Singer D4vd arrested in Los Angeles murder probe

Los Angeles police say the R&B musician known as D4vd has been arrested in connection with the death of a 14-year-old girl whose remains were found last year in a Tesla registered to him.

According to The Guardian, detectives were called in September to a tow yard in Hollywood after staff reported a foul smell from an impounded vehicle. Inside, officers found a dismembered body later identified as Celeste Rivas Hernandez, who had been reported missing in 2024 and was last seen in Lake Elsinore, about 100 kilometres south-east of downtown Los Angeles. The county medical examiner concluded she had been dead in the vehicle for an “extended period” before discovery.

The arrest adds a criminal case to the machinery that now surrounds viral fame. Burke, 21, broke out around 2022 with TikTok-driven hits and later worked with high-profile artists, a trajectory that turns a private investigation into a public spectacle the moment a name is attached. The Guardian reports that online communities have been combing for links between the artist and the victim since the body was found, and that the victim’s brother told NBCLA she had said she was going to see a movie with Burke before she disappeared.

For police and prosecutors, the case illustrates how evidence, publicity and institutional sequencing collide. The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office told the New York Times it expects the matter to be presented to its Major Crimes Division, with prosecutors reviewing whether there is sufficient evidence to file charges. Police said the case will be presented to the district attorney on Monday. In the meantime, the suspect is being held without bail, city authorities said.

The timeline also shows how long a case can sit in limbo even when a body is found in a vehicle tied to a known individual. The car was reportedly towed after appearing abandoned in the Hollywood Hills, and only later became the focus of a homicide investigation once the tow yard reported the odour. A spokesperson for the singer previously said he was “fully cooperating,” according to NBC News, and ABC News reported police executed a search warrant at a home he had been staying in, seizing a computer among other items.

The most concrete next step is procedural rather than dramatic: prosecutors will decide what, if anything, to charge when the file reaches them. Until then, the case is a set of dates, a tow yard receipt, and a sealed evidence chain that the internet cannot access.

The Tesla was impounded in Hollywood. The body inside it was identified only after it was towed.