WARNING: The following account includes information regarding human remains.
An inquiry by a Los Angeles County grand jury is targeting singer D4vd in connection with the death of a 14-year-old girl. Her decomposed body was discovered last year inside an apparently abandoned Tesla, which was registered to the singer and towed from the Hollywood Hills, according to court records.
Prosecutors have identified the 20-year-old alt-pop artist, born in Houston as David Burke, as the focal point of the investigation in grand jury subpoenas issued on Jan. 15, requesting three of his relatives to provide testimony.
Obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday, the documents were under seal in California, where the grand jury probe has been confidential. However, the singer’s mother, father, and brother made them public by appealing the subpoenas in Texas.
According to the documents, the “target may be involved in having committed the following criminal offences against the laws of the State of California, to wit: One count of Murder.”
Tesla linked to the singer in court papers
Court filings mention that the Tesla was registered in D4vd’s name at the residence of his subpoenaed family members.
Although authorities had not publicly named D4vd as a suspect in the case, the deceased body of Celeste Rivas Hernandez was found on Sept. 8, a day after what would have been her 15th birthday. She was reported missing by her family in 2024 from Lake Elsinore, approximately 112 kilometers southeast of Los Angeles, when she was a 13-year-old seventh grader.
According to the court documents, authorities list her age as 14 at the time of her death.
The subpoena reveals that during a search of the 2023 Tesla Model Y in a tow yard, investigators discovered a cadaver bag “infested with insects and emitting a strong odor of decay.”
“Upon partially unzipping the bag, detectives observed a decomposed head and torso,” the document states.
Officials from the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office were called to the scene.
“Upon removing the cadaver bag from the front storage compartment, it was discovered that the arms and legs had been severed from the body,” the document describes. “A second black bag was found beneath the cadaver bag, revealing dismembered body parts upon inspection.”
Representatives for D4vd did not respond immediately to requests for comment on Wednesday, and they had not previously replied to emails from the AP regarding the case.
The District Attorney’s Office declined to provide a statement.
A Texas judge ruled that the three family members could not disregard the subpoenas and ordered them to appear in California to testify.
Abandoned vehicle discovery
The Tesla had been removed from an affluent Hollywood Hills neighborhood where it had been abandoned.
During the time when the girl’s body was discovered, the singer was on a U.S. tour and proceeded with numerous performances. However, he eventually terminated the remaining concerts and a European tour following widespread coverage of his involvement in the case.
Prior information from the Medical Examiner’s Office indicated that the body was significantly decomposed and that Rivas Hernandez had likely been deceased for an extended period before being found.
In November, Los Angeles police obtained a court order to prevent Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Odey Ukpo from releasing the autopsy findings, and the cause of death remains undisclosed.
D4vd garnered a following among Gen Z enthusiasts for his unique mix of indie rock, R&B, and lo-fi pop. He gained popularity on TikTok in 2022 with the song
