Teen's death stops D4vd's meteoric rise as fans hunt for clues

One of David Anthony Burke's first songs was called “Romantic Homicide.”

- BY RICHARD WINTON, NATHAN SOLIS AND AUGUST BROWN

NOTES, candles and flowers are placed in memory of Celeste Rivas Hernandez.

The teenager was just starting to use a phone app called BandLab to write music for the gaming videos he posted online.

“In the back of my mind, I killed you, and I didn’t even regret it ... I hate you,” he sang.

After Burke became D4vd and his fame exploded as a fresh voice for Gen Z, he appeared in a music video elaborating on the murderous theme. Knives spill from a suitcase. A young woman with an apparent chest wound lies on a bed as he hovers over her blindfolded, his white shirt spattered with blood.

Now, D4vd’s fans, along with many who hadn't previously heard of him, are dissecting his DIY songs about twisted romance for clues, after the badly decomposed body of a 15-year-old girl was found in the trunk of a Tesla he owned.

In the video for another song, “One More Dance,” D4vd drags a person — who also appears to be him—to a car, where a couple stuffs him into the trunk.

Los Angeles police detectives have said that the singer, 20, is cooperating with their investigation. They are seeking to understand any connections between him and the girl, Celeste Rivas Hernandez, with livestreams and videos appearing to show the two together. No one has been charged in connection with Celeste’s death.

D4vd’s rise from a homeschooled Houston teenager posting Fortnite videos online to a burgeoning pop star with a multimillion-dollar recording contract was singular. In an interview with him in September 2024, music producer Benny Blanco marveled at his "insane" method of producing hit songs solely with a smartphone.

Yet D4vd was thoroughly a product of his generation and an age in which a young gamer with a knack for catchy melodies, dark lyrics and YouTube algorithms could almost instantly achieve wealth and celebrity.