LOS ANGELES (Court TV) — Court documents are offering new insight into the investigation after a teenager’s body was found dismembered in an abandoned Tesla.
A photo of singer d4vd’s abandoned Tesla where Los Angeles police discovered the decomposing remains of 15-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez in the front trunk. (SF Investigates via Dept. of Transportation)
Celeste Rivas Hernandez’s body was found on September 8, 2025, after a report of a foul smell coming from a Tesla, which had been towed to a police parking lot days earlier. The vehicle was registered to recording artist David Burke, known professionally as d4vd.
Private investigator Steve Fischer shared the court file on social media on Wednesday, revealing new details about the condition in which the 14-year-old’s body was found. Officers described her body as “severely decomposed” and said the strong smell of decay was attracting flies to the car. When police got a search warrant to open the front storage compartment of the Tesla, they found a black cadaver bag covered with insects. When they unzipped the bag, they saw a “decomposed head and torso.”
MORE | Private investigator exposes “sadistic” discovery in d4vd’s former Hollywood home
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – SEPTEMBER 18: d4vd performs onstage at Made on YouTube at Pier 57 on September 18, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Made on YouTube 2024)
It was after removing the cadaver bag from the vehicle that they realized the victim’s arms and legs had been removed from her body. A second black cadaver bag was found beneath the first; inside that bag were Rivas Hernandez’s arms and legs.
The court documents are part of a legal battle as d4vd’s family fought subpoenas, served to them in their home state of Texas, ordering them to appear before the Grand Jury meeting in Los Angeles. Dawud and Colleen Burke, d4vd’s mother and father, as well as his brother Caleb, were ordered to travel to California earlier this month.
The documents served to the family were redacted, but refers to David Burke as a “Target” of the Grand Jury investigation.
In court, the Burkes argued that the documentation they were given was insufficient because it didn’t explain how their testimony would be “material and necessary” to the investigation. A Texas judge refused to quash the subpoenas.
One of d4vd’s friends, streamer Neo Langston, was arrested last month after he failed to appear before the Grand Jury as a witness.
No charges have been filed in Rivas Hernandez’s death.
