LOS ANGELES (AP) — Singer D4vd is the target of a Los Angeles County grand jury investigation of the killing of a 14-year-old girl whose decomposed body was found last year in an apparently abandoned Tesla registered to him that was towed from the Hollywood Hills, court documents showed.
Prosecutors describe the 20-year-old Houston-born alt-pop singer whose legal name is David Burke as the target of the investigation in grand jury subpoenas issued Jan. 15 seeking to have three of his relatives testify.
The documents were obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday. They were sealed in California, where the grand jury investigation has been kept secret. But they were made public by an appeal of the subpoenas in Texas from the singer’s mother, father and brother.
The documents say the “Target may be involved in having committed the following criminal offenses against the laws of the State of California, to wit: One count of Murder.”
The Tesla was registered in his name at the address of his subpoenaed family members, the court filings says.
Authorities had not publicly named D4vd — pronounced “David” — as a suspect in the case.
The long-dead body of Celeste Rivas Hernandez was found on Sept. 8, a day after she would have turned 15. She was a 13-year-old seventh grader when her family reported her missing in 2024 from her hometown of Lake Elsinore, about 70 miles (112 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles. Authorities give her age as 14 when she was killed in the court documents.
The subpoena says police investigators searching the 2023 Tesla Model Y in a tow yard found a cadaver bag “covered with insects and a strong odor of decay.”
It says “detectives partially unzipped the bag and observed a decomposed head and torso.”
Investigators from the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office responded to the scene.
“Upon removing the cadaver bag from the front storage compartment, it was discovered the arms and legs had been severed from the body,” the document says. “A second black bag was discovered underneath the cadaver bag. Upon opening the second bag, the dismembered body parts were discovered.”
Representatives for D4vd did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday, and they have not previously responded to emails from the AP seeking comment on the case.
The District Attorney’s Office declined to comment.
A judge in Texas said the three family members could not ignore the subpoenas and ordered them to appear in California and testify.
The Tesla had been towed from an upscale neighborhood in the Hollywood hills where it had been sitting, seemingly abandoned.
The singer was in the middle of a U.S. tour and continued to play several shows after the girl’s body was found. But he eventually canceled the rest of his concerts and a European tour after his connection to the case became widely reported.
The Medical Examiner’s Office had previously said only that the body was found severely decomposed and that Rivas Hernandez had likely been dead for an extended period before she was found.
In November, Los Angeles police got a judge to prevent Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Odey Ukpo from releasing the findings of the autopsy, and no cause of death has been revealed.
D4vd gained popularity among Gen Z fans for his blend of indie rock, R&B and lo-fi pop. He went viral on TikTok in 2022 with the hit “Romantic Homicide,” which peaked at No. 4 on Billboard’s Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart. He then signed with Darkroom and Interscope Records and released his debut EP “Petals to Thorns” and a follow-up, “The Lost Petals,” in 2023.
When the body was discovered, D4vd had been on tour in support of his first full-length album, “Withered.” Later, the last two North American shows, in San Francisco and Los Angeles, along with a scheduled performance at LA’s Grammy Museum, were canceled, as was the European tour that was to have begun in Norway.
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Associated Press writer Jaimie Ding and former AP writer Itzel Luna contributed.
Court docs name D4vd as target of Celeste Rivas Hernandez murder investigation; new gruesome details revealed
Court documents made public in the alleged homicide of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez reveal gruesome new details about the death of the teenager and identify singer D4vd as the investigation’s central target.
Hernandez’s remains were found in September of 2025 inside the front trunk of a Tesla registered to D4vd at a tow yard in Hollywood.
Employees contacted police after noticing a strong odor coming from the car.
The filings show detectives found a cadaver bag containing human remains, along with other body parts in a second bag.
The documents also identify D4vd as the target of the grand jury investigation, saying he may be involved in one count of murder.
The documents were made public through Texas Appellate proceedings and are tied to the Los Angeles County grand jury murder investigation targeting the singer, whose real name is David Burke.
Private investigator Steven Fisher posted the documents on his X account. They were filed under seal but made public after the singer’s family challenged subpoenas compelling them to testify before a California grand jury.
Los Angeles Magazine said the proceedings in Texas weren’t sealed, so portions of the California filings were available in the Texas appellate docket.
Celeste Rivas Hernandez is pictured as part of an investigation into the teen’s murder. (KTLA)
D4vd’s father, mother and brother – who live in Texas – were summoned to testify in Los Angeles on Feb. 11, but his father filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus, saying the subpoena violated his constitutional due process rights.
His lawyers said he was denied due process because he did not get full, unredacted copies of California’s certification documents and that portions establishing why his testimony was material and necessary were withheld, according to Los Angeles Magazine.
In the documents, detectives say D4vd and his father have a close relationship.
The Texas First Court of Appeals rejected the petition, according to Los Angeles Magazine telling the family they had until Tuesday to file additional appeals.
“The Court of Appeals in Texas was very clear in telling D4vd’s mother, his father and his brother that they must appear in front of the grand jury in California,” said KTLA legal analyst Alison Triessl. “They found that their information would be both material and necessary in terms of this investigation.”
As of 1 p.m., it does not look like anything new was filed in court before the deadline, so D4vd’s family may have already testified, according to Triessl.
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