Singer David Burke, 21, legally known as David Burke, was arrested in Hollywood on suspicion of murder in connection with the death of Celeste Rivas Hernandez. The 14-year-old was reported missing in 2024 and her body was discovered in an abandoned Tesla. Burke's lawyers maintain his innocence.
Police said the singer was arrested in Hollywood . Eric Leonard and Amber Frias report for NBC LA News on Thursday, April 16, 2026. Detectives arrested the 21-year-old, whose legal name is David Burke , on Thursday on suspicion of murder in the investigation of, Los Angeles police said.
Authorities had not publicly named Burke as a suspect until his arrest. Investigators are expected to present a case to prosecutors on Monday, police said. Burke’s lawyers have declared his innocence.Burke was arrested at about 4:30 p.m. Thursday, police said, at a home near the Chateau Marmont, the legendary Hollywood hotel that has been home to decades of industry scandal and lore. It is about two miles from the upscale Hollywood Hills street where Burke's Tesla and Rivas Hernandez's body were found.Prosecutors say on Monday when they receive the case they will review it to decide whether there is enough evidence for charges. Burke's defense attorneys stressed that Burke has only been detained under suspicion, no indictment had been returned and no criminal complaint has been filed. “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 lawyers said. Newly unveiled court documents from Texas show that the singer was the target of the LA investigation. Eric Leonard reports for the NBC4 News at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026.The seventh grader’s family reported her missing in 2024 from her hometown of Lake Elsinore, about 70 miles southeast of Los Angeles. Her long-dead body was found in an apparently abandoned Tesla Model Y impounded on Sept. 8, a day after she would have turned 15. Authorities in court documents list her age at death as 14. In a tow yard, a bag covered with insects and a strong smell was discovered, and police found a decomposed head and torso when they opened it. Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office investigators discovered the limbs had been severed, and in a second bag found dismembered body parts. No cause or time of death has been publicly revealed, and it is not clear whether they have been determined with any specificity, a potential hurdle to prosecution. After the medical examiner revealed its initial findings, police in November got a judge to block the agency from releasing any more information. That court order remained in place Friday. A decomposed body found in singer D4vd's Tesla has been identified. Authorities confirmed to NBC News on Sept. 17 that the remains are of 15-year-old Celeste Rivas, who had previously been reported missing from Lake Elsinore, Calif.D4vd, pronounced “David,” went viral on TikTok in 2022 with the hit “Romantic Homicide,” which peaked at No. 4 on Billboard’s Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart. After signing with Darkroom and Interscope Records, D4vd released his debut EP “Petals to Thorns” and a follow-up, “The Lost Petals,” in 2023. D4vd said in an interview last year that he was homeschooled after moving from New York to Texas at age 8 and while he appreciates art from Houston and New York, his artistry was shaped more by the internet. “I was such an internet kid. The internet is really what I claim as my home,” he said, explaining that he was online every day, doing schoolwork, making songs and videos and posting on social media. “My neighborhood was Instagram and the society was the internet.” When Rivas Hernandez’s body was found, D4vd was on tour supporting his first full-length album, “Withered,” and “Locked & Loaded,” Fortnite’s first official anthem, which he partnered with Epic Games on, had just been released. An email seeking comment Friday from Epic Games was not immediately answered. The last two North American shows of the tour, 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. The latest information on the investigation into the death of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, whose body was found inside a Tesla registered to the pop singer D4vd, appeared in Texas, where D4vd’s family tried to block an LA court order.The singer had been under a secret grand jury investigation looking into the death of Rivas Hernandez. The status of that part of the case isn't clear. Often when a grand jury is convened, an indictment with charges comes before an arrest. But, as Burke's lawyers noted, none has been issued. In Los Angeles County, prosecutors can charge a defendant then take their evidence before a judge in a public preliminary hearing to decide whether a trial is warranted. Or they can go to a grand jury, which circumvents the process, keeps it secret, and puts the case on a direct path to trial. A grand jury may be used because its subpoena power can compel witnesses to talk in ways that police can't. There were several unwilling witnesses in this case. The grand jury's existence — and the designation of D4vd as its target — was revealed when his mother, father and brother filed an objection in a Texas court to subpoenas demanding they come to Los Angeles to testify. The Associated Press obtained documents in the case in February that had been sealed in California. The filing said the Tesla was registered in the singer’s name at the Texas address of his subpoenaed family members.
Singer Arrested Murder Investigation Hollywood David Burke Celeste Rivas Hernandez
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