LAKE ELSINORE, Calif. — Celeste Rivas Hernandez was just one of the kids in her neighborhood in Lake Elsinore, an Inland Empire community that for generations has drawn young families looking for a piece of suburbia far from the high prices and drama of the big city.
She visited the corner store almost every day with her friends, wearing a backpack and her usual long, curly black hair. She got candy, soda and Takis. She was a familiar face to neighbors and local business owners.
But there was something playing out in her world that she kept to herself.
Last year, she disappeared over Valentine’s Day. It was the first of many episodes of her running away from home, something that brought tensions in her household and worry in her community.
According to Riverside County Sheriff’s Department records, Celeste was reported missing three times by her family, in three incidents that occurred in early 2024 and sparked multiple calls with local police.
Her mother made emotional pleas on Facebook for her to come home. Neighbors saw missing posts on local streets. Her family sought video surveillance from their neighborhood that could yield clues.
She usually returned home to Lake Elsinore and blended back into her life as a middle schooler.
Then in early September, the Los Angeles Police Department announced her decomposing body had been found inside the trunk of a Tesla owned by singer D4vd. The vehicle was found parked on a street in an upscale Hollywood Hills neighborhood where 20-year-old D4vd, whose real name is David Anthony Burke, was renting a home.
The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office said Celeste was declared dead on Sept. 8, one day after her birthday. But authorities believe she had been dead for weeks before she was discovered and likely did not see her 15th birthday.
Police are now trying to connect her life in sleepy Lake Elsinore to her death in one of Los Angeles’ celebrity-studded neighborhoods. And they are seeking to understand any connections between Celeste and D4vd.
Law enforcement sources said detectives are reviewing videos that appear to show her alongside D4vd. They have also obtained some photos of them apparently together, according to the sources, who were not authorized to discuss the details of the case publicly.
Authorities have not determined how she died, and police said Burke was cooperating.
In Lake Elsinore, people who knew Celeste are grieving and want answers.
“Everybody in the community is sad, not just the children,” said Elie Naddaf, owner of a corner store in Celeste’s neighborhood. “You can see it with anyone that comes here.”
How Celeste met Burke remains unclear. Law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation say they met online. Burke gained an online following by posting “Fortnite” clips to YouTube and pivoted to making his own music. He was signed to a record label by 2022.
Celeste grew up in Lake Elsinore, a first-generation daughter of immigrant parents from El Salvador, and attended Lakeland Village School.
Burke was on tour when Celeste’s body was found on Sept. 8 and he canceled the remaining dates of his North American tour when she was identified.
While Burke amassed a following on social media over the last several years with his music, he has remained silent about Celeste’s death. Representatives for Burke did not respond to repeated requests for comment and representatives for his music label, Darkroom and Interscope, could not be reached.
It’s unclear if the Los Angeles Police Department interviewed Burke. At this time, police say they do not know if there is “any criminal culpability beyond the concealment of her body.” Celeste’s cause of death has been deferred pending further tests.
People who knew the family were perplexed at what went wrong.
Celeste had run away before and always came back, said Rubi Alonso, a friend of Celeste’s mother, Mercedes Martinez. But something changed in August. She said she spoke to Martinez and, in the brief conversation, Celeste’s mother told her she was gone.
“She’s left me again,” Celeste’s mother told Alonso, whose son went to kindergarten with Celeste. She remained close friends with the family over the years, often talking to Martinez and sometimes offering advice.
“I couldn’t believe it when my son told me” about her death, Alonso said. “I got the text message and it didn’t make sense that it was her.”
The first time she left home, a family friend and police records indicate, was on Valentine’s Day 2024.
In a Facebook post, Martinez wrote that Celeste had last been seen on Feb. 14, 2024.
“Please share,” she wrote in Spanish. “It’s my daughter, and I’m distraught, and she has been missing for 24 hours.”
According to police records, she was reported missing on Feb. 15, 2024. Her family called Riverside County Sheriff officials at 9:18 a.m.
Alonso said the teenager was seen in home cameras leaving the house sometime around 2 a.m. She’d also left a letter for her family, Alonso said, although it’s unclear what the letter said.
A few hours later that day, records show deputies were called to the house at 7:41 p.m. for a follow-up report.
Riverside County Sheriff officials declined to release any records related to the missing persons report, citing an ongoing investigation and records involving a minor.
Neighbors said the family posted fliers of Celeste around the neighborhood, hoping to spread the word that someone would have information as to her whereabouts.
Alonso said Celeste returned home, and her mother told Alonso that Celeste had been upset by the social media posts, fliers around the neighborhood, and the publicity that it had generated.
According to records, the teenager didn’t stay home long. On March 19, 2024, Celeste’s family again reported her missing.
Naddaf said that Celeste’s family asked him if he had any surveillance footage of the street. He shared with them a video clip that showed a girl with light pants and a dark sweater walking down the street. He believes the girl was Celeste and that it appeared to show her approaching a dark vehicle outside the frame of the surveillance video.
He shared the footage with the family, but did not hear back from them.
Call logs to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department show her family called officials at 7:57 a.m. to report her missing. Deputies returned about a week later on March 26 for a follow-up, but officials declined to provide information about the report.
A few days later, Celeste was reported missing once more. This time, her family called deputies on April 5, 2024. The call, according to records, came at 9:29 p.m.
Deputies were called to the home again a few days later for a follow-up report, according to call logs, on April 11, April 19 and April 20. Celeste reportedly left her home wearing gray pants, a black sweater, a hat and Hello Kitty sandals.
In one of the incidents that she was reported missing, Alonso said, Celeste had been driven home in a police patrol car.
It’s unclear when Celeste returned to the home, but neighbors in the community said they spotted the young girl in the neighborhood later that year, at home with her parents.
Alonso said Celeste’s mother believes her daughter had a boyfriend but had not met him.
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