The body found in artist D4vd's car may have been dead for several weeks.

Question

The body found in David Burke's (known as D4vd) Tesla was found to be 15 year old Celeste Rivas Hernandez. As investigation continues, it has been found that she has been dead for several weeks, possibly a month. Investigators still do not know her cause of death, and D4vd's representative still has not been reached.

Answer 1

1. Looking into the credibility of the claim that Celeste Rivas Hernandez had been left in rapper David Burke’s car for about a month, I found zero primary sources that would prove this claim to be factual. I have found many news articles with similar claims to this article, but I was unable to find the primary evidence that they cited.

2. Looking for primary sources, many news articles I came across cited and quoted a statement from LAPD Captain Scot Williams in which he spoke to TMZ, including TMZ themselves stating that “Captain Scot Williams tells TMZ ... they are working with the L.A. County Medical Examiner to establish Celeste's cause of death.” (www.tmz.com/2025/09/29/celeste-rivas-cause-of-death-undetermined-critical/#continued). Although TMZ themselves state that Scot Williams had a statement with them, I was unable to find video nor transcript of this statement.

3. Looking beyond the NBC article given, I found a Fox 11 article that provides a timeline surrounding Celeste’s disappearance. (www.foxla.com/news/celeste-rivas-hernandez-d4vd-homicide-investigation) This article states that Celeste had gone missing in May of 2024. With this information it is possible that she died long before her body was recovered. Also, according to an article from the Mirror US in which they cite an interview with a legal expert named Chad D. Cummings, "The extensive decomposition and mutilation of the corpse introduces a high probability of inconclusive autopsy findings.” (www.themirror.com/entertainment/celeste-rivas-d4vd-cause-death-1422769) Unfortunately, I was unable to find a transcript or video for this interview either. From the quoted interview with Cummings, there is not a possibility to find a definite amount of time that Celeste had been deceased. 

4. All the sources I found were secondary sources in the form of news articles, there are some exaggerated terms that had been used to catch the attention of users. Many news sources used the term “dismembered” to describe the state that Celeste’s body was found in, while I found no evidence stating that anything more had happened to her body beyond heavy decomposition.

5. Supporting the claim, there is evidence of a possibility that Celeste had been deceased for multiple weeks and maybe a month. The interview with Cummings does support this given that her body was found in such an extreme form of decomposition that the cause or time of death were unable to be determined.

6. Unfortunately, the lack of any prominent primary sources of information harms the credibility of this statement. There are no accessible transcripts or videos of the interviews quoted from professionals or officials like Chad Cummings and Scot Williams. Also, the bias present from news sources stating that Celeste’s body was “dismembered” harms the credibility of their own information.

7. As of now, I have messaged the author of the NBC article, but I have not yet got a response. I will update on this fact-check if I do get a response, because it would allow me to have access to a primary source to support the claim of this article.

Fox 11 article: www.foxla.com/news/celeste-rivas-hernandez-d4vd-homicide-investigation

The Mirror article: www.themirror.com/entertainment/celeste-rivas-d4vd-cause-death-1422769

TMZ article: www.tmz.com/2025/09/29/celeste-rivas-cause-of-death-undetermined-critical/#continued

Comments

I really appreciate the amount of detail you not only went to but as well as the amount of evidence you provided. I can really see how much work and time you put into this fact check and I am very impressed with how you were able to organize your thoughts, claims, and ideas. This case is truly heart breaking and the amount of false news and narratives that are being spread is just as if not more heartbreaking than the case itself alone. But overall you did a great job of factchecking this claim in not only a productive way but in a way where your point was very straight forward. Great job!

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I'm extremely impressed by the work done to fact-check this article, you went above and beyond. The extreme thoroughness easily persuaded me to follow along and believe that this claim was misinforming people.

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You very throughly identified the claims. By providing so much evidence, it engages us as readers to look more into the case. The thoroughness made me personally want to read more into it. The point was very straight forward.

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This fact checking did a great job of going over and debunking the extensive rumors that have gone viral about the situation which I previously believed to be factual. I’m extremely curious if you’ve heard back from the author of the NBC article.

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You did an awesome job at following the fact checking prompts, and providing as close to a primary source as possible. Fact checking is difficult when sources like TMZ are the primary source, due to their history of false claims, but in this case, they were the first to report it and got photo evidence before others. I also appreciate the honesty that they were primarily secondary sources.

Answer 2

Although there has been lots of speculation that Celeste Rivas Hernandez had been deceased for several weeks before being found, at the moment it is nothing more than a rumor.  According to multiple sources such as ABC, NBC, People, and The St. Louis American the LAPD and the "commanding officer of Olympic Detective Division", Scot Williams have claimed that her body may have been deceased for several weeks before being discovered but, it has not been confirmed. "ABC News obtained the death certificate for Hernandez, which lists her cause of death as "deferred" -- just as it has been for weeks as the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner continues to try to determine cause and manner of death" this quote from ABC confirms that Celeste's body was deferred according to her Death Certificate, but it was not confirmed that it was there for weeks. Outside the range of mainstream news sources, I found an article by Cecilia Nowell posted by Gale Academic OneFile, which is a database of trusted journalists. In Nowell's article she provides quotes from the LAPD and the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner stating that her body seems like it had been a long period of time before the body was found, but it has still not been confirmed as a fact. 

Comments

You raise a very valid point on the difference between assumption and reality. Official comments from the LAPD and medical examiners and the reliable sources you listed should be the ones we trust. When officials use vague phrases "may have been deceased for several weeks," it offers some space for misunderstanding, which can confuse the public. It brings attention to how current investigations need to find a balance when releasing stories so fake and unrealistic rumors don't spread. Overall, your answer is a helpful reminder to avoid drawing conclusions before all the data is known.

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This is a valid response, I also went and googled some other sources to see if the medical examiner had released any information other than what you mentioned and was unable to find a counter argument. This article is very similar to the one you describes, it's also on Gale.
https://go.gale.com/ps/retrieve.do?tabID=T004&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchResultsType=SingleTab&retrievalId=488ebf12-609b-4861-8747-dd0cd01a57b0&hitCount=21201&searchType=BasicSearchForm&currentPosition=1&docId=GALE%7CA857632140&docType=Brief+article&sort=Relevance&contentSegment=ZONE-MOD1&prodId=AONE&pageNum=1&contentSet=GALE%7CA857632140&searchId=R1&userGroupName=oregon_oweb&inPS=true

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This article shares great information. The sources really back up the claim that she was dead long before they found her. I really liked how you reached out to the NBC author, I wonder how they will respond! Now after reading my own articles I have seen they do presume she was dead "several weeks before being found".

https://www.forbes.com/sites/conormurray/2025/09/29/body-found-in-singer-d4vds-car-was-likely-dead-for-weeks-police-say/

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Your answer helps distinguish the difference between fact versus claim. It is clear from your research that there is still a lot that we don't know yet concerning this case. I think a lot of times the public wants to know all of the facts and answers as soon as they hear about what happened, so when people hear that the body may have been deceased for several weeks they will run with it even if it's not true.

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This is a very smart and well researched statement, as we truly do not have proof that the body had been decomposing for a long time. You raise a valid point that in the articles where it talks about her body being deceased for a long period of time, they use words like “seems” and “may”, which truly don’t hold much value if we’re arguing that the body has definitely been dead for a long time. With more time we will find out if the argument that her body has been decomposing for a long time is true, but you’re correct, as of right now we have no valid points.

Answer 3

It is largely true that Celeste Rivas Hernandez, a 15-year-old girl, was discovered dead in singer D4vd's Tesla. Her identity was verified by authorities, who also revealed that her body had been in the car for weeks. D4vd has not been charged, and the cause of death is still unknown. Certain details are unverified, such as the precise time of death and whether his representative was unavailable. While news and entertainment media may concentrate on eye-catching details, the same sources are typically reliable and rely on information from law enforcement. The victim's identity was verified by the police, and the body's decomposition suggested that weeks had passed. The cause of death is still being looked into tho. https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/body-in-tesla-d4vd-lake-elsinore-girl/3779565/