A day before accused murderer D4vd is due back in court, precise and disturbing details of how teen Celeste Rivas Hernandez was killed last year were revealed Wednesday by the L.A. County Medical Examiner.
“Autopsy examination was limited by extensive postmortem changes,” states the December 9, 2025 completed report from Deputy Medical Examiner Dr. Ansel Nam. Last seen at the Hollywood Hills home of D4vd (AKA David Anthony Burke ) in April 2025, the 14-year-old’s mutilated and hacked-up body was discovered last September rotting in the trunk of a Tesla registered to the “Romantic Homicide” singer that had been hauled to a Los Angeles tow yard.
The just unsealed autopsy outlines what LAPD cops, medical examiners and others saw when the trunk was opened. “The descendant was wearing a discolored tube top, shirt, discolored underwear, black leggings and black socks,” the document details. “The shirt appeared to have three cut artifacts. The leggings were cut around the knees with the upper portion on the torso and the lower portions rolled down to both ankles and the feet at the cut site of the right leg attached to the torso, there were small blue plastic pieces. Also the legs and arms from the trash bag had small blue plastic pieces at the cut site.” The next line, as you can see on the vivid report itself here, is redacted.
(L-R) Defense attorneys Blair Berk, D4vd (center) & Marilyn Bednarski at the singer’s April 20, 2026 arraignment for the murder of Celeste Rivas Hernandez
Now up against first-degree murder and continuous sexual abuse charges with possibility of the death penalty over the dismembered killing of the teen, D4Vd was arrested last week.
In an April 20 arraignment, his defense team entered a not guilty plea. With some barbed back and forth with prosecutors, the lawyers also asked for, and were granted a quick preliminary evidentiary hearing. D4vd remains behind bars without bail in downtown L.A., awaiting Thursday’s hearing at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center. Additionally, in the hearing earlier this week, L.A. Superior Court Judge Theresa McGonigle ordered the medical examiner’s grisly report unsealed. It was made public late Wednesday morning.
“There are two penetrating wounds of the torso with smooth edges that may represent sharp force injuries,” the 26-page death investigation says. “The wound on the upper abdomen penetrates the liver, and the wound on the left chest penetrates one of the left intercostal spaces with disruption of the adjacent ribs, confecal surfaces. The left lung appears intact.”
It goes on to say: “Given the history and circumstances as currently known by me in the setting of the findings by examination, ancillary studies, and in the absence of other definitive causes of death, the cause of death is multiple penetrating injuries. The manner of death is classified as homicide.”
L.A. County DA Nathan Hochman has said he and his office have not yet determined if they will take the rare-in-California step of seeking the death penalty agains D4vd, or if they will go for life without parole.
Denise Petski contributed to this report