Los Angeles police have obtained a courtroom order forbidding the Medical Examiner’s workplace from releasing all particulars of their investigation into the loss of life of a teenage woman whose physique was found within the trunk of singer D4vd’s Tesla, officers mentioned Monday.
Detectives found the closely decomposed corpse at a Hollywood tow yard on Sept. 8. The performer’s Tesla after had been towed from a avenue within the Hollywood Hills after being deserted for weeks.
Since then, Los Angeles Police Division investigators have awaited atutopsy outcomes on the physique, which authorities recognized as Celeste Rivas Hernandez, a 14-year-old who ran away from residence in Lake Elisnore.
In a ready assertion Monday, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s workplace mentioned that’s has obtained a “courtroom order, initiated by the Los Angeles Police Division (LAPD), to put a safety maintain on Medical Examiner case quantity 2025-14252, Celeste Rivas Hernandez.”
In accordance with the health worker, the order was issued Friday and calls for that “no data or particulars related to the case, together with the trigger and method of loss of life and Medical Examiner report, might be launched or posted on the web site till additional discover.”
“The Division’s mission is to have full transparency with the neighborhood by offering details about our instances to empower folks to make adjustments that save lives,” mentioned Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Odey Ukpo. “Since changing into the division head, I’ve labored on eradicating the observe of putting safety holds on Medical Examiner instances just by regulation enforcement request.
Within the examiner’s assertion, Ukpo seemingly questioned the transfer to seal the findings.
“The observe of safety holds is just about remarkable in different counties and has not been confirmed to enhance outcomes within the authorized system. We’re devoted to serving our neighborhood with full transparency; nonetheless, the regulation precludes us from doing so whereas the courtroom order stays on this case.”
The LAPD first requested a safety maintain on the case on Sept. 15, “which was denied on account of inadequate justification to warrant the maintain,” in line with the assertion.
“The Division understands the general public’s curiosity on this case and stays dedicated to transparency when potential. Data shall be made out there as soon as the courtroom order is lifted,” the examiner’s workplace mentioned.
In reply to the health worker’s announcement, LAPD Capt. Mike Bland mentioned this stays an ongoing investigation by the Theft Murder Division and the aim of the courtroom order is to make sure the LAPD receives data earlier than the general public does.
For months, the LAPD has declined to call the singer — or anybody else — as a suspect within the case, saying that there was no discovering that the loss of life was murder.
The woman’s stays have been discovered inside a black bag inside the trunk of the multiplatinum musician’s Tesla. In accordance with police, the physique was discovered partly dismembered, nevertheless it was unclear whether or not that was on account of power or decay. The woman’s physique weighed 71 kilos and had a “Shhh” tattoo on her finger, in line with the health worker‘s data that have been launched previous to the courtroom’s order.
Celeste’s physique was discovered the day after her fifteenth birthday. LAPD Capt. Scot Williams mentioned the woman had been “useless for no less than a number of weeks” earlier than the invention.
LAPD Theft Murder detectives decided that the Tesla had been left parked alongside Bluebird Avenue since late July — across the time that D4vd, whose actual title is David Anthony Burke, started a nationwide tour.
A contemporary Gen Z voice, D4vd appeared in a music video full of murderous themes. In a single a part of the video, a younger girl with an obvious chest wound lies on a mattress because the singer hovers over her, blindfolded, his white shirt spattered with blood. In one other video, “One Extra Dance,” D4vd drags an individual — who bears the singer’s likeness — to a automobile, the place a pair stuffs the particular person into the trunk.
Lengthy earlier than the invention of her physique , Celeste had run away from her Lake Elsinore residence. She was within the seventh grade, and her household reported her lacking no less than thrice in 2024, in line with the Riverside County Sheriff’s Workplace. Throughout that point, she appeared alongside D4vd in an internet look, and regulation enforcement sources point out she resided at a rental residence with the singer.
Investigators imagine that a couple of particular person was concerned in an effort to eliminate the teenager’s physique within the months earlier than her stays have been discovered within the Tesla, in line with two regulation enforcement sources conversant in the probe. She could have been useless for the reason that spring, , in line with one regulation enforcement supply.
As a part of their investigation, detectives searched the Hollywood Hills residence the place the D4vd lived, t, and eliminated digital proof and different objects from the residence, which had been leased by the singer’s supervisor.
Final week, LAPD Deputy Chief Alan Hamilton, who oversees the division’s detective operations, addressed the investigation, saying “accountability is coming. Our RHD detectives have been working and never ready for that call (by the health worker). They will get justice for Celeste Rivas.” “Nobody is off the desk, together with him (D4vd).”
Hamilton mentioned the probe has stepped up in latest days, however no official suspect has been named.
Celeste first disappeared final 12 months on Valentine’s Day. It was first of thrice she vanished and it sparked a number of calls to authorities. Her mom made emotional pleas on Fb and the household sought video from their neighborhood.
In accordance with regulation enforcement sources, the singer and the woman met on-line. Burke shot to fame posting “Fortnite” clips to YouTube and different social media after which pivoted to make his personal music and scored a success with the tune Romantic Murder.
