found inside a Tesla registered to D4vd after it was seized in Hollywood tow. Someone noticed a foul odor coming from the vehicle and detectives arrived at the tow yard to investigate.
September 18: Detectives served a search warrant at D4vd’s home in an upscale neighborhood on Doheny Drive, north of Sunset Boulevard. Law enforcement sources familiar with the case but not authorized to speak publicly said detectives found various items, including electronics and computers. Police say the singer is cooperating.
September 21: A memorial has been placed in the Lake Elsinore neighborhood of victim Celeste Rivas Hernandez.
Mid November: The Los Angeles District Attorney’s office convened a secret investigative grand jury to hear evidence, including witness testimony.
21 November: The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Department received a court order to seal the autopsy results and any documentation of Celeste’s death at the request of a Los Angeles police detective.
February 12: A key grand jury witness was brought back to LA from Montana to testify. After failing to appear at a Los Angeles County criminal proceeding, a posse of police officers apprehended the witness at his mother’s residence in Helena, Mont. The L.A. County Jail served the warrant, authorities said.
February 23: Documents show D4vd is the “target” of a Los Angeles County criminal jury investigation into Celeste’s death. Records also show that her “arms and legs were severed from the body.”
16th April: Singer D4VD was arrested on suspicion of murder in connection with Celeste’s death.
Photographs, intimate notes and flowers, among other items, left at the memorial of Celeste Rivas Hernandez
(Gina Frazee/Los Angeles Times)
Who is D4vd?
Burke was raised in Houston and has collaborated with musicians Kali Uchis, Stray Kids’ Hyunjin, LoFi, and 21 Savage. He also composed an anthem for the game “Fortnite”.
In August, they began a national tour in promotion of their debut album “Withered”. They performed in Boston, Montreal, and Toronto in late August and stopped in Detroit, Chicago, and Indianapolis in early September. The tour was stopped after his name was linked to the Celeste case.
The Withered World Tour covers the themes of death and remembrance. Fans entering Burke’s shows were greeted by a coffin and guest book, where they could express condolences to the character Burke sometimes reprized in his performances and music videos. Part of the character’s uniform includes a shirt covered in bloody handprints and a blindfold.
“Withered” was released in April on Darkroom and Interscope Records. The album charted at number 13 on the Billboard 200 and has over 521 million streams on Spotify.
Celeste’s dismembered body was found in September.
According to the grand jury subpoena, which was part of a legal challenge filed by the singer’s family in Texas, when police opened the Tesla trunk, they found “a black body bag covered with maggots and a strong smell of decay” inside. Investigators were granted a search warrant on September 8 to examine the vehicle after a tow yard employee noticed a smell of decomposition coming from the vehicle.
Detectives partially opened the bag and found “a decapitated head and torso,” according to the document.
Who is Celeste Rivas Hernandez?
Celeste Rivas Hernandez lived in the suburb of Lake Elsinore but had connections to Hollywood, the music industry, and singer D4VD.
Last September, the Los Angeles Police Department announced that her dismembered body was found inside the trunk of a Tesla car owned by the singer. The vehicle was found parked on a road where D4vd was renting a house.
The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office said Celeste was pronounced dead on September 8, a day after her 15th birthday. But authorities believe she may have been dead for several weeks before she was discovered.
How Celeste met Burke is unclear. Law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation say they met online. Burke gained an online following by posting “Fortnite” clips on YouTube and turned his attention to creating his own music. He was signed to a record label until 2022.
The daughter of first-generation immigrant parents from El Salvador, Celeste attended Lakeland Village School.
People in Lake Elsinore said she was a normal teenager.
She went to the corner store with her friends almost every day, wearing a backpack and her usual long, curly black hair. He got candy, soda and talkies. She was a familiar face to neighbors and local business owners.
But she had run away from home several times and this had worried friends and family.
An emotional memorial was built in his honor near his home in September.
