Topline
Singer D4vd scrapped the final dates of his North American concert tour and balked on a previously planned album release scheduled for Friday as the Los Angeles Police Department investigates a dead body that was found in a car registered to the singer last week, who has since been identified as a teenage girl who went missing last year.
D4vd has not commented on the ongoing investigation, and police have not accused him of wrongdoing. (Photo by Timothy Norris/Getty Images for Coachella)
Getty Images for Coachella
Key Facts
D4vd’s San Francisco concert scheduled for Friday night is cancelled, according to the venue’s website, and two performances in Los Angeles—one Saturday night at the Greek Theatre, and one Wednesday at the GRAMMY Museum—are no longer listed on the venue websites.
The 20-year-old singer, whose real name is David Anthony Burke, had previously announced a deluxe edition of his album “Withered” would release on Friday, though it has not appeared on streaming services.
Tickets for many of Burke’s European tour dates, scheduled for the fall, are listed as cancelled on Ticketmaster.
The singer has not commented since Los Angeles police found a decomposing body in a Tesla vehicle registered to Burke last week, which sparked a firestorm on social media, though the singer’s representatives have confirmed to multiple media outlets he is cooperating with authorities.
The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the body Wednesday as that of Celeste Rivas, a 15-year-old girl who was reported missing from Lake Elsinore, a town situated southeast of Los Angeles, in April 2024.
It’s unclear how Rivas came to be in the vehicle, and the Los Angeles Police Department has not accused Burke of wrongdoing or identified any other suspect as part of their investigation, though police are investigating her death as a homicide.
What’s The Latest On The Investigation?
The Los Angeles Police Department confirmed to Forbes officers searched a home on Doheny Place in Los Angeles on Thursday as part of the investigation, where they recovered several items that will be analyzed as evidence, though police declined to comment on what the items were. Law enforcement sources told the Los Angeles Times Burke had been living in the home. The search comes more than a week after police responded to reports of a foul odor coming from a vehicle in a tow yard on Sept. 8, the LAPD confirmed to Forbes. Police found human remains in the car, which multiple reports say is registered under Burke’s name. Fox 11 Los Angeles reported the vehicle was impounded at Hollywood Tow, where workers noticed the foul smell, and that the body was found wrapped in a bag. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s office identified the body as Rivas and listed her cause of death as “deferred.” The medical examiner’s office said in a statement her body was found “severely decomposed” and “appears to have been deceased inside the vehicle for an extended period of time before being found.” The Los Angeles Times reported, citing the medical examiner, that Rivas had a tattoo on her index finder that said “Shhh…” and noted multiple recent pictures of Burke depict him with a similar tattoo on his finger that also says “Shhh.”
How Has Rivas’s Family Reacted?
Gisel Vera, a relative of Rivas, told the Los Angeles Times her family has no comment on the case, though she confirmed her family launched a GoFundMe to raise funds for Rivas’s funeral. The GoFundMe page says Rivas’s family is “heartbroken and devastated by this tragic loss” and called Rivas a “beloved daughter, sister, cousin, and friend.”
Who Is D4vd?
Burke achieved fame in recent years with several viral songs on TikTok. His first few songs to hit the U.S. charts were “Here With Me” and “Romantic Homicide,” both released in 2022. Both songs now have more than 1.5 billion streams each on Spotify, where Burke has 35 million monthly listeners. Burke signed to Interscope Records shortly after the success of his TikTok-viral songs, and he achieved further fame opening for SZA during her “SOS Tour” in 2023. The singer released his debut album, “Withered,” in April, which peaked at No. 13 on the U.S. albums chart. Burke performed at the Coachella music festival in April, where he went viral for attempting and failing at a backflip.
How Has Social Media Reacted To The Investigation?
The case has gone viral online, with many users scrutinizing Burke’s song lyrics. His biggest hit, “Romantic Homicide,” surged from No. 76 to No. 13 on the U.S. Spotify chart Thursday. In the song, Burke sings: “In the back of my mind I killed you/ And I didn’t even regret it, I can’t believe I said it / But it’s true.” In an interview with Genius in 2022, Burke said the lyrics are figurative. “I didn’t kill her physically, but in the back of my mind, she died,” Burke said. TMZ also claimed in a report Wednesday a leaked demo of an unreleased Burke song refers to someone named Celeste.
Further Reading
Celeste Rivas, 15, went missing a year ago. She was found dead in singer D4vd’s Tesla in the Hollywood Hills (Los Angeles Times)
D4vd Linked to House Blocks From Where Tesla With Body Inside Was Towed (Rolling Stone)