Chainsaw, Body Bag And Inflatable Pool: How D4vd's Alleged Murder Materials And Other Evidence May Play Into Key Hearing
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What is the background of singer D4VD and how did he become a viral music star?
Arresting podcasts.
Today, we're revisiting singer David Anthony Burke's murder case in California, where in the next few weeks, a judge is expected to hear evidence about the grisly demise of his 14-year-old girlfriend, Celeste Rivas. It's called a preliminary hearing, and it's an interim step in the court process, but it will feel in some ways like a mini trial. It may also be the first time the public gets a sense of what allegedly transpired, as big questions linger about how and why Celeste was killed. Prosecutors have said that Rivas, a teen runaway, was never seen again after arriving at the Hollywood Hills home of the 21-year-old artist David Anthony Burke in April 2025. Her badly decomposed and dismembered remains were found in a storage compartment of a Tesla belonging to David nearly five months later.
David has pleaded not guilty to murder, continuous sexual abuse, and unlawful mutilation of human remains. With us today is Marjorie Hernandez, Daily Mail's West Coast news editor. Marjorie has been covering the case and is a veteran Los Angeles courts reporter. She'll share her expertise and break down what we know so far and what we may soon learn about the case. I'm Kayla Brantley, and this is The Trial USA. We'll be back in a moment.
Marjorie, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having me again. So let's just start with a little recap about what has happened so far in this case. For our listeners who might not know, who was David and how did he gain such notoriety at such a young age as an independent artist? He's 21 now and he was already pretty successful and seemingly still on his way up in the business at the time of his arrest in April. Marge, can you just tell us a little bit more about him?
Yeah, David, better known as his moniker, D4VD, David Anthony Burke is his name. He really went viral on TikTok with a song called Here With Me. And Romantic Homicide is probably the one that most people know. But he really started as a content creator and also was a gamer. So he was very popular on YouTube, TikTok, and Fortnite. And Fortnite was actually one of the games that he would play, and he gained a lot of followers from that. And he would also set gameplay montages and make music and set that to the games, and then he would share it with his followers. So he really garnered a lot of young followers because of the gaming world. So then he moved on to producing music for video games. And actually one of his songs became kind of like an anthem for Fortnite.
So that's really how he became popular online.
And you mentioned the song called Romantic Homicide.
Yeah.
His music, his music videos, they've explored some very dark themes that are now under the microscope after Celeste's murder. So this song, Romantic Homicide, it's now the subject of discussion because of this. Do you know if investigators are interested at all in analyzing his music? What do we know about that?
It'll be interesting to see whether or not they actually bring in his music and his lyrics into the trial. We don't know that yet, but obviously there's been a lot of online speculation given the content of his songs. As I mentioned before, it's a lot of dark imagery. His lyrics, like for example, in Romantic Bromance, he says the words, lyrics. quote, I killed you. And then he also sings in the back of my mind, you died and I didn't even cry. So when he was arrested, obviously, everybody online discusses lyrics and how it could potentially be tied to the allegations against him.
Do we know if he had any help getting ahead in the music business? Like we said, he's only 21 years old and he's already risen in popularity. Who are some of the producers he's worked with or any other artists?
How did prosecutors link D4VD’s online purchases to the alleged murder of Celeste Rivas?
I know he was set to go on tour with SZA and he did have a record deal with Interscope, I believe. But since then, obviously because of his arrest and this pending trial, that is obviously placed on hold and he is now just fighting for his life at this point. So...
And Celeste Rivas, 14 years old, what do we know about her and her family?
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What is the background of singer D4VD and how did he become a viral music star?
0:03–4:15
2
How did prosecutors link D4VD’s online purchases to the alleged murder of Celeste Rivas?
4:15–8:20
3
What do we know about Celeste Rivas’s family and her history as a runaway?
8:20–12:24
4
How did D4VD and Celeste initially meet and what was the timeline of their relationship?
12:24–16:29
5
What evidence did the trial brief reveal about the chainsaw, body bag, and inflatable pool purchases?
16:29–20:33
6
What is the purpose of a preliminary hearing and how does it differ from a full trial?
20:33–25:01
7
How might the massive 40‑terabyte data set shape the prosecution’s strategy and the defense’s response?
25:01–29:16
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from The Trial: USA
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