American rapper David Anthony Burke, known as d4vd, has been arrested on suspicion of murdering 14-year-old Celeste Rivas. Los Angeles police took the 21-year-old into custody on Thursday “for the murder of Celeste Rivas,” the LAPD said. He is being held without bail.
Authorities say Rivas’s badly decomposed body was found last year in the trunk of an impounded Tesla registered to Burke. Investigators reported finding two black bags in the vehicle—one containing a decomposed head and torso, the other holding additional body parts. An autopsy indicated Rivas had been deceased in the vehicle for an extended period; her body was discovered one day before her 15th birthday.
The LA County District Attorney’s office will review the case for formal charges on Monday. Burke’s lawyers said they will “vigorously defend” his innocence, asserting the evidence will show he did not murder Rivas or cause her death.
Burke, from Queens, New York, rose to internet fame in 2022 when his song “Romantic Homicide” went viral on TikTok. Last year he canceled the remainder of his US and European tours amid fallout from the investigation into Rivas’s death.
