The world of music and celebrity current affairs was struck to its very core by a catastrophic news break that threatened to permanently derail the trajectory of David Anthony Burke’s—the rising indie pop sensation known to millions as D4VD—career.

What began as a routine impound inspection quickly spiraled into one of the most talked-about and scrutinized cases in recent memory, a story that perfectly illustrates the perilous rush to judgment in the age of social media.

The horrifying discovery was made on September 8, 2025, inside the front trunk (frunk) of a 2023 Tesla Model 3. Wrapped in plastic were the severely decomposed remains of 15-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez.

The car, registered in the name of the 20-year-old Houston-born artist D4VD, had been sitting abandoned in the Hollywood Hills for approximately three weeks, sitting on a public street in plain sight.

Neighbors had reportedly noticed an increasingly foul, sewage-like odor emanating from the vehicle for some time before it was finally towed. For D4VD, the meteoric rise—which saw his hauntingly vulnerable track “Romantic Homicide” amass over 1.5 billion streams and land him a major label deal with Interscope Records—was instantly replaced by a devastating plunge into the center of a homicide investigation.

The Immediate Condemnation and the Unraveling

The circumstances surrounding the discovery were immediately suspicious and raised countless questions that seemed to point directly at the young artist. The public condemnation began immediately, fueled by an avalanche of damning, circumstantial evidence that appeared to weave a tight, inescapable narrative of guilt.

First, the personal connection: Celeste Rivas Hernandez’s mother told TMZ that her daughter had been dating someone named David—a revelation that seemed to directly implicate the singer in some kind of romantic involvement with the teenager.

Adding fuel to the fire were multiple pieces of evidence that connected the two in an intimate and troubling way. Both D4VD and Celeste had matching tattoos—a distinctive, shared design on their right index fingers—which was unusual enough to demand serious scrutiny.

Resurfaced photos and screenshots of alleged Discord conversations dating back to 2022, when Celeste would have been approximately 12 years old, raised serious and highly disturbing questions about potential grooming and the timeline of their relationship.

Perhaps most chillingly, the circumstances of the discovery seemed to mirror the art he created. His breakthrough hit, “Romantic Homicide,” along with his music video for “One More Dance” released in February 2024, contained imagery that took on new and sinister meaning in light of the grim discovery.

The video for “One More Dance” specifically depicted a body being dragged and hidden in a trunk, a scene that now seemed eerily prophetic and solidified the public’s rush to judgment. The court of public opinion had seemingly already rendered its verdict: D4VD was not only involved in Celeste’s death, but he was directly responsible for a cold, calculated murder and cover-up.

The Financial and Emotional Fallout

The immediate consequences for D4VD were brutal, swift, and comprehensive. At the time of the discovery, the singer was on tour, having performed in Minneapolis just a day earlier.

Initially, he attempted to proceed with his scheduled performances, but within days, the overwhelming pressure and legal guidance forced a change. He canceled a Seattle show, followed quickly by the cancellation of his entire North American and European tour.

His manager, Josh Marshall, abruptly terminated the lease on the Hollywood Hills home where D4VD had been staying and moved the singer’s belongings out within days of the police raid on the property.

D4VD’s professional life crumbled almost instantly. Brands that had partnered with the global star—including major names like Crocs and Hollister—quickly distanced themselves, editing him out of promotional materials and putting collaborations on hold.

His record label, Interscope, postponed the release of his deluxe album. The silence he maintained through his representatives—a shrewd legal strategy employed by his prominent attorney, Blair Burke—was widely misinterpreted by the public as an admission of guilt.

In the celebrity ecosystem, silence is rarely seen as innocence; it is often interpreted as proof of a deep, dark secret. The young artist was watching his multi-million dollar career and hard-earned legacy vanish in a toxic cloud of suspicion.

The Forensic Twist That Collapsed the Murder Narrative

As the Los Angeles Police Department’s robbery homicide division delved deeper into the circumstances, the seemingly straightforward case began to reveal layers of complexity that directly challenged the initial assumptions of D4VD’s guilt. The first critical shift came from the official statements and forensic analysis.

LAPD Captain Scott M. Williams made a carefully worded statement, emphasizing that the cause and manner of Celeste’s death remained undetermined pending further toxicology reports. This seemingly mundane detail was crucial, as it meant the investigation could not yet be officially classified as a homicide.

This cautious approach was soon validated by startling forensic findings. Dr. Amy Santoro, a former CSI analyst, shared publicly that preliminary autopsy findings showed no signs of trauma to Celeste’s body.

There was no evidence of physical violence—no strangulation, no gunshot wounds, no blunt force trauma. This single detail—the absence of trauma—fundamentally changed the legal calculus.

The possibility that Celeste’s death resulted from a drug overdose rather than an intentional act of violence meant that the narrative of D4VD as a violent killer began to fall apart.

The focus of the investigation was immediately redirected from who caused the death to the entirely separate, though still criminal, question of who concealed the body and why.

The Unbreakable Alibi and the Framing Hypothesis

The biggest pieces of evidence in D4VD’s defense were not found at the scene, but in the verified records of his life and career. The timeline of events began to work inexorably in the young artist’s favor. D4VD had been actively touring throughout August and September 2025, performing in multiple cities across North America during the period when the Tesla was abandoned in the Hollywood Hills.

Tour schedules, ticket sales, and social media posts from fans provided a verifiable, irrefutable alibi that placed him hundreds or even thousands of miles from Los Angeles during the critical window when Celeste’s body was most likely placed in the car. If the body was deposited while the car was sitting abandoned, D4VD would have been physically incapable of having placed her there.

The framing theory solidified with the revelation about the vehicle itself. Reports indicated that the Tesla had been stolen or missing approximately a week before it was towed from the Hollywood Hills location.

This single fact provided a plausible, devastating explanation for how Celeste’s body ended up in D4VD’s car without his direct involvement.

As former FBI agent Colin Schmidt noted, abandoning a body in one’s own vehicle, which is registered in one’s name and equipped with multiple cameras and GPS tracking, is inconsistent with a calculated attempt by the owner to conceal a murder.

It is, however, highly consistent with someone attempting to frame the owner. The question for investigators then became: Who stole the car, and why did they choose D4VD’s vehicle to conceal the body?

The Vicious Target: Swatting and Debunked Rumors

Further evidence emerged to suggest that D4VD was not a perpetrator but a victim of an elaborate, malicious scheme designed to destroy him. Just days after Celeste’s body was identified, a malicious swatting incident occurred at D4VD’s family home in Texas.

Police responded with guns drawn to a false alarm call claiming there had been a shooting and that someone was dead at the residence.

The timing of this incident, so soon after the body was identified, was highly suspicious and suggested someone was actively targeting D4VD and attempting to further implicate him.

The investigation also systematically debunked some of the most salacious, narrative-driving rumors. The death certificate for Celeste provided a crucial piece of information: she had never been pregnant, a revelation that undercut one of the most common and powerful motives attributed to D4VD by the public.

Furthermore, investigators learned that Celeste had a documented history of running away from home, with multiple reports filed by her family, complicating the timeline and suggesting that her repeated disappearances might have been motivated by issues at home rather than by D4VD specifically.

As the investigation progressed, it became increasingly clear that all the circumstantial evidence—the matching tattoos, the dating history, the abandoned car—could be weaponized against D4VD by a real killer intent on framing him, utilizing his public profile and the dark themes in his music as cynical tools of deception.

Vindication and the Scars of Public Judgment

As the investigation stretched into late 2025, the narrative finally began to shift with the force of official evidence. Multiple media outlets began reporting that the LAPD had essentially cleared D4VD of being a murder suspect.

This was a crucial distinction: while he remained a person of interest due to his connection to the victim and his ownership of the vehicle, police did not believe he had committed the act that caused her death.

D4VD was, in the end, a victim of a cruel coincidence and a deliberate frame job. His high-profile status, his relationship with Celeste, and the timing of a stolen vehicle created the perfect storm of suspicion. The public, so quick to convict him, was left facing the uncomfortable reality that they had been wrong.

While D4VD has been officially vindicated in the court of law, the public’s conviction remains a shadow he must fight. The hasty departure from his Hollywood home, the canceled tour, and the prolonged silence—all prudent legal decisions—are now indelible scars on his public image.

The legal process may have cleared him of murder, but the search for the real killer who calculatedly framed D4VD and abandoned Celeste Rivas Hernandez in his car is a stark reminder that the full truth of this tragic saga is still waiting to be revealed.