Singer d4vd Will Face Trial Over Teen’s Death
Qwenews.com – A Los Angeles jury will soon decide whether pop artist David Anthony Burke — known to streaming audiences as d4vd — killed, dismembered, and concealed the body of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez inside an abandoned vehicle. After prosecutors walked a judge through five days of evidence at a preliminary hearing, the court ruled the record sufficient to send the case to trial. Burke, who has pleaded not guilty, stands accused of first-degree murder with special circumstances, continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14, and mutilating human remains.
The investigation spans roughly ten months, from the moment Celeste’s badly decomposed remains surfaced in a parked car to the present-day courtroom proceedings. Prosecutors allege the 21-year-old musician murdered the teenage runaway so she could never expose the details of their private relationship. What began as scattered missing-teenager reports in a Southern California suburb has become one of the most closely watched criminal cases in recent memory.
How the relationship formed and escalated
Court filings describe a bond that started when Celeste was 11 and Burke was already cultivating a young fanbase. The pair first met in 2022. By November 2023, prosecutors say, they had entered a sexual relationship — Burke was 18, Celeste was 13. That same month, d4vd performed his single “Romantic Homicide” on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, introducing his name to a national television audience while the relationship with a minor deepened behind the scenes.
In January 2024, the two appeared together on a Twitch livestream, bantering until roughly 3 a.m. Before ending the broadcast, d4vd laughed and said:
“Delete everything.”
Between January and March 2024, a local teenager posted TikTok photographs showing d4vd stepping out of a black Tesla near Celeste’s home in Lake Elsinore, California. Investigators later geolocated and chronolocated the images, weaving another verified thread into the evidentiary record.
Three disappearances and the trail that went cold
Celeste was reported missing three separate times in early 2024, each episode alarming family members worried about the seventh grader’s safety.
The first report landed in mid-February 2024, when she was 13. Missing-person flyers from that window placed her last sighting around February 14. Near the same date, a concerned individual emailed an address on d4vd’s record-company domain, referencing the disappearance and warning:
“There’s been talk” that d4vd possibly had something to do with it. If true, the writer urged, “Please do the right thing and take her home. Her parents are very worried.”
The sender, who requested anonymity for safety reasons, later confirmed the email’s authenticity. An acquaintance of the family said Celeste returned home within days of that message going out.
The second missing-person report was logged on or about March 19. The third and final report was filed April 5, according to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office. After that date, Celeste’s trail went cold.
Photographic evidence and the final confrontation
Despite the final disappearance, photographic evidence indicated Celeste was still alive nearly a year after her first missing report. In June 2024, she was captured on camera backstage during a sold-out d4vd performance at The Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles. Court documents further establish she was 14 at the time of her death.
After her body was identified in September 2025, investigators examined the rented home where d4vd had been living. Property owner Steve Fischer hired a private investigator who located a digital camera inside the residence. Its memory card held photographs of Celeste and d4vd taken in late December 2024 and early January 2025. Around that same window, d4vd had posted other images from the card to his X account captioned “took these pics,” alongside a selfie of himself wearing a camera of the identical model.
Prosecutors’ theory centers on a heated argument that erupted after Celeste grew upset over d4vd’s relationships with other women. Text messages from that evening show the teenager “threatened to disclose damaging information about her relationship” with the then-20-year-old musician. Prosecutors contend this confrontation marks the final night before Celeste vanished for good.
Frequently asked questions
When is the trial expected to begin? The judge cleared the path to a jury trial following the five-day preliminary hearing, but a specific start date was not announced in the reporting available at this time.
What exact charges does Burke face? He has been charged with first-degree murder with special circumstances, continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14, and mutilating human remains. He has entered a not-guilty plea on all counts.
Where did the investigation originate? The case began with missing-teenager reports in the Lake Elsinore area of Riverside County, California, before Celeste’s remains were recovered from inside a vehicle and identified in September 2025.
What role did social media play in the case? TikTok photographs geolocated near Celeste’s home, a Twitch livestream in which d4vd said “Delete everything,” and posts to his X account containing images from a camera later found at his rented residence all became part of the evidentiary record presented to the court.