d4vd investigation: Separating facts and rumors

d4vd was well on his way to being a household name from his music. The pop singer exploded on TikTok with hits like “Romantic Homicide” and “Here With Me” when he was just 17, capitalizing them into a multi-million dollar major label record deal. His debut album Withered released on April 25, shows on his tour continued to sell out, and he became the latest artist to launch a song with Fortnite. Then, on September 8, a dismembered corpse was discovered in an impounded Tesla registered to d4vd under his birth name, David Anthony Burke. Suddenly he was more talked about than ever, though now only tied to a truly awful crime.

Since the story emerged, there’s been a (not unusual) shortage of official statements and verifiable information. The heinous nature of the crime has sent the internet into amateur sleuth mode, even though d4vd has not yet been charged with a crime. Here, we’ve broken down every piece of reliable information that’s been released so far as more and more unverified screenshots continue to circulate.

Police were called to an impound lot in California after complaints of a strong smell coming from a parked Tesla. Upon inspection, police discovered human remains in the vehicle’s trunk. The vehicle, licensed in Texas, had been abandoned five days previously in the Hollywood Hills and had been in the lot for two days; it had not been reported as stolen, according to Yahoo!.

On September 16, the Los Angeles County Medical examiner identified the deceased as 15-year-old Celeste Rivas. Rivas had been missing from Lake Elsinore, CA since April 2024. According to TMZ, Rivas’s mother told the outlet that her daughter had said she had a boyfriend named David.

Police have not released a cause of death, though they believe that Rivas has been dead for a significant period of time. d4vd has not issued a statement, though his representative says he is “fully cooperating with authorities.” He has not been named as a suspect.

A senior LAPD source speaking with ABC News said that the Tesla is one of several vehicles owned by d4vd that several different people had free access to.

The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s release said that Rivas had a tattoo of the word “Shhh” on one of her fingers. Pictures have emerged of d4vd purportedly sporting a similar tattoo, also on his finger.

d4vd was scheduled to perform at the Showbox Sodo in Seattle on September 17. That performance did not take place. He has two more shows planned in the United States – San Francisco on September 19, Los Angeles on September 20 – before he’s scheduled to head to Europe. The FADER has reached out to d4vd’s representatives about whether there will be any further changes to his itinerary.

Two days after the body was recovered from d4vd’s Tesla, he performed a show in Minneapolis. He did not address the crime from onstage, but he did throw Labubus into a clamoring crowd.

Both Crocs and Hollister have removed d4vd from their advertising campaigns. Kali Uchis has also moved to distance herself and asked that their collaboration “Crashing” be removed from streaming services, she revealed in an Instagram comment.

Police executed a search warrant on September 17 at a home in the Hollywood Hills where d4vd resided, ABC News reported on Thursday. TMZ reports that police left the premises “with a computer and several evidence bags.”

A simple search of d4vd’s name on the timeline of your choice results in a flood of theories complete with “evidence” including now-deleted Reddit comments, alleged messages from d4vd’s Discord channel, and a song called “Celeste” that’s being pitched as a d4vd leak. As credible as this stuff might seem in the moment, it’s important to regard it with an air of skepticism until more credible reporting and investigating can be completed.