{"id":735496,"date":"2026-04-17T23:59:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T23:59:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/735496\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T23:59:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T23:59:13","slug":"what-to-know-about-d4vds-arrest-in-14-year-old-girls-killing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/735496\/","title":{"rendered":"What to know about D4vd’s arrest in 14-year-old girl’s killing"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 Seven months after a 14-year-old girl\u2019s body was found in D4vd\u2019s towed SUV<\/a>, the alt-pop singer has been arrested on suspicion of killing her<\/a>, authorities said.<\/p>\n

Detectives arrested the 21-year-old, whose legal name is David Burke, on Thursday on suspicion of murder in the investigation of the killing of Celeste Rivas Hernandez, Los Angeles police said. Authorities had not publicly named Burke as a suspect previously. Investigators are expected to present a case to prosecutors on Monday, police said. Burke\u2019s lawyers have declared his innocence.<\/p>\n

Here are a few things to know about the case:<\/p>\n

Singer was arrested, but is not currently charged<\/p>\n

Burke was arrested at about 4:30 p.m. Thursday, police said, at a home near the Chateau Marmont, the legendary Hollywood hotel that has been home to decades of industry scandal and lore. It is about two miles from the upscale Hollywood Hills street where Burke\u2019s Tesla and Rivas Hernandez\u2019s body were found. <\/p>\n

He was booked into a jail in South Los Angeles with no bail several hours later. <\/p>\n

Prosecutors say on Monday when they receive the case they will review it to decide whether there is enough evidence for charges.<\/p>\n

Burke\u2019s defense attorneys stressed that Burke has only been detained under suspicion, no indictment had been returned and no criminal complaint has been filed.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet us be clear \u2014 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,\u201d the lawyers said. <\/p>\n

Celeste Rivas Hernandez was reported missing at age 13<\/p>\n

The seventh grader\u2019s family reported her missing in 2024 from her hometown of Lake Elsinore, about 70 miles (112 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles. Her long-dead body was found in an apparently abandoned Tesla Model Y impounded on Sept. 8, a day after she would have turned 15. Authorities in court documents list her age at death as 14.<\/p>\n

In a tow yard, a bag covered with insects and a strong smell was discovered, and police found a decomposed head and torso when they opened it. Los Angeles County Medical Examiner\u2019s Office investigators discovered the limbs had been severed, and in a second bag found dismembered body parts. <\/p>\n

No cause or time of death has been publicly revealed, and it is not clear whether they have been determined with any specificity, a potential hurdle to prosecution. <\/p>\n

After the medical examiner revealed its initial findings, police in November got a judge to block the agency from releasing any more information. That court order remained in place Friday. <\/p>\n

Singer popular with Gen Z for indie rock, R&B and lo-fi pop blend<\/p>\n

D4vd, pronounced \u201cDavid,\u201d went viral on TikTok in 2022 with the hit \u201cRomantic Homicide,\u201d which peaked at No. 4 on Billboard\u2019s Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart. After signing with Darkroom and Interscope Records, D4vd released his debut EP \u201cPetals to Thorns\u201d and a follow-up, \u201cThe Lost Petals,\u201d in 2023.<\/p>\n

D4vd said in an interview last year that he was homeschooled after moving from New York to Texas at age 8 and while he appreciates art from Houston and New York, his artistry was shaped more by the internet.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was such an internet kid. The internet is really what I claim as my home,\u201d he said, explaining that he was online every day, doing schoolwork, making songs and videos and posting on social media. \u201cMy neighborhood was Instagram and the society was the internet.\u201d <\/p>\n

When Rivas Hernandez\u2019s body was found, D4vd was on tour supporting his first full-length album, \u201cWithered,\u201d and \u201cLocked & Loaded,\u201d Fortnite\u2019s first official anthem, which he partnered with Epic Games on, had just been released. An email seeking comment Friday from Epic Games was not immediately answered. The last two North American shows of the tour, in San Francisco and Los Angeles, along with a scheduled performance at LA\u2019s Grammy Museum, were canceled, as was the European tour that was to have begun in Norway.<\/p>\n

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Secret grand jury investigation revealed after singer\u2019s family objects to testifying<\/p>\n

The singer had been under a secret grand jury investigation looking into the death of Rivas Hernandez. The status of that part of the case isn\u2019t clear. <\/p>\n

Often when a grand jury is convened, an indictment with charges comes before an arrest. But, as Burke\u2019s lawyers noted, none has been issued. <\/p>\n

In Los Angeles County, prosecutors can charge a defendant then take their evidence before a judge in a public preliminary hearing to decide whether a trial is warranted. Or they can go to a grand jury, which circumvents the process, keeps it secret, and puts the case on a direct path to trial. <\/p>\n

A grand jury may be used because its subpoena power can compel witnesses to talk in ways that police can\u2019t. There were several unwilling witnesses in this case. <\/p>\n

The grand jury\u2019s existence \u2014 and the designation of D4vd as its target<\/a> \u2014 was revealed when his mother, father and brother filed an objection in a Texas court to subpoenas demanding they come to Los Angeles to testify. The Associated Press obtained documents in the case in February that had been sealed in California. The filing said the Tesla was registered in the singer\u2019s name at the Texas address of his subpoenaed family members.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press Writer Sarah Brumfield contributed from Cockeysville, Maryland. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 Seven months after a 14-year-old girl\u2019s body was found in D4vd\u2019s towed SUV, the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":735497,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[9],"tags":[3881,276,303825,264658,171,57,4221,4228,12588,2936,224,61,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-735496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-ap-top-news","tag-california","tag-celeste-epiphany-waite","tag-david-burke","tag-entertainment","tag-general-news","tag-homicide","tag-indictments","tag-juries","tag-law-enforcement","tag-los-angeles","tag-u-s-news","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116422768448114613","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=735496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/735497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=735496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=735496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=735496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}