Los Angeles police arrested 21-year-old singer D4vd, real name David Anthony Burke, on Thursday on suspicion of murdering 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, whose decomposed and dismembered body was discovered months earlier in a Tesla registered in his name. Burke was taken into custody shortly after 4:30 p.m. at a house on Marmont Avenue in the Hollywood Hills and is being held without bail, NBC News reported.

The arrest caps a grim investigation that began in September when officers responded to a foul odor at Hollywood Tow, a Los Angeles impound lot. Inside the trunk of a 2023 Tesla Model Y that had been towed from the Hollywood Hills, they found a black cadaver bag containing a decomposed head and torso, court filings tied to a grand jury investigation show. A second bag contained dismembered body parts.

The remains were identified as those of Celeste Rivas Hernandez, a girl who had been reported missing from Lake Elsinore, southeast of Los Angeles, in 2024, the Riverside County Sheriff's Office said. She was 14 years old. The Los Angeles County medical examiner's office said she was wearing black leggings, a tube top, a yellow metal chain bracelet, and stud earrings when she was found, and that she appeared to have been dead in the car for an extended period.

How the case against D4vd developed

LAPD Capt. Scot Williams told NBC News that investigators tracked Burke after the discovery and moved once they had enough evidence.

"We did the best we can to keep tabs on him, but once we developed probable cause to arrest him for murder, then we were on him pretty diligently."

The New York Post reported that LAPD robbery-homicide detectives executed a probable-cause arrest warrant at the Hollywood Hills residence. Williams told reporters the department came to the home with that warrant in hand.

Court documents described in earlier reporting by the Washington Times had already identified Burke as the target of a Los Angeles County grand jury investigation. Grand jury subpoenas stated that 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."

Those same court documents spelled out the condition of the victim's body in clinical terms. "Upon removing the cadaver bag from the front storage compartment, it was discovered the arms and legs had been severed from the body," one filing stated. The Tesla was registered to Burke, AP News reported.

What police knew, and what remains unknown

The Los Angeles County medical examiner has not publicly released a cause or manner of death. The office said a security hold requested by police prevented disclosure. That hold has been in place since the remains were discovered.

As recently as last fall, investigators were still framing the case cautiously. Newsmax reported that Williams told People magazine at the time: "We know for sure that Celeste Rivas Hernandez died and someone placed her body in the front trunk area of David Burke's Tesla." He added: "We don't know for sure if anyone has any criminal culpability for her death beyond the concealment of her dead body."

That careful posture shifted between the fall and Thursday's arrest. The grand jury investigation, the subpoenas naming Burke as a target, and the development of probable cause all point to an investigation that built steadily over months. Police said the case will be presented to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office on Monday. The prosecutor's office confirmed its major crimes division will review it.

No indictment has been returned. No criminal complaint has been filed. Burke has been detained under suspicion, a legal distinction his defense team was quick to emphasize.

Defense attorneys pledge to fight the charges

Burke's attorneys, Blair Berk, Marilyn Bednarski, and Regina Peter, issued a statement Thursday night vowing to "vigorously defend David's innocence." Their statement went further, directly challenging the basis for the arrest.

"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."

The attorneys also stressed the procedural reality: "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." The statement amounts to a signal that the defense intends to contest the evidence aggressively once formal charges are filed, if they are filed.

High-profile murder cases often draw intense public attention long before a jury hears the evidence. The Gilgo Beach case, in which Rex Heuermann ultimately admitted to murdering seven women, showed how years can pass between discovery and resolution in complex homicide investigations.

Fox News reported that the LAPD's official statement confirmed Burke is being held without bail and identified him as a 21-year-old Los Angeles resident arrested "for the murder of Celeste Rivas."

A rising music career interrupted

Burke, known for the hit "Romantic Homicide," was on his Withered World Tour when news first broke last year that human remains had been found in a Tesla linked to him. A spokesperson said at the time that Burke was aware of what had happened and was "fully cooperating with the authorities." He later canceled the rest of his U.S. tour.

The timeline between the discovery of the body and the arrest stretched for months. Celeste was reported missing in 2024. Her remains were found on September 8, apparently of last year, in the impounded Tesla. The arrest came this week. Throughout that period, Burke was not formally charged or publicly named as a suspect by police, even as the grand jury investigation moved forward behind closed doors.

That gap raises questions the public record does not yet answer. Why was the Tesla abandoned? How long had Celeste been missing before someone placed her body in the vehicle? What specific evidence moved investigators from treating the case as a concealment matter to pursuing a murder charge? None of those questions have been addressed publicly by law enforcement.

The case echoes other high-profile investigations where the passage of time between a victim's disappearance and an arrest tested public patience with the justice system. Swift captures do happen, but the D4vd investigation followed a slower, more deliberate path, one that police say was necessary to build a case strong enough to support a probable-cause warrant.

LAPD investigators believe Celeste's body was placed in the Tesla's front trunk and may have remained there for several weeks before the vehicle was towed and the odor drew attention. The medical examiner confirmed the body had been in the car for an extended period but has not specified how long.

What happens next

The immediate next step is Monday's presentation to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office. Prosecutors in the major crimes division will decide whether to file formal murder charges, seek additional investigation, or decline to prosecute. Burke remains in custody without bail in the meantime.

The victim's family has not spoken publicly in the materials available. Celeste Rivas Hernandez was 14, a child reported missing from a community southeast of Los Angeles, whose remains were found in circumstances no family should have to contemplate.

The investigation into other missing-person cases has shown how quickly speculation can outpace evidence. Here, police took months. Whether that deliberation produced a case strong enough to survive a courtroom fight is now the only question that matters.

Celebrity status does not make someone guilty. But it does not entitle anyone to a different standard of justice than the one applied to every other suspect held without bail on suspicion of murder. Victims deserve accountability, and a 14-year-old girl found dismembered in a car trunk deserves it most of all.