D4vd’s parents are coming to his defense after the platinum-selling singer was arrested Thursday on suspicion of murdering Celeste Rivas Hernandez, the 14-year-old girl found dismembered and decomposing in the trunk of his Tesla seven months ago.
In a statement shared with Rolling Stone, the lawyer for Dawud Burke and Colleen Burke says the parents are rallying behind their son, born David Anthony Burke, as he sits in a Los Angeles jail awaiting a charging decision from prosecutors.
“The parents are sad and disappointed that David was arrested, however, they fully stand behind him and believe that he is innocent,” family lawyer Kent A. Schaffer tells Rolling Stone. “They fully support him.”
The lawyer says the parents learned of the arrest while awaiting a court decision in Texas over their fight against grand-jury subpoenas seeking to haul them before a panel in Los Angeles. “The appeal is still pending,” he says.
David was not indicted before the arrest. Instead, police said Thursday night that they plan to present the case to county prosecutors on Monday for a charging decision. If prosecutors file a complaint, the case would then move to a public preliminary hearing, where a judge would hear testimony in open court and decide if there’s enough evidence to go to trial.
David, 21, was taken into custody shortly after 4:30 p.m. Thursday at the house in the Hollywood Hills where he was living, police sources previously confirmed. A source at the residence told Rolling Stone that the singer was “completely cooperative.” Video obtained by the California Post showed heavily armed LAPD officers leading him away with his hands behind his back.
“Let us be clear, the actual evidence in this case will show that David Burke did not murder Celeste Rivas Hernandez, and he was not the cause of her death,” David’s legal team, led by high-powered criminal defense attorney Blair Berk, said. “There has been no indictment returned by any grand jury in this case and no criminal complaint filed. David has only been detained under suspicion. We will vigorously defend David’s innocence.”
David was on a national tour when his dented 2023 Tesla Model Y was towed from the Bird Streets neighborhood of the Hollywood Hills on Sept. 5, 2025. The tow yard alerted police, saying the vehicle was “emanating a foul odor and attracting flies,” according to a search warrant affidavit.
Detectives who opened the trunk found Rivas’ decomposed head and torso inside a black cadaver bag “covered with insects and a strong odor of decay,” court records show. A second bag contained her severed arms and legs.
Authorities kept the investigation largely under wraps for months and obtained a court order blocking the Los Angeles County medical examiner from releasing autopsy findings. The office opposed the restriction, saying it prevented it from “serving our community with full transparency.”
Multiple witnesses were called before a secret grand jury in Los Angeles. It was only after Burke’s parents and brother challenged their subpoenas in Texas that documents were unsealed, confirming David was the “target” of a murder investigation and “may be involved in having committed” one count of murder.
After Rivas’ body was found, friends and family identified her as a missing teenager from Lake Elsinore, about 75 miles southeast of Los Angeles. Her family had reported her missing in February 2024 and again in April, according to online fliers.
Her body was so “severely decomposed” that investigators could not determine her eye color and listed her weight as 71 pounds. “She appears to have been deceased inside the vehicle for an extended period of time before being found,” the medical examiner said. The cause of death initially was listed as “deferred.”
Images circulating online appeared to show David with a girl resembling Celeste. In another twist, Celeste had a tattoo on her right index finger that read, “Shhh…,” the medical examiner said. A Getty Images photo showed Burke with a similar tattoo.
Neighbors said the Tesla had been seen parked in different locations for months before it was found on Bluebird Avenue, where it remained for at least three weeks before it was towed. “It moved around,” one source told Rolling Stone. “It’s chilling.”
For a short time after the teen’s remains were recovered, David continued performing on his Withered tour. His scheduled show in Seattle on Sept. 17 was canceled after Rivas was positively identified.
David, who was born in New York and raised in Texas, rose to prominence in 2022 with the singles “Romantic Homicide” and “Here With Me,” which drew more than a billion streams on Spotify. He released his debut album, Withered, in April 2025.
