The Romantic Homicide Lie: FBI Confirms Pop Star D4vd Was Framed in Calculated Homicide Plot

The music world thrives on narrative—the rags-to-riches story, the meteoric rise, the tragic fall. But for David Anthony Burke, the Houston-born indie pop sensation known to millions as D4vd, his narrative shifted violently from a heartwarming success story to a cold-blooded murder indictment in the span of a single week. The discovery was horrifying, the evidence seemingly irrefutable, and the public verdict swift and absolute.

Yet, as the Los Angeles Police Department and federal investigators pieced together the fragments of the case, the seemingly airtight circumstantial evidence began to crack, revealing a far more chilling reality: D4vd was not the calculating killer the world imagined, but the innocent victim of a highly sophisticated and devastating frame job. The real criminal, it turns out, was not caught in the spotlight, but meticulously operating in the shadows.

The Grime and the Glamour: A Star’s Fall From Grace

D4vd’s trajectory had been nothing short of remarkable. Exploding onto the scene via TikTok in 2022, his hauntingly vulnerable track “Romantic Homicide” amassed over 1.5 billion streams on Spotify alone. At just 17, he captured the hearts of Generation Z with his raw emotional honesty, recording music in his sister’s closet with Apple earbuds before signing a major deal with Interscope Records. His rise was a testament to bedroom ingenuity meeting global resonance.

That narrative was shattered on September 8th, 2025. What began as a routine impound inspection at a Hollywood tow yard quickly spiraled into a media firestorm. Tow yard workers, investigating an “unbearable smell,” made a grim discovery: the severely decomposed remains of 15-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez were found wrapped in plastic inside the front trunk (frunk) of a 2023 Tesla Model 3. The car was registered in the name of 20-year-old David Anthony Burke, D4vd.

The body, estimated to have been in the trunk for weeks, possibly months, had been abandoned in the Hollywood Hills for approximately three weeks before being towed. The circumstances immediately painted a dark picture of the young celebrity.

The Puzzle of Guilt: A Web of Coincidence

For the court of public opinion, D4vd’s guilt was sealed by an alarming convergence of circumstantial details that seemed too macabre to be mere coincidence. As Agatha Christie famously suggested: “One coincidence is just a coincidence, two coincidences are a clue, and three coincidences are proof”. In this case, the clues piled up rapidly:

The Secret Relationship: Celeste’s mother confirmed to TMZ that her daughter had been dating someone named David, sending shockwaves across social media that seemed to directly implicate the singer in a relationship with the underage teenager. Friends of the singer reportedly confirmed the romantic involvement, claiming they believed Celeste was 19, when in fact she was 14 when she was killed.
The Matching Tattoos: Both D4vd and Celeste were found to have distinctive, matching tattoos—the word ‘sh’—on their right index fingers, suggesting a deep, if secretive, connection.
The Prophetic Art: His music, once celebrated for its dark vulnerability, now appeared eerily predictive. His breakout hit, “Romantic Homicide,” and the February 2024 music video for “One More Dance”, which showed a body being dragged and hidden in a trunk, took on a sinister new meaning in light of the discovery. Furthermore, an unreleased demo track titled “Celeste” from December 2023 surfaced, with lyrics that some speculated referenced the victim.

The public reaction was immediate and brutal. D4vd, who was on tour at the time of the discovery, canceled his entire North American and European schedule. His manager abruptly terminated the lease on his Hollywood Hills home. Brands like Crocs and Hollister quickly distanced themselves, and his record label postponed his deluxe album. The trajectory of his career didn’t just stall; it was vaporized in a rush to judgment.

The Breakthrough: Alibis, Toxicology, and Tesla Data

Despite the intense media scrutiny and the seemingly damning evidence, investigators at the LAPD’s robbery-homicide division maintained a crucial, professional distance. They emphasized early on that the cause and manner of death remained undetermined. This was the first crack in the public’s conviction.

Forensic scientist Dr. Amy Santoro offered crucial insights, suggesting that preliminary autopsy findings showed no signs of trauma to Celeste’s body. Investigators began exploring the possibility that her death resulted from a drug overdose rather than an act of violence. This distinction was paramount: if Celeste died accidentally, the focus of the investigation would shift entirely from intentional murder to questions of who concealed her body and why.

However, the definitive proof of D4vd’s innocence came from three converging facts that could not be reconciled with his direct involvement in the body’s concealment:

The Air-Tight Alibi: D4vd had been actively touring across North America throughout August and September 2025. Tour schedules, ticket sales, and social media posts provided a verifiable alibi, placing him hundreds or thousands of miles away from Los Angeles during the period when the Tesla was abandoned and the body was likely placed in the trunk.
The Missing Vehicle: According to reports, the Tesla had been stolen or gone missing approximately a week before it was towed from the Hollywood Hills location. This provided the most plausible explanation for the body’s presence: someone who had stolen or gained access to the vehicle used it as a convenient location to dispose of or conceal the body, possibly with the deliberate intention of framing D4vd.
The Rolling Supercomputer: As former FBI agent Colin L. Schmidt noted, modern Teslas are “rolling supercomputers” equipped with multiple cameras and extensive data logging capabilities. Investigators were able to subpoena data from the vehicle’s systems—GPS logs, camera footage, and access records. Sources indicated that the data was inconsistent with D4vd himself having placed the body in the vehicle, instead pointing to an unknown party who had used the car during the critical timeframe.

Adding further complexity was the revelation that Celeste had a documented history of running away from home, with deputies visiting her family home eleven times between February 2024 and April 2025. Her ex-boyfriend characterized her as having a troubled home life, suggesting her repeated disappearances might have been motivated by personal problems rather than solely her relationship with D4vd. Furthermore, the theory of a pregnancy motive was debunked by the death certificate released in late September 2025, which confirmed Celeste had never been pregnant.

The Targeting: Swatting and a Sinister Plot

The theory of a deliberate framing was solidified by a subsequent incident that demonstrated a party was actively targeting the young artist. On September 18th, 2025, just days after Celeste’s body was identified, police responded to D4vd’s parents’ home in Texas after receiving a false call claiming a shooting and a fatality at the residence. This swatting incident was a calculated act of harassment and intimidation, strongly suggesting a perpetrator was trying to further implicate and terrorize D4vd and his family in connection with the case.

The fact that the body was found in a conspicuous, easily towable location—abandoned on a public street for weeks—was ultimately seen as an act of calculated exposure rather than careful concealment. As former FBI agents noted, a true killer would have sought a remote, permanent disposal site. The circumstances were far more consistent with someone intentionally placing the body in a celebrity’s readily identifiable vehicle to ensure it would be found and connected to D4vd.

Vindication, But Not Victory

As the investigation progressed through late 2025, multiple media outlets reported that LAPD sources had essentially cleared D4vd of being a murder suspect. While he remains a person of interest due to his connection to Celeste and ownership of the vehicle, the official position confirmed that they did not believe he was responsible for her death.

This vindication, however, comes at a devastating cost. D4vd’s career was brutally interrupted, his personal life exposed to international scrutiny, and his name dragged through a public shaming that few ever recover from. While he has been legally cleared of murder, the perpetrator who stole his car, placed Celeste’s body inside, and calculatedly attempted to ruin his life remains free. The question is no longer who killed Celeste—it is who framed the pop star, and why did they choose D4vd as the ultimate weapon in their dark plot? The tragic saga of Celeste Rivas Hernandez has revealed a chilling truth: in the glare of celebrity, a person’s identity and reputation can be hijacked and destroyed by a ruthless, unseen enemy.