Romantic Homicide: A Brief D4vd Overview
Photo from Nikita Nikitin via Pexels.
David Anthony Burke, a famous Gen Z hip-hop and R&B star, known for his genre blending, heartstring pulling music, has now become infamous as a potential murder case suspect.
In 2020 D4vd started his public career by streaming video games on Youtube. Through this gameplay and other forms of media, D4vd was attracted to music artists such as Arctic Monkeys and The Neighborhood. That year D4vd released two songs “Run Away” and “You and I” to use in his gaming montages. He noticed the songs were being used in other people’s videos, and he later told VMAN in 2022 “...I was like, ‘Okay this could be something,’ so I kept making songs.”
In 2022, D4vd released two hit singles: “Romantic Homicide” which peaked on Billboard's hot 100 at No. 33, and “Here With Me,” peaking at No. 60. In September of 2022, D4vd was contacted by Darkroom and Interscope Records to sign him as an artist.
With D4vd becoming more and more successful and claiming more spotlight, especially in 2023 when he opened for artist SZA and in April of 2025 when he released debut album Whithered, he was subject to much more media scrutiny.
On September 8, 2025, the remains of one Celeste Rivas Hernandez, who died just before her 15th birthday, was found in the back of a Tesla registered to David ‘D4vd’ Burke.
"When it [the Tesla] was moved to that position, it was already like that. So that car had not been used in a very long time,” states P.I. Steve Fischer. Though Fischer had shared his findings with the L.A.P.D, there is no telling how long this case will take before a suspect is named. Though not officially charged, D4vd canceled his remaining tours early on in the investigation, leading many to believe that he was in fact responsible for the murder, rather than it being a frame job. Recently, more details from the LAPD have been shared, including that the body may have been frozen prior to it being placed in the car, making it difficult for medical examiners to declare a cause of death. People reported that there are multiple suspects, and though no one has been arrested or charged, D4vd has been named a suspect as of November 22. LAPD, as well as other news sources, attest to the fact that D4vd may have had help in the murder.
Whether D4vd committed the murder or not, it is no doubt that this case has been a major blow to his career. Many details are still up to speculation, but many fans are outraged by the case as a whole.
References
Celeste Rivas, 15, 'had been decapitated, cut up and FROZEN'. (2025, November 23). Daily Mail. Retrieved November 24, 2025, from https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-15317667/celeste-rivas-decapitated-frozen-dead-d4vd-tesla.html
Cummings, M. (2025, September 23). D4vd: From the Body in His Car to His Career, Everything We Know. Billboard. Retrieved November 24, 2025, from https://www.billboard.com/lists/d4vd-body-car-career-everything-we-know/
Johnson, K. (2025, October 21). Celeste Rivas case: Investigator says 'it's very clear' who parked D4vd's Tesla with teen's body inside. Fox 2 KTVU. https://www.ktvu.com/news/d4vd-celeste-rivas-case-investigator-claims-he-knows-who-moved-tesla
