Lake Elsinore Girl's Death: Capital Murder Charge Filed Against Famous Singer

LAKE ELSINORE, CA — Celeste Abigail Rivas Hernandez, 14, of Lake Elsinore, was known to authorities. In her final year of life, she was reported missing several times by her family.

The last time, she never came home. Her body was found Sept. 8, 2025, just days after what would have been her 15th birthday. She had been dead for several weeks, according to authorities.

The grisly discovery of her dismembered and decomposing body inside a Tesla trunk was made at a Hollywood tow yard.

That vehicle was tied to a famous rapper who has now been charged in her death.

On Monday, 21-year-old David Anthony Burke, aka D4vd, was charged with capital murder, continuous sexual abuse of a child under age 14, and mutilation of human remains. The Tesla belonged to him, investigators allege.

At a Monday morning news conference, District Attorney Nathan Hochman said the murder charge against Burke includes special circumstance allegations of lying in wait, murder for financial gain, and killing a witness in a criminal investigation. The allegations open the defendant to a possible death sentence, but prosecutors will decide later whether to pursue capital punishment.

According to Hochman, the lying-in-wait allegation stems from Burke's invitation to Celeste to come to his Hollywood Hills home on April 23, 2025, after which she was never seen again.

The financial gain allegation stems from the singer's effort to maintain his lucrative music career, which was being threatened by his alleged sexual relationship with the underage girl, Hochman said. Celeste was considered the key witness in that investigation, leading to the allegation of murdering a witness, he said.

"I want to look at this as a parent. I am a parent of three children," Hochman said. "And a parent's nightmare is a situation when your daughter goes out one night and never comes back. ... On April 23, 2025, ... Celeste, a 14-year-old at that time, went to Mr. Burke's house in the Hollywood Hills. She was never heard from again. On Sept. 8, 2025, as alleged in the complaint, Celeste's remains, her dismembered and decomposed remains, were found inside two bags inside of a front trunk of a car registered to Mr. Burke."

D4vd — pronounced "David" — was arrested Thursday afternoon by Los Angeles Police Department officers, ending a months-long investigation prompted by the discovery of Celeste's remains.

Burke's Tesla had been parked for weeks in the Hollywood Hills before it was towed in September, authorities said.

Burke's team of defense lawyers issued a statement last week denying that the singer killed Celeste.

"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," lawyers Blair Berk, Marilyn Bednarski, and Regina Peter said.

An attorney for Burke's parents said in a statement to ABC News, "David's parents believe in his innocence and support him wholeheartedly."

Celeste was reported missing by her mother in 2024, when the girl was just 13. Her mother has told reporters that her daughter had a boyfriend named David. Burke has a tattoo on one of his fingers matching the one reading "Shhh" that the Los Angeles County medical examiner said was on Celeste's index finger.

The girl's brother told NBC4 last year that Celeste was last seen going to a movie with Burke, but she never returned.

The Tesla in which her body was found had been abandoned near a home in the 1300 block of Doheny Place, not far from a home Burke had rented. During the investigation, police served a search warrant at the house and took several items as possible evidence.

"The vehicle had been parked at the location from which it was towed for several weeks, so Ms. Rivas Hernandez may have been deceased for several weeks before the discovery of her body," police said in a statement in September.

In November, police acknowledged media reports that Burke traveled to the Santa Barbara area during the spring of last year for unknown reasons. The media reports suggested that he traveled to a remote area and remained there for several hours, and that the singer may have had help from another person to dismember the teen's body.

Police did not provide specifics, saying only, "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 dismembered and deteriorated condition of the teen's body is believed to have played a key role in the length of the death investigation. The county Medical Examiner's Office has not announced a cause of death for the teen, but the office has been prevented since November from releasing any information about its investigation, due to a court order obtained by police that placed a "security hold" on the probe.

Police said the security hold was necessary to ensure the integrity of the investigation.

A county grand jury had been hearing testimony from witnesses in the case, but apparently never returned an indictment. It's unclear how many people testified before the grand jury.

In January, Neo Langston, a 23-year-old social media personality and friend of Burke, was arrested in Montana, allegedly for failing to appear as a witness in Los Angeles.

In February, Burke's parents — Dawud and Colleen Burke — filed court papers seeking to quash subpoenas they had received to appear before the grand jury. Their court papers revealed grisly details about the condition of the teen's body when it was found, stating that her head and torso were inside a cadaver bag, and her limbs were inside a separate bag — both of which were found in the trunk of the Tesla.

The length of the investigation — roughly seven months — led some critics to question the LAPD's handling of the case and its lack of public disclosure about the status of the probe. LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell on Monday defended the agency's work.

"I want to be clear about something — my duty is not to fuel speculation, it's to deliver justice," McDonnell said. "And that requires patience and discipline on everybody's part. This investigation was driven by a single purpose — to secure justice for Celeste Rivas and for those who loved her. We had to be certain that nothing we did or said would ever jeopardize this case."

He called the investigation an "extraordinarily difficult and complex case."

"The condition of her remains delayed the medical examiner's ability to be able to determine the cause of death," the chief said. "The substantial amount of time that passed between her death and the discovery meant that crucial evidence had degraded or disappeared."

—City News Service contributed to this report.