For more than a month the police in Los Angeles have been investigating the death of a girl, Celeste Rivas Hernandez, whose body was found in the front trunk of a Tesla belonging to the musician D4vd.
The Los Angeles County medical examiner has yet to determine the cause or manner of Ms. Rivas Hernandez’s death. Her body was found a day after what would have been her 15th birthday. No one has been arrested. And the authorities have said it is unclear “whether there is any criminal culpability” in the case “beyond the concealment of her body.”
Representatives for D4vd, whose real name is David Burke, 20, have not responded to requests for comment. Members of Ms. Rivas Hernandez’s family could not be reached for comment.
Here’s what we know about the case so far.
Her body is discovered
A Tesla registered to Mr. Burke was towed to an impound lot on Sept. 5 after officials had received a complaint that it appeared to have been abandoned. The car had been parked on a public street for “several weeks,” the Los Angeles Police Department said in a statement.
It had not been reported stolen.
Then, on Sept. 8, the authorities responded to reports of a foul odor at the impound yard. They looked inside the Tesla and found the “severely decomposed” remains of a girl inside a bag in the front trunk, officials said. “She appears to have been deceased inside the vehicle for an extended period of time before being found,” the medical examiner said on its website
The body was later identified as Ms. Rivas Hernandez.
Given that the car been parked for so long, the police have said that “Ms. Rivas Hernandez may have been deceased for several weeks before the discovery of her body.”
The Los Angeles Police Department’s robbery-homicide division, which handles many of the department’s highest profile cases, is investigating the death.
“We appreciate the public’s patience and understanding as we continue this investigation,” the police department said in its statement.
Mr. Burke had begun a North American tour on Aug. 5 and was playing dates across the Midwest the week the car was towed.
On Sept. 17, detectives from that division served a search warrant on a home in the Hollywood Hills in connection with the death investigation, a police spokesman said, adding that several items of evidence were recovered.
It was a home Mr. Burke had been staying in, the owner of the home, Malden Trifunovic, told The New York Times. Mr. Burke’s manager had been leasing the home, Mr. Trifunovic said, but he had not known that the manager was leasing it on someone else’s behalf.
Mr. Trifunovic said that after the search warrant was executed, movers representing Mr. Burke’s manager removed belongings from the house.
The police have released few details about their investigation, and have not said whether they have spoken with Mr. Burke.
The victim, Celeste Rivas
Ms. Rivas Hernandez was most recently reported missing on April 5, 2024, from Lake Elsinore, Calif., about 70 miles southeast of Los Angeles. At the time of her disappearance, she was 13.
The medical examiner’s office has listed Ms. Rivas Hernandez’s cause of death as “deferred.” She was 5 feet, 2 inches tall, weighed 71 pounds, had wavy black hair and was wearing a tube top and small black leggings, according to the medical examiner.
Ms. Rivas Hernandez grew up in Lake Elsinore, a first-generation daughter of immigrant parents from El Salvador, and attended Lakeland Village School, according to an article in The Los Angeles Times. The newspaper reported that she had run away from home multiple times, citing records from the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department.
The artist, D4vd
Mr. Burke, 20, has millions of followers on social media and music platforms and created the anthem for Fortnite.
As a teenage gamer he was cited for copyright infringement for using music on his streaming channel. So he started making songs on his own, recording them in his sister’s closet using an app called BandLab.
His 2022 track “Romantic Homicide” — a slow-rolling song about a failed relationship featuring smeary vocals over a simple guitar line — blew up on social media. (Since this investigation began, some news outlets have noted that the song contains the lyric “In the back of my mind, I killed you / And I didn’t even regret it.”)
As his career took off, he got an opening slot on SZA’s SOS Tour. His major-label debut, “Withered,” which includes poppier production, was released this year and he had been touring North America and Europe.
Soon after the news that the body of Ms. Rivas Hernandez had been found in a car registered to him, several remaining concerts were canceled.
The brands Hollister and Crocs said they were removing D4vd from an ad campaign as the investigation continued, according to a report in the industry media outlet Footwear News. (Those companies did not respond to requests for comment about the situation.)
Neil Vigdor, Caryn Ganz and Jesus Jiménez contributed reporting. Alain Delaquérière contributed research.
Matt Stevens is a Times reporter who writes about arts and culture from Los Angeles.
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