Grisly photos of the dismembered corpse of a teenage girl were made public Tuesday morning at a preliminary hearing in the murder case against the singer D4vd, who prosecutors say used a chainsaw to mutilate the body of Celeste Rivas Hernandez after he killed her to cover up years of alleged sexual abuse.<\/p>\n
Hernandez\u2019s body was found in September 2025 in Hollywood inside the trunk of a Tesla registered to the singer, whose legal name is David Anthony Burke. The case immediately drew international headlines, but details of the crime scene had only been described in writing until the hearing against Burke began Tuesday morning. <\/p>\n
Burke is charged with murder and continuous sexual abuse of Hernandez, a fan he met online when she was as young as 11 years old, court records have shown. Prosecutors said Burke \u2014 a rising alternative music star who was on tour supporting his debut album when Hernandez\u2019s body was found \u2014 began abusing the girl in 2023 and killed her last year after she threatened to go public about their relationship.<\/a><\/p>\n Fearing the collapse of his burgeoning music career, Burke invited Hernandez to his Hollywood Hills home on April 23, 2025, and stabbed her twice after she threatened to expose him, prosecutors said in a nine-page court filing in April. Burke dismembered his victim\u2019s body with a chainsaw and amputated two of her fingers to erase evidence of a tattoo linking the pair, according to the filing.<\/p>\n Burke has pleaded not guilty to all charges and denied wrongdoing through his attorneys. He appeared in court Tuesday in an orange jail jumpsuit and remained shackled to his chair. <\/p>\n The photos published Tuesday were taken at the Hollywood tow yard where Hernandez\u2019s body was found. Det. Josh Byers of the Los Angeles Police Department\u2019s Robbery-Homicide Division spoke calmly about the gruesome finds as Deputy Dist. Atty. Beth Silverman laid out images of Hernandez\u2019s dismembered torso, displaying blood strewn across her remains and an image showing one of her arms cut off at the elbow.<\/p>\n Byers said detectives found a cadaver bag and a black plastic trash bag in the Tesla. Once the bag was opened, Byers said he saw \u201cvarious limbs of a body, arms, legs that had been severed.\u201d Byers said the victim\u2019s legs had been sawed at the kneecap and cut into four pieces. <\/p>\n Prosecutors also displayed images of Hernandez\u2019s disfigured left hand, which was missing two fingers when it was found in the trunk. Authorities alleged Burke was trying to erase evidence of a tattoo reading \u201cShhh…\u201d on one of Celeste\u2019s fingers. <\/p>\n When Burke was arrested at the Chateau Marmont earlier this year, Byers said he noticed a similar tattoo in black or blue ink on one of the defendant\u2019s fingers. He also had the name \u201cCeleste\u201d tattooed on a finger in red ink, according to images displayed in court by Silverman.<\/p>\n As she displayed the images of their daughter\u2019s body in court, Silverman turned to Hernandez\u2019s parents in the front row. The prosecutor appeared to ask them, \u201cAre you OK?\u201d During a break in the case, she checked in with Hernandez\u2019s loved ones and tried to comfort them. Hernandez\u2019s parents are not expected to testify, Silverman said in court.<\/p>\n Burke is charged with murder with special circumstances as prosecutors have alleged he lay in wait and killed Hernandez for financial gain. A former manager for D4vd testified Tuesday afternoon the singer raked in as much as $11.5 million through record contracts and other income between 2023 and 2025. <\/p>\n The New York-born singer gained fame by layering his own music over clips of the popular video game \u201cFortnite\u201d and with the viral TikTok track \u201cRomantic Homicide.\u201d <\/p>\n If convicted of all charges at trial, Burke would face life in a California prison without the possibility of parole. The death penalty is also a possibility, although Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Hochman has not said whether prosecutors intend to seek it. Gov. Gavin Newsom placed a moratorium on executions in the state years ago.<\/p>\n Hernandez\u2019s body rotted for months before it was discovered, according to medical examiner\u2019s records and court filings. On Tuesday, Byers said her body was so badly decomposed that her face was \u201cunrecognizable.\u201d He said Tuesday he remembered finding insects, maggots and flies throughout the trunk on the day the body was discovered.<\/p>\n Hernandez\u2019s family in Lake Elsinore reported her missing multiple times after she became entangled with Burke. Riverside County Sheriff\u2019s Department investigators questioned Burke about Hernandez in February 2024 and two L.A. County Sheriff\u2019s Department deputies were dispatched to a West Hollywood residence where he was staying that same month.<\/p>\n In court Tuesday, Silverman played body-worn camera footage showing Burke calmly answering questions about his relationship with Hernandez during a Feb. 17, 2024, interaction with the sheriff\u2019s deputies. He told the deputies he\u2019d only met Hernandez in person once at that time, in November 2023, after the two began speaking through either Instagram or on a Discord server. <\/p>\n Wearing what appeared to be a shower cap and chewing on a snack while speaking with the deputies, Burke appeared completely unbothered by their presence or questions. He turned over phone numbers for Hernandez, invited the deputies to search his home, and offered up information unprompted. At one point, L.A. County sheriff\u2019s Deputy Juan Gonzalez actually told Burke he \u201cdidn\u2019t need\u201d as much detail as Burke was giving and just wanted to ensure Hernandez wasn\u2019t at his place. <\/p>\n \u201cHe basically said he just met her through that online chat,\u201d the deputy said Tuesday. \u201cMet one time in person. And from my conversation with him briefly, I took it as \u2018I really didn\u2019t know her.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n During the conversation, Burke also told deputies he believed Hernandez was 18, according to the video played in court.<\/p>\n Two days after the investigators had their meeting with Burke, Hernandez returned home and her parents took away her phone. Burke, according to prosecutors, paid another teenager $1,000 to bring Hernandez a new device so they could stay in touch. Over the next year, Hernandez traveled with Burke to Las Vegas, Texas and London, where she met \u201chis family,\u201d Silverman wrote in the filing. <\/p>\n The two began a sexual relationship when Hernandez turned 13 but \u201cbroke up\u201d in late November 2024, according to Silverman\u2019s April 2026 court filing. Text messages between the two contained references to \u201csex, pregnancy, abortion and use of the Plan B emergency contraceptive,\u201d she wrote. A search of Burke\u2019s phone also turned up images of the teen performing sex acts, the prosecutor\u2019s memo said.<\/p>\n Hernandez was last seen alive at Burke\u2019s residence in April 2025, when she took an Uber from Riverside County to his rented Hollywood Hills home, prosecutors have said. The night before, Hernandez and Burke got into an argument during which she expressed \u201cjealousy\u201d over his relationships with other women, according to the filing. The teen then \u201cthreatened to disclose damaging information about her relationship with defendant to end his career and destroy his life,\u201d Silverman wrote.<\/p>\n