By Lisa Richwine
LOS ANGELES, April 22 (Reuters) – The teenage girl who Los Angeles prosecutors allege was killed by indie pop musician D4vd and later found mutilated in a car trunk died of “multiple penetrating injuries” from unspecified objects, a medical examiner’s report released on Wednesday said.
The dismembered body of Celeste Rivas Hernandez, 14, was discovered in September inside a zippered cadaver bag stuffed in the trunk of a Tesla registered to D4vd, whose legal name is David Burke, according to police, prosecutors and medical examiners. A second bag of remains was also found in the trunk, they said.
Authorities had kept details about the cause and manner of death secret while they launched an investigation.
D4vd pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and other charges on Monday, the same day the judge in the case ordered that the autopsy report be made public.
In the report, Los Angeles County medical examiners said they found two “penetrating wounds to the torso” and “dismemberment of the upper and lower extremities.”
The report said the torso wounds may have been “sharp force injuries” – a medical term for a stab wound – but did not specify what objects may have caused them.
The autopsy examination was limited by “extensive postmortem changes,” including decomposition of the remains, the report added. The time of death was listed as unknown.
The official cause of death was listed as “multiple penetrating injuries.”
Prosecutors say that Celeste vanished in April 2025, after going to a home that D4vd had rented in the Hollywood Hills. The vehicle in which her remains ultimately were found was abandoned in a nearby neighborhood for weeks before it was towed to an impoundment lot, where worked reported a foul odor and alerted authorities.
The parents had reported her missing in 2024.
An attorney for the girl’s parents issued a statement on Wednesday saying her family was “absolutely devastated” by the autopsy findings.
D4vd, a New York City native who grew up in Houston, gained fame in 2022 after songs he recorded on his phone for his Fortnite-brand gaming videos went viral on TikTok, with the hit single “Romantic Homicide” helping him sign a deal with Interscope Records. The indie rock and R&B singer-songwriter performed at the Coachella music festival in 2025.
“We believe the actual evidence will show David Burke did not murder Celeste Rivas Hernandez, nor was he the cause of her death,” defense attorney Blair Berk said during D4vd’s arraignment on Monday.
District Attorney Nathan Hochman has said investigators believed D4vid was involved in a sexual relationship with Celeste when he was an adult and she a minor. In addition to murder, he was charged with various sex offenses and mutilation of a body.
(Reporting by Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by David Gregorio and Raju Goplakrishnan)
