What to Know
Twenty-one-year-old singer D4vd, whose real name is David Anthony Burke, was charged with killing and dismembering 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez following a long alleged relationship that involved alleged sexual abuse of a minor child, according to NBC News. Although Burke pleaded not guilty to the multiple charges filed against him, the preliminary hearing held in July 2026, more than a year after Hernandez’s remains were found in his Tesla, shed light on more details that were, before that time, unconfirmed.
Some of those details in the case include text messages that prosecutors say were sent between Burke and Hernandez over the course of their relationship. A relationship which allegedly began through online conversations when Hernandez was 11 and Burke was 16. According to CNN, their sexual relationship began when Hernandez was 13 years old.
D4vd’s pretrial exposed texts with Celeste Rivas Hernandez.
@jennalynn468 #breakingnews #truecrime #d4vd #Celeste #celesterivas ♬ Breaking News – Breaking News
According to documents from the pretrial in Burke’s case, texts between him and Hernandez included talk of Hernandez taking Plan B and having an abortion. One of the last texts between them that was recorded by investigators showed Hernandez seemingly breaking things off with the singer.
In November 2023, Hernandez texted Burke, “If im pregnant tho im not having it though.”
The following January, Burke wrote to Hernandez, “im sorry again baby I didn’t want to ever put you through this.”
In June 2024, Hernandez texted Burke to question whether or not “the first abortion” worked.
The next month, one of the texts that Burke sent to Hernandez said, “”I’m thinking about your abortion gift.”
In another text, Burke asked Hernandez if the baby was his. In another reported text, Burke wrote a long message to Hernandez in which he mentioned having sex with her and hanging out with her often. Other texts between Burke and Hernandez show that they talked about marriage and a future together for some time before Hernandez seemed to want to distance herself from Burke.
DNA evidence was allegedly found in his garage.
The pretrial hearing for Burke’s case involving Hernandez is to make sure there is enough evidence to bring the case to trial. From the text messages to reported DNA evidence collected in Burke’s home garage, there is a lot of information that came out early on in the preliminary hearing. According to NBC Los Angeles, prosecutors allege that Burke’s reason for killing Hernandez was to prevent her from exposing their relationship publicly.
Although Burke pleaded not guilty, per the outlet, investigators found traces of blood in Burke’s garage on a rowing machine and a Tesla charger plug. The DNA is 1 septillion times more likely to have come from Hernandez, which means that it is more likely that the DNA is from Hernandez than another unnamed person. There was also a trash bag with brown wipes that was uncovered and reported to have DNA that did not belong to Burke, but more likely to belong to Hernandez.
An alleged recording of Celeste Rivas Hernandez’s voice was also released.
@junkieemedia He’s a monster #celesterivas #d4vd ♬ original sound – Junkiee
Aside from the pretrial information and evidence that was made public record and shared across social media, internet armchair detectives have done their own digging into the case to figure out if Burke is guilty of murdering the 14-year-old. In a TikTok, there is a recording of Hernandez that was allegedly used in one of Burke’s songs. In the recording, Hernandez tells Burke that she needs to hear his voice and to get reassurance from him that they are in a good place.
“I know that you probably don’t wanna talk to me right now, and I respect that. I really do,” she says in the recording. “But I really need to hear your voice right now. Like, I just need to know that you’re okay. I need to know that we’re okay. I need to. I sound so stupid right now, but, like, I’ve been so selfish and I can’t stop thinking about you and what I did and how it’s affecting, like, everything.”
It’s not clear if the recording is from an actual voicemail, or if Burke asked Hernandez to record it for one of his songs.
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