Memorial for Celeste Rivas Hernandez in Lake Elsinore, California, on 25 September 2025. Photograph: Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times via Getty ImagesView image in fullscreenMemorial for Celeste Rivas Hernandez in Lake Elsinore, California, on 25 September 2025. Photograph: Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times via Getty ImagesTeen whom singer D4vd is charged with killing died from penetrating woundsAutopsy of Celeste Rivas Hernandez finally released after law enforcement had requested it be sealed in November
Celeste Rivas Hernandez, the 14-year-old girl whom the singer D4vd is charged with killing, died from penetrating injuries, according to an autopsy report released Wednesday.
Her death was ruled a homicide in the report from the Los Angeles county medical examiner’s office that had been blocked from release for months.
A judge had ordered the report sealed in November at the request of law enforcement after the girl’s dismembered and decomposed body was found in a pair of bags in the trunk of a Tesla parked in the Hollywood Hills in September. Prosecutors agreed this week to allow its release.
The 21-year-old alt-pop singer D4vd , whose legal name is David Burke, was charged in the killing Monday. He pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, lewd and lascivious acts with a person under 14 and mutilating a dead body. Burke’s attorneys said he did not cause Rivas Hernandez’s death and they will vigorously defend his innocence.
Prosecutors allege he killed the girl because she threatened to report they had a sexual relationship that began when she was 13 years old and he feared it would ruin his rising career.
Read moreA criminal complaint alleges he killed her with a sharp object and dismembered the body about two weeks later.
According to the autopsy, she had significant wounds to her torso, likely caused by a sharp object. Her body had so degraded that examiners couldn’t determine her eye color. She had braces at the time of her death, and a tattoo that read “Shhh....” on the inside of a finger, according to the report. Two other fingers were missing, as were parts of her arms and legs.
LA county’s chief medical examiner, Dr Odey C Ukpo, has sought to emphasize his agency’s independence from law enforcement and to make its work as public as possible since he took over the job three years ago. He has said he does not believe sealing reports of his office’s work helps investigations and has said he would only put holds on releasing the reports if compelled by a court order.
“After several months, I am grateful this information can now be released, not only to the public, but also to the grieving family enduring loss,” Ukpo said in a statement Wednesday. “It is unfathomable they have had to wait this long to learn what happened to their daughter.”
