D4vd murder case: Teen girl suffered multiple stab wounds, LA County medical examiner says

Richard Winton and James Queally, Los Angeles Times on Apr 22, 2026

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LOS ANGELES — Celeste Rivas Hernandez, the teenager who singer D4vd is charged with killing, died of multiple penetrating injuries before someone amputated her legs, arms and two of her fingers, the Los Angeles County medical examiner revealed Wednesday.

Details of the 14-year-old’s gruesome death had been hidden from public view for months, after law enforcement agencies went to court to block the medical examiner from releasing her autopsy results. The need for secrecy came to an end this week after the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office charged the singer, whose legal name is David Anthony Burke, with murder, sexual abuse of a child and mutilation of a corpse.

The medical examiner’s office determined a cause of death on Dec. 9, about three months after Celeste’s badly decomposed body was found in the trunk of a car that belonged to Burke, according to the report. The car had been towed from a location in Hollywood in late August.

Burke, 21, has denied all wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty to all charges Monday. His attorney, Blair Berk, has demanded an immediate preliminary hearing and insisted prosecutors’ case could not stand up to scrutiny. Burke is due back in court Thursday morning in downtown L.A.

In announcing the charges against Burke earlier this week, prosecutors said the ascendant music star had began sexually abusing Hernandez in September 2023, when she was just 13 years old, and killed her because she posed a threat to his career. Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said Hernandez “threatened to expose his criminal conduct,” but declined to elaborate on what specifically happened.

Hernandez was last seen at a Hollywood Hills home with Burke on April 23, 2025. Prosecutors allege Celeste was killed “on or about” that date, according to a criminal complaint. She had been reported missing from her family’s Lake Elsinore neighborhood at least three times the year prior, but had also been spotted at some of D4vd’s concerts.

The medical examiner found Hernandez suffered two penetrating wounds, one to her abdomen and another to her chest. After death, Hernandez’s body was “dismembered,” meaning her arms and legs were amputated, according to the report. Two of the girl’s fingers on her left hand had also been amputated, according to the report.

A postmortem toxicology report found only ethanol in the teen’s system.

The examination was severely hampered by the condition of the victim’s body, according to the report. Investigators could not even determine Hernandez’s eye color.

“After several months, I am grateful this information can now be released, not only to the public, but also to the grieving family enduring loss,” Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Odey Ukpo said in a statement. “It is unfathomable they have had to wait this long to learn what happened to their daughter.”

Ukpo and the Los Angeles Police Department got into a bitter war of words over the decision to withhold the autopsy findings from the public last year. Hochman said earlier this week the details had to be contained so they didn’t impact the testimony of witnesses brought before a pair of investigative grand juries convened to help collect evidence against Burke. Not even Burke’s attorney had seen the autopsy report as of Monday.

When police first discovered Hernandez’s body, her remains were in a “large, black zippered body bag with handles,” according to an LAPD report attached to the autopsy. Her arms and legs, which were severed above the elbows and knees, were in a separate trash bag, the report said.

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