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Police Give Major Update on Celeste Rivas Hernandez Case · Murder Files Unsealed

0:00
Speaker 1: Welcome to the deep dive. This week, we're really getting
0:03
into a case that just it rips the shiney ven
0:06
youear right off Hollywood. It shows you the tragedy that
0:09
can lie just beneath the surface. It's the story where
0:11
you know, viral fame, social media obsession, it all just
0:15
smashes head on into a cold case. A missing teenager
0:19
and the place they intersect. It's almost unbelievable, the front
0:22
trunk of a celebrities Tesla. Okay, let's untack this because
0:25
when you think of La, you think glamour, right, dreams, success,
0:28
all that light. But this case it really makes you
0:31
ask what happens when that sparkle hides something truly dark?
0:34
What happens when a kid, a fan reaches from that
0:37
light and just gets swallowed by the shadow.
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Speaker 2: It's brutal. And the facts here they just hit you
0:41
so fast. The timeline is hit wrap your head around.
0:44
We're talking about a discovery made just what a little
0:46
over a week ago September eighth, twenty twenty five at
0:49
the Hollywood tow yard, you know, near Mansfield Avenue, and
0:52
inside this this sleek black twenty twenty three Tesla Model three,
0:57
they find human remains badly decomposed, and those remains were
1:01
identified painstakingly. I should add as fifteen year old Celeste
1:05
Revas Fernandez. She was from down near Lake Elsinore, been
1:08
missing for seventeen months, over a year and a half
1:11
since April fifth, twenty twenty four.
1:12
Speaker 1: Seventeen months.
1:13
Speaker 2: Yeah. But the twist, the thing that blew this up nationally,
1:17
it wasn't just finding her tragically, it was the car.
1:20
It belonged to David Anthony Burke, you know him as
1:22
D four VD, the R and B star.
1:24
Speaker 1: The guy who sang Romantic Commiside.
1:27
Speaker 2: Exactly, that moody track that was everywhere. Yeah, and now
1:30
the irony is just chilling, got ranching.
1:32
Speaker 1: Really, So you've got the missing girl, the famous musician,
1:35
his car left in the Hollywood Hills. It sounds like fiction.
1:38
So today our mission is to meticulously go through everything
1:42
we know from the sources, piece it all together, from
1:45
celeste life, her disappearance, from this like quiet suburb, to
1:49
the really gruesome details of the discovery, how the singer
1:51
is connected, and these vital police updates. The latest just
1:54
came out yesterday, September.
1:55
Speaker 2: Twentieth, right, and it demands detail Yeah, we need to
1:58
go way beyond just the headlines here. And I think,
2:01
you know, if we really want to grasp the weight
2:03
of this, we can't start with the car or the star.
2:06
We have to start with her, with Celeste. Before she
2:10
was this horrifying headline. She was just a kid thirteen
2:14
years old when she vanished, full of life, apparently trying
2:17
to figure things out like any teenager.
2:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, bring her to life for us. Yep. Born March twelve,
2:21
twenty ten. Grew up in Lake Elsinore, California, which is
2:25
what about seventy miles southeast of LA itself.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, quite a distance, yeah, and a totally different world,
2:29
really quieter, less of that entertainment industry buzz.
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Speaker 1: And descriptions say. She was, you know, vibrant, kind love drawing,
2:37
washed a lot of Netflix, and crucially, she was really
2:39
into social media TikTok, especially following all the trends, the
2:42
music and that immersion.
2:44
Speaker 2: It's so key here, isn't it. Like a lot of
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kids her age, she was probably looking for connection, maybe
2:49
validation online, looking past Lake elsinor towards well towards LA,
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towards the glamour. And we know she was figuring out
2:57
her identity, exploring things, which led her to get something specific,
3:03
a phythical mark that tragically helped identify her later.
3:06
Speaker 1: Ah right tell us about that. The distinguishing feature.
3:10
Speaker 2: It was a tattoo, small delicate script on her right
3:13
index finger. Said sh yeah, huh, and the sources confirm
3:17
it wasn't random. It was inspired by Rihanna, who had
3:20
a similar one years back.
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Speaker 1: Okay, so a celebrity thing exactly.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, for a thirteen year old getting that little mark,
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it's like a connection, right, Yeah, a way to feel
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part of that world she admired from Afar. It's just
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it's such a powerful symbol of how strong that pull
3:35
of fame can be. And it's heartbreaking that it became
3:37
one of the first clues for the forensics team seventeen
3:39
months down the line.
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Speaker 1: And maybe it was that desire that pulled towards the
3:43
lights that led her away that day. Let's reconstruct April fifth,
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twenty twenty four, the day she disappeared.
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Speaker 2: Okay, so the plan that Friday afternoon, Yeah, it was
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totally normal, mundane. Even Celeste was supposed to meet her
3:55
older brother Matthew, just going to catch a movie together
3:58
at a local theater there in Lake Kelson. Standard sibling thing, right.
4:02
She texted Matthew said she was leaving the house on
4:04
her way, simple text.
4:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, but she never got there, never showed.
4:09
Speaker 2: Up, never showed up, and that missmeetup. It quickly turned
4:12
into something much worse. By evening Matthew her parents, they
4:18
couldn't reach her at all. Her phone, which you know,
4:20
for a teenager, is practically attached to them. It just
4:23
went straight to voicemail every time they.
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Speaker 1: Called that sudden silence online too complete digital silence.
4:29
Speaker 2: That was the first really big red flag. Not just
4:31
the teenager being flaky, this felt different, wrong, and.
4:34
Speaker 1: We know what she was wearing that day. Those details
4:37
often become crucial.
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Speaker 2: Absolutely forensic old. As you said, the police logged it
4:41
a tube top, black leggings, a yellow metal bracelet, and
4:44
stud earrings. Those specific items, plus that unique sh tattoo
4:50
that became the basis for the description. When the Riverside
4:52
County Sheriff's Office the RCSO, filed the missing person's report,
4:56
it turned out to be spot on when they yeah,
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when they found her.
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Speaker 1: So the CSR files the report that night, but it
5:02
sounds like the case went cold almost immediately hit dead ends.
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Speaker 2: It seems like it did. Yeah, the initial search was
5:08
definitely intense, you know, flyers everywhere, her selfie smiling, plastered online,
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local news down a Riverside County. But the leads they
5:15
got they were just vague, unconfirmed tips like, oh, I
5:19
think I saw at the mall, or maybe someone saw
5:21
a girl hitchhiking heading towards La Courts.
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Speaker 1: La. There it is again, right.
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Speaker 2: The place she seemed drawn to. But nothing solid, nothing
5:28
actionable for the police. And the really chilling part, her
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digital footprint just vanished. Her phone stopped pinging after April fifth,
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social media accounts went totally dark.
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Speaker 1: For a kid that age, that engaged online. That's not normal,
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not at all.
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Speaker 2: In modern investigations, that kind of digital blackout is often
5:45
seen as a strong indicator of foul play. It's like
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a switch being flipped off.
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Speaker 1: God. The family, the seventeen months, the waiting, the not knowing,
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it must have been absolute.
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Speaker 2: Torture, unimaginable. The sources mentioned her mother, Maria Hernandez, speaking
6:00
out a few months after she disappeared, just describing the
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constant anxiety, the sleepless nights, just wanting her daughter back home.
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The desperation. The community felt it too, Lieutenant Deirdre Vickers
6:12
from our cso she announced a ten thousand dollars reward.
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That's a pretty significant amount. They were really hoping it
6:18
would shake loose some real information.
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Speaker 1: Did that reward lead to any specific search areas?
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Speaker 2: Yeah, there are extensive volunteer searches, a lot focused on
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the Santa Scento Mountains, which are near Lake Elsinor. The
6:29
thinking was maybe she went hiking, got lost, you know,
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something closer to home.
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Speaker 1: They were looking locally.
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Speaker 2: Right, The investigation was centered there, but well, looking back
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with what we know now, maybe they should have been
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looking seventy miles northwest towards LA.
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Speaker 1: Because of that pull, that excitement you mentioned exactly.
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Speaker 2: Sources close to the family hinted that Celes was really
6:50
excited about something specific right before she vanished, maybe an opportunity,
6:54
a chance to meet someone, something that promised that brush
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with fame she seemed to crave. Friends apparently recalled her talking,
7:02
maybe whispering about some potential meetup, something pulling her towards LA.
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It's speculation, of course, but it paints this picture a
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vulnerable young girl, maybe starstruck, eager, to connect with that
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world she saw online.
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Speaker 1: And that journey, whatever it turned out to be, ended
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so horrifically a year and a half later, right in
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the heart of Hollywood.
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Speaker 2: Which brings us to September twenty twenty five. Yeah, the
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scene shifts dramatically from Lake elsinor to the Bird Streets
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up from the Hollywood Hill. And if for anyone listening
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who doesn't know the Bird Streets, this is super exclusive
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like mega mansions, celebrity hideaways, insane views, privacies everything there
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lots of short term rentals, transient wealth.
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Speaker 1: Not the kind of place you'd expect a crime scene
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like this to just sit unnoticed.
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Speaker 2: Well, that's the thing that Tesla, the car that became
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Celeste's coffin, it had been parked curbside in this ultra
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rich neighborhood for over a month, just sitting there, covered
7:57
in dust.
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Speaker 1: A month. How does that happened?
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Speaker 2: Because in a place like that, a dusty car isn't
8:02
necessarily suspicious immediately. It might just be seen as an iesore,
8:06
you know, left behind by some celebrity who ran into
8:09
place for a bit then jetted off on tour or something.
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It took neighbors complaining repeatedly about this abandoned car before
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the LAPD finally.
8:17
Speaker 1: Tagged it, so it was towed for parking violations, not
8:20
because anyone suspected anything sinister.
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Speaker 2: Exactly purely administrative. LAPD toad it on September sixth for
8:26
breaking parking rules and.
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Speaker 1: Took it to the Hollywood Toe impound lot near Remain Street.
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Speaker 2: Correct huge lot cars everywhere, and it sat there for
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a couple more days until September eighth. That's when the
8:37
reality finally broke through.
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Speaker 1: The moment of discovery. It must have been just a shock. Yeah.
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The sources described this veteran tow yard worker, Javier Ruiz,
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He's doing paperwork, routine stuff, and he smells this god
8:50
awful odor coming from the tesla. He described it really graphically,
8:53
didn't he.
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Speaker 2: He did said it smelled like roadkill mixed with chemicals, unmistakable,
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just horrific. That smell led him straight to the front the.
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Speaker 1: Front trunk right. Teslas have storage.
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Speaker 2: There, exactly where an engine would normally be. An inside
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he finds this large black plastic bag and the description
9:12
is grim bloated leaking some kind of dark, thick fluid
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onto the tesla's carpet. The staff knew immediately this was serious.
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They backed off, called nine one one right away around
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twelve to twenty.
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Speaker 1: Pm, so LAPD arrives forensics. The whole scene descends on
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the towyard.
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Speaker 2: Full protective gear. They confirmed remains inside the bag severely decomposed,
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look like a young female mid teens based on the
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skeleton and that decomposition. It immediately made everything harder.
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Speaker 1: But even with the decomposition, they managed to identify her
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relatively quickly because of those details from the missing Persons report.
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Speaker 2: Yes, that initial idea was based on the physical evidence
9:48
found with her. The black leggings, the tube top, that
9:51
yellow bracelet. It all matched the file from Riverside County.
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But the clincher, the really undeniable link, was that tattoo,
10:00
the sh script on her right index.
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Speaker 1: Finger, the Rihanna inspired tattoo.
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Speaker 2: The very same one. Dental radiographs provided the final official
10:08
confirmation on September seventeenth. It was Celest Revos Hernandez. The
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seventeen month mystery of where she was tragically solved, replaced
10:17
instantly by the question of what happened.
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Speaker 1: And the medical examiner what could they determine about the
10:21
timing that's crucial.
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Speaker 2: They concluded she'd been deceased for weeks or months, which
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places her time of death sometime after she disappeared in
10:28
April twenty twenty four, but likely well before the car
10:31
was discovered in September twenty twenty five. But here's something
10:34
important for listeners to understand. The cause and manner of
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death were deferred.
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Speaker 1: Deferred. Why does that happen? What does it mean?
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Speaker 2: It means they need more time advanced decomposition like in
10:44
this case, it destroys a lot of evidence. It makes
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it really hard to see physical trauma like bruises or
10:49
stab wounds. It also complicates toxicology tests. Figuring out if
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drugs or poisons were involved takes much longer, so they
10:56
defer while they do more detailed analysis, maybe microscopic exams,
11:00
looking for subtle clues. But the manner, the wish She
11:04
was found bagged and hidden in the car's front that
11:08
screens foul play. That wasn't natural, that was an.
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Speaker 1: Accident, right, And the moment that idea was confirmed, this
11:13
already awful homicide case just exploded as the car's owner.
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Speaker 2: Instantly vehicle registration checks her fast came back to David
11:20
Anthony Burke D four VD. He's only twenty, a huge
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digital star. His whole brand is built on this kind
11:25
of raw, emotional, maybe even melancholic vibe and suddenly, his name,
11:30
his car, it's tangled up in the gruesome death of
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a teenage girl, a fan.
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Speaker 1: We should probably talk about D four vd's rise, because
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that fame, that visibility, that's likely how Celeste even knew
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who he was. It shapes everything about how people see
11:42
this case absolutely.
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Speaker 2: David Anthony Burke born in Brooklyn, grew up in Houston,
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and his start wasn't music. Interestingly, it was gaming. He
11:51
was like seventeen, streaming Fortnite on YouTube and Twitch, pretty
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standard stuff for a teenager.
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Speaker 1: Then, so how did he get into music?
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Speaker 2: That's a very gen Z story. During the pandemic, Stuck
12:02
at home, he started messing around, making these raw, low
12:05
fi demos, just uploading them a SoundCloud, not polished but authentic,
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blending R and B indie rock sounds, electronic stuff.
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Speaker 1: Yeh caught on big time.
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Speaker 2: One track in particular, Romantic Homicide, released in twenty twenty two.
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It just went viral, especially on TikTok. Suddenly this kid
12:22
making music in his bedroom is an international name, millions
12:26
of Spotify listeners like over thirty three million a month.
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He gets signed to Interscope Records, a huge label. He's
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collaborating with cool indie artists like deb Never, he's opening
12:34
for massive stars like Sza.
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Speaker 1: Wow.
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Speaker 2: That's a meteoric rise totally, and that kind of success
12:39
means you need to be in places like La, even
12:41
if you're from Houston. It puts him physically in the
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orbit of someone like Celeste, a starstruck fan from just
12:46
outside the city.
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Speaker 1: Okay, so we have the star, we have his car.
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How do the police connect the two in terms of location?
12:54
Why was his Tesla sitting there in the hills for weeks?
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Speaker 2: Police sources clarified that quickly. The car wasn't just randomly
13:02
dumped in the bird streets. It was abandoned near a
13:04
specific house and place DFAVD was renting, described as a
13:07
crash pad or a sublet on doheeny place?
13:10
Speaker 1: A rental so not his permanent home.
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Speaker 2: Right sounds like a massive, modern place, probably high security,
13:17
the kind of temporary spot celebrities use when they're in
13:19
LA for work or touring, and neighbors confirmed it the
13:22
Tesla had been parked right near there since about mid August,
13:25
almost a month before got towed, and it.
13:27
Speaker 1: Was unlocked, windows cracked.
13:29
Speaker 2: That's what the reports say. Yeah, which is weird, right.
13:32
Either someone left in a huge hurry or they just
13:33
didn't care. Willful negligence maybe. Police also confirmed DFAVD had
13:38
stayed at that specific rental property off and on before
13:41
he kicked off his Big Withered World tour back in July.
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Speaker 1: Okay, so the timeline this is critical.
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Speaker 2: Absolutely crucial. The emmy thinks she died sometime after April
13:49
twenty twenty four. The car is abandoned near his rental
13:52
in mid August twenty twenty five. He had access to
13:55
that property before he went on tour in July. So
13:57
even if she died much earlier, the car connects geographically
14:00
to the location the Bird Streets during a relevant timeframe,
14:04
the period when the car containing her body was left there.
14:07
Speaker 1: The timing is tight, and the public reaction once Celeste
14:10
was identified on the seventeenth and the car linked to him,
14:14
it must.
14:14
Speaker 2: Have been immediate, instantaneous. He was actually on tour. He
14:18
canceled his Seattle show that same day September seventeenth. The
14:21
official reason was unforeseen circumstances, pretty standard crisis pr language.
14:26
Speaker 1: And his team put out a statement.
14:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, his representative said D four VD was fully cooperating
14:31
with the authorities and that he was devastated by the news.
14:34
You can bet the lawyers were working overtime the second
14:36
that car registration hit the news.
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Speaker 1: But the tour continued.
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Speaker 2: Duringly Yes, it resumed just two days later, September nineteenth
14:44
in San Francisco, and the sources described this really uncomfortable
14:48
atmosphere at the show. Fans were there, but people were
14:52
whispering about the case. Apparently some were even chanting lyrics
14:55
from his songs, lyrics that now sound incredibly disturbing.
14:59
Speaker 1: In this that's Micawber, the intersection of true crime, fandom
15:03
and music celebrity.
15:04
Speaker 2: It's a really unsettling phenomena. He's up there performing fulfilling contracts,
15:09
but his art, his whole persona, is completely overshadowed, maybe
15:13
even tainted, by what was found.
15:15
Speaker 1: In his car, Which brings us to maybe the most
15:17
chilling part of this whole thing, the specific links, the
15:20
connections between D four VD and Celeste that go way
15:23
beyond just him owning the car. These details suggest, well,
15:26
they suggest something much more personal exactly.
15:29
Speaker 2: This is where the investigation pivots hard. The first confirmation
15:32
came from Celeste's own brother, Matthew. He spoke to NBC
15:35
Los Angeles and he was clear she knew him. She
15:38
was a huge fan.
15:39
Speaker 1: Okay, so it wasn't just random admiration from Afar.
15:42
Speaker 2: She knew him, That's what Matthew says, which immediately opens
15:45
up the possibility of direct contact, maybe online messages, maybe
15:48
something else. It makes that potential trip from Lake Elson
15:52
or to LA seem less like a vague hope and
15:55
more like maybe a planned meeting.
15:57
Speaker 1: And then there was actual proof they'd met.
15:59
Speaker 2: Yep MS dug it up. Of course. Photos from early
16:02
twenty twenty four, this is before Celeste disappeared. The photos
16:05
show Celeste and D four VD together at what's described
16:09
as a low key house party somewhere in LA. There's
16:12
reportedly a group shot where Celeste is right near him
16:14
looking thrilled, starstruck.
16:17
Speaker 1: Wow. Okay, so that closes the loop. The thirteen year
16:20
old from the Suburbs was definitely in the same room
16:22
as the R and B Star months before she vanished.
16:24
Speaker 2: It confirms a real world interaction. But then there's the
16:27
other link, the one that's just incredibly bizarre and visually powerful.
16:31
The tattoos.
16:32
Speaker 1: Right, we mentioned Celeste's tattoo on her right index finger,
16:35
the one that helped identify her.
16:36
Speaker 2: Well D four VD has the exact same tattoo, same script,
16:39
sh same location, right index finger.
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Speaker 1: Identical.
16:42
Speaker 2: Seriously, it's identical, and the autopsy reports specifically noted this detail,
16:47
which is unusual for such a sterile document, but the
16:50
significance is obvious. Think about the odds. A famous musician
16:54
and a young fan tragically connected by her death and
16:58
they share the exact same, fairly distinctive tattoo on the
17:02
exact same finger.
17:04
Speaker 1: It almost feels like a sign or a secret.
17:08
Speaker 2: It points towards something deliberate, doesn't It Either a horrifying
17:10
coincidence which seems statistically tiny, or it represents some kind
17:15
of shared symbol, a bond. They formed, a secret, they
17:18
kept something from those earlier interactions.
17:20
Speaker 1: So many questions there. Did she get it because he
17:23
had it like hero worship, or did he get it
17:25
maybe related to her, or did they get them together?
17:28
It completely changes the dynamic from just star and fan
17:30
to something much more entangled.
17:32
Speaker 2: It absolutely does. It suggests a level of personal connection
17:35
that deeply unsettling given what happened. And if that wasn't
17:37
disturbing enough, let me get to the music. Ah, the
17:41
leak track, the leaked track, This might be the most
17:44
chilling piece of circumstantial evidence floating around. Back in December
17:48
twenty twenty three, again, this is before celest disappeared, a
17:51
track surfaced briefly on SoundCloud. It was titled Celested Demo
17:55
unfin credited to D four VD. It got taken down fast,
17:59
but you know the internet, nothing truly disappears. It was saved, archived,
18:03
and now it's back out there.
18:05
Speaker 1: And the lyrics.
18:05
Speaker 2: The lyrics are well read in the context of Celestrievus
18:08
Fernandez's death. They are incredibly specific and disturbing, even if
18:13
legally no one's confirmed there about her. The first verse
18:16
includes lines like oh, Celeste, the girl with my name
18:20
tattooed on her chest, smell her all my clothes like cigarettes,
18:23
I hear her voice each time I take a breath.
18:25
Speaker 1: I'm obsessed hang on the girl with my name tattooed
18:28
on her chest. And the track is titled Celeste. That's specificity.
18:32
It's hard to ignore.
18:33
Speaker 2: It's almost impossible to dismiss as just artistic license, especially
18:36
with the name match. And then the second verse takes
18:38
a darker turn. It goes afraid you'll only love me
18:40
when undressed, but you look so damn gorgeous in that dress.
18:44
Missing you so much makes me depressed.
18:46
Speaker 1: Wow, okay, that paints a picture of intimacy, possession, maybe manipulation.
18:53
And this was circulating before she.
18:55
Speaker 2: Vanished, months before the rediscovery and leaking of this track
18:59
online and again it caused an absolute firestorm.
19:03
Speaker 1: Isn't that what happened?
19:04
Speaker 2: Social media just exploded. Hashtag defour vd celsts started trending globally.
19:08
You had this toxic mix online, people trying to solve
19:12
the case themselves, genuine outrage, conspiracy theories, grief all scrolling together,
19:17
and crucially, defour VDS team hasn't confirmed or denied who
19:20
the song is about, which just leaves this vacuum and
19:23
people are rushing to fill it with their own conclusions.
19:25
Speaker 1: But legally, can song lyrics actually be used as evidence
19:29
in a murder case?
19:30
Speaker 2: That's a really important distinction. Lyrics alone almost never prove
19:33
a crime You can't convict someone just based on a
19:35
song they wrote, but they can absolutely guide an investigation.
19:38
They can suggest motive, obsession, the nature of a relationship.
19:41
They give forensic teams specific things to look for an emails, text, dms,
19:45
Did he use similar language? Did he express similar sentiments privately?
19:48
Speaker 1: So it's context circumstantial evidence, not direct proof, but it
19:54
provides a potential narrative for investigators to explore exactly.
19:57
Speaker 2: It frames the search, which brings us right up to
20:00
date to the big police update from this past week.
20:03
It shows this investigation isn't just looking anymore, it's actively targeting.
20:07
Speaker 1: And the fact that the LAPD's Robbery Homicide Division RhD
20:11
is involved that tells you how seriously they're taking this.
20:15
Speaker 2: Oh absolutely, RhD handles the toughest, most complex, often high
20:19
profile cases in LA. They're involvement signals this is top
20:22
priority and they're working with the original agency RCSO from
20:26
Riverside County, which makes sense given where Celeste disappeared from
20:29
versus where she was found. It's a cross jurisdictional nightmare.
20:33
Speaker 1: And the big news was the search warrant.
20:35
Speaker 2: Huge news. On September nineteenth, word got out that RhD
20:38
detectives had executed a search warrant the day before September eighteenth.
20:42
And where did they search that rental house in the
20:44
Hollywood Hills, the Dawhani Place crash pad where d FERVEDI
20:48
had been staying near where the car was abandoned.
20:50
Speaker 1: That's a major step. You need probable cause to get
20:53
a warrant like that, especially for a celebrities residence.
20:56
Speaker 2: Definitely, they had to convince a judge there was a
20:57
strong likelihood of finding evidence related to Celeste homicide inside
21:02
that property.
21:03
Speaker 1: And what did they find? What came out of that search?
21:05
Speaker 2: They took out numerous evidence bags. The reports mentioned specific
21:09
items a laptop, several hard drives, some clothing items and
21:14
critically what source is called potential blood.
21:17
Speaker 1: Evidence blood evidence, okay, and the laptop, the hard drives.
21:21
They're looking for digital footprints.
21:23
Speaker 2: That's the primary goal with the electronics digital forensics, and
21:26
this isn't just reading emails, it's deep diving. They'll be
21:29
looking for metadata, trying to recover deleted texts, searching social
21:33
media dms, maybe looking for burner accounts, tracing IP addresses,
21:37
trying to reconstruct every communication, every digital link between D
21:41
four VD and Celeste, especially around April twenty twenty four,
21:44
where message is deleted with their an attempt to cover tracks.
21:47
They need that digital proof to connect him directly to
21:50
her final days or hours.
21:51
Speaker 1: They need to establish that timeline definitively, prove the connection
21:54
went beyond just meeting at a party show maybe coercion
21:58
luring precisely.
22:00
Speaker 2: And they're also trying to nail down his physical location
22:03
back in April twenty twenty four. Was he definitely touring
22:06
somewhere else or was there a window of opportunity when
22:10
he could have been in southern California that car abandoned
22:13
near his rental. That's a huge anchor tying him to
22:17
the location where her body was likely kept, even if
22:20
the murder happened elsewhere or earlier. It's powerful, circumstantial evidence.
22:24
Speaker 1: But even with this rate, there are still big unanswered
22:28
questions right things the public doesn't know yet.
22:30
Speaker 2: Oh absolutely. The biggest, as we said, is the official
22:33
cause and manner of death still deferred by the EMMY. Now,
22:37
there have been some whispers on confirmed rumors maybe about
22:40
drugs being involved, suggesting Celeste might have overdosed at a
22:43
party or something, but that's pure speculation. At this point,
22:46
the LAPD is clear. They're treating this as a homicide
22:49
unless evidence proves otherwise.
22:51
Speaker 1: And that's the standard procedure, assume foul play until you
22:54
can rule it out exactly.
22:56
Speaker 2: So, now, alongside the digital deep dive, it's back to basics,
23:00
painstaking detective work. They'll be scrubbing through hours and hours
23:04
of any CCTV footage they can get from the bird streets,
23:07
which is tough, it's a very private area. They'll be
23:09
reinterviewing towyard staff, neighbors near the rental, anyone who.
23:13
Speaker 1: Saw anything, and checking his alibi.
23:15
Speaker 2: Meticulously verifying every detail of his tour schedule, travel receipts,
23:19
flight logs for the spring of twenty twenty four. If
23:22
his team can prove without a doubt that he was
23:24
physically somewhere else whence Less vanished, the entire case shifts.
23:28
But until or unless that happens WELLLPD Chief Michelle Moore
23:32
made a public statement. He confirmed the homicide investigation is
23:35
active and urge anyone with information to call their dedicated hotline.
23:39
Every tip matters.
23:40
Speaker 1: Now, and for Celeste family, this past week must have
23:42
been just a whirlwind of pain going from seventeen months
23:45
of desperate hope to form.
23:46
Speaker 2: It's impossible to truly comprehend that agonizing uncertainty finally ends,
23:51
but it's replaced by this horrific certainty. The closure comes
23:54
at the highest possible cost, But the community, especially back
23:58
in Lake Elsinore, has really rallied around them. They started
24:01
to go fund me on September seventeenth help lay Celeste
24:04
Raves Hernandez to rest. Reports say it raised over fifty
24:08
thousand dollars almost immediately, just shows how much people cared.
24:12
Speaker 1: And her mother spoke again.
24:13
Speaker 2: Maria Hernandiez did her statement after the identification just captured
24:17
the awful paradox of it all. She says something like,
24:20
we finally have closure, but the why haunts us. Justice
24:23
for Celest, that's all we ask.
24:25
Speaker 1: The why, Yeah, that's the question. Now they know what
24:27
happened roughly where, but why and who exactly?
24:31
Speaker 2: The focus shifts.
24:31
Speaker 1: Entirely in this case. It feels like it's becoming bigger
24:34
than just a crime story. It's tapping into these broader
24:37
anxieties about fame, social media, teenage vulnerability.
24:40
Speaker 2: It really is. Back in Lake Elsinor, you're seeing vigils,
24:44
murals of celest going up, a real community outpouring and
24:48
advocacy groups are definitely using this as a cautionary tale.
24:51
The National Center for Missing It Exploited Children is talking
24:54
about the dangers online, how teens can be drawn in,
24:57
maybe lured by these online personas, by their idols, believing
25:02
they can actually connect.
25:03
Speaker 1: There's that quote from a family friend.
25:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, really poigt it something like Celestia starstruck, Like so
25:09
many girls her age, she just wanted to feel seen.
25:12
And that just it hits hard. The tragedy of seeking
25:15
connection and finding danger.
25:17
Speaker 1: Instead, and the impact on Defervidi himself professionally, personally.
25:21
Speaker 2: It's a strange, very modern mix. His public image is
25:23
obviously taking a massive hit. Sponsors like Spotify have reportedly
25:26
paused ads running with his music because of the scandal.
25:29
Radio play might dip, and this is the really bizarre part.
25:33
His album sales and streams have actually spiked. There's this
25:36
more big curiosity factor. People want to listen to the music,
25:39
maybe look for clues, even if it feels deeply wrong.
25:42
It creates this awful tenshion between tragedy and commerce.
25:45
Speaker 1: That tension is playing out online too, I imagine definitely
25:48
Reddit x.
25:49
Speaker 2: They're flooded with fan theories, arguments, speculation. His team keeps
25:55
saying he's cooperating, fully framing him as young caught up
25:58
in a nightmare. But when you stack it all up,
26:01
the creepy lyrics in that demo, the identical tattoo, his
26:04
car being the place she was found, the court of
26:07
public opinion often reaches a verdict long before the legal
26:09
system does, rightly or wrongly.
26:12
Speaker 1: So wrapping up this deep dive, we've laid out the
26:15
facts as we have them from the sources. It's a
26:17
devastating picture. The shocking discovery of Celest's body hidden away
26:21
in the front of that tesla, abandoned in the Hollywood Hills,
26:24
The chilling specific connections between her, the young victim and
26:27
D four VD, the rising Army star that shared pattoo,
26:31
the leaked song with her name, and the an investigation
26:33
now clearly zering in with RhD involved, the search warrant executed,
26:37
the hunt for digital and physical evidence in that Hollywood
26:39
Hills rent hole.
26:40
Speaker 2: What's really compelling and deeply disturbing here is how fast
26:43
that fantasy of fame seems to have curdled into a
26:46
fatal reality for Celeste, her reaching out for connection, for
26:49
the light of celebrity, it led her into this darkness,
26:53
and the tragedy demands that the focus days on the evidence,
26:55
on following those digital breadcrumbs, analyzing what was found in
26:59
that house. We know the horrifying what and where, but
27:03
the why, the motive, and crucially the who who put
27:06
her in that car that's still buried somewhere in the
27:08
shadows of Tinseltown. Maybe the final thought for you listening
27:11
is this, in our world now, where digital thing seems
27:15
to offer instant access, instant connection, how thin is the
27:18
line between the carefully crafted image of celebrity projects and
27:22
the potentially dangerous reality hidden behind it,