Singer D4vd was arrested Thursday on suspicion of murder in connection with the case of a missing teenage girl whose decomposing body was discovered inside his Tesla in Hollywood.<\/p>\n
David Anthony Burke, 21, was taken into custody shortly after 4:30 p.m. in Hollywood, said Los Angeles Police Department Capt. Scot Williams. It is not clear what specific evidence led authorities to arrest Burke. <\/p>\n
He is being held without bail and the case will be presented to the L.A. County district attorney\u2019s office on Monday for filing consideration, according to the LAPD. Burke\u2019s attorneys released a statement Thursday emphasizing that the singer had not yet been charged and noting that they intend to vigorously defend his innocence.<\/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 Blair Berk, Marilyn Bednarski and Regina Peter said in a joint statement.<\/p>\n
Celeste Rivas Hernandez, 14, <\/a>was reported missing in 2024 from the Inland Empire, according to authorities, but her whereabouts since then remained a mystery.<\/p>\n According to police, the girl\u2019s severely decomposed body was found in the singer\u2019s vehicle at Hollywood Tow on Sept. 8, 2025, after it was impounded. Someone noticed a foul odor coming from the car and detectives arrived at the tow yard to investigate. The gruesome discovery came just a day after what would have been the girl\u2019s 15th birthday.<\/p>\n Law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation, but not authorized to discuss the case publicly, told The Times the vehicle was abandoned in the Hollywood Hills five days before it was impounded.<\/p>\n Detectives last September served a search warrant at the singer\u2019s former home on Doheny Drive, north of Sunset Boulevard, seizing various items including electronics and computers, according to law enforcement sources.<\/p>\n The singer had been the target of a Los Angeles County criminal jury investigation<\/a> into Hernandez\u2019s death since November. Burke\u2019s family resisted being subpeoned to the grand jury and a court document from that legal battle revealed grisly details about what police found inside the Burke\u2019s Tesla.<\/p>\n After opening the front storage compartment of the car, investigators found \u201ca black cadaver bag covered with insects and a strong odor of decay,\u201d according to the document. They partially unzipped the bag and found a decomposed head and torso.<\/p>\n They removed the bag from the car and discovered that the arms and legs were severed from the body. They found a second black bag underneath the cadaver bag, which contained more dismembered body parts, according to the document. <\/p>\n Williams said the girl had been \u201cdead for at least several weeks\u201d before the body was found. Detectives determined that the Tesla had been parked on Bluebird Avenue since late July, around the time D4vd began a national tour promoting his debut album \u201cWithered.\u201d<\/p>\n He performed in Boston, Montreal and Toronto in late August, and in early September had stops in Detroit, Chicago and Indianapolis. But the tour was canceled amid the investigation.<\/p>\n Burke was raised in Houston and has collaborated with musicians Kali Uchis, Stray Kids\u2019 Hyunjin, Laufey and 21 Savage. He also created an anthem for the game \u201cFortnite.\u201d<\/p>\n The Withered World Tour included themes of death and remembrance. Fans entering Burke\u2019s show were greeted by a casket and guest book, where they could pay condolences to a character Burke sometimes reprises in his performances and music videos. Part of that character\u2019s uniform includes a shirt covered in bloody handprints and a blindfold.<\/p>\n \u201cWithered\u201d was released on Darkroom and Interscope Records in April. The album charted at No. 13 on the Billboard 200 and has more than 521 million streams on Spotify. <\/p>\n On Sept. 7, in his last social media post, Burke announced on Instagram he was going to drop<\/a> a deluxe version of the album. It was one of his last social media posts before Rivas\u2019 body was discovered.<\/p>\n Times staff writer James Queally contributed to this report<\/p>\n