The music world was ripped in half on September 8, 2025. It was the day a star’s meteoric rise collided violently with a dark reality, spiraling a promising career into the center of a shocking homicide investigation. The news, delivered with brutal clarity, was this: the severely decomposed remains of 15-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez were discovered wrapped in plastic inside the front trunk (frunk) of a 2023 Tesla Model 3. The car was registered to 20-year-old David Anthony Burke, better known by his global indie-pop moniker, D4vd.

What followed was not a police investigation alone, but a public trial by fire, a social media frenzy that had already delivered its irreversible verdict of guilt. Yet, as the Los Angeles Police Department and federal investigators quietly peeled back the layers of circumstance, a far more sinister and calculated narrative began to emerge—one suggesting D4vd was not the perpetrator of a gruesome crime, but a carefully selected victim of an elaborate plot to frame him. The stunning revelations surrounding a stolen vehicle, a definitive alibi, and the victim’s true cause of death have begun to expose the cold, hard logic of a true killer’s plan.

The Damning Coincidences: Building the Case for Public Condemnation

D4vd’s journey to stardom had been the stuff of modern legend. He exploded onto the scene in 2022, capturing a generation’s heart with the haunting, vulnerable track “Romantic Homicide,” a song that would go on to amass over 1.5 billion streams and a major label deal. With his unique blend of indie R&B and alternative pop, his ascent was unstoppable—until the moment his vehicle was towed from the Hollywood Hills.

The circumstantial evidence that immediately followed the discovery was damning and compelling, creating a tidal wave of public certainty regarding his guilt. The connections between the young, troubled teenager and the famous artist were undeniable. Both D4vd and Celeste were found to have matching, distinctive tattoos on their right index fingers. Celeste’s mother confirmed to media outlets that her daughter had been dating someone named David, a name that immediately—and perhaps too conveniently—pointed a finger at the singer. Further fueling the fire were resurfaced photos, videos, and alleged Discord conversations dating back to 2022, raising unsettling questions about a potential relationship when Celeste was only around twelve years old.

In a chilling twist that seemed to confirm the worst public fears, D4vd’s own work appeared to serve as a dark, prophetic confession. His breakthrough hit, “Romantic Homicide,” and its music video, which depicted themes of violence and death, were instantly dissected. Even more disturbing was the February 2024 music video for his song “One More Dance,” which contained specific, unsettling imagery: a body being dragged and concealed in a trunk—a scene that mirrored the current tragedy with terrifying precision. The public, invoking the famous Agatha Christie quote cited in the video, declared that these three coincidences—the boyfriend’s name, the matching tattoo, and the thematic music videos—were “proof”.

The consequence of this immediate public verdict was swift and devastating. D4vd, who was actively touring at the time of the body’s discovery, initially continued his shows, but soon canceled his entire North American and European tour. His manager abruptly terminated the lease on the Hollywood Hills home, and his professional life was in total collapse. Brands like Crocs and Hollister, who had partnered with the sensation, quickly distanced themselves, and his record label postponed his deluxe album release. The court of public opinion had already convicted him, and his professional life was in total collapse.

The Scientific Pivot: Undetermined Death and the Lack of Trauma

Yet, beneath the sensational headlines and the public’s thirst for a neat narrative, the actual police investigation began to reveal crucial fissures in the theory of D4vd’s guilt.

The Los Angeles Police Department’s Robbery-Homicide Division maintained a cautious, methodical approach, a measured silence that ultimately proved to be the young artist’s salvation. They issued a key statement emphasizing that the cause and manner of Celeste’s death remained “undetermined” pending forensic and toxicology reports. This was a critical distinction, as LAPD Captain Scott M. Williams noted that it remained unclear whether there was “any criminal culpability beyond the concealment of her body”. The implication was seismic: this may not have been a homicide at all.

Former CSI analyst and forensic scientist Dr. Amy Santoro offered crucial public insight, suggesting that preliminary autopsy findings showed no signs of trauma to Celeste’s body. There was no evidence of physical violence, strangulation, stab wounds, or blunt force injury. This single detail fundamentally shattered the public’s perception of D4vd as a violent killer. If the death was not caused by violence, the entire legal focus shifted from intentional murder to the far different crime of concealing a body after death, potentially resulting from an accidental drug overdose. Criminal defense attorney Alexander Kazerian appeared on NewsNation and was equally clear, stating there was “no evidence against this man for any crime”. Furthermore, a death certificate released in late September 2025 confirmed another key debunking: Celeste had never been pregnant, eliminating one of the more salacious and often-cited potential motives attributed to D4vd.

The Ironclad Alibi and the Stolen Supercomputer

While the lack of trauma was the first scientific crack in the public’s theory, the physical timeline of events proved to be the deathblow to D4vd’s involvement in the body’s concealment.

The artist had been actively touring throughout August and September 2025, performing in multiple cities across North America during the critical period when the Tesla was abandoned in the Hollywood Hills. Tour schedules, ticket sales, and social media posts provided a verifiable, unassailable alibi. If Celeste’s body was placed in the trunk during the estimated timeframe the car sat abandoned, D4vd would have been hundreds or even thousands of miles away, making it physically impossible for him to have been the one to place her remains there.

The investigation then revealed the most decisive piece of evidence suggesting a deliberate frame: the Tesla had been stolen or gone missing approximately a week before it was towed. This detail explained how Celeste’s body could have ended up in his car without his knowledge or involvement. Someone who had stolen or temporarily had access to the vehicle used it as a convenient, conspicuous location to dispose of or conceal the body. Former FBI agent Colin L. Schmidt highlighted the illogical nature of a killer leaving a ‘rolling supercomputer’ like a Tesla, equipped with multiple cameras, GPS, and data logging, as a disposal site.

This illogical act, however, made perfect sense if the goal was not to conceal a crime, but to frame a celebrity. The real perpetrator had placed Celeste’s body in a high-profile, easily traceable location, in a car belonging to a person already connected to the victim by the unfortunate coincidences of the matching tattoos and the mother’s statement.

The Tesla Data: The Silent, Unimpeachable Witness

The most compelling evidence, ironically, came from the technology D4vd’s team had initially feared. The modern Tesla is a treasure trove of forensic data, a silent witness to every movement, every access, and every opening of its doors and compartments. As investigators subpoenaed and analyzed the extensive logs—the GPS history, the Sentry Mode footage, the access records—sources indicated that the data was entirely inconsistent with D4vd’s direct involvement. The car’s computer pointed to someone else operating the vehicle during the critical window when Celeste’s body was most likely placed in the frunk. This technological alibi cemented the police’s shift in focus. The initial wave of suspicion about the singer’s manager, Josh Marshall, also subsided, as their hasty departure from the Hollywood Hills home was determined to be prudent legal advice rather than evidence of a guilty conscience.

A Campaign of Harassment: The Swatting Incident

Further strengthening the “frame job” theory was the shocking swatting incident that targeted D4vd’s family home in Hempstead, Texas, just days after Celeste’s body was identified. Police responded with guns drawn to a false report of a shooting and death at the residence. This was not merely a random act of online harassment; its timing and severity strongly suggested a deliberate attempt by the real perpetrator, or a highly motivated associate, to further harass, intimidate, and implicate D4vd in the case. The escalating acts were not those of a person running from a crime, but of someone determined to ensure the wrong person took the fall for it.

The Reckoning and the Path to Vindication

As November 2025 began, multiple media outlets confirmed what D4vd’s legal team had been fighting for: the LAPD had essentially cleared D4vd of being the murder suspect. While he remains a “person of interest” due to his connection to Celeste and the ownership of the vehicle—a standard procedure in such a convoluted case—investigators no longer believe he caused Celeste’s death or was the one to conceal her body.

The journey to this partial vindication was a brutal reminder of the speed and severity with which a celebrity’s life can be destroyed by circumstance and public assumption. In the absence of trauma, with an ironclad alibi, and with a stolen car confirmed by its own data, the only remaining questions are: Who stole the Tesla, who placed Celeste’s body there, and why did they go to such extraordinary lengths to frame D4vd? The manhunt for the real culprit—the person who committed the horrifying act of body concealment and the sinister act of a celebrity frame-up—is now the central focus of this chilling and tragic case. The saga of D4vd stands as a stark warning about the power of circumstantial evidence and the desperate measures a true criminal will take to evade justice.

The video discussed in this article is available here: FBI CONFIRMS That D4vd Was Framed By The Real Killer!