r/d4vd 7/27/25 - deluxe most likely delayed - d4vd: "music industry aint as easy as it looks twin 💀" - 4/24/25 (day after murder of Celeste Rivas Hernandez)

r/d4vd 7/27/25 - deluxe most likely delayed - d4vd: "music industry aint as easy as it looks twin 💀" - 4/24/25 (day after murder of Celeste Rivas Hernandez)

On July 27, 2025, a someone posted a screenshot from someone else seemingly showing a direct exchange with d4vd on April 24, 2025, the day after Celeste was reportedly murdered by d4vd in his garage at 1368 Doheny Place/Vireo Drive.

In the exchange, an apparent fan is asking d4vd about when the Withered Deluxe album would be coming out. d4vd answers, "music industry aint as easy as it looks twin 💀".

The OP from r/d4vd appears to be trustworthy source though they do acknowledge that the screenshot was from someone else.

Original r/d4vd post: https://www.reddit.com/r/d4vd/comments/1mb84oj/deluxe_most_likely_delayed/

u/Remy-DL — 9 hours ago

Why does the 804 Doheny Drive house always raise more questions than it answers with respect to d4vd and the murder of Celeste Rivas Hernandez?

In the April 22, 2025 text exchange between Celeste and d4vd (the night before Celeste’s murder) released in preliminary hearing testimony/evidence, Celeste is angry about d4vd’s relationship with Aysia Collins, but why would Celeste say that d4vd has only known Aysia for one year in the exchange?

It seems highly unlikely that Celeste, in April 2025, would have been unaware of d4vd’s April 2023 video “Sleep Well” co-starring Aysia Collins.

The text exchange takes another curious turn. Celeste is angry about Aysia being at d4vd’s house - specifically, the 804 Doheny Drive house that d4vd supposedly hasn’t lived in since April 2024 when - as we are supposed to follow here - there was a pre-Coachella meet-up to get “guest” wrist bands. Is Celeste really still mad about something that happened over a year earlier at a home d4vd hadn't lived in for over a year? (Same house where police did a pre-warning(???) welfare check/search for Celeste in February 2024. Preliminary hearing testimony has also confirmed that the 804 house was not merely a studio/streaming house. d4vd and Celeste did in fact reside there at some point.)

So what gives?

The accepted story is that d4vd moved out and/or stopped using the "temporary" 804 North Doheny Drive house by end of April 2024 after Josh Marshall had leased the more upscale 1368 Doheny Place/Vireo Drive home for d4vd's use in February of 2024.

It seems far-fetched at this point that d4vd would have still been using the 804 Doheny house in April of 2025, though we might ask, would d4vd have been more likely to have been giving out "guest" wrist bands for Coachella 2024 which he was not a performer at or for Coachella 2025 which he was a performer at? d4vd certainly could have been giving out wrist bands in 2024 that he got through the industry or even that he purchased as part of a package without having been a performer that year. There has been a lot of speculation about whether or not Celeste was at Caochella both in 2024 and 2025.

Finally, the "simple" explanation to my initial puzzlement might be that, yes, Celeste was still pissed off about an incident with Aysia from over a year prior in a house that neither d4vd or Celeste had been in for all that time. And, yes, maybe Celeste simply said d4vd only knew Aysia for a year as an off-the-cuff comment that didn't reflect her actual knowledge that d4vd had known Aysia for at least 2 years at that point.

For me, something still just seems off about all of this. I can't help but believe that the 804 Doheny house is going to prove to be much more inexplicably (for now) important than any of the existing (and already damning) photos, videos, and accounts about 804 that we are already familiar with have already revealed.

u/Remy-DL — 12 hours ago

D4vd mató a Celeste Rivas y escondió su cuerpo en un Tesla | Relatos Forenses Podcast

Relatos Forenses ("Forensic Tales") podcast with Dr. Jorge Olivares: D4vd mató a Celeste Rivas y escondió su cuerpo en un Tesla ("D4vd killed Celeste Rivas and hid her body in a Tesla").

>[Relatos Forenses] analizan los casos más impactantes desde una perspectiva forense, explorando la psicología criminal, la criminología y las investigaciones que revelan la verdad detrás de los delitos más escalofriantes.

>Forensic Tales analyzes the most shocking cases from a forensic perspective, exploring criminal psychology, criminology, and the investigations that reveal the truth behind the most chilling crimes.

Source: https://youtu.be/yT0mcL6BoS8

youtu.be
u/Remy-DL — 2 days ago

COMMUNITY INFO & UPDATES

Hello, r/d4vdiots community! This is a new announcement feature that will include new community-wide updates regarding operational, procedural, and administrative info in the interest of transparency and clarity. (It is not a discussion-based feature, and so comments are disabled.) It will also include "evergreen" (i.e., enduring) information that might be perennially useful for new (and old) visitors and members.

UPCOMING EVENTS

August 31, 2026, 8:30 AM PDT - Arraignment proceeding for The People of the State of California vs. Burke, David Anthony at Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in Los Angeles, California (Source: Los Angeles Superior Court)

r/d4vdiots is planning on some sort of active, all-day coverage of the arraignment proceeding possibly similar to what it did with the "streaming info hub" coverage for the 5 days of the preliminary hearing. Stay tuned for more info on just what this coverage will entail.

HELPFUL HINTS & INFORMATION

Moderation/Hold of New Posts

Currently, new post submissions to r/d4vdiots are held for review before publication. When you see an automatic removal message for your post submission, it is because it is being reviewed for approval.

Post Accessibility & Findability

This is NOT a rule for r/d4vdiots posts, but please consider adding text summaries or descriptions to image and video posts for which even a short text snippet might help someone else better understand your post while also helping others find the post later when searching the community or Reddit itself.

Recent Community Rules Updates

The community rules have been updated in the past couple of weeks. Whether you are an old or new visitor to the sub, give the rules a quick look to familiarize yourself with the ground rules for participation here and to get a sense of the community vibe we are aiming for.

Early d4vdiots visitors may remember the completely free-wheeling days when this sub started. Unfortunately, as can be expected, the growth of the community and its subsequent and inevitable attraction of nefarious players with exclusively nefarious intent have, naturally, required that the community protect itself and protect its visitors and Redditors in general by way of some basic civic constraints. Nobody gets to yell "Fire!" in this theater. ;)

Digital Safety - External Links in Posts and Comments

Reddit, thankfully, automatically blocks many un-trusted domains from being included in post and comment links to protect Reddit users in general; however, it's not uncommon for posts here (and elsewhere on Reddit) to include links to assets on trusted platforms (e.g., Google Drive). Such links and remotely hosted assets are generally safe with the following caveats - caveats which you can/should apply to your use of the web beyond Reddit as well:

  • Google Drive Links & Assets (e.g., docs, spreadsheets, etc.): If you are signed in to a Google account and open a Google file asset accessed via public link-sharing, other users will only see you as an anonymous animal (e.g., Anonymous Badger, Anonymous Turtle). Alternatively, your real account name or associated email address and profile picture would ONLY be exposed IF you were explicitly invited by name in email or via Google networking to the file while logged into Google.
  • It is highly recommended that you always open non-Reddit links in Incognito / Private Browsing mode.
  • Watch for Phishing: Never enter your Reddit password, email credentials, or any personal identifying information on an external landing page prompted by a link you follow from Reddit.
  • Report Malicious Content: If a link appears malicious or a violation of our community rules, please use the "Report" button so the mod team can take action.

There is never perfect protection on the web. Aside form exploits that trick users or exploit user system security vulnerabilities, so-called "zero-day" exploits, for instance, have successfully compromised some of the largest and most trusted commercial platforms on the web. If you are still concerned for your digital safety here or elsewhere after reading this, we encourage you to seek out more information on the web about all of the latest tools and strategies that are available to protect you from malicious forces...on the web.

reddit.com
u/Remy-DL — 4 days ago

Basic introduction to "d4vd's closet" Discord server and archival chat dump research tool

This is not new information for close followers of the case, but I'm updating a resource list with information about it, and I thought this admittedly very basic overview might be interesting or helpful for other folks.

The original "d4vd's closet" Discord server

On September 9, 2025, one day after the still-unidentified remains of Celeste Rivas Hernandez were discovered in d4vd's Tesla, d4vd's infamous "d4vd's closet" Discord server was locked down by server moderators. Moderators were reportedly deleting some server chats about this time. (d4vd's last chat comment in the server using his official user account (he most certainly had other alt-accounts too) was on September 2, 2025: "fortnite".)

Fast-acting, open source archiving of chat data (and evidence)

On September 18, 2025, u/Long-Candle9760 astutely created an archival dump of the server general chat for historical preservation. (Saved at archive.org)

On September 20, 2025, "baldierot" thoughtfully published an interface for searching and reading the archive dump at: https://d4vd-closet-discord-general-chat-dump.pages.dev/. (Open source codebase and usage notes at https://github.com/baldierot/D4vd-Closet-Discord-General-Chat-Dump)

Pre-arrest suspension of d4vd's official Discord user account

On April 17, 2026, d4vd's Discord account was suspended, the day after he was finally arrested for the murder of Celeste, and so his comments can no longer be read in the still accessible original Discord server; however, his comments are preserved in the archive dump and readable in the archive web interface linked above. (There are also numerous screenshots of d4vd's activity on Discord from as early as 2022 through 2025 posted on various platforms including Reddit.)

Caveats for folks investigating the Discord server and using the archive tool or even old screenshots from server:

  • There is a 3 hour time zone difference between the Discord server and the archive of the server, so you can expect to see that difference in chat timestamps.
  • For folks not familiar with Discord, Discord users can change their user names and display names. As such, users (and moderators) with maybe familiar names relating to the case do not always have same name across screenshots from the server dating back to 2022, the archive data captured in September 2025, or the still accessible Discord server.
  • Aside from d4vd's official suspended Discord account, there are of course many accounts that have been deleted in the course of the Discord server's life - including accounts that, with varying degrees of certainty, were likely used by not only d4vd but also Celeste. (Also, unless a Discord user manually deletes their account or their account is suspended, their messages remain in place.
  • If you are new to investigating the "d4vd's closet" server, there is a wealth of information in Reddit communities as well as other platforms about all of the twisted ways that the Discord server is interconnected with this tragic case.

I hope this is helpful for someone. (I'm going to be updating our mega-resource list with a highly condensed version of this shortly.)

u/Remy-DL — 4 days ago
▲ 25 r/trapology+1 crossposts

The making of D4vd’s violent videos and what they mean for his case

Full article plain text:

D4vd animators discuss 'Rehab' video ahead of murder trial

Aug. 15, 2026, 12:45 p.m. ET

by Krystie Lee Yandoli

Source: https://www.freep.com/story/entertainment/music/2026/08/15/d4vd-animators-discuss-rehab-video-murder-trial/91276514007/

• Singer D4vd was arrested in April 2026 for the murder of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez.
• Fans and investigators have scrutinized his 2023 animated music video "Rehab" for its violent imagery.
• Animators who worked on D4vd's gruesome "Rehab" music video are now questioning if it was a warning sign.

When D4vd released the video for his song “Rehab” on Sept. 8, 2023, its gruesome imagery appeared to be another extension of the rising singer’s fictional universe: A young man resembling D4vd, whose real name is David Anthony Burke, brutally dismembers a brown-haired woman before leaving her severed arm behind.

At the time, “Rehab” seemed like a somewhat typical anime-style video about heartbreak and horror. Then on April 16, 2026, the 21-year-old singer was arrested for the murder of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez. Burke has pleaded not guilty. Soon more details came to light: Hernandez had been missing for five months before her dismembered body was found in the front trunk of Burke’s Tesla at a Los Angeles city tow lot.

The video suddenly looked very different.

Three animators who worked on the “Rehab” video spoke to USA TODAY about how they helped create Burke’s dark imagery, if the videos were a possible warning sign, and what safeguards—if any—the music industry should put in place. 

“When I watched that music video again, given the accusation, the arrest, and the crime, I felt such an overwhelming sadness. I just started sobbing because the worst thing that could happen to this young girl who’s no longer with us did happen,” one animator says. “Did this music video play a part in this story?”

New talent trying to break through

It isn’t easy for an unknown artist without industry connections to break into the music business. But after finding success as a Fortnite gamer and YouTube streamer, Burke’s songs “Romantic Homicide” and “Here With Me” blew up on TikTok in 2022. 

The artist was soon signed to Darkroom Records, an imprint of Universal Music Group’s Interscope Records. In May 2023, Burke released his debut EP “Petals to Thorns,” followed by a number of music videos that reached millions of viewers online. As his star continued to rise, freelance illustrators and animators were excited to land a gig contributing to his music videos. They were trying to get a foot in the door, too, and were grateful for the opportunity and to add his buzzy name to their résumés.

What they didn't know is that Burke had been involved in an on-and-off relationship with Hernandez. Prosecutors say she was 11 years old when they were first in communication, and in January 2022, when she was 13, their relationship allegedly became sexual. Authorities allege Burke killed Hernandez to stop her from exposing their sexual relationship and jeopardizing his burgeoning music career. He is charged with first-degree murder, continuous sexual abuse of a minor and unlawful mutilation of human remains. Now Burke is being held without bail, and prosecutors have not announced whether they will seek the death penalty.

Representatives for Burke, Darkroom, and Interscope Records did not respond to requests for comment.

In light of the gruesome circumstances of the case, fans and sleuths have since pored over his art and imagery, particularly his video for “Rehab.” They point to what they believe to be physical similarities between the animated woman and Hernandez, and the video’s violence and the allegations against Burke. 

The four-minute anime video shows two versions of Burke repeatedly confronting each other in a brightly colored, illustrated world. A blindfolded character he named It4mi — after Itami, which means pain in Japanese, and as a reference to his stage name D4vd — is shown covered in blood, while Burke’s other animated counterpart appears largely uninjured. The two characters fight with swords and exchange blows as the action moves between a bar, rooftops, and a bridge. 

Burke explained in a 2025 YouTube interview with Mahogany that has since been deleted that It4mi is a murderous alter ego who appears throughout his art and is responsible for committing crimes that another, better version of himself would then investigate.

The video shows a brown-haired young woman wearing a cropped white shirt and star-patterned jeans. During one of the more graphic sequences, It4mi swings a blade at the woman, severing her arm and sending blood across the frame. Her detached limb is later shown lying on the ground as the violent confrontation between the two versions of Burke continues. 

Those examining Burke’s digital footprint pointed out Hernandez also had long brown hair; the woman’s jeans were celestial, a reference to Hernandez’s name. Two of Hernandez’s fingers, including one with Burke’s name tattooed on it, had been dismembered, when she was found, according to prosecutors.

Screenshots of alleged text messages between Burke and the music video’s director reviewed by USA TODAY, along with written directions for the video, paint a picture of the singer’s involvement in shaping its violent imagery and narrative. All three animators who spoke to USA TODAY asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retaliation from others in the music industry and harassment online. 

“Had I known what I know now, obviously I wouldn't have had anything to do with this,” a second animator says. “But at the time it was just a good opportunity for me.”

How D4vd’s violent vision came to life

The animators say their work on “Rehab” began in August 2023, just one month before it was released to the public. All three say they were hired for the project by Tristan Zammit, who is credited as directing “Rehab” and has worked with famous bands like Metallica, as well as hip-hop stars like Lil Uzi Vert, The Game, and Logic, and new and emerging artists like Sleepy Hallow.

The animators say they were not directly in touch with Burke and were unfamiliar with his music prior to this assignment, and say Zammit primarily communicated instructions via Discord. (Twenty-six artists were originally credited on Burke’s YouTube video, but their names were removed during USA TODAY’s reporting. Many of them still appear in a 2023 post on Zammit’s Instagram feed.) Zammit did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

“When I was pitched the brief of the music video it was like, [the character] has this internal struggle, which is a really common theme in anime,” the second animator explains. “That's what you're seeing in the duality of the character: There’s one with blood all over him, and then the other one. At the time I was like, ‘Oh, it's a cool concept.’”

For an animated music video, the director typically creates what’s called an animatic, a type of storyboard, based on the artist’s vision to guide the animators. The written captions from the “Rehab” animatic, which were reviewed by USA TODAY, offer insight into the story Burke was trying to tell.

When the woman first appears in the animatic, the captions describe her control over It4mi. After seeing her silhouette, It4mi is “entranced/alarmed” and removes his blindfold, revealing glowing purple eyes. 

“It4mi becoming more hypnotized as petals swirl around him,” the caption reads. “Vines and thorns wrap around his arms—bringing him to his knees and piercing his skin—injecting poison that fully places him under the girl’s spell. In an endless ocean world-polluted in purple. This is the representation of the girl’s genjutsu over It4mi.”

In Japanese anime and manga, particularly the “Naruto” franchise, genjutsu refers to a supernatural illusion that manipulates a person’s senses and perception. Under its influence, It4mi follows a trail of petals toward the woman. “It4mi approaches the girl,” the caption says, “Reaches out and she disappears.” 

One animator highlighted this moment in the “Rehab” animatic, as a reflection of how, in Burke’s world-building, the woman manipulates his character and says the portrayal makes it seem like it was her fault that It4mi went on to be so violent in the story.

In the sequence depicting the woman’s dismemberment, the captions read: “Slice! The girls [sic] arm flies off in an impact. Arm falls off and turns into dead thorns and petals.”

When the character’s katana, a traditional samurai sword, is thrown into the air, the caption reads: “The katana spears the girl and pins her into the wall like a thumbtack.”

USA TODAY reviewed screenshots of text messages that, according to the three animators, were from Burke and shared by Zammit in a group Discord chat with six people including Burke. The screenshots show that during the making of the video, Burke gave positive feedback to Zammit about the video, including the moment when It4mi hits the woman. 

“THE IMPACT FRAMES BROOO,” Burke wrote. “Let the staff see their families dawg they going too crazy.”

When Zammit sent sketches of the woman to the same chat, Burke replied, “DAWGGGGGGGG OMG.”

At the time, this didn’t alarm the animators. “I was just happy to be drawing anime-style stuff for music videos. I thought, this is such a great trend, I'm so happy this is happening,” the first animator says. “It felt like a really tight deadline with a lot of work, so it was definitely stressful. But cool to be involved with a high-profile person for your portfolio.”

Animators revisit ‘Rehab’ in a new light

When news broke of Hernandez’s death and Burke’s possible involvement, the animators struggled to reconcile their role in creating the video with the emerging details of the case.

“When I saw all these stories coming up in the news I was like, ‘Oh my god, that's crazy. I can't believe I've done work for this guy,’” the second animator says. “I saw that people were saying he hints at a lot of things in his lyrics, and maybe these were all clues that he was dropping in his music.”

The first animator became immersed in fans’ speculation and sat in front of their television screen and sobbed because, in this new light, the video “was just so dark.”

“I thought, this is so tragic. If any of his art and his music have anything to do with this young girl losing her life, I was just lost for words,” they explain. “It just felt so gross and disgusting to have potentially helped tell that story.”

Particularly haunting: that “Rehab” video was released on Sept. 8, 2023, one day after Hernandez’s 13th birthday.

“I think it is very odd that it was released on YouTube around her birthday,” the first animator continues. “It's hard to ignore that. It’s just very strange.”

What the online theories get wrong

While the animators say they see distinct similarities between the case and the video, they also point out that some matching details were merely due to chance. 

Many commenters, for example, speculated about the star designs on the jeans worn by the woman character in the video.

“I saw people tying Celeste's name to the jeans because the star pants were ‘celestial.’ I drew her wearing star jeans because I owned the same pair of jeans,” the first animator says. Some artists “didn't have any clue what the narrative was, [we were] just picking stuff that we liked or thought was cool.”

The first animator says the speed and collaborative nature of productions like “Rehab” also complicate attempts to interpret every visual detail as a message directly from Burke. “These videos are made on such a tight deadline that a lot of us are just taking things we like, or inspiration from our own lives, and drawing things fast and putting them in there,” they explained.

Despite wanting to sometimes speak out and clarify these details for fans, the first animator was afraid to get too involved given the heightened scrutiny and attention surrounding the public discourse. 

“It's so sensitive, and [Hernandez’s] life is so important,” they said. “There are some things chosen in that music video that weren't by the artist. It's a mix of both. Some of it is not from David, and some of it is.”

While many in the music industry still have yet to speak out about their involvement with Burke, some people have clarified their relationship with the singer. Actress Cassidy Clarke, who played Burke’s love interest in the 2022 music video for “Here With Me,” shared that she met Burke only through the project and had not remained in contact with him. “I don’t associate with Burke by any means,” she said in a post on TikTok. “I’m an actor.” 

Another artist who goes by the name catuqu__ online said on TikTok that they worked as an animator on “Rehab:” “It’s crazy looking back now, the animation team and directors were just trying to make a cool anime music video but now it feels dirty, like we were a part of his guilty confession, Celeste you didn’t deserve this.” The artist didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment. 

The animators who spoke to USA TODAY are struggling to separate the art from the artist. “I am an open-minded person but when the artist does something really, really awful, it's hard to separate it,” the third animator says. “In David's case, he [allegedly] killed someone and I don’t want to hear anything from him. It's awful.”

Burke is not the first artist to explore dark themes in his music and lyrics. But few musicians have pointedly portrayed violence against women in their videos, especially when it comes to depicting explicit or graphic images of men killing or dismembering women. The inspiration for “Rehab” however is less traditional pop music and instead draws from anime and video games, both of which have faced criticism for their portrayals of women and use of gendered violence.That kind of content desensitizes people to violent artwork in “Rehab,” the third animator says, so the video doesn’t shock. But, they add, it also shouldn’t be looked at in isolation—is this artistic expression, or are there other patterns or concerns that suggest there are potential warning signs worth paying attention to?

“I always thought the video was very childish. The themes and everything were a bit morbid,” that animator explains. “After Burke’s arrest, everyone was saying, ‘Wow, he already put all this here for everyone to see, he already had these tendencies.“

Who bears responsibility for an artist’s vision?

The case also raises questions about the roles and responsibilities of the broader ecosystem that helped bring Burke’s artistic vision to life. Zammit was tasked with directing Burke’s vision and Darkroom/Interscope Records oversaw that process, as is common practice for a record label, but the freelance animators described the production as an informal process without contracts or institutional safeguards that might exist at a larger entertainment company.

“As people and artists who are just trying to make a living and follow our dreams, we don’t always go through the same vetting process that I’m sure someone like Disney or other major corporations do,” the second animator says. “For us, there was no guide to sign a contract or anything. There’s no paper trail of this. We don’t know what goes on in these people’s lives. We’re just trying to pay the bills.” 

Yet they invite the scrutiny of their work that was done in the name of Burke’s ultimate vision. “I do think with the severity of what happened to Celeste and her losing her life, we should look back at everything—the videos, the music,” says the first animator. “If that helps us help this girl and her family because an arrest has been made, then it seems like the responsible thing to do.”

Krystie Lee Yandoli is a senior entertainment reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach her at kyandoli@usatoday.com, and follow her on Instagram, Threads, and X.

freep.com
u/Remy-DL — 4 days ago

Annie Elise succinctly captures arc of d4vd's manipulation and Celeste's trust, betrayal by d4vd, her adolescent frustration, and her final fatal forgiveness as revealed in the text messages between them

In this short excerpt, Annie Elise is discussing the text messages between d4vd and Celeste Rivas Hernandez that came out in testimony during the recent preliminary hearing in the case of The People of the State of California vs. Burke, David Anthony.

Source: Today's new Nancy Grace episode: D4VD JAIL VIP, 1-WORD POST AFTER CELESTE'S MURDER: “DECAY” - https://youtu.be/dYixTx395c4

Annie Elise on YT: https://www.youtube.com/@annieelise

u/Remy-DL — 5 days ago

New Nancy Grace: D4VD JAIL VIP, 1-WORD POST AFTER CELESTE'S MURDER: "DECAY"

New Nancy Grace episode premiering August 14, 2026 at 3:00 PM PDT (5 minutes and counting from time of this post). *From YouTube channel: "*Watch and chat live with other viewers as this upload is shown for the very first time."

>D4vd VIP treatment in jail and bizarre one word post after Celeste murder: "Decay."

Source: https://youtu.be/dYixTx395c4

youtu.be
u/Remy-DL — 5 days ago

Law & Crime: Sidebar with Jesse Weber - D4vd Murder Case: DNA, Decomposition, & Tesla Data

>New hearing transcripts offer a rare, behind-the-scenes look into the prosecution's damning physical and digital evidence against 21-year-old musician David Anthony Burke, professionally known as D4vd. The young artist faces severe charges following the alleged murder and dismemberment of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, whose remains were discovered in the trunk of D4vd's Tesla. Law&Crime's Jesse Weber walks us through key expert witness testimony detailing phone tracking, forensic DNA matches, and chilling medical examiner findings from the Hollywood Hills crime scene.

Source: https://youtu.be/gZtW86tr0gI

youtu.be
u/Remy-DL — 6 days ago

Last Place David Burke Drove The Tesla: My Theory....(from The Light True Crime)

The Light True Crime considers another possible reason that d4vd drove the Tesla to the Ross Dress for Less store the last time he drove the Tesla. Did he use the charging station near the Ross? (The Light True Crime posted this over a week ago, but I didn't see it being considered yet on Reddit - of course maybe I missed it? Also, I want to thank another recent r/d4vdiots contributor for directing me to this and recent update from The Light True Crime o Josh Marshall's alleged history of trying to hush up victims. Thank you, ConsciousAction3091!)

youtu.be
u/Remy-DL — 6 days ago

LA Times: Body bags, chainsaws, a 'burn cage': D4vd case shows extremes of online shopping

- Full Article Plain Text:

Source: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-08-13/d4vd-murder-case-online-shopping-evidence

By James Queally and Richard Winton

Aug. 13, 2026 3 AM PT

  • Prosecutors say the singer D4vd bought several items he used to get rid of the body of teenager Celeste Rivas Hernandez, including chainsaws and cadaver bags, from online marketplaces.
  • Amazon sells a wide range of cadaver bags online, but legal experts say they have legitimate uses and the vendor isn’t

responsible if a buyer uses them for nefarious means.

• By ordering such items directly to his residence, the singer did prosecutors a favor, experts say.

The best-selling body bag on Amazon is just $24.43.

With eight handles, the shiny black sack is capable of holding up to 300 pounds. The item is described as leak-proof, “impervious to blood,” and it can be used to transport goods and carry supplies for hiking. But it’s also helpful for “decomposed body transfer if needed,” according to the website.

The “Primacare BB-3201 Body Bag Stretcher Combo” sits atop a list of the dozen best-selling cadaver bags on Amazon. All but one of the items appears designed for the actual transfer of human remains or animal corpses. While such items are primarily used by hospitals or coroner’s offices, most of the body bags on Amazon can be bought for less than $50 by anyone with a credit card and a minute to spare.

It may seem odd that such items are so easy to purchase online, but testimony heard last month during a preliminary hearing in the murder case against David Anthony Burke — better known as the 21-year-old singer D4vd — showed the average shopper is just a few clicks from the tools needed to dismember and disappear a body.

Burke is charged with murder, continuous sexual abuse of a minor and mutilation of a corpse in the April 2025 slaying of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez. Prosecutors say Burke, who rose to fame after releasing the viral track “Romantic Homicide” and an anthem for the popular video game “Fortnite,” sexually abused Hernandez for years and then killed her in his Hollywood home after she threatened to expose him.

Burke has pleaded not guilty to all charges and denied wrongdoing through his attorneys.

An LAPD detective testified last month that after the killing, Burke ordered multiple chainsaws, cadaver bags, shovels and a “burn cage” from various online retailers, including Amazon and Home Depot.

Evidence of blood was found in Burke’s garage, according to an LAPD forensic analyst, and Hernandez’s limbs were severed and stacked in body bags when police discovered her remains in the trunk of Burke’s car last September.

Investigators did not recover the tools Burke allegedly used to sever Hernandez’s limbs. He ordered three chainsaws, authorities said, but officials found only two during a search of the garage where detectives believe he cut up Hernandez. Tests for blood came back negative and the so-called burn cage was never opened, officials testified last month.

Legal experts said that while it may seem ghoulish for online retailers to sell items like cadaver bags, they have legitimate uses and a vendor is not responsible if buyers use those items for nefarious purposes. Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor, likened the purchases to how people can buy any number of items associated with illegal narcotics that have other legal uses.

“I can buy pipes. I can buy a scale. I can buy baggies. I can buy vials. I can buy needles … is the DEA going to show up at my house if I buy all that stuff?” Rahmani asked.

An Amazon spokesperson did not respond to an inquiry from The Times.

The singer’s defense attorney, Blair Berk, declined to comment on what, if anything, her client bought online after Hernandez’s disappearance last year.

Rahmani said the trail of circumstantial evidence could be used to bolster the first-degree murder case against Burke, helping to convince jurors he acted with intent.

“In hindsight, it looks super suspicious,” Rahmani said. “But 99% of people who buy chainsaws are not trying to cut up young girls they sexually abused.”

During the five-day preliminary hearing, Los Angeles Police Department officials testified that a search of Burke’s phone and computers revealed he bought many of the items that could have been used to dismember Hernandez online through aliases. Burke’s legal team did not challenge the fact that he bought the items, and they didn’t make any specific arguments that the body mutilation charges should be dismissed.

Joshua Ritter, a former L.A. County prosecutor turned defense attorney, questioned whether online retailers should have an alert system set up if a person buys a number of different legal items that could be used in conjunction for something illegal.

“If he bought a cadaver bag, along with a chainsaw … there’s a bunch of stuff you could see so clearly that something bad could be happening, does Amazon even care?” he asked.

Dmitry Gorin, another former L.A. County prosecutor, also said he found it “hard to believe that body bags are offered for purchase.”

“Online retail appears to make it very easy and convenient to put together a possible murder kit,” he said.

Experts said that while Burke’s decision to order the potential dismemberment supplies directly to his home didn’t help his case, he was already linked to Hernandez long before investigators searched his devices.

Police interviewed Burke about Hernandez after her family reported her missing from her Lake Elsinore home in February 2024, making his connection to the girl clear to the sheriff’s departments in both Los Angeles and Riverside counties. The discovery of Hernandez’s remains in Burke’s car in a tow yard in September 2025 also triggered the searches of his devices that revealed the purchases.

Still, in a case where prosecutors can’t say exactly how Hernandez was killed and lack witnesses to the attack itself, experts say Burke’s purchases could be used to convince a jury of his guilt.

“The prosecution will argue this circumstantial evidence is proof that Burke killed the victim despite not having a single eyewitness to the act,“ Gorin said.

Source: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-08-13/d4vd-murder-case-online-shopping-evidence

latimes.com
u/Remy-DL — 7 days ago

Curated mega-resource list for investigating d4vd and the murder of Celeste Rivas Hernandez

This is a curated and actively maintained collection of resources and tools that will help you make sense of all the known and not-so-known aspects this case.

If you're interested in participating in discussions of the case with others, or if you're interested in contributing new insights or theories of your own, these resources are a great place to start to make sure you have a solid foundation to work from.

Caveat: Some resources included here can naturally be expected to possibly include errors. Actively maintained resources, as noted below, make edits and corrections over time, which is a strength - not a weakness - of said resources.

Additional note: As stated, this is a curated document, and recommendations for additions and updates from the community are very welcome.

Finally, a HUGE r/d4vdiots thank you to the Redditors listed/linked below with the resources they have graciously developed, shared, and maintained for the entire Reddit community and beyond.

TIMELINES

The "Mega Timeline" by u/R0598

https://preview.redd.it/7f6rudluamih1.png?width=1746&format=png&auto=webp&s=4d3debca7d0d03f4746f023600b8f33eb88df9eb

- Incredibly in-depth, long-standing, foundational resource; still actively updated as new case info develops; includes recent updates based upon testimony from d4vd's late July 2026 preliminary hearing in LA Superior Court.

The Celeste Rivas Hernandez Timeline by CrimeTimelines site

https://preview.redd.it/89n9dk50bmih1.png?width=2314&format=png&auto=webp&s=7fb9aa23dc5e95c2c0a48cafe89210f62f92b308

- In-depth, sources, and generally up to date with widely accepted facts.

GRAPHS & CHARTS

Social graphs for David Anthony Burke (d4vd) and Celeste Rivas Hernandez by u/Nightnightgun

https://preview.redd.it/8hv7f732bmih1.png?width=1924&format=png&auto=webp&s=e4d437bb1f6c1bb06459a7904839e8c8e25ba595

- Very helpful and relatively recent addition to the community's investigative toolkit; current version 3.0 last updated on 8/8/2026.

RECENTLY RELEASED AND/OR TRANSCRIBED COURT TESTIMONY/INFO

Texts between d4vd & Celeste reported from day 4 & 5 of late June 2026 preliminary hearing as transcribed & compiled by u/ether--net--girl

https://preview.redd.it/m2amzua9bmih1.png?width=1832&format=png&auto=webp&s=22cf732adbab2fd94c45c7fc13e8c11113a46fd4

OTHER VISUALIZATIONS & TOOLS

David & Celeste Courtroom Text Reader (based on u/ether--net--girl's work) by u/appleforever11

https://preview.redd.it/6ps6ob8bbmih1.png?width=1970&format=png&auto=webp&s=085bd717f4a9c107bc6abea9eea5f451595dcd4f

MAJOR CASE-RELATED OFFICIALLY RELEASED DOCUMENTS

Full Medical Examiner Report for Celeste Rivas Hernandez

People's Brief Regarding Preliminary Hearing Evidence - People of the State of California v. David Anthony Burke

Texas First Court of Appeals Habeas Corpus filings RE: extradition of Dawud, Collen, and Caleb Burke from Texas to California for testimony in California investigative grand jury:

reddit.com
u/Remy-DL — 9 days ago
▲ 100 r/d4vdiots

D4VD talks about his relationship with Celeste in September 2024 conversation with JasonTheWeen

In new video, Zav Girl takes a look at conversation between d4vd and JasonTheWeen in September 2024. Spoiler: When Jason asks d4vd if he has a girlfriend, he responds that "its complicated" and he needs a "muse" to write songs about.

The original video that Zav Girl is analyzing is from the "JasonTheWeen News" YT channel and was published on September 14, 2024.

youtu.be
u/Remy-DL — 13 days ago
▲ 321 r/d4vdiots

d4vd’s brother Caleb CONTINUES to seek fame on heels of Rolling Stone feature on his brother’s murder of Celeste Rivas Hernandez

“The Grammys gonna hate to see me comin real shi” - Caleb

Yesterday, on the same day that Rolling Stone magazine featured a damning expose of d4vd and the murder of Celeste, Caleb posted a new video to his TikTok and Instagram accounts. (This is after Caleb had previously tried to get traction promoting his music in opportunistic posts timed with publicly charged days in the unfolding of the case.)

Well, he’s not stopping. (The Burke’s are tenacious.) He posted new story (that will delete automatically after 24 hours) to both his TikTok and Instagram after having been called out already for yesterday’s egregious and callous opportunism.

“Imma be the best to ever do it I swear,” Caleb claims. What “it” is exactly? Time will tell.

August 7, 2026 EDIT/UPDATE: Caleb posted even more story promos…AGAIN! (See comments for screenshots of new posts from this seemingly shameless self-promoter. TBH, at this point I’m inclined to follow recommendations of others here to not continue giving Caleb this kind of attention as it may be exactly what he and/or his “management” are hoping for.)

u/Remy-DL — 14 days ago
▲ 309 r/d4vdiots

Teen Claims D4vd Once Joked About Cutting Her Arms Off During Online Relationship

Article full text:

A young fan claims the singer made a joke about severing her arms.

By Alex Ocho August 5, 2026

A teenage fan is coming forward with her alleged interactions with D4vd, saying she initially brushed off the singer’s dark humor but now cannot stop thinking about it amid the ongoing murder case of Celeste Rivas Hernandez.
The fan, identified by the pseudonym Jane to protect her privacy, told Rolling Stone* *that the singer joked, unprompted, about him and his alter-ego cutting her arms off.
The alter-ego in question was a knife-wielding, manga-style character who wore blindfolds “for the sole purpose of not being held accountable for the pain he causes,” per an explanation on D4vd’s YouTube channel.
Jane told the magazine she was merely 16-years-old at the time of her interactions with the then 18-year-old singer. She claimed that their relationship began in the summer of 2022 after his single “Romantic Homicide” went viral and that their interactions were over texts and phone calls.
“We were joking around, and I said, ‘I would win in a karate fight with Itami.’ David said I could never beat Itami in a fight,” Jane told Rolling Stone. “He joked about him and Itami doing a violent act toward me, cutting my arms off. It was a joke, but it came out of nowhere.”
Jozo Schmuch - KVIFF Future Frames Interview
Although Jane believed they were just joking around at the time, she also said it was “really eerie to look back on.”
“When the autopsy report got released, and it showed how her arms were cut off, I was like, ‘This is insane.’ When I saw that, my heart dropped,” Jane recalled.
“Was it his subconscious wanting to do that?” she added. “I don’t know.”
Jane also characterized D4vd as a great friend but noted he was against smoking, drinking, and harbored serious religious convictions. She claimed that their relationship came to an end in mid-2023 when he told her they were on different “maturity” levels and needed space.
“He basically said that in a few years, my whole perspective might change on everything,” she told Rolling Stone. “He said once I’m out of high school, we could see if we could be friends again … He was touring, he had a music career starting. I was in high school, not really able to travel around to even hang out.”
According to CNN, prosecutors claim that D4vd’s and Rivas’ first online messages were exchanged in August 2022. At the time, Rivas was merely 11 years old. They also claimed that a sexual relationship between them began two years later. At 13, Rivas reportedly became pregnant and underwent an abortion.
“I feel like she got the worst version of him. A different version,” Jane said of Rivas. “It’s just really shocking and saddening.”
“Sometimes the people who influence you or help shape parts of you can also become people you don’t recognize anymore. And it’s really difficult to process,” she added, noting that she was initially reluctant to speak to Rolling Stoneout of fear she would be “misinterpreted” but hopes more people will come forward. “Everything new I hear feels so unexpected.”
Late last month, a judge ruled that D4vd will stand trial for the murder of Celeste Rivas Hernandez. His charges also include continuous sexual abuse of a child under the age of 14 and unlawful mutilation of human remains.
D4vd has pleaded not guilty and, if convicted as charged, could be sentenced to life in prison without parole or face the death penalty.

Source: https://www.complex.com/music/a/alex-ocho/d4vd-jane-arms-celeste-rivas-hernandez-rolling-stone

complex.com
u/Remy-DL — 14 days ago

D4vd's Life Behind Bars Revealed!

D4vd's Life Behind Bars Revealed! Jesse Weber interviews Dr. DeWayne Hendrix, retired senior warden with the U.S Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Prisons.

youtube.com
u/Remy-DL — 14 days ago
▲ 194 r/d4vdiots

d4vd's brother Caleb posts new videos just in time for new Rolling Stone expose on d4vd and the murder of Celeste Rivas Hernandez

On August 5, 2026, Rolling Stone magazine published a new front page expose on d4vd and the murder of Celeste Rivas Hernandez. On the very same day, Caleb, also an aspiring musician like his infamous brother, conveniently posted new videos promoting himself on TikTok and Instagram.

I say conveniently because, ironically - as reported in the new Rolling Stone article, Caleb previously tried to distance himself from his brother in performative social media posts.

>On Instagram, Burke’s younger brother, Caleb, admitted to being “around Celeste a few times,” but insisted he “did not know her well and did not know her age.” He refuted claims he “knew what was going on and was protecting” his brother. 

>“This is not true at all. I have not lived with my brother for years and was not very close with him,” he wrote. “We didn’t speak often other than when our family was brought on tour or he was visiting home.”

And the real kicker:

>Caleb also denied exploiting the case for publicity when he attempted to launch his own music career in the wake of Rivas Hernandez’s death. “I want justice for Celeste and her family,” he wrote on Instagram. 

u/Remy-DL — 14 days ago

d4vd "a still-faced demon - soulless, uncomfortable, eerie. Like a ghost in a human form."

“I got Itami. I did not get David,” they say. “I got a still-faced demon — soulless, uncomfortable, eerie. Like a ghost in a human form.”

- as recalled by video music crew from One More Dance shoot in Atlanta in January 2025

Source: Rolling Stone article 'A Soulless Demon': D4vd's Path From Pop Star to Accused Killer

u/Remy-DL — 15 days ago

'A Soulless Demon': D4vd's Path From Pop Star to Accused Killer - Part 2

Full plain text:

By NANCY DILLON, JON BLISTEIN
Photograph By SACHA LECCA
AUGUST 5, 2026

Continued from Part 1 at: https://www.reddit.com/r/d4vdiots/comments/1vg9zxm/a_soulless_demon_d4vds_path_from_pop_star_to/

Long before his music career took off, Burke exhibited a fascination with violence. By his own admission, his earliest stories and poems scared teachers. “I read a lot of gory science-fiction, graphic novels, and Japanese manga,” he told Hunger in 2022. “I’d be writing my journals, letting them read them, and they’d hate my stuff sometimes.”

The fascination persisted, though Burke often undercut it with humor and self-deprecation. In September 2022, he posted a poem to Twitter, written from the point of view of a mannequin who’d been dragged into a dark room and torn “piece by piece, limb by limb.” He captioned it, “I’m so weird bro.”

“I love gore,” he later confessed on a Discord server, known as “d4vd’s closet,” in February 2023. “I used to be addicted to watching gore vids.”

After “Romantic Homicide,” Itami returned often as the vicious culprit in D4vd’s videos. In the animated clip for his song “Rehab,” Itami severs a girl’s forearm, then spears her stomach with a flying sword. In the 2025 visual for “One More Dance,” filmed three months before Rivas Hernandez’s death, Burke plays Itami again, wearing a blood-drenched shirt and dragging D4vd’s own body before it is stuffed into a car trunk.

Sources who worked with Burke say he controlled his aesthetic direction as an artist. Like Camille, they viewed his dark themes as an expression of adolescent alienation rooted in the art and media that influenced him.

“He was very inspired by video games and anime, so a lot of the choices for his creative were built off of that,” says the Darkroom/Interscope source. “Looking back, it’s quite shocking, but at the time, it was just an artist making art similar to the things he was inspired by. And it’s our job to empower the artist’s creativity.”

In the predawn hours of Jan. 11, 2024, Andre (who requested a pseudonym, citing privacy concerns) was coming off a marathon night of gaming when a notification appeared on his phone: D4vd, his favorite artist at the time, was live on Twitch. 

Onscreen, based on a recording shared with Rolling Stone, Burke sat in the kitchen of the West Hollywood house next to a girl in black-rimmed glasses and a hoodie that covered most of her dark, curly hair. Burke talked about food, read viewer comments, and occasionally chatted with the girl next to him. 

“They were flirting a little bit,” remembers Andre. Soon, fans started to interject, apparently trolling Burke by invoking convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. And they recognized the girl: “They were typing out, ‘Celeste.’ They were saying, ‘Celeste.’ I had no idea what it meant,” Andre says. 
At one point, the girl made a comment that alarmed Burke. While Andre doesn’t remember the exact statement, the recording shows Burke turned to the girl and described the remark as too “controversial” for the stream. 

“It’s controversial of raping kids?” she replied, laughing and covering her face with her hand. Burke displayed a dumbfounded grin, then brought the stream to a close. He told the moderators, “Delete everything, everything goes.” 

That same week, Rivas Hernandez allegedly got an abortion. According to text messages recovered from Burke’s phone, the teenager began to fear she was pregnant in November 2023. Burke responded by telling her to track her menstrual cycle with an app. When Rivas Hernandez scheduled the abortion, he appeared to coach her through the ordeal, praising her strength and telling her he loved her. He also texted that his mother would want him to ask, “It is mine right?”

The text exchanges show Burke oscillating between tenderness and control in subsequent months. He would dangle a future together, then turn cold or sermonizing. In June 2024, when Rivas Hernandez worried that the first abortion hadn’t been successful, Burke appeared to mock her: “You would have a baby bump lmao you had hella periods since then. What the fuck you smoke?… Nah first baby gone.”

Later that month, Rivas Hernandez asked, “Ur mom know we had sex yet.” Burke replied, “She thinks that’s the first thing we gonna do when we see each other.” Rivas Hernandez again expressed anxiety about contraception: “I can see u and sleep over, just don’t get me pregnant.” Burke responded, “We’ve done a good job the past few months baby … The last and only time u were pregnant was because of a fucked up condom in December.”

On the morning of June 27, Rivas Hernandez texted Burke that she had to run to the bathroom after they last had sex because “it hurt…SO MUCH.” Burke was dismissive. “NUH,” he replied in all caps. “I remember every time when you say ow when we fuck. … And last time u aint say ow once.”

That night, Burke opened a three-date run at the Fonda Theatre in Hollywood. Rivas Hernandez was there, and her presence was no secret. She sat in a box with his family and appears in a photo — shared at the time on Discord and later reviewed by Rolling Stone — watching Burke perform from the wings. Burke’s manager, Robert Morgenroth, stands nearby. Burke’s brother, Caleb, was also at the show and confirmed her attendance in an Instagram post. (Neither Morgenroth’s lawyer nor Caleb responded to requests for comment from Rolling Stone.)

A little more than a week later, Rivas Hernandez asked over text, “Does anyone know we even had sex?” Burke allegedly replied, “Nope, and I would like to keep it that way before we married.” 

The relationship continued to unfold in and out of public view. In late July, Burke was photographed at an influencer’s birthday party with a girl resembling Rivas Hernandez. The pair wear matching headscarves, and the girl turns from the camera, a diamond ring on the hand she uses to cover her face. During an August trip to Vegas with Rivas Hernandez, Burke dropped into his fan-based Discord server and said he was having a songwriting “crisis.” A member who has since deleted their profile responded, “Drop the one with the missing girl celeste rivas hernandez.”

By the end of the month, the tone of Rivas Hernandez’s messages had grown more anguished. On Aug. 30, she expressed regret over the abortion — “I killed my kid for you,” she wrote — and insisted that she “would have been there for it” had they proceeded with the pregnancy. Burke responded that she would have been acting “selfishly.”

“David, I’m going to have to lie to people around me, even my kid, for the rest of my life,” she texted back. “I don’t like talking about it because it gets me really upset, but I’d do anything to have it back.”
Burke’s reply was unsympathetic. “Let’s end that there,” he allegedly texted. “I don’t like talking to u when you’re upset.” When Rivas Hernandez asked how he felt about the abortion, he allegedly replied, “I’m saddened by it. I’m even more saddened by the way it was conceived, outside of marriage and outside of the way I had pictured my first child going…. But I don’t dwell on it.”

Burke ended things with Rivas Hernandez in November 2024, but “continued to use the victim for sex,” Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman said at the preliminary hearing in July. Rivas Hernandez struggled with the arrangement. On March 14, 2025, she texted, “We can be friends but like online. I don’t want anything to do with you in person anymore if I’m gonna try and move on.”

On Jan. 19, 2025, as temperatures in Atlanta plunged into the 20s, a crew gathered at Bonfire ATL studios to film Burke’s video for “One More Dance,” a bleak ballad about a self-destructive romance. Those on set remember Burke’s detached calm. Quiet and withdrawn, with at least a half dozen recently acquired facial piercings, he retreated to an SUV whenever he was not needed.

The video opens with Itami dragging a half-conscious Burke by his legs and delivering him to a young couple on a crime spree. The couple load Burke into the trunk of a car, steal shovels from a store, and bury their victim alive.

What stayed with multiple crew members was Burke’s ease with the trunk scene. He climbed inside without hesitation and appeared unfazed as the door shut over him. “He was just so comfortable in the trunk,” one crew member, who spoke on condition of anonymity, says. “He just hops in, of his own free will. It was so weird.”

The crew member says they never saw a trace of the cheerful young artist Burke projected in interviews and online. “I got Itami. I did not get David,” they say. “I got a still-faced demon — soulless, uncomfortable, eerie. Like a ghost in a human form.”

When prosecutors outlined their case, parallels with the “One More Dance” video stood out. They allege that after Burke stabbed Rivas Hernandez, he drove north on the 101 Freeway to an area near Lake Cachuma in Santa Barbara County, where a transit worker later found Rivas Hernandez’s passport card. The following day, he allegedly purchased a shovel from Home Depot and had it delivered via Postmates. 

Like in the video, he allegedly placed Rivas Hernandez’s dismembered remains in the trunk of his Tesla, where they sat decomposing for “several weeks, possibly months,” prosecutors say. He then “lied to friends, business associates, and others,” they say, whenever anyone “noticed the strong smell of decay in and around his home and vehicle.”

One such instance even may have been captured on camera. A now-deleted video stream, clipped and shared online, shows Burke at his house with friends on July 4, 2025. As the group mills around, Burke jokes: “I apologize to everyone for the way my ­bathroom smell. I took a shit in there like two hours ago.” 

An LAPD criminalist who testified at the preliminary hearing said Rivas Hernandez’s DNA was collected from suspected bloodstains found around Burke’s garage, including on a rowing machine, a Tesla charger, a green tarp, a black rubber floor mat, and a Clorox-style cleaning wipe. The expert added that Burke’s DNA profile was included in a mixture from four people found on the outside of a garbage bag that held a second bag containing the wipe. Bits of the inflatable pool were found embedded in Rivas Hernandez’s severed limbs, another criminalist testified.

Residents remembered seeing the black, dented 2023 Tesla Model X with Texas plates parked around the upscale Bird Streets neighborhood in the Hollywood Hills as far back as May 2025. “It moved around” until it was parked by a tall hedge, and sat there for weeks, one source told Rolling Stone last September, adding, “It’s chilling.”

At the end of July, right before he embarked on the Withered tour, Burke allegedly parked the car by the hedge near his rental home and was captured on video walking back to the house. He played a show in Indianapolis the day the car was tagged as abandoned, and performed in ­Madison, Wisconsin, the night before the police opened the trunk and found Rivas Hernandez’s body.

Initial headlines were vague but harrowing. The victim was so badly decomposed, the medical examiner couldn’t even estimate her age or ethnicity. Sources close to Burke told Rolling Stone and other outlets that he was aware of the situation and “cooperating” with authorities, but police later disputed that. 
Crocs and Hollister immediately pulled campaigns with Burke. The rest of his skyrocketing career started to collapse after authorities formally identified Rivas Hernandez on Sept. 16. The final three shows of Burke’s Withered tour were canceled, and a deluxe edition of the album was shelved. Kali Uchis had their collaboration, “Crashing,” removed from streaming services.   

At his label, “confusion” and “shock” quickly gave way to resolve, according to the Darkroom/Interscope source. The decision to drop Burke came soon after Rivas Hernandez was identified, they say, though it took several months, and the involvement of label lawyers, to formally sever the relationship.

“Right away, it was very apparent, due to all the social media and pictures that we were seeing, that he was [sexually] involved with her, and we made a choice immediately to step away from him and his business,” the source says. “When there’s a 14-year-old girl involved with an artist, it’s pretty simple.”
The source claims it was a total break: “We ceased all communication with him and his team the second the news of Celeste came out, and there’s been zero communication since.”

Burke quickly disappeared from the public eye, though he initially was not named as a suspect in the case. Prosecutors convened a secret grand jury in November, but it wasn’t until his family challenged their subpoenas that unsealed court filings identified Burke as the target of a murder probe. Investigators guarded the case so closely they secured a rare court order preventing the medical examiner’s office from releasing Rivas Hernandez’s autopsy findings. The office vocally opposed the security hold, saying it harmed the agency’s commitment to “full transparency.” 

Though Rivas Hernandez’s death was officially ruled a homicide in December 2025, the determination was sealed for months, even from her family. When it finally became public in April, after Burke’s arrest, the medical examiner called it “unfathomable” that the teen’s parents “had to wait this long to learn what happened to their daughter.”

In March, as the criminal investigation dragged on and many wondered if Burke would ever face charges, Jane, the girl who frequently messaged with Burke before Rivas Hernandez, dreamt about him on his birthday. When she woke up, she texted him a Bible verse: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” 

Though they hadn’t communicated in more than a year, Burke replied to Jane quickly. “To see you quote scripture is a joy,” he wrote back, she says. “I thank God, for greatly you have blessed me more than you know to see how the Father can shine a light through me that brings more glory to Him than can ever be brought to me. I pray He keeps you in His arms and that you continue to abide in Him.”

“It was definitely shocking, because I didn’t think he’d even respond or talk to anyone. I didn’t think I’d ever hear from him again,” Jane says. She believes Burke was leaning heavily on his faith as the walls closed in. “Religion is like the one thing that he’ll always have,” she says.

When Burke was arrested a few weeks later, on April 16, he appeared in court flanked by two prominent defense attorneys, Blair Berk and Marilyn Bednarski, and pleaded not guilty to all charges: first-degree murder, continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14, and unlawful mutilation of human remains. 

The next day, a lawyer for Burke’s family said his parents “fully stand behind him and believe that he is innocent.” But Colleen and Dawud have yet to appear at any of his court dates. In testimony, LAPD detective Corey Farrell claimed Colleen was aware of her son’s relationship with Rivas Hernandez.
On Instagram, Burke’s younger brother, Caleb, admitted to being “around Celeste a few times,” but insisted he “did not know her well and did not know her age.” He refuted claims he “knew what was going on and was protecting” his brother. 

“This is not true at all. I have not lived with my brother for years and was not very close with him,” he wrote. “We didn’t speak often other than when our family was brought on tour or he was visiting home.”
Caleb also denied exploiting the case for publicity when he attempted to launch his own music career in the wake of Rivas Hernandez’s death. “I want justice for Celeste and her family,” he wrote on Instagram. 

One of the most unnerving aspects of the case is the sheer number of people who witnessed Rivas Hernandez spending significant time with Burke as his fame exploded. She was a middle school runaway, but if she or Burke told people she was an adult, it appears they accepted that as fact.
Family friend Rubi Alonso tells Rolling Stone Rivas Hernandez was “very studious” as a child. And perhaps their age difference didn’t register for some because Burke often acted like a kid himself. Even as his career took off, he was still playing Fortnite, still singing songs about the movie Up, still putting Hello Kitty stickers on his face. 

“The stuff that you see on the internet, of him in interviews and posting on social media, that is the exact same way he was behind the scenes,” the Darkroom/Interscope source claims. “I’m not sure if that was a performance, but for us, it was just a normal artist, a seemingly great kid from a really good family, just hustling…. We didn’t see any ­warning signs.”

Even in the days following the alleged murder, people at the label found Burke to be “extremely normal,” the source adds. “It didn’t seem like there was anything wrong,” they say, shaking their head over a Zoom call. “So of course, looking back in a situation like that, it’s very wild that he could have potentially committed such a harsh crime.… It’s a heartbreaking situation.” 

Collins, the streamer who’d seen the missing-person flyer, claimed on Twitch that she was “blindsided” when the girl in the trunk turned out to be Rivas Hernandez. She called Burke a “genuine psychopath” on her July stream and claimed she cooperated with investigators.   

Rivas Hernandez’s parents, meanwhile, have remained in near seclusion, though they did attend each day of the preliminary hearing, which ended with a judge ruling there was enough evidence to send Burke to trial. (As of press time, a trial date was not set.) They sat in the front row, next to their attorney, Patrick Steinfeld, with Rivas Hernandez’s mom sometimes breaking down in tears.

“Celeste was a beautiful 14-year-old girl. She was full of life and energy, and she brought a lot of love and joy into the family home,” Steinfeld told Rolling Stoneafter one of the days of testimony. “They have a hole in their heart that will never be replaced.”

At the preliminary hearing in July, Burke’s defense highlighted evidence that Rivas Hernandez had invited herself to Burke’s house the night she was allegedly killed. They also suggested that she may have been suicidal and somehow killed herself — a claim Steinfeld called  “disturbing.” 

“The family was horrified that the defense attorneys brought up evidence to put the blame on a 14-year-old child,” he said.

Prosecutors, meanwhile, say a “mountain of evidence” points to Burke, and his financial motive was clear. If the relationship became public, Silverman argued, Burke stood to lose his lucrative recording contract, including two remaining album options worth up to $12 million.

“D4vd allegedly squandered his fame and fortune by brutally killing a young girl because he feared their illicit sexual relationship would ruin his aspiring career. The only headlines that will accompany his stage name from here forward will be about the vicious murder of a young girl,” Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman said after the five-day hearing. If convicted as charged, Burke faces life in prison without parole, or the death penalty. (Prosecutors have yet to say if they will seek a death sentence.)
For those who feared Rivas Hernandez’s death might go unsolved, Burke’s arrest has offered something to hold onto. It’s not ­comfort, exactly, but the possibility of answers. And if prosecutors find evidence implicating others, they hope the case won’t end with Burke. 

“I hope that anyone involved in any way, shape, or form is held accountable,” Jane says, “so Celeste Rivas Hernandez can receive ­justice.”

Source: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/d4vd-murder-trial-celeste-rivas-hernandez-1235601172/

u/Remy-DL — 15 days ago