SPECIAL EPISODE: The Forensic Evidence Against D4vd

Before we begin, this episode discusses the death and alleged abuse of a minor.

Some graphic details have been omitted.

David Anthony Burke has pleaded not guilty and is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law.

Please listen with care.

In 2025, Celeste Rivas Hernandez from Lake Elsinore, California, was just a 14-year-old girl with her entire life ahead of her.

She first connected with David Anthony Burke, known by many as the recording artist David, online in January 2022, when she was just 11 years old.

And according to prosecutors, they were in a relationship beginning in the fall of 2023 when she was 13. and he was 18.

Celeste was first reported missing by her parents at least three times during the early part of April 2024.

And while the record isn't clear on when exactly she returned home, neighbors of the family say they saw her hanging around her parents' house later that year.

Then by November of 2024, cell phone records suggest the two broke up.

But Celeste and David didn't stop communicating.

They continued to exchange texts and phone calls until at least April 23, 2025.

The last day, Celeste is believed to have been alive.

Five months later, on September 8, 2025, her badly decomposed and dismembered body was found inside the front trunk of a Tesla Model X that was registered to David.

It had been towed just three days earlier from a location only 400 feet from his Hollywood Hills home.

On September 8th, the manager of the tow yard where the Tesla had been impounded noticed a strong smell coming from the vehicle and flies.

So he notified the Los Angeles Police Department Hollywood Auto Detectives, who came and formally discovered Celeste's body inside the front trunk.

Although it's worth mentioning that detectives didn't know who she was yet.

At this point, her dismembered body had been stuffed in black cadaver bags with her head and torso inside the bag, and her arms and legs were found underneath.

It would ultimately take dental records to confirm it was actually Celeste, but notably missing were her pinky and ring fingers from her hand, a detail we'll talk about again a little later in the episode.

The Tesla was clearly connected to the disposal of Celeste's remains, but investigators still needed to determine why.

where she had been killed, how she had died, when she died, where the dismemberment occurred, and whether the physical evidence connected David Burke personally to those acts.

But more than seven months later, he was officially arrested and charged with first-degree murder, continuous sexual abuse of a child under the age of 14, and unlawful mutilation of human remains.

He also faced several special circumstance allegations including that he killed Celeste because she was a potential witness in an investigation into alleged sexual abuse, that he killed her to protect his music career, and that he was lying in wait when she arrived at his home.

Prosecutors also alleged that he used a deadly weapon.