The D4vd case was seemingly everywhere on social media last month, but has not been discussed as much since the initial shock eventually died down. However, there are still many people who do not know the full story behind this case. Despite his many listeners on Spotify, a large portion of the general public has not heard of the singer D4vd (aka David Anthony Burke) until recently, in which his reputation was essentially tarnished forever.
D4vd started his music career in 2021, and although he wasn’t too famous himself, his 2022 song “Romantic Homicide” became extremely popular on multiple social media platforms, most prominently on TikTok. From then on, D4vd began to slowly rise in popularity as he continued to create more music, be featured in popular TV show soundtracks (such as Arcane’s “Remember Me” and Invincible’s “Feel It”) and collaborations with other well known artists (such as Laufey, Kali Uchis, and Hyunjin from the KPop group Stray Kids).
With all of these accomplishments, and D4vd going on tour for his debut album, it seemed like his fame was destined to skyrocket and he would soon become a household name, right? It would seem so, but, obviously, you all know where this is headed.
On September 8, 2025, a body was found in D4vd’s Tesla, belonging to an unidentified female who weighed no more than 70lbs. It was found by Los Angeles police when workers in a Hollywood Tow Lot reported a foul order emanating from the vehicle. The body was reportedly dismembered and in a state of advanced decomposition, implying that the victim has been there for days, or possibly weeks. The body was later identified, around a week or so later, to be 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez.
Initially, many people were quick to come to the singer’s defense, claiming there was no possible way he could have done it, as he was on tour at the time. However, there would soon be much more information revealed that would suggest D4vd’s guilt.
Once Celeste was identified, more information came out about her. For instance, the young girl was actually reported missing over a year prior to her body being discovered, in April of 2024. Additionally, it was found on her body that she had a tattoo on her finger that read “Shhh…” which D4vd also shared on his finger. While some may claim this is just a coincidence, Celeste’s mother also stated that her daughter did, in fact, have a boyfriend named David and Celeste’s brother also claimed that Celeste was last seen alive going to the movies with said boyfriend.
Given that D4vd was extremely cooperative with the authorities, he was not identified as an immediate suspect. Because of this, many people online following the case did some internet sleuthing, in which a massive amount of incriminating evidence was revealed.
After doing some online research, many people were actually able to find photographic evidence of D4vd and Celeste (or, at the very least, a girl who looks very, very similar). Multiple pictures were found from some of the musician’s deleted Instagram stories or old streams. In addition, Discord messages were also found in a large server which included D4vd and Celeste. Some excerpts from these messages include “Celeste: my parents are [_____] annoying, they won’t let me see you perform. . .D4vd: don’t worry I’ll fix it” and “D4vd: Celeste in here??. . .Ceslete: HI DAVID” These conversations date all the way back to 2022, when D4vd was 17 and Celeste was only 12 years old. It’s implied that many people in this Discord server knew of the two’s relationship, but none of them reported it. Many suspect that D4vd paid them off, as other images resurfaced of D4vd giving out money to young children.
Furthermore, many people looked deeper into D4vd’s odd obsession with this child. An unreleased song of his was discovered, in which he quite literally namedrops Celeste in the song and talks about his “love” for her. While this already seems incriminating enough, a weird pattern was also detected with D4vd’s other songs. Many of his songs, including the now notorious “Romantic Homicide,” were posted on YouTube on the date of September 7, with at least one song being posted on that date each year. While this may seem inconsequential, it should be noted that September 7 is the day of Celeste’s birthday, and also the day right before her body was found.
In many of D4vd’s music videos, which involve romance, the love interest is always played by a woman with similar features to Celeste: tanned skin and curly, brown hair. D4vd’s weird behavior is not just present in his YouTube music videos, but also his social media. Many people looked back through his TikTok reposts, where many odd posts were discovered, such as a video captioned “Me if I see her talk with other dudes” with the video displaying a man chopping up meat and another video captioned “Me watching her scream after I poured boiling water on her after she told a boy happy birthday bc why would you be happy he made it another year.” While these videos are already disgusting and despicable on their own, they definitely become much more frightening with the knowledge that D4vd reposted them.
Now, some may point to some flaws in this theory. The most common one being that D4vd was actually dating another Celeste. This is actually true, as D4vd has, in fact, been seen with an (adult) woman who shares the name as the teenage victim, as well as similarities in appearance. Nonetheless, many people claim that D4vd is only dating this woman as a way to get people off his trail, so to speak.
However, despite all this incriminating evidence, D4vd has not yet been named a suspect at all in this case. But, a Private Investigator was actually hired by the owner of the Hollywood Hills home where D4vd was living. The PI discovered that the Tesla Celeste’s body was found in, left its last location before heading to the Hollywood Tow Lot on June 29, which is the same day D4vd’s bus departed for his tour. The PI also stated that there were no sightings of Celeste entering or exiting D4vd’s residence, nor entering or exiting the Tesla. Still, more internet sleuths discovered that D4vd actually owned two homes, one of which many believed to be housing Celeste, as supported by resurfaced pictures and video streams of the two. Suspiciously, the other home went up for rent around the same time Celeste went missing.
Although no more information has been provided, and D4vd is still not considered a suspect, many people believe he is guilty due to the sheer amount of evidence piled up against him, which seem too implicate to be merely coincidental. Many of the celebrities D4vd has worked with in the past also seem to not want to be associated with him at all, with Hannah Bahng unfollowing him on all socials and Kali Uchis taking their collab song “Crashing” off Spotify.
Even in the slight chance D4vd is not Celeste’s killer, it is essentially confirmed that he did have relations with her, despite their significant age gap. All we can hope for now, as a society, is for D4vd to finally be held accountable for his sick actions and that Celeste Rivas Hernandez’s murderer will be properly identified and brought to justice.
Sources:
https://www.vanityfair.com/style/story/d4vd-missing-person-tesla-saga
https://www.billboard.com/lists/d4vd-body-car-career-everything-we-know/
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c205g10g0nvo
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/celebrity/articles/d4vd-not-named-murder-suspect
https://www.wionews.com/entertainment/hollywood/d4vd-case-update-pi-reveals-who-was-drivi
https://www.tmz.com/2025/10/18/private-investigator-d4vd-sadistic-plans-celeste-rivas/
