Private investigator Steve Fischer uncollected items from D4vd’s Hollywood Hills home could reshape the timeline in the mysterious death of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez
Private Investigator, Steve Fischer, working on the case of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez said he discovered items inside a Hollywood Hills residence used by singer-songwriter David Anthony Burke (known as D4vd) that he contends LAPD did not seize. Fischer was privately hired by the Hollywood Hills homeowner, who owns the home that was raided by the LAPD, as Burke was living there. The materials he described on Court TV’s “Closing Arguments with Vinnie Politan” as “consistent with tools someone might use to conceal or dispose of a body,” before adding, “really sadistic stuff.” Fischer, said his team photographed and documented the items and has provided that material to other investigators law enforcement, but he emphasized that buying or possessing such items does not by itself prove criminal culpability.
Fischer names some of the items as heavy-duty trash bags, cleaning supplies and other materials that he said were noteworthy given how the teenager’s remains were found in the front trunk of a Tesla registered to Burke. He discussed the findings on CourtTV and said he believed the materials merited closer forensic scrutiny. Fischer also reiterated that he obtained neighborhood surveillance that shows the Tesla being moved before it was towed- footage he says raises questions about who drove the vehicle and when, considering that LAPD may have initially suspected someone else driving (who was not pictured in the footage).
LAPD officials have said publicly that they executed a search warrant at the Hollywood Hills residence and seized electronics and other items as part of the investigation into how the deceased teen’s body came to be inside the vehicle. The department has declined to comment on Fischer’s specific assertions about items he says were left behind or not taken. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner has listed the cause and manner of the teen’s death as deferred pending additional testing.
Legal analysts and forensic experts, including Fischer himself, caution against drawing firm conclusions from the presence or purchase of cleaning supplies or similar household goods. Such products are widely available and have many legitimate uses, they say, and internet orders or household possession do not, by themselves, prove criminal conduct. “Tools and cleaning materials are not incriminating in isolation,” said a criminal defense attorney Josh Ritter on an episode of Fox and Friends.“They become relevant only when linked by forensic evidence-DNA, fingerprints, timestamps, or corroborating witness statements.”
The grisly discovery of the teen’s remains, identified by the coroner as 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, inside a Tesla registered to Burke parked in the Hollywood Hills, and later towed to an impound lot earlier this month has drawn intense media attention. Police have said the vehicle had been parked for weeks before the odor prompted a tow-lot worker to check it; when officers opened the Tesla’s front trunk they found human remains, said to be severely decomposed. Burke has cancelled his upcoming tour, halted the release of his new album, transferred his Houston Texas homes to his mother’s name, and has not been spotted since the news of Rivas Hernandez broke. Burke is not considered a suspect or POI, per the LAPD.
Steve Fischer said he has turned his photos and documentation over to others probing the case, and is in close contact with the LAPD. Toxicology and other lab work that can take months to complete, which could also indicate why it’s taking so long for an arrest. Authorities continue to treat the matter as a death investigation rather than a publicly charged homicide.