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Celeste Rivas Hernandez’s dismembered remains were found in the front trunk of the singer’s impounded Tesla in September 2025
NEED TO KNOW
- D4vd is accused of murdering 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez and dismembering her body in 2025
- Prosecutors allege the teenager threatened to expose their sexual relationship, which began when she was 13 and he was 18
- The singer is charged with multiple counts, including murder and unlawful mutilation of human remains, in connection with Rivas’ death
A Los Angeles Police Department criminalist testified that she found 11 air fresheners inside D4vd’s Tesla where the decomposing body parts of 14-year-old runaway Celeste Rivas Hernandez were discovered.
“I gathered some of the air fresheners and found 11 throughout the vehicle and the majority of them in the center console, rear seats and frunk,” Chelsea Murillo said on Wednesday, July 22 — the second day of a preliminary hearing for the singer, who has been charged with murder, continuous sexual abuse of a child under the age of 14 and unlawful mutilation of human remains in Rivas’ death.
Murillo also noted air fresheners in the door pockets of the rear seats, as well as maggots and dead flies in the “frunk,” or front trunk, where Rivas’ body parts were discovered in two bags.
The criminalist processed the vehicle on Sept. 9, 2025, one day after the remains were found.
She said she observed a layer of dust on the Tesla and “noted there was a strong odor coming from it,” adding in her testimony that it “smelled like a decomposing body.”
Rivas’ mother Mercedes Martinez broke down in tears earlier Wednesday when her daughter’s passport photo was shown in court; a California Highway Patrol officer testified that a road worker found the girl’s passport in the grass along the shoulder of Highway 154, east of Camino Cielo Road, in a rural section of Santa Barbara County in January.
Prosecutors claim D4vd, whose real name is David Anthony Burke, drove to Santa Barbara County “immediately after the victim died, attempting to dispose of her property and destroy evidence,” according to a preliminary hearing brief obtained by PEOPLE.
He allegedly returned home the following day “before going to a radio interview for the release of his album that week,” the brief states.
After Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Charlaine F. Olmedo called for a lunch break Wednesday, Mercedes could be heard saying, “Oh, my God” and “This is so hard,” as she left the courtroom in tears, shaking her head and leaning close to her husband, Jesus Rivas.
Prosecutors have alleged that Burke, now 21, killed the runaway from Lake Elsinore, Calif., on April 23, 2025 — one day after the two got into an argument over his relationships with other women and just days before the release of his debut album.
He then dismembered and disposed of her body parts with items he bought online including a shovel, three chainsaws, cadaver bags, two heavy-duty laundry bags and a mop and bucket combo, according to prosecutors.
Los Angeles Police Department Robbery-Homicide Detective Joshua Byers testified Tuesday that investigators also found a “burn box” behind a piano after serving a search warrant at Burke’s residence on Sept. 17, 2025.
“It’s a device that can be used as a mini crematorium type to burn items to nothing,” Byers said.
Several gruesome photos of the crime scene were exhibited on screen during the hearing this week, showing a garbage bag with severely decomposed limbs inside, as well as Rivas’ bloody head and torso.
Read the original article on People
