Murder suspect d4vd’s preliminary hearing underway as prosecutors detail 14-year-old girl’s death
Murder suspect d4vd s preliminary hearing begins in Los Angeles
Healfromzero.com – Murder suspect d4vd s preliminary hearing is now underway as prosecutors present evidence about the tragic death of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez. Ten months after the teenager’s severely decomposed remains were discovered inside the singer’s abandoned Tesla, authorities have painted a disturbing picture of how they believe the 21-year-old musician killed and dismembered the runaway to silence her about their relationship.
David Anthony Burke, known professionally as d4vd, has entered not guilty pleas to first-degree murder with special circumstances, continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14, and mutilating human remains. The Los Angeles judge overseeing the case will determine whether sufficient evidence exists to proceed to trial.
Timeline of d4vd and Celeste’s connection
The preliminary hearing, which commenced Tuesday, is expected to span several days. Court documents reveal that d4vd first encountered Celeste in 2022 when she was just 11 years old. Prosecutors allege that the pair began a sexual relationship in November 2023, when d4vd was 18 and Celeste was 13. That same month, the musician appeared on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” performing his breakthrough hit “Romantic Homicide.”
Celeste repeatedly crossed paths with Burke before and after her first disappearance report in February 2024. In January 2024, she appeared alongside the singer during a Twitch livestream. The pair shared jokes and conversation until approximately 3 a.m., when d4vd jokingly told her to “Delete everything.”
Between January and March 2024, d4vd was photographed exiting a black Tesla near Celeste’s Lake Elsinore, California home. A local teenager later shared these images on TikTok, and CNN geolocated and chronolocated the photographs to confirm their timing and location.
Celeste was reported missing three times during early 2024. Her first report came in mid-February at age 13, with a poster indicating she was last seen around February 14. Shortly thereafter, someone sent an email to an address associated with d4vd’s record company, referencing Celeste’s disappearance and suggesting the singer might be involved. The email writer urged d4vd to “do the right thing and take her home,” noting that her parents were deeply concerned.
“There’s been talk” that d4vd possibly had something to do with Celeste’s disappearance, one concerned individual wrote in an email to the singer’s record company.
Celeste returned home within days of that email being sent, according to a family acquaintance. She was reported missing a second time around March 19 and a third time on April 5, according to Riverside County Sheriff’s Office records. While the exact date of her death remains unclear, photographs suggest she was still alive nearly a year after her initial disappearance report.
Court documents indicate Celeste was 14 when she died. In June 2024, she was photographed backstage during a sold-out d4vd performance at The Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles. Additional evidence emerged when a private investigator discovered a digital camera inside d4vd’s rented home containing photographs of Celeste and the singer from late December 2024 and early January 2025.
Prosecutors allege that d4vd and Celeste had a heated argument after the teenager became upset about his relationships with other women. Text messages from that evening reveal Celeste “threatened to disclose damaging information about her relationship” with the then-20-year-old that would “end his career and destroy his life.” Authorities believe this confrontation marked the night Celeste was killed.
The following day, d4vd hosted an album release party before embarking on an international tour. Celeste’s dismembered and decomposing body was discovered in the front trunk of a Tesla at a police impound yard, just a day after she would have turned 15. The vehicle, registered to d4vd, had been abandoned on a street near his Hollywood Hills residence.