The singer D4vd was arrested on suspicion of murder in connection with the death of a teenage girl whose decomposed body was found in the trunk of his abandoned Tesla last year, authorities in Los Angeles said Thursday.
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D4vd, 21, the “Romantic Homicide†singer whose real name is David Anthony Burke, was being held without bail, the Los Angeles Police Department said in a statement.
The case will be presented to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office on Monday, police said. The prosecutor’s office said Thursday that its major crimes division will review the case.
Attorneys for the entertainer said they were prepared to “vigorously defend David’s innocence.â€
“Let us be clear — the actual evidence in this case will show that David Burke did not murder Celeste Rivas Hernandez and he was not the cause of her death,” attorneys Blair Berk, Marilyn Bednarski and Regina Peter said in a statement Thursday night after his arrest. “There has been no indictment returned by any grand jury in this case and no criminal complaint filed. David has only been detained under suspicion.â€
Burke was arrested shortly after 4:30 p.m. at a house on Marmont Avenue in the Hollywood Hills, LAPD Capt. Scot Williams said.
“We did the best we can to keep tabs on him, but once we developed probable cause to arrest him for murder, then we were on him pretty diligently,†Williams told the California Post in a statement he confirmed to NBC News.
On Sept. 8, police found the remains of Celeste Rivas Hernandez, 14, in the trunk of a Tesla impounded at Hollywood Tow. Officers were called to the lot because of a foul odor coming from the vehicle.
Inside a black cadaver bag in the vehicle’s trunk, officers found a decomposed head and torso, according to court filings associated with a grand jury investigation. A second bag contained dismembered body parts.
The filings say Burke was the target of the investigation.
It isn’t clear how Celeste died. The medical examiner’s office said last year that it couldn’t release details about her cause and manner of death because of a security hold sought by police.
The agency didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.
Celeste was reported missing from Lake Elsinore, southeast of Los Angeles, in 2024, according to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office.
The Los Angeles County medical examiner said she was wearing black leggings, a tube top, a yellow metal chain bracelet and stud earrings when she was found. Law enforcement sources told NBC News that the remains weren’t intact. The medical examiner said it appeared she had been dead in the car for an extended period of time.
When news of the remains’ being found broke, Burke was on his Withered World Tour. A spokesperson said at the time that he was aware of what had happened and was “fully cooperating with the authorities.â€
Burke later canceled the rest of his U.S. tour.
