Celeste Rivas Hernandez is just 13 when she is reported missing from her family home in Lake Elsinore, 70 miles southeast of Los Angeles.
Described as 5 feet, 3 inches tall and weighing 120 pounds, the child was last seen wearing a black shirt, gray pants, and Hello Kitty sandals. Her mother says she has a boyfriend named “David.”
Residents in a Hollywood Hills neighborhood grow tired of a damaged and dusty 2023 Tesla Model Y with a Texas license plate parked on the street for a month and report the vehicle abandoned. The car is towed to an impound lot, where days later employees at Hollywood Tow notice a foul odor coming from the car and call police.
Responding officers discover a decomposing body in a bag in the frunk of the Tesla. The Tesla is registered in Hempstead, Texas, to David Anthony Burke, better known as the singer/songwriter D4vd. The car was never reported stolen.
The severely decomposed, partially dismembered remains found in the Tesla are identified as Celeste Rivas, 15, but 13 at the time she went missing, more than a year ago, in Lake Elsinore, California. She was identified through forensics, and a cause of death has not been determined.
A search warrant is executed on the house singer D4vd was living in the Hollywood Hills neighborhood, near where the Tesla containing Celeste’s remains was abandoned. Investigators carry a computer and bags of evidence out of the home, and when the garage door is open, police are seen searching another Tesla vehicle inside the garage.
Joining Nancy Grace today:
Additional Guest
- Jo-Anna Nieves – Criminal Defense Attorney and Founder of The Nieves Law Firm; Instagram, Facebook and X: nieveslawfirm, YouTube and TikTok: thenieveslawfirm
“Crime Stories with Nancy Grace” on Fox Nation is also a national radio show on SiriusXM channel 111, airing for two hours daily starting at 12 p.m. EST. You can also subscribe and download the daily podcasts at iHeart Podcasts.
[Feature Photo: Celeste Rivas/GoFundMe and D4vd/Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP]
