Reports of Celeste Rivas-Hernandez’s body being frozen and decapitated when found in D4vd’s Tesla are not true, the Los Angeles Police Department said Tuesday.
An LAPD captain told Eyewitness News her body was partially dismembered but not decapitated.
D4vd, whose real name is David Anthony Burke, reportedly traveled to the Santa Barbara area sometime during Spring of this year, months before Rivas-Hernandez’s body was discovered in his Tesla.
The reason for the trip is still under investigation, including if it is relevant to the case.
D4vd is considered a suspect in the probe of the teenage girl’s death, a source told Eyewitness News last week.
Security hold placed on Rivas-Hernandez case
On Friday, the Department of Medical Examiner received a court order, initiated by the Los Angeles Police Department, to place a security hold on the teenager’s case, officials said.
The hold means that no records or details associated with the case, including the cause and manner of death and the medical examiner’s report, can be released until the hold is lifted.
The Los Angeles County medical examiner on Monday spoke out against the practice of placing security holds on cases,
The mission of the Department of Medical Examiner “is to have full transparency with the community by providing information about our cases to empower people to make changes that save lives,” Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Odey Ukpo said in a statement.
“The practice of security holds is virtually unheard of in other counties and has not been proven to improve outcomes in the legal system,” Ukpo added. “We are dedicated to serving our community with full transparency; however, the law precludes us from doing so while the court order remains in this case.”
The LAPD said in a statement that they “sought to seal the records of the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s investigation into Celeste Rivas’ death only to ensure detectives from Robbery-Homicide Division learned of important information surrounding her death before the media and the public. The order was not sought to undermine transparency.”
What do we know about the case?
Rivas-Hernandez was reported missing from Lake Elsinore in early 2024. She ran away a few times and returned before her last runaway in April 2024, according to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office. She reportedly called home at the end of May 2024 and had not been heard from since.
Authorities discovered her body on Sept. 8 after responding to a tow yard near Mansfield Avenue and Romaine Street in Hollywood.
Officers went to investigate a foul odor coming from the impounded Tesla, which police sources say had been at the lot for two days after it was found abandoned on a public street in Hollywood.
Police located the body inside a bag placed in the front trunk of the Tesla, LAPD sources said. The body was dismembered and in a state of decomposition, sources told ABC News.
The vehicle was registered to 20-year-old D4vd, who has more than 33 million monthly listeners on Spotify and over 3.6 million followers on TikTok, where his songs “Here with Me” and “Romantic Homicide” have gone viral.
D4vd was on tour when the body was discovered and had a stop scheduled in Los Angeles on Sept. 20. The remainder of the tour was abruptly canceled before that tour stop amid the investigation.
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