Singer D4vd is 'target' in investigation of killing of girl whose body
was found in car in Hollywood
[February 26, 2026]
By ANDREW DALTON
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Singer D4vd is the target of a Los Angeles County
grand jury investigation of the killing of a 14-year-old girl whose
decomposed body was found last year in an apparently abandoned Tesla
registered to him that was towed from the Hollywood Hills, court
documents showed.
Prosecutors describe the 20-year-old Houston-born alt-pop singer whose
legal name is David Burke as the target of the investigation in grand
jury subpoenas issued Jan. 15 seeking to have three of his relatives
testify.
The documents were obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday. They
were sealed in California, where the grand jury investigation has been
kept secret. But they were made public by an appeal of the subpoenas in
Texas from the singer's mother, father and brother.
The documents say the “Target may be involved in having committed the
following criminal offenses against the laws of the State of California,
to wit: One count of Murder.”
The Tesla was registered in his name at the address of his subpoenaed
family members, the court filings says.
Authorities had not publicly named D4vd — pronounced “David” — as a
suspect in the case.
The long-dead body of Celeste Rivas Hernandez was found on Sept. 8, a
day after she would have turned 15. She was a 13-year-old seventh grader
when her family reported her missing in 2024 from her hometown of Lake
Elsinore, about 70 miles (112 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles.
Authorities give her age as 14 when she was killed in the court
documents.
The subpoena says police investigators searching the 2023 Tesla Model Y
in a tow yard found a cadaver bag “covered with insects and a strong
odor of decay.”
It says “detectives partially unzipped the bag and observed a decomposed
head and torso.”
Investigators from the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office
responded to the scene.
“Upon removing the cadaver bag from the front storage compartment, it
was discovered the arms and legs had been severed from the body,” the
document says. “A second black bag was discovered underneath the cadaver
bag. Upon opening the second bag, the dismembered body parts were
discovered.”
Representatives for D4vd did not immediately respond to requests for
comment on Wednesday, and they have not previously responded to emails
from the AP seeking comment on the case.
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American singer-songwriter, David Anthony Burke, aka d4vd, performs
on the Casino stage during the 58th Montreux Jazz Festival (MJF), in
Montreux, Switzerland, July 19, 2024. (Cyril Zingaro/Keystone via
AP, File)
 The District Attorney's Office
declined to comment.
A judge in Texas said the three family members could not ignore the
subpoenas and ordered them to appear in California and testify.
The Tesla had been towed from an upscale neighborhood in the
Hollywood hills where it had been sitting, seemingly abandoned.
The singer was in the middle of a U.S. tour and continued to play
several shows after the girl's body was found. But he eventually
canceled the rest of his concerts and a European tour after his
connection to the case became widely reported.
The Medical Examiner's Office had previously said only that the body
was found severely decomposed and that Rivas Hernandez had likely
been dead for an extended period before she was found.
In November, Los Angeles police got a judge to prevent Chief Medical
Examiner Dr. Odey Ukpo from releasing the findings of the autopsy,
and no cause of death has been revealed.
D4vd gained popularity among Gen Z fans for his blend of indie rock,
R&B and lo-fi pop. He went viral on TikTok in 2022 with the hit
“Romantic Homicide,” which peaked at No. 4 on Billboard’s Hot Rock &
Alternative Songs chart. He then signed with Darkroom and Interscope
Records and released his debut EP “Petals to Thorns” and a
follow-up, “The Lost Petals,” in 2023.
When the body was discovered, D4vd had been on tour in support of
his first full-length album, “Withered.” Later, the last two North
American shows, in San Francisco and Los Angeles, along with a
scheduled performance at LA's Grammy Museum, were canceled, as was
the European tour that was to have begun in Norway.
___
Associated Press writer Jaimie Ding and former AP writer Itzel Luna
contributed.
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