Singer D4vd, real name David Anthony Burke, is facing first-degree murder and child sexual abuse charges in Los Angeles after prosecutors alleged he groomed 14-year-old fan Celeste Rivas Hernandez, abused her over years and ultimately killed and dismembered her at his Hollywood Hills home in April 2025.
The news came after months of sealed proceedings, a homicide finding by the Los Angeles County medical examiner and the teen's identification from remains found in Burke's Tesla in September 2025.
Prosecutors now say the relationship between the 21-year-old musician and Celeste began when she was barely out of primary school. ALos Angeles County filingstates the pair first met in January 2022,when she was 11.
By November 2023, when she was 13 and he was 18, the contact had allegedly become sexual.
Texts recovered by investigators paint a picture of a teenager who understood, at least in part, how trapped she was. In one message from March 2025, quoted in court documents, Celeste wrote:'all we do is have sex and just hang out man I want more than that for myself.'
LAPD NEWS: “Detectives from Los Angeles Police Department, Robbery-Homicide Division have arrested David Burke, a 21-year-old resident of Los Angeles, for the murder of Celeste Rivas. Burke is being held without bail.”
Her parents reported her missing in February 2024. When Riverside County deputies traced her phone and contacted Burke, prosecutors say he told them he had met her only once and did not know she was a minor.
Deputies informed him she was 13 and a runaway. Celeste returned home two days later, and her parents confiscated her phone.
Investigators now allege that Burke immediately found a way around that. According to the filings, he drove to Lake Elsinore and paid one of her classmates $1,000 (£743.21) to give Celeste a handset he had bought for her, allowing the secret contact to continue.
The court documents describe 2024 as a year in which the pair spent 'significant' time together. Prosecutors say Celeste stayed at his Hollywood Hills home at weekends and travelled with him to Las Vegas, London and Texas, where she met members of his family.
Source: International Business Times UK
