Inside the d4vd Case: How a Tow-Yard Discovery Upended a Rising Star’s Career
Police scrutiny, unanswered timelines, and a fanbase in shock as the investigation into Celeste Rivas Hernandez’s death widens.
Los Angeles, November 19 EST: If you’ve followed d4vd rise over the past two years, you know the story: a soft-spoken kid with a gamer’s headset and a poet’s instincts turns late-night loneliness into these moody, minimalist heartbreak tracks that ricochet across TikTok. Suddenly he’s everywhere. Suddenly the industry is buzzing. Suddenly the 20-year-old feels like one of the few new voices who might actually stick.
But the past ten weeks have changed everything, and not in the way anyone in music hoped.
As confirmed by reporting from NBC Los Angeles, People, ABC7, and other outlets, the artist real name David Anthony Burke is now under police scrutiny in the death of 15-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, whose body was discovered inside the frunk of his impounded Tesla in early September. And while the internet spins itself in predictable circles, the official record remains painfully thin, full of blank spaces that investigators still haven’t filled.
That said, the facts that are confirmed paint a jarring picture.
The Tow Yard Reveal That Shifted The Entire Narrative
On September 8, a tow-yard crew in the Hollywood Hills unlocked the front storage trunk of a Tesla after workers couldn’t ignore a powerful odor any longer. According to NBC Los Angeles, the car had been abandoned in the hills for weeks before being towed. Inside the trunk, they found a decomposed body later identified as Celeste Rivas Hernandez, a teen from Lake Elsinore who’d been missing since April 2024.
The twist the kind that hits fandoms like a punch came when outlets confirmed the vehicle was registered to d4vd. For many fans, it was the kind of detail that stops your scroll. You go from “Wait, what?” to checking three more sources to see if it’s real.
Still, how the car got there, who left it, and when the trunk was last opened are all unanswered questions. Investigators haven’t walked the public through that timeline, and the silence is fueling speculation they can’t yet shut down.
A Case Where Public Statements Don’t Quite Line Up With Reporting
If you’ve watched the coverage ripple across entertainment outlets and local news, you’ve probably noticed the disconnect. According to People, representatives for the musician say he has been “fully cooperating with authorities.” But ABC7, referencing law-enforcement sources, has reported the exact opposite that he has not been cooperating in any meaningful way.
It’s the kind of contradiction that fans latch onto. It doesn’t help that the LAPD has declined to publicly name him a suspect, even as multiple outlets, including Pitchfork, say he is considered one within the investigation.
In other words: there’s the official line, and then there’s the line sources are running with. And the gap between the two is only growing.
A Timeline Full Of Missing Moments
Rivas was last seen in April 2024. She’d reportedly run away several times before, according to ABC7, but this time she didn’t come home. More than a year later, her body resurfaced not on a trail, not in a vacant lot, but in the front trunk of a car linked to a rising star.
Investigators reportedly believe she died in the spring of 2025, a detail surfaced by exclaim.ca, but the exact cause and manner remain officially “deferred” by the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner. Toxicology results are pending. Forensic analyses are still underway. Phones, digital messages, Tesla logs none of that has been released to the public.
Meanwhile, as reported by The Guardian, police are working off leads suggesting more than one person may have played a role in disposing of the body.
So yes there’s still a long investigative road ahead.
An Artist’s Career Pulled Into Free Fall
Once the identification was public, the industry reaction was immediate. People confirmed that d4vd’s 2025 U.S. tour dates were canceled, a massive blow for an artist building real momentum. For a performer whose career has revolved around emotional disclosure and raw vulnerability, the sudden silence feels especially heavy.
Behind the scenes, teams tend to freeze in moments like this no statements, no public resets, no big PR gambits. Just quiet. And quiet can feel louder than any press release.
Fans Are Processing This In Their Own Ways And Not Always Productively
In Lake Elsinore, community members have held vigils for Rivas. According to People, her friends and family are still in shock, grieving a loss that had faded from the headlines until the September discovery.
Online, the conversation is more chaotic. Screenshots of the matching “Shhh…” tattoo on the right index fingers of both Rivas and d4vd a detail noted by People have been everywhere. Some fans treat it as confirmation of a connection. Others call it coincidence. Authorities haven’t said it means anything at all.
Still, the internet rarely waits for clarity. And in cases like this, the instinct to over-interpret every detail kicks in fast.
What Matters Now Is The Evidence Not The Noise
The path forward won’t be shaped by TikTok theories or group-chat speculation. It’ll come down to toxicology work, digital footprints, witness interviews, and whatever investigators find in the vehicle’s logs and recovered devices.
There are no charges. There is no arrest. Only an active investigation and a long list of unsettled questions about Rivas’s final months, about the car, about who knew what and when.
For fans, it’s a disorienting moment. For the industry, it’s a hard stop. And for a family in Lake Elsinore, it’s a wait for answers that still haven’t arrived.
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A bi-coastal pop culture critic and former indie screenwriter, Gia covers Hollywood, streaming wars, and subculture shifts with razor wit and Gen Z intuition. If it’s going viral, she already knew about it.
