Singer D4vd charged with murder of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, found dismembered in his car

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Singer D4vd has been charged with murder in the death of a 14-year-old girl who was last known to be alive nearly a year ago and whose dismembered and decomposed body was found in September in his apparently abandoned Tesla, prosecutors said Monday.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office said the 21-year-old D4vd, whose legal name is David Burke, was charged with first-degree murder in the killing of Celeste Rivas Hernandez. She was reported missing by her family in 2024, when she was 13. Authorities, who described her Monday as a “runaway,” said she was 14 when she was killed.

A criminal complaint says he had engaged in continuous sexual abuse of Rivas Hernandez from September 2023 to September 2024.

Prosecutors allege he killed her using a sharp object on or around April 23, 2025 — the date she was last known to be alive and was headed to the singer's house in the Hollywood Hills — and mutilated her body about two weeks later.

The murder charges included special circumstances — lying in wait, committing crime for financial gain and murdering the witness in an investigation — that could carry the death penalty. Prosecutors haven’t announced whether they will seek it. Burke is also charged with lewd and lascivious acts with a person under 14 and mutilating a body.

Attorneys for the Houston-born alt-pop singer said he was innocent in a statement released after homicide detectives arrested him on Thursday at a home in Hollywood.

“Let us be clear — the actual evidence in this case will show that David Burke did not murder Celeste Rivas Hernandez and he was not the cause of her death,” the lawyers said. A new request for comment to Burke’s lawyers on the charges was not immediately answered.

Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman called the case “a parent's nightmare."

“Celeste, a 14-year-old at that time, went to Mr. Burke’s house in the Hollywood Hills. She was never heard from again," Hochman said at Monday's press conference.

The long-dead body of Rivas Hernandez was found inside a Tesla that was towed from the Hollywood Hills on Sept. 8, a day after she would have turned 15. Her family had reported her missing from her hometown of Lake Elsinore, about 70 miles (112 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles.

Authorities did not publicly name Burke as a suspect until his arrest. And his lawyers' statement last week, in which said they "will vigorously defend David’s innocence,” was the first time they weighed in publicly.

The singer had been under investigation by an LA County grand jury looking into the death. The probe was officially secret, but its existence — and his designation as its target — was revealed in February when his mother, father and brother objected in a Texas court to subpoenas demanding they testify.

The 2023 Tesla Model Y was registered in the singer’s name at the Texas address of his subpoenaed family members, according to court filings from prosecutors. It had been towed from an upscale Hollywood Hills neighborhood where it had been sitting as though it was abandoned.

Police investigators searching the Tesla in a tow yard found a cadaver bag “covered with insects and a strong odor of decay,” court documents said. Detectives partially unzipped a bag and found a head and torso.

Investigators from the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office removed the bag and “discovered the arms and legs had been severed from the body,” according to court documents. A second black bag was found under the first, and dismembered body parts were inside it. No cause of death has been publicly revealed, and police got a judge to block the release details of the autopsy. On Friday, the medical examiner told The Associated Press the court order remained in place after Burke's arrest, and suggested to ask the police whether they would ask to lift it. Hochman said Monday that the coroner's report would be released “shortly.”

The family of Rivas Hernandez has remained private and has not made any public statements on her death or the case.

“I had the chance to meet with some of the family members of Celeste and their grief in incalculable as to what happened to their daughter,” Hochman said.

D4vd, pronounced “David,” gained popularity among Gen Z for his blend of indie rock, R&B and lo-fi pop. He went viral on TikTok in 2022 with the hit “Romantic Homicide,” which peaked at No. 4 on Billboard’s Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart. He then signed with Darkroom and Interscope Records and released his debut EP “Petals to Thorns” and a follow-up, “The Lost Petals,” in 2023.

The Associated Press confirmed that D4vd was dropped by Interscope last year.

When the body was discovered, the singer continued his North American tour, but when reports of his possible involvement spread widely, he canceled the final two shows and a European tour that was to follow.

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AP Music Writer Maria Sherman contributed reporting from New York.

Los Angeles district attorney Nathan Hochman answers questions Monday, April 20, 2026, in Los Angeles regarding the case of singer D4vd, who was charged on suspicion of killing a 14-year-old girl whose dismembered body was found in his car. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Los Angeles district attorney Nathan Hochman answers questions Monday, April 20, 2026, in Los Angeles regarding the case of singer D4vd, who was charged on suspicion of killing a 14-year-old girl whose dismembered body was found in his car. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell walks past an image of Celeste Rivas Hernandez Monday, April 20, 2026, in Los Angeles after a press conference regarding the case of singer D4vd, who was charged on suspicion of killing the 14-year-old girl whose dismembered body was found in his car. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell speaks Monday, April 20, 2026, in Los Angeles regarding the case of singer D4vd, who was charged on suspicion of killing a 14-year-old girl whose dismembered body was found in his car. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Los Angeles district attorney Nathan Hochman answers questions next to police chief Jim McDonnell Monday, April 20, 2026, in Los Angeles regarding the case of singer D4vd, who was charged on suspicion of killing a 14-year-old girl whose dismembered body was found in his car. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

FILE - American singer-songwriter, David Anthony Burke, aka D4vd, performs on the Casino stage during the 58th Montreux Jazz Festival (MJF), in Montreux, Switzerland, July 19, 2024. (Cyril Zingaro/Keystone via AP, File)

Singer-songwriter, David Burke aka D4vd sits in artist space at Coachella music festival on April 18, 2025 in Indio, Calif. (AP Photo)

SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) — A stunned Louisiana city struggled to come to grips Monday with the massacre of eight children carried out by a father who was separating from his wife and used an assault-style weapon despite a 2019 felony firearms conviction.

The violence reverberated across Shreveport a day after one of the nation’s deadliest mass shootings in recent years. Schools brought in counselors for the victims' young classmates and neighbors grieved at a growing memorial. Community leaders called for a city-wide reckoning about how to stop domestic violence.

“We can not afford to wait until the next crisis,” said Caddo Parish Sheriff Henry Whitehorn. “This is the responsibility of all of us. We owe it to the eight children who were lost.”

The shooter, identified as Shamar Elkins, killed seven of his children and another child, police said. His wife also was shot and wounded.

His wife's sister, who called police minutes after the shooting started, escaped with a child by jumping from the roof, police and family members said Monday.

“She said she was running for her life,” said Lionel Pugh, an uncle of the two women shot. “The only ones he didn’t kill was the ones who got away.”

Elkins died after fleeing and a police pursuit that ended with officers firing on him. It was not clear whether he was killed by officers or from a self-inflicted gunshot, Shreveport Police Chief Wayne Smith said.

Officials said the children who died — three boys and five girls — ranged in age from 3 to 11 years old.

Elkins and his wife, identified by family members as Shaneiqua Elkins, were separating and had been due in court Monday, said Crystal Brown, a cousin of a woman shot in the attack. She said the couple had been arguing about the separation before the shooting.

Family members described Shaneiqua Elkins as a doting mother, who celebrated her children’s success in school and carefully dressed them before family events.

“She raised those kids right,” Pugh said. “They were the center of her universe.”

While the shooter did not appear to have an extensive criminal history, court records showed Elkins was placed on probation in 2019 after pleading guilty to illegal use of weapons. In that case, Elkins fired five rounds at a vehicle and told police that someone inside it had pulled a gun on him, according to a police report.

Based on Louisiana law, a person convicted of certain violent felonies — including illegal use of weapons — are banned from having a gun for at least 10 years after completing their sentence and probation.

Investigators were not aware of other domestic violence issues involving Elkins, said police spokesperson Chris Bordelon.

Elkins had served in the Louisiana National Guard from 2013 to 2020 as a signal support system specialist and a fire support specialist, said guard spokesperson Lt. Col. Noel Collins. Elkins held the rank of private and had no deployments, Collins said.

Authorities said the shooting erupted before dawn at two homes.

Elkins shot a woman in a neighborhood south of downtown and a few blocks away at a home where the children were found, police said. Elkins' nephew was among the slain children, according to the Caddo Parish coroner’s office.

Mourners lit candles for the victims Sunday night in a nearby parking lot.

“It just makes you take your children and hug them and hold them and tell them how much you love them because you just don’t know,” said Kimberlin Jackson, who attended the vigil and is an advocate at the Head Start program where one of the victims was a student. She said the last time she saw him was Friday.

Francine Monro Brown, a cousin of Shaneiqua Elkins, said she would often see the children playing in the yard on Sunday mornings when she drove past the house on her way to church.

“Happy children, joyful children. Shaneiqua is a great mother, She provided a great home for the kids,” Brown said as she stood near a growing memorial of stuffed teddy bears, flowers and pink and blue balloons.

Betty Pugh, another cousin of Shaneiqua Elkins, said she was always with her children. “That was the way we were taught: to love our kids, to take care of our kids. And that’s what she did,” Pugh said.

The mayor of Shreveport, a city of about 180,000 residents in northwestern Louisiana, called it one of the city's worst days.

The shooting was the deadliest in the U.S. since January 2024, when eight people were killed in a Chicago suburb, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University.

Contributing were Associated Press reporters Jack Brook in New Orleans; John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio; Jake Offenhartz in New York; Jeff Martin in Atlanta; Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis; Terry Tang in Phoenix, and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles.

Shreveport Marshal James Jefferson speaks during a news conference about the children were killed during a mass shooting the day before in Shreveport, La., Monday, April 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

A woman walks to leave flowers and balloons on the front lawn of the home where children were killed during a mass shooting the day before in Shreveport, La., Monday, April 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Attendees pray at the conclusion of a news conference about the children killed during a mass shooting the day before in Shreveport, La., Monday, April 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

A person passes the home where a mass shooting occurred the day before in Shreveport, La., Monday, April 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Councilman Reverend James Green consoles people outside the scene of a mass shooting, Sunday, April 19, 2026, in Shreveport, La. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Council woman Tabatha Taylor, right, hugs an unknown person outside the scene of a mass shooting in Shreveport, La., Sunday, April 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Police work outside the scene of a mass shooting, Sunday, April 19, 2026, in Shreveport, La. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

People light candles during a prayer vigil for the victims of a mass shooting earlier in the day, Sunday, April 19, 2026, in Shreveport, La. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

A man holds a candle during a prayer vigil for the victims of a mass shooting earlier in the day, Sunday, April 19, 2026, in Shreveport, La. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)