The Daily Populous Thursday September 18th, 2025 day edition
Authored by nbcnews.com and submitted by ohineedascreenname

The decomposed body found last week in singer D4vd’s Tesla at a Los Angeles impound lot was identified as that of a 15-year-old girl.

The girl, Celeste Rivas, was identified through forensics, NBC Los Angeles reported. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office has not yet determined a cause of death.

"At this time, the LAPD does not have a crime classification from the coroner as to the mode or manner of death. Thus, we do not have any suspect information at this time,” the Los Angeles Police Department said in a statement.

The Riverside County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement Tuesday that it has confirmed with "the Los Angeles Police Department that Celeste Rivas Hernandez has been identified as the juvenile who was reported missing from Lake Elsinore."

In a follow-up statement, the sheriff’s office later clarified that the Los Angeles Police Department is the lead agency on the case and the main point of contact. It also apologized for initially calling the investigation a homicide.

D4vd in Chicago on Aug. 1, 2024. Josh Brasted / FilmMagic via Getty Images file

The remains were found Sept. 8 after Los Angeles police were called to Hollywood Tow because of a foul odor coming from the Tesla, according to NBC Los Angeles and a police statement. The vehicle was impounded after a person reported that it had been abandoned.

The medical examiner’s office said the girl was wearing a tube top, black leggings, a yellow metal chain bracelet and stud earrings. She was described as having wavy black hair and weighing about 71 pounds, the office said.

Law enforcement sources told NBC News that the remains were not intact. The medical examiner had said it appeared the girl had been dead in the car for an extended period of time.

A spokesperson for D4vd, whose real name is David Anthony Burke, said he had been informed about what happened and was “fully cooperating with the authorities.”

When news of the remains’ being found broke, D4vd, the “Romantic Homicide” singer, was on his Withered World Tour. He was scheduled to perform Wednesday in Seattle, but that show was canceled.

zzztoken on September 18th, 2025 at 04:44 UTC »

What gets me about this is that it seems so many people knew he was with a minor, adults & kids. This is so grim :(

Boycat89 on September 18th, 2025 at 03:08 UTC »

Here’s how the timeline looks to me, based on what’s out there right now (mix of confirmed reporting and leaks that people have been sharing):

It seems like things started way earlier than most people realize. There’s a 2022 tweet where d4vd was talking about someone wanting to be with their mom and sister again and a lot of people think that was about Celeste. If that’s true, she would’ve been around 12 and he was 17. By 2023, friends were already saying she was with him, going on trips to LA and that he was paying off her friends to keep quiet. There is also a leaked song called “Celeste” (same name as the girl found in the Tesla) apparently has metadata from December 2023, with lyrics naming her and talking about being obsessed, sex, tattoos, etc. She was only 14 at the time.

In April 2024 she was officially reported missing at 13, but it looks like she was still in his orbit. By December that year, a friend says she drunkenly called, crying, throwing up, and spam-calling him saying she missed him. Right after that, she deleted her accounts and basically disappeared from online life completely.

Fastforward to 2025 and silence for months. Then he has a tour break at the end of August. A few days later, his Tesla gets abandoned and towed. On September 8, Celeste’s body is found in the Tesla, badly decomposed, stuffed in a bag.

It looks like this was years of grooming, secrecy, manipulation, and cover-ups. Poor girl :( RIP

Edit: she was 13 in 2024, not 15.

Walmartian_Beta on September 18th, 2025 at 02:25 UTC »

From what I've read so far, he met her online when she was 12 or 13, she ran off with him, and she's been with him ever since. Now she's dead, and in pieces, in a car that he owned. He also wrote a song about her, and there are photos of them together.

Yeah, this dude belongs in jail.