Body bag bought online was part of d4vd’s scheme to kill 14-year-old to hide his sexual abuse, prosecutors say
By Ray Sanchez, Matthew J. Friedman, CNN
Los Angeles (CNN) — Prosecutors have laid out a detailed and grisly timeline in their case against singer d4vd, who is accused of sexually abusing Celeste Rivas Hernandez starting when she was 13, then fatally stabbing her when she – at 14 years old – threatened to expose their relationship.
Celeste is believed to have been killed April 23, 2025, one day after she and d4vd, whose legal name is David Anthony Burke, had an argument in which she threatened to disclose damaging information about their relationship “to end his career and destroy his life,” according to a filing Wednesday from the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
The singer, whose first studio album was released days later, took “horrifying measures to destroy and discard the victim’s body,” the filing says.
D4vd, now 21, bought two chainsaws online that he used to dismember Celeste’s body in an inflatable pool, prosecutors allege, adding her DNA was found in his garage. The singer also made online purchases of a body bag and heavy-duty laundry bags, according to the court document.
Small blue plastic fragments were embedded in the victim’s remains, and an expert with Los Angeles police made “a physical fit match from the blue fragments to the blue inflatable pool” in which Celeste was dismembered, the document says.
D4vd “amputated her left ring and pinky fingers because her ring finger contained a tattoo of his name,” the filing says. “Her fingers have not been recovered.”
D4vd was arrested this month and has pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder with special circumstances, continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14 and mutilating human remains. He is innocent, his attorney said after his arraignment: Evidence “will show that David Burke did not murder Celeste Rivas Hernandez and he was not the cause of her death,” lawyer Blair Berk said.
A judge on Wednesday denied Berk’s request to seal the evidentiary filing, which the defense attorney says is “one-sided” and “replete with hearsay” and has the potential to taint a future jury pool. CNN has sought further comment from Berk.
Celeste was reported missing by family and friends on several occasions, starting in early 2024, and was last seen alive going to d4vd’s home last April. Her dismembered remains were found in the trunk of d4vd’s impounded Tesla in Los Angeles on September 8, a day after she would have turned 15.
Texts reveal sexual contact began when she was 13, prosecutors say
Evidence outlined by the state includes photos of Celeste and the singer engaged in sexual activity, which investigators say began when she was 13 and he was 18. Investigators believe the two met when Celeste was 11 years old, the filing says.
Text messages through March 2025 show how d4vd allegedly manipulated the victim. Celeste wrote in one message, according to prosecutors: “all we do is have sex and just hang out man I want more than that for myself.”
Celeste’s parents reported her missing in February 2024. Detectives with the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office contacted d4vd, who told them he had only met her once and did not know her age, according to the court document.
When the teen returned home that February, her parents took away her cellphone. The defendant then drove to Lake Elsinore and paid a classmate of Celeste $1,000 to give her a phone, prosecutors say.
Celeste and d4vd spent significant time together throughout 2024, including weekend trips to his Hollywood Hills home and visits to Las Vegas, London and Texas, to meet the singer’s family, according to the court document. Text messages between the pair allegedly included references to sex, pregnancy, abortion and the Plan B emergency contraceptive.
‘He had to silence the victim,’ prosecutors say
The night before authorities say Celeste was likely killed, she had a lengthy argument with d4vd, described later in text messages that “reveal the victim’s jealousy over defendant’s relationships with other women, as defendant led her to believe they had a future together,” according to the court document.
“She became extremely upset and threatened to disclose damaging information about her relationship with defendant to end his career and destroy his life,” prosecutors wrote, noting that his first studio album’s release date was April 25, 2025.
On April 23, 2025, the singer sent an Uber to pick up Celeste at her home in Lake Elsinore at about 8:40 p.m. and bring her to his Hollywood Hills home around 10:10 p.m., the court document says.
At about 10:30 p.m. that night, d4vd texted Celeste in what prosecutors describe as part of his “premeditated plan to cover up the murder, as she was already dead by this time.”
“Knowing he had to silence the victim before she ruined his music career as she had threatened, very soon after her arrival at his home, defendant stabbed the victim to death multiple times and stood by while she bled out,” the filing says. “At no time did he call law enforcement or 911 or take her to an emergency room to attempt to save her life.”
Celeste died of “multiple penetrating injuries,” according to an autopsy report released this month. She had wounds on her chest and abdomen that “may represent sharp force injuries,” the Los Angeles County medical examiner’s office said in the report, which was signed in December but sealed for months at the request of law enforcement.
“The Rivas Hernandez family is absolutely devastated by the findings,” Celeste’s family said in a statement after the release of the autopsy report. “They respectfully ask for privacy, understanding, and patience as they process this information.”
This story has been updated.
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CNN’s Andi Babineau, Jason Kravarik, Holly Yan, Alaa Elassar, Zoe Sottile, Norma Galeana, Elizabeth Wolfe, Thomas Bordeaux, Allison Gordon, Kyung Lah, Nadia Kounang and Jack Hannah contributed to this report.
