A 2023 Tesla registered to David Anthony Burke, known as D4Vd, was ticketed by Los Angeles authorities on a Hollywood Hills street near where the singer lived 11 days before the decomposing body of a missing girl was found inside the trunk.
The Tesla had been parked on Bluebird Avenue so long that some residents complained about it in late August, leading to the car being ticketed, according to law enforcement sources and records reviewed by The Times.
Los Angeles police detectives are now trying to determine how long the car was on the street and when Celeste Rivas Hernandez body appeared there. Police have not established a cause of death.
Detectives have been working for weeks to trace Hernandez’s final movements and determine any connections with D4Vd, who police say has been cooperating with them.
Detectives served a search warrant at the rental property north of Sunset Boulevard. Law enforcement sources with knowledge of the case but not authorized to speak publicly said investigators recovered various items from the home, including electronics and computers.
On the afternoon of Aug. 27, a parking enforcement officer marked the Tesla, noting the position of its tires.
Then, on Sept. 3, the officer issued a citation to the Tesla for violating the 72-hour parking ordinance.
Two days later, the Tesla was impounded and towed to the Hollywood tow yard.
But it would be another three days until the grim truth emerged.
In the early morning of Sept. 8, a tow yard worker passing the Tesla caught a whiff of the familiar smell of death. He alerted Los Angeles police detectives to his concerns. A detective, agreeing with those suspicions, obtained a search warrant and then opened the trunk.
Inside the trunk of the multiplatinum musician’s Tesla was a black holdall containing the heavily decomposed remains of Hernandez. She weighed 71 pounds and had a “Shhh” tattoo on her finger, according to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner.
Her body was found a day after her 15th birthday.
Hernandez grew up in Lake Elsinore, about 76 miles away from Hollywood, where the Tesla was parked before it was towed. She was in the seventh grade, and her family reported her missing at least three times in 2024, according to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office.
Burke was raised in Houston and has collaborated with musicians Kali Uchis, Stray Kids’ Hyunjin, Laufey and 21 Savage. He also created an anthem for the game “Fortnite.”
Burke had been on a national tour promoting his debut album, “Withered,” since early August. He performed in Boston, Montreal and Toronto in late August and in early September had stops in Detroit, Chicago and Indianapolis. But the tour was canceled amid the investigation.
“Withered” was released on Darkroom and Interscope Records in April. The album charted at No. 13 on the Billboard 200 and has more than 521 million streams on Spotify. On Sept. 7, in his last social media post, Burke announced on Instagram he was going to drop a deluxe version of the album. It was one of his last social media posts before Hernandez’s body was discovered.
Times staff writers Nathan Solis and Salvador Hernandez contributed to this report.
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