Celeste Rivas Hernandez had been dead for weeks before being discovered inside D4vd's Tesla

Richard Winton and Salvador Hernandez, Los Angeles Times on Sep 29, 2025

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LOS ANGELES — A missing teenage girl had been dead for several weeks before her decomposing body was discovered stuffed inside the trunk of singer D4vd’s Telsa, Los Angeles police said Monday.

Los Angeles Police Department Capt. Scot Williams confirmed the timeline but did not provide a precise time of death. The Los Angeles County medical examiner is now trying to determine the cause of death of the girl, Celeste Rivas Hernandez.

Detectives have been working for weeks to trace Hernandez’s final movements and determine any connections with D4vd, who police say has been cooperating with them.

A 2023 Tesla registered to David Anthony Burke, known as D4vd, was ticketed by Los Angeles authorities on a Hollywood Hills street near where the singer lived 11 days before her body was discovered.

The Tesla had been parked on Bluebird Avenue so long that some residents complained about it in August, leading to the car being ticketed.

“I’m not sure exactly when the parking complaints about the Tesla began, but it was closer to the beginning part of August,” said Williams, who as captain of the LAPD’s Robbery Homicide Division is supervising the investigation.

Records reviewed by the Los Angeles Times show on the afternoon of Aug. 27, a parking enforcement officer marked the Tesla, noting the position of its tires. Then, on Sept. 3, the officer issued a citation to the Tesla for violating the 72-hour parking ordinance. Two days later, the Tesla was impounded and towed to the Hollywood yard.

In the early morning of Sept. 8, a tow yard worker passing the Tesla noticed a foul smell. He alerted Los Angeles police detectives to his concerns. A detective, agreeing with those suspicions, obtained a search warrant and then opened the trunk.

Inside the trunk of the multiplatinum musician’s Tesla was a black bag containing Celeste’s heavily decomposed remains. She weighed 71 pounds and had a “Shhh” tattoo on her finger, according to the medical examiner.

Her body was found a day after her 15th birthday.

Celeste grew up in Lake Elsinore, about 76 miles away from Hollywood. She was in the seventh grade, and her family reported her missing at least three times in 2024, according to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office.