Celeste Rivas Hernandez’s body was 'dismembered, with arms and legs severed': Chilling details about the teen’s remains emerge as D4vd is 'Target' of investigation

Singer D4vd is a 'target' in the investigation of the killing of a girl whose body was found in a car in Hollywood. Fresh updates have surfaced in the killing of a 14-year-old girl, Celeste Rivas Hernandez, whose decomposed body was found in 2025 in a Tesla car, where Singer D4vd is the target of a Los Angeles County grand jury investigation.

The apparently abandoned car was registered in D4vd’s name. It was reportedly towed from the Hollywood Hills, news agency AP reported, citing court documents. 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 January 15, 2026, 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.


“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 documents stated. The Tesla was registered in his name at the address of his subpoenaed family members, the court filings say. It is pertinent to note that authorities had not publicly named D4vd, pronounced “David,” as a suspect in the case.

Hernandez was reported missing in 2024

The long-dead body of Hernandez was found on September 8, 2026, a day after she would have turned 15. According to AP, the victim teenager’s family reported her missing in 2024 when she was a 13-year-old seventh grader. She was reportedly missing from her hometown of Lake Elsinore, about 70 miles (112 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles.

Court documents revealed that authorities gave the teen’s age as 14 when she was killed. According to PEOPLE, she was discovered on September 8, 2025, after a black Tesla Model X was impounded in the Hollywood Hills.

Hernandez was ‘dismembered’

The 14-year-old was dismembered, with her head and torso separated from her arms and legs, PEOPLE reported, citing a petition for attendance of an out-of-state witness filed by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. Her remains were reportedly discovered in two separate bags.

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,” as quoted by AP.

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.”

D4vd’s representatives remain tight-lipped

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 US 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.

Hernandez’s body was ‘decomposed’

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 2025, 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.