The Los Angeles District Attorney’s office also claims that the musician ordered a shovel, laundry bags, and a “burn cage” as part of a “plot to dismember and dispose of the victim’s body.”

D4vd ordered body bag and chainsaws after allegedly killing Celeste Rivas Hernandez, prosecutors claim

The Los Angeles District Attorney's office also claims that the musician ordered a shovel, laundry bags, and a "burn cage" as part of a "plot to dismember and dispose of the victim's body."

By Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel is a news writer at **. He began writing for EW in 2022.

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April 29, 2026 9:21 p.m. ET

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D4vd; Celeste Rivas Hernandez. Credit:

Kevin Winter/Getty; GoFundMe

- Prosecutors claim that D4vd purchased chainsaws, a body bag, a shovel, and a "burn cage" after allegedly killing Celeste Rivas Hernandez.

- The Los Angeles District Attorney's office claimed that the musician drove to Santa Barbara County three separate times after the estimated date of Hernandez's death.

- They also allege that D4vd "calculated and planned" to text and call Hernandez after her death to "set up his defense."

Prosecutors have painted an extremely grisly picture of Celeste Rivas Hernandez's death in a new filing.

The Los Angeles District Attorney's office filed a brief of preliminary hearing evidence in the homicide case of David Anthony Burke, also known as D4vd, on Wednesday. The document, which has been reviewed by **, outlines how the musician allegedly murdered Hernandez and disposed of her remains.

* *has reached out to representatives for D4vd and the Hernandez family for comment.

Burke's attorneys Blair Berk, Marilyn Bednarski, and Regina Peter previously told EW,  "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. We will vigorously defend David’s innocence."

In the filing, prosecutors allege that Burke met Hernandez in January 2022 when she was 11, and that they began a sexual relationship in November 2023 when she was 13 and he was 18. They claim that text messages between Burke and Hernandez "contain references to sex, pregnancy, abortion, and use of the Plan B emergency contraceptive," and that the duo broke up in November 2024 but seemingly continued to have sex.

The prosecutors estimate that Hernandez died on April 23, 2025, alleging that the night prior, she and Burke had a heated text exchange in which she "threatened to disclose damaging information about her relationship" with him "to end his career and destroy his life" just three days before his debut studio album was set to release.

D4vd possessed 'significant amount' of child sex abuse images, prosecutor claims

Celeste Rivas Hernandez's parents break silence after D4vd's murder charge

The District Attorney's office alleges that Burke sent an Uber to transport Hernandez from her family's house in Lake Elsinore to his home in the Hollywood Hills, where he "stabbed the victim to death multiple times," claiming that "at no time did he call law enforcement or 911 or take her to an emergency room to attempt to save her life."

Prosecutors allege that Burke ordered a shovel from Home Depot the day after the alleged murder, and also later ordered two chainsaws, a body bag, "heavy-duty laundry bags," a blue inflatable pool, and a "burn cage" under a fake name as part of a "plot to dismember and dispose of the victim's body."

D4vd's mug shot.

David Crane/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty

According to the report, the LAPD allegedly discovered "evidence consistent with the dismemberment of the victim's body in the inflatable pool" at Burke's home in September 2025, including samples of DNA evidence that matched Hernandez's genetic profile in the musician's garage.

The District Attorney's office alleged that Burke drove his Tesla near the Lake Cachuma area in Santa Barbara County on April 23, 2025, and that he returned to the same spot on May 8, 2025, and May 31, 2025. A Caltrans worker allegedly found Hernandez's passport card in that same area in January 2026.

Prosecutors also claimed that Burke texted Hernandez's phone multiple times and called her once after she had already died as "acts calculated and planned to set up his defense within a very short timeline after the victim's vicious murder." They also allege that Burke never tried to contact her again after April 26, 2025.

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Authorities discovered Hernandez's dismembered remains in a Tesla registered to Burke in a Hollywood tow yard in September 2025. The musician was arrested on April 16 on suspicion of murder, and was charged with first-degree murder, continuous sexual abuse of a child under the age of 14, and unlawful mutilation of human remains on April 20. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.

Hernandez's official cause of death was announced as "multiple penetrating injuries caused by object(s)," with the manner of death listed as homicide, on April 22. The County of Los Angeles Department of Medical Examiner came to those conclusions in December 2025, but their findings were not released due to a security hold.

KTLA reported that Burke's preliminary hearing, which was originally scheduled for May 1, has been postponed to May 26 so the singer's defense team can review evidence. He will also have a status hearing on May 12.

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