Photo: Getty Images/Los Angeles Police Department
Celeste Rivas Hernandez was stabbed with a sharp object months before she was found dead in a Tesla registered to singer D4vd.
The 14-year-old girl's cause of death was revealed in the indictment the District Attorney's Office of Los Angeles County filed against the artist, born David Anthony Burke, on Monday, April 20. Prosecutors argue that Burke killed the teenage girl with a "sharp instrument" on April 23, 2025, and mutilated her body on May 5. The Medical Examiner had previously confirmed that Celeste's murder was ruled a homicide, but the details behind the alleged murder had not been revealed until Burke was formally charged.
TMZ notes that the dates mentioned in the indictment appear to align with previous theories about Celeste Rivas Hernandez's death. Last November, authorities reportedly discovered evidence that confirms D4vd took a late-night trip in his Tesla to a remote area in Santa Barbara County in the spring of 2025. The teen's body parts remained in the front trunk of his vehicle for four months before they were discovered in an impound lot in Hollywood. Celeste's dismembered body's decomposing state reportedly made it difficult for the medical examiner to determine the cause of death.
Burke was arrested and charged with first-degree murder with special circumstances, mutilating a body, and lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14. Police say they have evidence that Burke and Celeste had a sexual relationship. They allege the singer sexually abused Celeste from her 13th birthday, September 7, 2023, through September 7, 2024. In the indictment, the D.A. suggested that the 14-year-old threatened to expose their relationship, which drove him to kill her to save his career. Burke's attorneys maintain he was "not the cause of her death."