{"id":206685,"date":"2026-04-23T00:10:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T00:10:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/206685\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T00:10:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T00:10:22","slug":"d4vd-murder-case-celeste-rivas-hernandezs-cause-of-death-is-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/206685\/","title":{"rendered":"D4vd Murder Case: Celeste Rivas Hernandez\u2019s Cause of Death Is Revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"css-ac37hb evys1bk0\">\u201cAfter several months, I am grateful this information can now be released, not only to the public but also to the grieving family enduring loss,\u201d the chief medical examiner, Dr. Odey Ukpo, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/me.lacounty.gov\/2026\/press-releases\/cause-and-manner-of-death-determination-for-celeste-rivas-hernandez\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">said in a statement<\/a>. \u201cIt is unfathomable they have had to wait this long to learn what happened to their daughter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-ac37hb evys1bk0\">Some elements of the report were redacted, but the release did include an investigator\u2019s observation that the dismembered body had been found inside a \u201clarge, black, zippered body bag with handles.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-ac37hb evys1bk0\">At Monday\u2019s court proceeding, Mr. Burke\u2019s lawyers pushed for a preliminary hearing to be held soon and urged prosecutors to turn over documents, including the medical examiner\u2019s report. That led the judge to order the report\u2019s release.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-ac37hb evys1bk0\">An initial status hearing in the case is scheduled for Thursday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-ac37hb evys1bk0\">The first-degree murder charge against Mr. Burke includes the special circumstances of lying in wait, committing the crime for financial gain and murdering a witness to an investigation. Those factors mean that Mr. Burke faces a maximum sentence of life without the possibility of parole, or the death penalty. The office of the Los Angeles County district attorney has said it has not decided whether it will pursue the death penalty.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-ac37hb evys1bk0\">In a felony complaint, prosecutors said Mr. Burke engaged in three or more acts of \u201csubstantial sexual conduct\u201d with Celeste in the year between Sept. 7, 2023, and Sept. 7, 2024. At the time, she was 13 years old.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-ac37hb evys1bk0\">On April 23, 2025, when Celeste was 14, she went to Mr. Burke\u2019s house in the Hollywood Hills at his invitation, according to the district attorney, Nathan J. Hochman, and \u201cwas not heard from again.\u201d The complaint said the mutilation of human remains occurred on May 5, 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cAfter several months, I am grateful this information can now be released, not only to the public but&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206686,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[22377,80731,80729,76380,32675,9,11,10,80730],"class_list":["post-206685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-burke","tag-celeste-2010-25","tag-david-anthony-d4vd","tag-forensic-science","tag-los-angeles-calif","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-rivas-hernandez"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206685\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}