LAPD sources tell NBC4 singer has not been cooperative with investigation into death of Celeste Rivas, 15

The singer D4vd has been identified as a suspect in the death of Celeste Rivas, a teenager who went missing and was found dead in the singer’s Tesla in September, Los Angeles police department sources told NBC4 Investigates.

The decomposed body of Rivas, 15, was found on 8 September in the front trunk of a black Tesla registered to D4vd, whose real name is David Anthony Burke. The car had been ticketed in a Hollywood Hills neighborhood and then impounded in a tow yard in Los Angeles.

Rivas probably died in the spring, police told NBC4 Investigates, adding that D4vd had probably helped in dismembering and disposing of the body. The singer has not been cooperative in the investigation, an LAPD source said.

The Guardian contacted the LAPD but did not receive an immediate response.

The then 13-year-old Rivas was first reported missing from Lake Elsinore, 60 miles from Los Angeles, in April 2024. Her body was found in the singer’s Tesla after workers at Hollywood Tow reported a strong stench coming from the vehicle.

The cause of death has yet to be identified, but in September the medical examiner’s office said in a statement that Rivas “appears to have been deceased inside the vehicle for an extended period of time before being found”. The LAPD is considering her death a homicide.

The Houston singer had been given a ticket in the Hollywood Hills just 11 days before Rivas was found in the car, after overstaying the three-day parking limit. Hollywood Hills residents told NBC News Los Angeles that the Tesla had been parked in the neighborhood for over a month.

Rivas’s brother told NBC Los Angeles earlier this year the family was aware that Rivas knew the singer and that she was on her way to see a movie with him just before she disappeared.

Rivas reportedly called home in May 2024 but had not been heard from since, according to ABC 7. Images surfaced online of her and D4vd. Rivas had a boyfriend named David at the time of her disappearance, investigators were told by her mother.

D4vd (pronounced “David”) is a New York-born singer-songwriter known for the hits Romantic Homicide and Here With Me. He and his manager were staying at a Los Angeles property in the Hollywood Hills in September, according to the property’s landlord, until police searched the residence, according to SFGate.

D4vd has signed with Darkroom and Interscope. He was on tour at the time Rivas’s remains were discovered, but cancelled those appearances following the discovery of Rivas’s body.