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The family of Celeste Rivas Hernandez is speaking out against rumors that singer D4vd, who's been charged with murdering the 14-year-old girl, paid them.
On Friday, May 1, Jesus Rivas, Celeste's father, issued a rare statement to Rolling Stone via his attorney Patrick Steinfeld. In it, he denies having "any contact" with the alt-pop artist before or after his daughter's death. The statement was released to combat viral rumors that D4vd, born David Anthony Burke, paid Celeste's family members for their trust and/or silence during their relationship.
“I never had any contact with this guy, and we haven’t received any money from him or anyone in his family,” Rivas said.
“There are no words to express the indescribable pain the family is experiencing right now,” Steinfeld said. “They still have bills to pay and jobs they go to every day. All they want is time to grieve and heal.”
The rumor about Celeste's family began to spread shortly after her body parts were discovered in Burke's Tesla last September. Commentators on social media based the rumor on a comment under a TikTok video, in which the person alleged the family was aware of Celeste's relationship with Burke since she was 11. The person also claimed that Burke paid the family $10,000 a week and accused her friends of extorting the singer to keep them quiet.
In legal documents, prosecutors alleged that Burke met Celeste when she was 11. After she was reported missing, authorities discovered the artist's phone number in her call logs and advised him of the teen's age. He allegedly kept pursuing her and even paid one of her classmates $1,000 to deliver a secret phone to her. Investigators reviewed other recovered texts that mention sex, pregnancy, and abortion, which suggests their relationship was sexual.
The District Attorney's Office of Los Angeles County alleged that Celeste threatened to expose the nature of their relationship during an argument with Burke on April 22, 2025. The following night, he allegedly paid for an Uber to bring Celeste from her family's house in Lake Elsinore to his rental home in Hollywood Hills. Prosecutors allege that Burke stabbed Celeste immediately upon her arrival and watched her bleed out. They accused him of using chainsaws to cut off her limbs in his garage and purchased a "burn cage" to incinerate the remaining evidence.
Burke was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, sexual abuse of a child under the age of 14, and unlawful mutilation of a human body. They also added special circumstance allegations of murder of a witness, murder for financial gain, and lying in wait. That means prosecutors could seek the death penalty for Burke; however, a decision has not yet been made. Burke has pleaded not guilty to the charges. If convicted, he could face life in prison without parole.