D4vd Case Update: Star Named 'Murder Target' After Celeste Rivas' Severed Body Found In Tesla

Singer D4vd has been formally identified as the target of a Los Angeles grand jury investigation into the suspected murder of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, whose dismembered body was found in a Tesla linked to him in September 2025, according to newly unsealed court filings.

The D4vd case update matters because it is the first time prosecutors have been shown in court documents explicitly naming the 20-year-old artist, born David Anthony Burke, as the focus of potential proceedings for one count of murder, even though he has not been charged and no indictment has been announced, according to US media.

The records, described in detail by the BBC and other outlets, emerged after a Texas court released filings from D4vd's father, Dawud Burke, who was resisting an order to travel to Los Angeles to give evidence.

In appealing the summons, Burke's lawyers attached material from the California case that had been sealed there, inadvertently opening a window on a grand jury process that is usually almost entirely secret.

D4vd Case Update As 'Target' Label Emerges

The filings state that the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office has identified D4vd as a 'target' of its grand jury probe and that he 'may be involved in having committed' a crime listed as one count of murder, according to language quoted in those documents.

Under US practice, that designation signals prosecutors believe there is substantial evidence linking a person to a potential offence, but it stops short of an accusation that has been tested in open court.

Gruesome Details on Body Found at D4vd's Car

What the filings do lay out, in stark, clinical language, is how Rivas' body was found. On 8 September 2025, investigators opened the front storage compartment of a black Tesla at a Hollywood tow yard after reports of a foul odour and flies, and saw a black cadaver bag 'covered with insects' and a strong smell of decay, according to court documents summarised by the BBC and local outlets.

When detectives unzipped the bag, they observed a decomposed head and torso, later identified as belonging to Rivas.

When the bag was removed, detectives discovered that the girl's arms and legs had been severed, and a second black bag underneath contained the dismembered limbs, the filings state. The vehicle, a Tesla registered to D4vd's address in Texas, had been towed days earlier from a street in the Hollywood Hills after sitting parked for weeks, police have said.

Who Was Celeste Rivas Hernandez?

The Los Angeles Police Department's Robbery-Homicide Division later confirmed publicly that Rivas' body was found in the front trunk of a Tesla belonging to David Burke and said she may have been dead for several weeks before the discovery.

Rivas, from Lake Elsinore in California, had been reported missing in early 2024 and was last seen in April that year, according to missing person information cited by US broadcasters. Her remains were described as 'severely decomposed', and it took medical examiners about a week to confirm her identity, the BBC reported.

D4vd Case Update And The Legal Battle Over Testimony

As the investigation shifted into the grand jury phase last year, Los Angeles prosecutors argued in court that the testimony of D4vd's family members was 'material and necessary' to the case. Subpoenas were issued for his father, mother Colleen Burke and brother Caleb Burke to appear in person, and when they pushed back, the legal fight created a paper trail that would eventually be unsealed in Texas.

The First District Court of Appeals in Texas ultimately rejected habeas corpus petitions from all three family members, upholding the lower court's decision that they must testify before the California grand jury, according to the appellate order.

In the background sits a young artist whose career had just broken through. D4vd, who rose to prominence on TikTok with his singles 'Romantic Homicide' and 'Here With Me', released his debut album Withered in April 2025, but the deluxe edition was shelved and his remaining US tour dates and festival bookings were cancelled after the investigation became public, the Rolling Stone reported.