She would have turned 15 just days before her body was found. Celeste Rivas Hernandez — a 14-year-old girl from Lake Elsinore — was dismembered. Decomposed. Stuffed into the front trunk of a Tesla abandoned near a Hollywood Hills home. Her mother had reported her missing the year before, when Celeste was only 13. Now, a prosecutor has revealed that the phone belonging to the man charged with her murder contained “a significant amount of child pornography.”
The case centers on 21-year-old David Anthony Burke — known professionally as D4vd — a rising music industry figure charged Monday, April 20, with capital murder, continuous sexual abuse of a child under age 14, and mutilation of human remains. He has pleaded not guilty through his attorneys. Prosecutors believe Celeste was killed on April 23, 2025, inside a Hollywood Hills residence Burke had rented. Her remains were discovered September 8, 2025 — just days after what would have been her 15th birthday — when the decomposed and dismembered body was found in Burke’s Tesla at a Hollywood tow yard.
The case is now moving toward a preliminary hearing, tentatively scheduled to begin May 1, where a judge will determine whether sufficient evidence exists to send Burke to trial. The evidence is substantial. Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman told Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Charlaine Olmedo that three separate grand juries have heard evidence in the investigation, which includes police reports, body-worn-camera footage, forensic analysis, and the medical examiner’s autopsy — a document only recently unsealed. That autopsy concluded Celeste died from “multiple penetrating injuries” caused by an object or objects.
This case sits within a deeply troubling pattern of child exploitation and predatory behavior that California communities across the state are grappling with. Celeste’s mother had told reporters her daughter had a boyfriend named “David” — and investigators noted that Burke bears a tattoo on his finger matching one found on Celeste’s index finger. The revelation of child pornography on his phone signals a level of premeditation and ongoing abuse that extends far beyond a single violent act. California’s ability to protect its most vulnerable residents — particularly minors — depends on the strength of its criminal laws and the willingness to enforce them fully.
For Celeste’s family, no court proceeding can undo the devastation. “These findings have caused profound emotional pain for the family,” their attorney Patrick Steinfeld said in a statement Wednesday. For parents across Southern California, this case is a stark reminder of the dangers children can face online and in relationships formed far from family view. For the community, the question now is whether the justice system will move swiftly and decisively — Burke remains jailed without bail, and prosecutors have not yet decided whether to seek the death penalty.
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