D4vd, the 21-year-old singer born David Anthony Burke, was arrested on suspicion of murder on April 16, 2026, at a Hollywood Hills home not far from the Los Angeles tow yard where 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez's remains were found the previous September. As BET previously reported, he is being held without bail while the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Major Crimes Division reviews whether to file formal charges. His defense attorneys have said the evidence will show he did not kill Celeste and was not the cause of her death.

But the trail that led investigators to his door did not begin with the discovery of her body. It began much earlier — and it was hiding in plain sight, according to a detailed CNN investigation.

In January 2024, Celeste — then 13 years old — appeared alongside d4vd in a Twitch livestream video. The two joked and bantered until around 3 a.m. At one point, d4vd laughingly said: "Delete everything." Shortly after, between January and March 2024, d4vd was photographed getting out of a black Tesla a few blocks from Celeste's home in Lake Elsinore, California. A local teenager later posted those photos to TikTok.

Celeste was first reported missing around February 14, 2024, when she was 13. Around that same time, someone concerned about her wellbeing sent an email to an address bearing d4vd's name on his record label's domain. The message referenced Celeste's disappearance and said, according to CNN, that "there's been talk" that d4vd may have had something to do with it. "Please do the right thing and take her home," the writer urged. "Her parents are very worried."

CNN confirmed the authenticity of the email with the person who sent it, who requested anonymity due to safety concerns. Celeste returned home within days of the email being sent. She was reported missing a second time around March 19, 2024.

After Celeste's body was identified in September 2025, investigators and a private detective hired by the owner of d4vd's rented Hollywood Hills property found a digital camera inside the house. The camera contained photos of both Celeste and d4vd taken in late December 2024 and early January 2025 — months after her family had last heard from her. During that same period, d4vd posted other photos from that camera's memory card to his X account with the caption "took these pics," along with a selfie showing him wearing a camera of the same model.

On September 8, 2025, a worker at a Hollywood impound lot called police after noticing a foul odor from a vehicle. The Tesla — registered to d4vd — had been abandoned on a street near his Hollywood Hills home, ticketed on August 28, and towed on August 30. Investigators found Celeste's dismembered, decomposing remains inside the front trunk. The medical examiner sealed the case file by court order in November 2025. Her official cause of death has not been publicly released.

A day after what would have been Celeste's 15th birthday, law enforcement confirmed her identity. A vigil was held in Lake Elsinore.

On April 16, a squad of local and federal officers battered down the door of a Hollywood Hills home and took d4vd into custody. Per CNN, authorities had not publicly named him as a suspect before that moment. His legal team — attorneys Blair Berk, Marilyn Bednarski, and Regina Peter — has stated: "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."

Family attorney Patrick Steinfeld said Celeste's family will be present at the DA's Monday press conference. "The Rivas Hernandez family is committed to ensuring that Celeste's voice is heard and her memory is honored throughout this process," he said. The DA's office confirmed it will share a filing decision Monday. No formal charges had been filed as of publication. D4vd is presumed innocent unless convicted.