Celeste Rivas Hernandez, the teenage girl whose severely decomposed body was discovered last fall in the trunk of the singer D4vd’s car, died in a homicide of “multiple penetrating injuries caused by object(s),” according to a report released Wednesday by the County of Los Angeles Department of Medical Examiner.
The cause and manner of death were determined on Dec. 9, 2025, the office said.
The report’s release comes more than seven months after Celeste’s remains were discovered in the front trunk of a Tesla registered to D4vd, whose real name is David Burke.
On Monday, prosecutors in Los Angeles charged Mr. Burke, 21, with murdering Celeste, as well as with the continuous sexual abuse of a child younger than 14 and the unlawful mutilation of human remains. Prosecutors say that Mr. Burke killed her with “a sharp instrument.”
Mr. Burke has pleaded not guilty, and his lawyers have said he did not cause Celeste’s death. His family has also expressed support for him.
During the monthslong investigation into Celeste’s death, the police and the medical examiner’s office apparently clashed over whether the medical examiner’s report should be released. At the request of the police, and over the objections of the chief medical examiner, a judge placed a security hold on the case that prevented the report’s release.
The police said the hold was necessary to ensure that its detectives learned critical information about Celeste’s death before the news media and the public did. With the records under seal, the police would not say whether they considered the death a homicide.
At Mr. Burke’s arraignment on Monday, a judge ordered the release of the medical examiner’s report.
The first-degree murder charge against Mr. Burke includes the special circumstances of lying in wait, committing the crime for financial gain and murdering a witness to an investigation. Those factors mean that Mr. Burke faces a maximum sentence of life without the possibility of parole, or the death penalty. The office of the Los Angeles County district attorney has said it has not decided whether it will pursue the death penalty.
In a felony complaint, prosecutors said Mr. Burke engaged in three or more acts of “substantial sexual conduct” with Celeste in the year between Sept. 7, 2023, and Sept. 7, 2024. At the time, she was 13 years old.
On April 23, 2025, when Celeste was 14, she went to Mr. Burke’s house in the Hollywood Hills at his invitation, according to the district attorney, Nathan J. Hochman, and “was not heard from again.” The complaint said the mutilation of human remains occurred on May 5, 2025.
According to a statement that Mr. Hochman released on Monday, after Mr. Burke sexually abused Celeste, she “threatened to expose his criminal conduct and devastate his musical career.” So Mr. Burke “allegedly murdered her, cut up her body and stuffed her body in two bags that were placed in the front trunk of his car.”
Celeste’s body was found on Sept. 8, 2025, a day after what would have been her 15th birthday.
The car in which the remains were discovered had been left on a public street for weeks before it was towed to an impound lot in Los Angeles, according to the authorities.
The medical examiner’s office eventually identified the remains as those of Celeste, who in 2024 was reported missing from her home in Lake Elsinore, Calif., about 70 miles southeast of Los Angeles. But even those preliminary findings were removed from the department’s online database after the security hold was put into place.
The case has captivated the public, with online sleuths saturating the internet with theories about the case and with information leaking through the local news media.
Repeated efforts to reach members of Celeste’s family have been unsuccessful. But in a statement through a lawyer for the family, Patrick Steinfeld, her parents said they “miss her deeply.”
“All we want,” they added, “is justice for Celeste.”
Matt Stevens is a Times reporter who writes about arts and culture from Los Angeles.
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