D4vd, a rising musical artist who was on his way to wider stardom, was arrested Thursday (April 16) on suspicion of the murder of a teenage girl he was allegedly seeing. As the details of the arrest and the case overall continue to develop, we’ve amassed the facts as we know them regarding D4vd’s case.
D4vd, 21, was born David Burke and was born in Queens, New York, and raised in Houston, Texas. Burke gained fame after creating a series of viral hits, notably 2022’s “Romantic Homicide,” a chilling ode to romance gone wrong, with some fans calling it a foreshadowing of sorts.
The track was popular on TikTok, leading to Interscope Records signing him. Interest in the song surged after the discovery of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez’s body inside Burke’s Tesla in September 2025.
As reported by the Associated Press, the Los Angeles Police Department unveiled a short statement about the arrest and has yet to give wider details on what led them to do so.
Attorneys for Burke, Blair Berk, Marilyn Bednarski, and Regina Peter shared an email statement with the AP, which read, “Let us be clear — the actual evidence in this case will show that David Burke did not murder Celeste Rivas Hernandez and he was not the cause of her death.”
As it stands, LAPD detectives will present the case to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office this coming Monday (April 20), and there appear to be moves to file charges. Burke’s attorneys once more added a statement in defense of their client and proclaiming his innocence.
“There has been no indictment returned by any grand jury in this case and no criminal complaint filed. David has only been detained under suspicion. We will vigorously defend David’s innocence,” the attorneys said.
Burke was under suspicion long ago in connection with the teen’s death, and a Los Angeles County grand jury launched an investigation. The investigation was reportedly under wraps until February of this year after members of Burke’s family filed objections to subpoenas to testify in a Texas court.
Rivas Hernandez’s body was found in a Tesla registered to Burke after it was towed in Hollywood Hills in early September of last year, just a day after what would have been her 15th birthday. The girl’s family, located in Lake Elsinore, reported her missing in 2024 when she was just 13 and in seventh grade. The town is around 70 miles southeast of Los Angeles.
The teen’s body was found inside the Tesla registered to the Texas address of Burke’s family and under the singer’s name, as mentioned. Rivas Hernandez’s body was completely dismembered and found in a bag, according to the medical examiner’s initial reports.
D4vd is currently being held without bail, although the location has not been made public.
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Photo: Getty
