D4vd arrives at Selection’s Energy of Younger Hollywood on Aug. 8, 2024, in Los Angeles.
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Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP/Invision
LOS ANGELES — Singer D4vd has been arrested on suspicion of killing a 14-year-old lady whose decomposed physique was discovered final 12 months in his apparently deserted Tesla that was towed from the Hollywood Hills, authorities mentioned Thursday.
Los Angeles police mentioned in a quick assertion that the 21-year-old Houston-born alt-pop singer whose authorized identify is David Burke was being held with out bail on suspicion of homicide after his arrest within the investigation of the killing of Celeste Rivas Hernandez.
Police mentioned investigators would current a case to prosecutors on the Los Angeles County District Attorneys Workplace on Monday. The workplace mentioned in its personal assertion that it’s conscious of the arrest and its Main Crimes Division will evaluate the case to find out whether or not there’s sufficient proof to file expenses.
The singer had been underneath investigation by an LA County grand jury wanting into the demise of Rivas Hernandez. The probe was formally secret, however its existence — and the designation of D4vd as its goal — was revealed on Feb. 25 when his mom, father and brother filed an objection in a Texas court docket to subpoenas demanding they testify.
Emails looking for remark from an legal professional and a publicist who’ve beforehand labored with D4vd weren’t instantly returned. His representatives haven’t responded to a number of earlier requests from The Related Press for touch upon the case.
The long-dead physique of Celeste Rivas Hernandez was present in a Tesla on Sept. 8, a day after she would have turned 15. She was a 13-year-old seventh grader when her household reported her lacking 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 court docket paperwork.
The 2023 Tesla Mannequin Y was registered within the singer’s identify on the Texas deal with of his subpoenaed members of the family, in line with court docket filings from prosecutors. It had been towed from an upscale neighborhood within the Hollywood Hills the place it had been sitting, seemingly deserted.
Police investigators looking out the Tesla in a tow yard discovered a cadaver bag “coated with bugs and a powerful odor of decay,” court docket paperwork mentioned, and “detectives partially unzipped the bag and noticed a decomposed head and torso.”
Investigators from the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Workplace eliminated the bag and “found the legs and arms had been severed from the physique,” in line with court docket paperwork. A second black bag was discovered underneath the primary, and dismembered physique elements have been inside it. No explanation for demise has been publicly revealed.
Authorities had not publicly named D4vd — pronounced “David” — as a suspect previous to the arrest.
D4vd gained recognition amongst Era Z followers for his mix of indie rock, R&B and lo-fi pop. He went viral on TikTok in 2022 with the hit “Romantic Murder,” which peaked at No. 4 on Billboard’s Sizzling Rock & Different Songs chart. He then signed with Darkroom and Interscope Data and launched his debut EP “Petals to Thorns” and a follow-up, “The Misplaced Petals,” in 2023.
When the physique was found, D4vd had been on tour in help of his first full-length album, “Withered.” Later, the final two North American exhibits, in San Francisco and Los Angeles, together with a scheduled efficiency at LA’s Grammy Museum, have been canceled, as was the European tour that was to have begun in Norway.
