Celeste Rivas Hernandez, {the teenager} whom singer D4vd is charged with killing, died of multiple penetrating accidents earlier than somebody amputated her legs, arms and two of her fingers, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner revealed Wednesday.
Details of the 14-year-old’s grotesque dying had been hidden from public view for months, after legislation enforcement companies went to court docket to dam the health worker from releasing her post-mortem outcomes. The want for secrecy got here to an finish this week after the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office charged the singer, whose authorized identify is David Anthony Burke, with murder, sexual abuse of a child and mutilation of a corpse.
The health worker’s workplace decided a reason behind dying on Dec. 9, about three months after Celeste’s badly decomposed physique was discovered within the trunk of a automotive that belonged to Burke, in line with the report. The automotive had been towed from a location in Hollywood in late August.
Burke, 21, has denied all wrongdoing and pleaded not responsible to all expenses Monday. His lawyer Blair Berk has demanded an instantaneous preliminary listening to and insisted prosecutors’ case couldn’t stand as much as scrutiny. Burke is due again in court docket Thursday morning in downtown L.A.
In asserting the costs towards Burke earlier this week, prosecutors mentioned the ascendant music star had started sexually abusing Hernandez in September 2023, when she was simply 13 years previous, and killed her as a result of she posed a menace to his profession. Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman mentioned Hernandez “threatened to expose his criminal conduct,” however declined to elaborate on what particularly occurred.
Hernandez was final seen at a Hollywood Hills dwelling with Burke on April 23, 2025. Prosecutors allege Celeste was killed “on or about” that date, in line with a felony criticism. She had been reported lacking from her household’s Lake Elsinore neighborhood at the very least 3 times the 12 months prior, however had additionally been noticed at a few of D4vd’s live shows.
The health worker discovered Hernandez suffered two penetrating wounds, one to her stomach and one other to her chest. After dying, Hernandez’s physique was “dismembered,” that means her legs and arms have been amputated, in line with the report. Two of the girl’s fingers on her left hand had additionally been amputated, in line with the report.
A postmortem toxicology report discovered solely ethanol within the teen’s system.
The examination was severely hampered by the situation of the sufferer’s physique, in line with the report. Investigators couldn’t even decide Hernandez’s eye coloration.
“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 mentioned in a press release. “It is unfathomable they’ve needed to wait this lengthy to study what occurred 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 “massive, black zippered physique 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.
This story initially appeared in Los Angeles Times.
