Celeste Rivas Hernandez was 14 years old. Reported missing three times. Found dismembered in the trunk of a Tesla registered to one of the biggest young artists in music—sealed in bags, decomposing for months while the man whose name was on that car was out playing sold-out shows.

Now prosecutors have filed the most serious charges California law allows. First-degree murder with special circumstances. Lying in wait. Financial gain. Killing a witness. Lewd acts with a child under 14. Mutilation of human remains. The death penalty is on the table.

The DA said Celeste walked into D4VD’s Hollywood Hills home on April 23rd of last year and was never heard from again. And the financial gain allegation cuts deep—prosecutors say D4VD allegedly killed a 14-year-old girl because she was threatening his music career. A child’s life, according to the prosecution, was worth less than a brand.

Criminal defense attorney Bob Motta joins Tony Brueski and Robin Dreeke to explain what these charges mean for the case, how prosecutors intend to prove that the sexual relationship with a minor created the motive for murder, and whether the evidence can support the weight of what they’re alleging.

Five months of decomposition destroyed evidence. The cause of death is only now being unsealed. The DA says they have physical, forensic, and digital evidence. But circumstantial cases carrying charges this serious have to be airtight—and Motta explains where the cracks could form.

For Celeste’s family, the charges are the first step. The fight for accountability is just beginning.

Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/

Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/

Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod

X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod

This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.

#D4VD #CelesteRivasHernandez #DavidAnthonyBurke #HiddenKillers #TrueCrime #JusticeForCeleste #BobMotta #FirstDegreeMurder #LAPDArrest #TrueCrimePodcast

With David Anthony Burke, known as D4VD, now arrested on suspicion of murder and held without bail, the focus is almost entirely on him, his Hollywood Hills house, his manager, his tour, his lyrics, his tattoos. Every angle points toward him.

This episode points somewhere else. It points at Lake Elsinore, before any of it.

Because Celeste Rivas Hernandez was not actually missing for most of the year the public thinks she was. She was at her cousin's high school graduation in May of 2024. She was on surveillance video fighting with neighbors in her own backyard that September. She was back at her mother's house at least twice in the year before her body was found — once alone, once brought home by police. She was coming and going.

This one lays out the other half of the D4VD case. Eleven sheriff's calls to the Rivas Hernandez home in fourteen months. A thirteen-year-old seventh-grader enrolled in no school for a full year. An ex-boyfriend on record saying her parents were "mean" and that she was telegraphing her plan to leave for months. A neighbor of almost three years who had never met the family. A licensed private investigator, Steve Fischer, publicly asking whether certain relatives knew exactly where Celeste was the whole time she was officially categorized as a runaway. A verified GoFundMe organized by the exact cousin Fischer has asked by name about attending events with Celeste and D4VD.

D4VD has not been indicted. No criminal complaint has been filed. His attorneys deny his involvement. He is presumed innocent.

But the Celeste story — the real one, the one the entertainment media is refusing to touch — has been sitting in the record the whole time.

Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/

Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/

Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod

X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod

This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.

#CelesteRivasHernandez #D4VD #DavidBurke #LakeElsinore #TrueCrime #HiddenKillers #MissingTeen #HollywoodHills #SteveFischer #SystemsFailure

A child who ran away three times in a year. A family that reported her missing every single time. A system that treated her like a statistic instead of a girl in crisis. And now, a pop star sitting in a jail cell while a fourteen-year-old’s dismembered remains tell a story that every adult in Celeste Rivas Hernandez’s life should have heard long before it ended like this.

David Burke — the musician millions know as D4vd — was arrested on April 16, 2026, on suspicion of Celeste’s killing. He is being held without bail. His defense attorneys maintain he did not cause her death. No formal charges have been filed yet. But the facts that have emerged paint a portrait of alleged grooming that reportedly began when Celeste was as young as twelve, a relationship hidden inside Discord servers and rental properties, matching tattoos, and a girl who vanished from her family’s life and into a world no child should ever enter.

Her remains were found inside Burke’s impounded Tesla, one day after what would have been her fifteenth birthday. Her family reportedly was not notified for eleven days after the discovery.

You have been flooding our comments, DMs, and inboxes with questions that refuse to look away from the hardest parts of this case. You want to talk about what grooming looks like when it hides behind fame. You want to know why immigrant families and low-income communities get treated differently when their children go missing. You want to understand how Celeste screamed for help through three disappearances and nobody caught her.

Robin Dreeke and I sit down with your questions — and we hold nothing back.

Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/

Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/

Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod

X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod

This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.

#CelesteRivasHernandez #D4vd #DavidBurke #JusticeForCeleste #HiddenKillers #TrueCrime #TonyBrueski #RobinDreeke #MissingChildren #TrueCrimePodcast