{"id":601024,"date":"2026-04-23T05:51:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T05:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/601024\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T05:51:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T05:51:08","slug":"celeste-rivas-hernandez-died-from-penetrating-wounds-autopsy-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/601024\/","title":{"rendered":"Celeste Rivas Hernandez died from penetrating wounds, autopsy says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 <a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/d4vd-celeste-rivas-hernandez-timeline-100e62a0e54ca5d5786d5f7d1570c33c\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Celeste Rivas Hernandez<\/a>, the 14-year-old girl <a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/d4vd-charges-celeste-rivas-hernandez-a5ae08c1dda921dad1750d3ceda16c47\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">singer D4vd<\/a> is charged with killing, died from penetrating wounds to her upper body, according to an autopsy report released Wednesday. <\/p>\n<p>Her death was ruled a homicide in the report from the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner\u2019s Office that had been blocked from release for months.<\/p>\n<p>The autopsy was limited by \u201cextensive postmortem changes\u201d to the <a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/d4vd-celeste-rivas-hernandez-california-eca6975fa8e291678d80c8529ec5cea3\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">body that was dismembered<\/a> and decomposing when it was found in two bags in the trunk of a Tesla parked in the Hollywood Hills in September.<\/p>\n<p>The examination revealed \u201ctwo penetrating wounds of the torso with smooth edges that may represent sharp force injuries.\u201d One wound on the upper abdomen penetrated the liver. Another, on the left chest, damaged her ribs. A tube top she was wearing appeared to be cut in three places.<\/p>\n<p>A judge had ordered the report sealed late last year at the request of law enforcement, but prosecutors agreed this week to allow its release.<\/p>\n<p>The <a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/d4vd-suspect-celeste-rivas-hernandez-f58e2983916aaf3340cc48b7e711118f\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">21-year-old alt-pop singer D4vd<\/a>, whose legal name is David Burke, was charged in the killing Monday. He pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, lewd and lascivious acts with a person under 14 and mutilating a dead body. Burke\u2019s attorneys said he did not cause Rivas Hernandez\u2019s death and they will vigorously defend his innocence.<\/p>\n<p>The girl\u2019s parents made their first public comments on Tuesday night, thanking investigators for their work and the people of their hometown of <a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/It looks like a freeway on-ramp as it hovers over Wilshire Boulevard, but people behind the new building anchoring the Los Angeles County Museum of Art define it with aquatic imagery. The free-flowing sections of the David Geffen Galleries housing the museum&#039;s permanent collection are named for the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, and they&#039;re meant to run together physically and culturally in the way bodies of water do. Technically, the Geffen Galleries represent the third phase of a two-decade series of renovations. But the opening of this space to the public on May 4 is the truly huge moment of reinvention for the institution known to locals and the broader art world by the acronym LACMA. It&#039;s a $724 million, 347,600-square-foot monument designed by Swiss architect Peter Zumthor that gives the museum an entirely new orientation, footprint, feeling and, ideally, an identity that it has largely lacked to the outside world. The space %E2%80%94 all on a single second-story floor %E2%80%94 offers broad-windowed views of the surrounding city. There is no main entrance or central atrium. It&#039;s made to wander into, and through, and to encourage accidental interactions with paintings, sculptures and the kinds of work, like ancient pottery or textiles, that visitors often ignore. LACMA&#039;s CEO and director Michael Govan, who oversaw the project from its origins, calls it %E2%80%9Ca machine of discovery.%E2%80%9D %E2%80%9CI am a student for decades of museum-goer psychology,%E2%80%9D Govan told The Associated Press in an interview inside the new building. %E2%80%9CAnd one of the things you know in these museums is if you don%E2%80%99t like something or know something, you%E2%80%99re not going up and elevator and across to go see it. But a lot of times, that thing is what you will love if you see it.%E2%80%9D He said %E2%80%9Cthis chance of experiencing something accidentally and falling in love is part of the idea.%E2%80%9D The art is grouped as much for vibes as any formal categories. Sculptures and photographs from modern artists are mixed in and matched with works that are centuries old. The excess of natural light and views of the city that run throughout almost threaten to overshadow the art. But curtains %E2%80%94 a staple of Zumthor%E2%80%99s architecture %E2%80%94 are strategically used to alter light both for viewing and for preservation of work that can be drained by the sunlight. Zumthor relishes the way the time of day, and the placement of the curtains and the arrangement of the artwork work together in the space. %E2%80%9CNothing is more beautiful to me than this play of shadow,%E2%80%9D he told the AP. Zumthor&#039;s previous work includes the Kolumba Museum in Cologne, Germany, run by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese. . Since 1961, LACMA Has sat on, and now across, Wilshire in the Miracle Mile section of Los Angeles, roughly halfway between downtown LA and the Pacific, next to the La Brea Tar Pits. (As with other projects on the site, the constant discovery of valuable fossils slowed the building process.) For visitors who faithfully kept coming for its open-during-remodeling years, and for drivers navigating the construction, it felt like the opening may never come. Construction began in 2019, with the county footing $125 million of the bill. The rest was raised from private donors including the 83-year-old entertainment mogul Geffen, who is one of LA%E2%80%99s biggest art benefactors. Other relatively recent additions have helped with LACMA&#039;s relevance. Two permanent sculpture-installations %E2%80%94 Urban Light, (artist Chris Burden&#039;s forest of street lamps) and Levitated Mass (artist Michael Heizer&#039;s giant suspended boulder) are among the city&#039;s most Instagrammed images. The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures next door is a separate entity but feels contiguous. Together, the two institutions represent the popular art that defines the region and its fine art that has often been ignored.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Lake Elsinore, California<\/a>, for their support. Lake Elsinore is about 70 miles (112 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCeleste was a beautiful, strong girl who loved to sing and dance. Every Friday night was movie night and we spent wonderful times together,\u201d Jesus Rivas and Mercedes Martinez said. \u201cWe love her very much and she always told us that she loved us. We miss her deeply. All we want is justice for Celeste.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors allege Burke killed Rivas Hernandez because she threatened to report they had a sexual relationship that began when she was 13 years old and he feared it would ruin his rising career.<\/p>\n<p>A criminal complaint alleges he killed her with a sharp object and dismembered the body about two weeks later.<\/p>\n<p>Medical Examiner\u2019s investigators called to the scene where the body was found discovered her torso and head in a black, zippered body bag in the Tesla\u2019s trunk, with arms and legs in a separate trash bag. <\/p>\n<p>Her body had so degraded that examiners couldn\u2019t even determine her eye color. She had braces at the time of her death, and a tattoo that read \u201cShhh&#8230;.\u201d on the inside of a finger, according to the report. Two other fingers were missing \u2014 as were parts of her arms and legs.<\/p>\n<p>Toxicology tests on the liver showed a low level of alcohol, but it may have been due to postmortem chemical changes and didn\u2019t appear to be a factor, the report said.<\/p>\n<p>LA County\u2019s Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Odey C. Ukpo has sought to emphasize his agency\u2019s independence from law enforcement and to make its work as public as possible since he took over the job three years ago. He has said he does not believe sealing reports of his office\u2019s work helps investigations and has said he would only put holds on releasing the reports if compelled by a court order.<\/p>\n<p>\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 Ukpo said in a statement Wednesday. \u201cIt is unfathomable they have had to wait this long to learn what happened to their daughter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>D4vd, pronounced \u201cDavid,\u201d gained popularity among young fans for his blend of indie rock, R&amp;B and lo-fi pop. He went viral on TikTok in 2022 with the hit \u201cRomantic Homicide,\u201d which peaked at No. 4 on Billboard\u2019s Hot Rock &amp; Alternative Songs chart. He released his debut EP \u201cPetals to Thorns\u201d and a follow-up, \u201cThe Lost Petals,\u201d in 2023.<\/p>\n<p>His debut full-length album, \u201cWithered,\u201d was released one year ago, two days after the date prosecutors estimate that Rivas Hernandez was killed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 Celeste Rivas Hernandez, the 14-year-old girl singer D4vd is charged with killing, died from&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":601025,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[2224,2356,3071,54763,88,793,694,20174,4381,3031,261452,795,16757],"class_list":{"0":"post-601024","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-arts-and-entertainment","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-crime","11":"tag-david-burke","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-general-news","14":"tag-homicide","15":"tag-injuries","16":"tag-law-enforcement","17":"tag-los-angeles","18":"tag-mercedes-martinez","19":"tag-u-s-news","20":"tag-violence"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}