Latest / Murder Files Unsealed / Celeste Rivas Case - Private Investigator Questions Circumstances of Teen’s Death in D4vd’s Tesla

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Celeste Rivas Case - Private Investigator Questions Circumstances of Teen’s Death in D4vd’s Tesla · Murder Files Unsealed

0:00
Speaker 1: Okay, we are jumping right into a case today that
0:03
honestly it feels less like reality and more like something
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out of a I don't know, a really dark movie script.
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Speaker 2: It really does.
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Speaker 1: You've got this rising pop star, a luxury car, just
0:13
abandon this mysterious trunk, and then a discovery.
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Speaker 2: Well it's so shocking. You just completely derailed a massive
0:20
world tour almost overnight. Yeah.
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Speaker 1: And what makes this case I think so gripping and
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frankly so disturbing, is that collision fame meeting just profound tragedy.
0:30
So today we're really going to dig into the sources
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we have detailing the death of fifteen year old so
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lestreevas Hernandez Right and the investigation which is incredibly complex,
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surrounding the Tesla Model X registered to the singer D
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four VD, his real name being David Anthony Burke.
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Speaker 2: And our goal here, our mission, it's really important. We
0:49
need to try and move past just the headlines, you know,
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the social needs media frenzy.
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Speaker 1: We're pulling together the sources to try and understand this
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whole interplay, the celebrity angle, sure, but also the huge
1:00
investigative hurdles the LAPD are facing and critically, the scientific problems,
1:06
the roadblocks that extreme decomposition creates, especially in such a
1:11
strange place.
1:12
Speaker 2: And we should probably lay out the core facts right
1:14
away because they really set the stage for just how
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deep this mystery goes. The body of Celeste and this
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is grim, severely decomposed, dismembered. It was found wrapped in
1:25
a black bag, yeah, inside the front trunk, the front
1:28
of the singer's tesla. This is back in September twenty
1:32
twenty five. And well, that fact alone just instantly shifts
1:35
everything from a missing person's case to this huge criminal
1:38
investigation under a global microscope.
1:40
Speaker 1: Okay, let's unpack this then, because this case, it really
1:43
feels like it's defined more by the questions it throws
1:45
up than any solid answers. The evidence is giving us right, absolutely,
1:48
So let's start with the victim, celest reeve Us Hernandez,
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her tragically short life and the timeline of her disappearance.
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It really shows the vulnerability at the heart of this
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whole story.
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Speaker 2: It does. She was just fifteen. She was discovered living
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in Lake Elsinore down at Riverside County, and the sources,
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as we've looked at, they paint this picture of well,
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significant instability long before this final tragedy. Oh so well,
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the background is really vital here. She was actually first
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reported missing way back in April twenty twenty four. She
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was only thirteen then wow, thirteen, Yeah, and it wasn't
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just a one off thing. The police records we've managed
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to analyze, they show something like eleven different visits Riverside
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County deputies going to the home between February twenty twenty
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four and April twenty.
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Speaker 3: Twenty five, eleven times.
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Speaker 2: Eleven times, all related to family issues, her running away repeatedly.
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So this level of instability tells you she was already
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kind of operating outside the usual safety nets, you know,
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which makes anyone incredibly vulnerable exploitation, to dangerous situations, anything.
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Speaker 1: And that timeline for her final disappearance, it's just huge
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and it must be so frustrating for investigators. Her last
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known contact, based on sources close to the family, was
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sometime in early July twenty twenty five. That means she
3:00
could have been dead for what weeks, maybe even two
3:04
months before they found her in September exactly.
3:06
Speaker 2: That's a massive window.
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Speaker 1: And the discovery itself, it all started with this, this
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high end electric car just sitting there on a street
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in the Hollywood Hill is a pretty upscale area.
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Speaker 2: That's right. The vehicle, the twenty twenty three Tesla Model X,
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registered directly to D four VD. And the timeline of
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when it was left there, that's key to figuring out
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how long the body might have been hidden. Okay, sources
3:29
say the car was abandoned in the Hollywood Hills since
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at least August twenty sixth, twenty twenty five. It wasn't
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like immediately obvious something was wrong, but it started racking
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up barking tickets ordnance violations. We know it got tickets
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is latest September.
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Speaker 1: Third, So it's sitting there for days getting ticket Yeah,
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and it was.
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Speaker 2: Finally towed by the city on September fifth.
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Speaker 1: But hang on, if it's sitting in a residential neighborhood
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for you know, over a week, getting tickets, why didn't
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anyone notice neighbors parking enforcement? Surely there must have been
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an awful smell.
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Speaker 2: That is the central question, isn't it. It's something the
4:02
private investigator Steve Fisher really zeroed in on. And we
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have to consider the science here. The potential factors like
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the heat exactly so the California in August, the heat
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is relentless, and inside a sealed car, especially a dark one,
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maybe it basically becomes an oven. It massively speeds up decomposition. However,
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and this is the potential explanation. The body was wrapped
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in a heavy black bag and it was in the front,
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the front trunk, which is maybe a bit more insulated
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than the main trunk, So it's possible the smell was
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contained just enough for long enough that wasn't immediately obvious
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on the street. Maybe the bag, the seal on the front,
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it held it in until things got really advanced. It
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wasn't until September eighth, so three days after it arrived
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at the tow yard, sitting still, that's when the employees
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noticed this over powering odor, and that forced them to
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open the trunk.
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Speaker 1: And what they found was just horrific. The body severely
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decomposed dismember, weighing only seventy one pounds. Identification must have
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been incredibly difficult.
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Speaker 2: Extremely but there was one crucial piece of physical evidence,
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something that just blew the case wide open instantly.
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Speaker 3: The tattoo.
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Speaker 2: The tattoo that distinctive sh tattoo on her right index
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finger h It immediately matched an identical, very specific tattoo
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that D four VD himself has. And that single detail,
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that physical mark, it just collapsed the distance, didn't it,
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Between this unidentified victim and this very famous celebrity. Suddenly
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it's not just some anonymous tragedy. It's a full blown scandal.
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Speaker 1: It's chilling, really, how one tiny thing provides that critical
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link when almost everything else is just obscured by time
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and decay.
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Speaker 2: It really is. And that same intense heat we talked
5:48
about the thing that might explain why the odor wasn't
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noticed right away. That's also the very reason the medical
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examiner is facing such a monumental task.
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Speaker 1: Now right because the heat caused the decay, which hides
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the cause of death precisely.
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Speaker 2: That accelerated decay inside that essentially metal box. That's what
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forensic scientists call a major post mortemart effect. It complicates
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every single step of the investigation from that point on,
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especially trying to figure out how she died.
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Speaker 1: So the victims identified the tesla is linked to D
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four VD. Naturally, the spotlight swings right onto him. David
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Anthony Burke twenty years old career just exploding with these
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huge viral hits, and it's hard not to think about
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song titles like Romantic Homicide Now Looking Back fuels unsettling.
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Speaker 2: Deeply unsettling, and the immediate aftermath so like watching a
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textbook case of high stakes crisis management unfold. Oh so well.
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DSFOURVD was right in the middle of his Withered World
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tour when the news brook and the sources confirm he
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acted fast, canceled several big shows San Francisco, La included,
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and he immediately vacated that Hollywood Hills rental home the
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one year where the car was found abandoned.
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Speaker 3: So not just pausing the tour, but like.
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Speaker 2: Retreating a hard stop and retreat exactly.
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Speaker 1: And then the legal response, also very fast, very public.
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He hires Blair Burke. Now, for anyone listening who maybe
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doesn't follow celebrity legal dramas, why is hiring someone like
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Blair birk such a big signal like massive damage control
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even before any charges are actually filed.
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Speaker 2: It signals a very clear, very robust, preemptive strategy. Blair
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Burke has a reputation for defending really high profile clients
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in the incredibly complex, very sensitive situations where it's not
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just about potential criminal charges but also reputation, other legal issues,
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statutory problems. Okay, so hiring her immediately sends two messages.
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One the client is absolutely not talking to the police
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without counsel, period, and two they are gearing up to
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defend against whatever might be coming next, whether that's just
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a misdemeanor for concealing a body or potentially much more
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serious things like the statutory issues around his relationship with Celeste,
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given she was a minor.
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Speaker 1: And the police, the LPD Robbery Homicide Division. They moved
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quickly too, search warrant on the rental property, seizing electronics,
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other items. But here's the bit that seems to confuse people.
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The critical legal point, the official stance is that this
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is still a death investigation. It's not technically classified as
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a homicide investigation yet.
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Speaker 2: And that's the legal bottleneck. It's slowing everything down. Yeah,
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LAPD Captain Scott A. M. Williams, he confirmed celest had
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been dead for several weeks. We know that much. But
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the La County Medical Examiner's Office they've deferred the cause
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and manner.
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Speaker 1: Of death deferred, meaning what exactly you.
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Speaker 2: Mean they can't say how she died or why she
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died definitively, not yet. They're waiting on toxicology results, other
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advanced forensic tests, and those can take months, especially with
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remains in this condition.
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Speaker 3: So, okay, help me understand this.
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Speaker 1: The police find a body wrapped up, dismembered, and a
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car registered to a celebrity. He cancels this tour lawyers
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up immediately. Why can't they just call it murder? It
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seems obvious, something terrible happened.
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Speaker 2: It does seem obvious, but the legal standard is incredibly strict.
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For it to be classified as a homicide, the medical
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examiner needs to determine the cause of death was essentially
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at the hands of another. They have to rule out
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natural causes, accidental death, even suicide. But if the decomposition
9:04
is so advanced, like we discussed, it destroys soft tissue
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evidence makes toxicology uncertain, they might simply not be able
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to make that ruling. If they can't definitively say this
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was violence or this was poisoning, then legally it's not homicide.
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It might end up as undetermined undetermined, And if the
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cause is undetermined, the threshold for prosecutors to bring a
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murder charge just isn't meant there's too much doubt. That's
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why right now the only potential criminal liability they're likely
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focused on is the concealment of a body, which in California,
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surprisingly perhaps is just a misdemeanor.
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Speaker 3: A misdemeanor for that yep.
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Speaker 1: So the police have been very careful, very explicit. They
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currently lack direct evidence linking D four VD to foul
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play that caused her death. Concealment, yes, foul play causing
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death not proven.
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Speaker 2: Yet, but it just it defies belief that the owner
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of the car knew nothing about this girl. The circumstantial
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links seemed well overwhelming. Her own mother apparently told investigators
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so Less was dating someone named David, and the connections
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reported to go deeper than that. Sources close to the
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singer friends apparently claimed that D four vd's inner circle
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thought Celeste was older, like nineteen, maybe a USC student,
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which strongly suggests she might have been using a fake ID,
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or at least her age was being misrepresented somehow to
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cover up the fact she was only fifteen. And that's
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where the legal danger really ramps up for him. Separate
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from the death itself oh so well. Add to that,
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a neighbor near the rental home reportedly saw Celeste and
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D four VD together frequently, and this neighbor apparently thought
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they were peers similar in age, So it suggests the
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relationship wasn't hidden, it was visible and deeply problematic if
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D four D knew or even suspected her real age.
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Speaker 1: Let's talk more about those statutory issues you mentioned, because
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that feels like maybe the biggest liability his lawyer is
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trying to contain right now, even if murder charges never happened.
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Speaker 2: Absolutely, that's likely a huge part of the legal strategy
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under California law. It's pretty clear cut. When you have
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an adult who's twenty involved in a relationship with a
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minor who's fifteen, you're potentially looking at charges of statutory.
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Speaker 3: Rape regardless of consent.
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Speaker 2: Regardless of consent, the age difference makes the act illegal.
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So Dia Ferdy's legal jeopardy here is immense because if
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it comes out that he knew her true age or
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should have reasonably known, then how this whole situation was managed,
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especially hiding her body. It becomes not just about potentially
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avoiding a murder charge, It's about avoiding charges for the
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illegal relationship itself, right, and maybe even negligence or child
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endangerment depending on the circumstances of her death, if drugs
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were involved or something like that. It opens up a
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whole other area of criminal and civil liability.
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Speaker 1: Which is why the focus shifts, doesn't it, away from
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just the official police line and towards this private scrutiny.
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People digging into the timeline, asking hard questions, and private
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investigtor Steve Fisher, he's become a really key voice challenging
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things it has.
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Speaker 2: Fisher specializes in missing persons cases. He's honed in on
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the physical evidence, or maybe the lack of it, right
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after the discovery. His main question, the one he keeps
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raising publicly, is why did the towyard guys smell it
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instantly on September eighth when the card's supposedly been sitting
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on residential street getting tickets since late August in an
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affluent area, probably lots of security cameras. Why didn't neighbors
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report it? Why didn't parking enforcement notice it? Seems odd?
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Speaker 1: Did he find anything to back that skepticism up?
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Speaker 2: Well? He says he obtained photos showing the tesla looking dusty,
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clearly abandoned days before the odor was officially reported by
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the towyard, which suggests to him the body was likely
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already in there while it was parked on the street. Okay,
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now he acknowledges the heat factor. We discussed how it
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accelerates decay, but he seems really skeptical that the smell
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could have been completely contained for weeks in that heat
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on a public street.
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Speaker 1: So what's his theory then, if not just decay masking
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the smell.
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Speaker 2: This leads right to his main public theory. He calls
12:58
it the overdose and pan scenario. He's told outlets like
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Fox eleven Los Angeles that the circumstances point towards maybe
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an accidental death, an overdose possibly. He said, quote, this
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could have been an overdose, and they panicked and hit
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her body because they didn't want to expose the relationship
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between her and the miner.
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Speaker 1: Ah, So the cover up wasn't necessarily about hiding a murder,
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but hiding the illegal relationship itself.
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Speaker 2: That's his argument that the concealment, the dismemberment even was
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specifically aimed at avoiding exposure of that statutory issue and
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that the body was put in the Tesla after she
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died post mortem, either to get rid of it or
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just to get it away from the rental property.
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Speaker 1: That distinction accidental death versus intentional killing is legally massive.
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But Fisher's still saying a crime happened no matter what. Right.
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Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely, he's very clear on that. His basic point is,
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she didn't put herself in the tesla, right, even if
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her death was accidental, the act of dismembering her body,
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hiding it in a car, abandoning it that is definitely
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a crime. Okay, So Fisher's theory suggests the body dumped
14:00
by someone, maybe D four VO, maybe others who knew
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the massive legal risks tied to her age and D
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four v's actions afterwards canceling the tour getting top legal
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counsel immediately. Fisher argues that suggests a calculated move to
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contain those statutory problems.
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Speaker 1: And Fisher didn't just speculate, did he. He apparently uncovered
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some digital evidence that really adds weight to this idea
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that D four vd's team might have known about Celeste
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and her age way before this.
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Speaker 2: Yes, this is pretty astonishing. The twenty twenty four email
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Fisher found an email sent a full year before the
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body was discovered.
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Speaker 3: A year before.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, apparently people in Celest's circle concerned about her sent
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this email directly to D four vd's manager, a guy
14:44
named Josh Marshall, and the email specifically I warned him
14:47
that Celeste, the missing underage teen, might be with the
14:50
singer during one of her earlier runaway episodes.
14:53
Speaker 1: Wow. So the manager was potentially alerted to the exact
14:55
situation a missing minor possibly involved with his client.
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Speaker 2: A year earlier, according to Fisher's findings. Yes. Now, Marshall
15:03
later denied knowing anything about the body being in the car, obviously,
15:06
But the existence of that email, if it's authentic, Yeah,
15:10
it raises huge questions about foreseeability. Did the management know
15:14
there was a potential problem involving a minor long before
15:16
this tragedy?
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Speaker 1: Foreseeability that's not like a legal term.
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Speaker 3: What does that mean here?
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Speaker 2: It's a crucial legal concept. Basically, asks was this outcome
15:24
or something like it reasonably predictable? If Dfersey's management team
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was alerted a year prior that a vulnerable missing minor
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might be associating with their client, and they allegedly didn't
15:35
take steps to investigate or intervene or confirm her age.
15:38
Uh huh, then they could potentially face legal liability themselves,
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not just D four V. It's just maybe a pattern,
15:46
or at least a failure to address a known risk.
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It provides context for the current tragedy, suggesting maybe a
15:52
systemic issue, not just a one off event. It potentially
15:55
elevates the liability from just personal wrongdoing to organizational negligence.
15:59
Speaker 1: Which explains why the defense strategy is probably so comprehensive.
16:02
They have to fight the idea that this relationship was known,
16:05
maybe ignored by people who had a duty to protect
16:08
their client and maybe Celeste too exactly.
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Speaker 2: It complicates the narrative significantly for the defense.
16:13
Speaker 1: Meanwhile, outside of the investigators, the public is just completely
16:17
obsessed with this case, and that obsession has unearthed some
16:20
really weird, almost eerie digital footprints.
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Speaker 3: D four VD left Behind.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, the online salutes have been working overtime. They dug
16:28
up his music video for One More Dance. It came
16:31
out in February twenty twenty five. Okay, and there's a
16:33
scene in it. It depicts someone dumping a body in
16:36
a car trunk.
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Speaker 1: You're kidding.
16:38
Speaker 2: Nope, the visual parallel to what actually happened just months later. Yeah,
16:43
it's chillingly close, and of course that fuels massive public speculation.
16:49
But you know, did he know something? Was it some
16:51
kind of psychological foreshadowing? Even though legally a music video
16:57
isn't evidence of guilt in this.
16:58
Speaker 3: Way, still, the optics are terrible, awful.
17:01
Speaker 2: And it's not just the official stuff. They're these leaked
17:04
digital bits floating around too, Like a demo track resurfaced online.
17:08
The file name was supposedly something like Celestic Demo on.
17:11
Speaker 3: Finn Celeste like her name.
17:14
Speaker 2: Apparently now we don't know what's on the track, if
17:16
it's even real or relevant, but just a title alone
17:19
popping up online it added fuel to all these theories
17:22
about obsession or maybe some kind of specific knowledge, especially
17:26
in online forums and chat rooms.
17:27
Speaker 3: It paints a picture, doesn't it It does.
17:30
Speaker 2: And a digital environment around D four ved. Going back
17:32
even further to twenty twenty four, it shows that social
17:35
media comments were already accusing him back then of being
17:38
involved inappropriately with young girls, So.
17:41
Speaker 1: The rumors or concerns about his relationships with miners weren't
17:44
entirely new when Celeste's body.
17:46
Speaker 2: Was found seems not, which again provides context. It shows
17:50
these answer the questions about age and vulnerability. They were
17:53
kind of circulating in his public sphere long before this
17:55
specific tragedy came to light. Investigators will be tearing apart
17:59
those seesed electronics, phones, computers, looking for any communication logs,
18:04
maybe deleted data, location tracking, anything that might confirm if
18:08
these online rumors reflect any reality in his private communications
18:11
or actions.
18:12
Speaker 1: But and this is the huge but hanging over everything,
18:14
all this circumstantial stuff, the digital clues, the legal maneuvering,
18:17
the pis theories, it all seems to slam into this
18:20
massive scientific roadblock, the condition of celestis body that seems
18:25
to be preventing any immediate charges.
18:27
Speaker 2: Right, that's exactly right. We really need to spend some
18:29
time on this because it's the absolute core of why
18:32
the case is stalled legally. The forensic challenges here are
18:36
immense when you have advanced decomposition made worse by heat
18:40
and being sealed up like it wasn't that Tesla Fronk. Yeah,
18:43
physical evidence often just gives way completely. You're left relying
18:47
almost entirely on digital trails or circumstantial links the forensic
18:51
wall they've had, it's almost absolute in some ways.
18:54
Speaker 1: So break it down for us, what exactly did that
18:57
Southern California heat combined with being sealed than the front
19:01
due to the potential evidence on Celeste's body.
19:03
Speaker 2: Okay, so the heat dramatically speeds up puture faction. That's
19:07
the process where bacteria, mostly from inside the body, start
19:10
breaking down tissues in a hot, contained environment. This happens
19:14
incredibly fast, and the main consequence is this complete destruction
19:18
of soft tissues. So think about it. External injuries, things
19:21
that mythologists would look for, bruises, cuts, ligature marks around
19:25
the neck that might show strangulation, marks on the wrists
19:28
from bindings, all gone. They essentially liquefy and disappear with
19:32
the rest of the soft tissue. So the pathologists can't
19:35
just look at the visible remains and say, Okay, this
19:37
person was strangled or they were beaten. Those primary visible
19:41
markers of violence are just wiped clean by the decay.
19:44
Speaker 1: Process, which leads us back to the toxicology. If PI
19:47
Fisher's theory about an overdose is plausible, then the tox
19:50
report is everything. But how on earth do you get
19:53
reliable drug test results from remains that are that badly decayed.
19:58
Speaker 2: It is, frankly a toxicologist nightmare scenario. Decomposition itself causes
20:03
huge problems. First, volatile substances, things like alcohol, cocaine, maybe
20:08
some prescription meds. They dissipate rapidly. They just evaporate or
20:12
break down chemically in the heat and decay.
20:13
Speaker 1: So the drugs might have been there, but they're gone now.
20:16
Speaker 2: They could be gone or degraded to levels that are
20:18
undetectable by standard tests. But it gets even trickier. Decomposition
20:22
also produces what we call post mortem artifacts.
20:24
Speaker 3: Post mortem artifacts, what are those?
20:26
Speaker 2: Okay? So, as the body breaks down, the chemical processes
20:30
involved actually create new substances, and some of these substances,
20:34
purely by chance, can chemically mimic the structure of common
20:39
drugs or their metabolites that things labs test for.
20:42
Speaker 1: Wait, so the body can create things that look like
20:44
drugs after.
20:45
Speaker 2: Death exactly, Yeah, which can lead to false positives or
20:48
results that are just ambiguous. A standard talk screen might
20:51
pick something up, but the toxicologists can't be one hundred
20:54
percent certain if that substance was actually ingested by the
20:57
person before they died, or if it's to byproduct of
21:00
the bacteria having a field day during decomposition, that's wow.
21:04
Speaker 1: That's incredibly complex and frustrating for investigators.
21:07
Speaker 2: I imagine immensely frustrating.
21:09
Speaker 1: So how do they even try to get around that ambiguity.
21:11
Speaker 2: They have to use highly specialized, incredibly sensitive tests. Your
21:15
standard hospital talk screen won't cut it. They'll use techniques
21:18
like advanced liquid chromatography mass spectrometry LCMS for short. This
21:22
lets them analyze tiny, degraded samples with much higher precision,
21:27
but it takes a long time, it's expensive and require
21:30
specialized labs and expertise, and even then sometimes the sample
21:34
is just too compromised.
21:35
Speaker 3: So even with the best tech, even.
21:37
Speaker 2: With the best tech, if the degradation is severe enough,
21:40
the medical examiner might still be forced to rule the
21:42
cause of death as undetermined, even if they strongly suspect
21:46
drugs were involved. They just can't meet the scientific certainty
21:49
needed for a court of law, and that's a huge
21:52
reason for the month's long delay we're seeing in getting
21:55
that official ruling.
21:56
Speaker 1: Okay, let's shift to another horrific aspect, the fact that
21:59
Celeste body was dismembered. Forensically, how does the emmy figure
22:03
out if that happened before she died or after, because
22:07
that seems.
22:07
Speaker 2: Crucial, is absolutely critical. It's potentially the dividing line between
22:11
proving homicide and supporting the concealment panic theory. If the
22:15
dismemberment happened anti mortem, before death, that's definitive evidence of
22:19
extreme violence, a very strong indicator of homicide. But if
22:23
it happened post mortem, after death, then it points more
22:26
towards an attempt to conceal the body, make it easier
22:29
to transport or hide, which would align more with Fischer's
22:33
panic theory, trying to hide their relationship or an accidental death.
22:37
Speaker 1: And why is making that distinction so hard in this case?
22:40
Is it the decay again?
22:41
Speaker 2: It's the decay again. Forensic anthropologists usually make this call
22:45
by looking at tool marks on the bone surfaces. Tool marks, yeah,
22:48
the marks left by whatever instrument was used. They analyze
22:51
the characteristics of the cut. Was it made through fresh
22:54
living bone? Is there evidence of bleeding into the cut's surface,
22:58
which would only happen if the person was a lot
23:00
or does the bone show signs it was cut after
23:03
the soft tissues had already started decomposing.
23:05
Speaker 3: Okay, that makes sense, But.
23:06
Speaker 2: Advanced decomposition, especially the kind accelerated by heat, it doesn't
23:10
just destroy soft tissue. It can also erode the surface
23:13
of the bones themselves. It can obscure or even completely
23:17
obliterate those microscopic tool marks.
23:19
Speaker 1: So the evidence on the bone might be gone too.
23:22
Speaker 2: It might be too compromised for conclusive analysis. The expert
23:26
might not be able to say with certainty whether the
23:28
cuts were pre or post mortem, and that ambiguity it
23:32
means investigators can't definitively state that the dismemberment itself proves
23:36
murder occurred. It could just be part of the concealment.
23:40
Speaker 1: Unbelievable, So many dead ends caused by the decomposition. What
23:43
about figuring out when she died the time of death
23:46
post mortem interval PMI in a hot, sealed trunk for weeks.
23:51
How do scientists even start to estimate that?
23:54
Speaker 2: It's another huge challenge. All the early indicators pathologists normally
23:57
use rigor mortis, liver mortis, body temperature chain, those are
24:01
only useful for the first few hours or maybe days.
24:04
They're long gone here, So.
24:05
Speaker 1: What's next insects, don't they usually use insects.
24:07
Speaker 2: They do. Forensic entomology, the study of insect activity and remains,
24:11
is often the best tool for estimating PMI In cases
24:14
of advanced decay, flies are usually attracted very quickly to
24:17
decomposition odor, they lay eggs, and the developmental stages of
24:21
the maggots can give a pretty reliable timeline.
24:23
Speaker 1: Okay, but how does the Tesla factor.
24:25
Speaker 2: In the car environment throws a wrench into that too.
24:29
If the body was placed in the front and it
24:31
was sealed relatively tightly, especially initially, huh, that enclosed space
24:35
would have limited or delayed the access for flies. Flies
24:39
need to smell the decomposition and have a way to
24:41
get to the body to lay eggs. If access was delayed,
24:44
say until the car was opened at the tow yard,
24:47
or if only certain types of insects could get in
24:50
through tiny gaps.
24:51
Speaker 1: Then the insect evidence would be skewed exactly.
24:54
Speaker 2: The entomological clock might start later than the actual time
24:57
of death, or the types of insects found my not
25:00
be the ones expected for that environment or timeframe. It
25:03
makes the PMI estimate based on insects much less reliable.
25:06
Potentially making it seem like she died more recently than
25:09
she actually did.
25:10
Speaker 1: So to use the insects, they first have to figure
25:12
out the car's environment itself precisely.
25:15
Speaker 2: It adds another layer of complexity. Forensic pathologists, maybe working
25:19
with engineers, have to try and reconstruct the conditions inside
25:22
that front over the weeks it sat there. What was
25:25
the temperature profile, how much did it fluctuate with the
25:27
outside weather in Hollywood Hills. How well insulated is a
25:30
Model X front? How much heat was trapped versus how
25:33
much might have dissipated. They're basically reconstructing this tiny, sealed,
25:37
decomposing ecosystem, and that takes a lot of work and
25:41
introduces more uncertainty.
25:43
Speaker 1: So it really sounds like when the physical evidence fails
25:46
this badly, when the body itself just can't definitively tell
25:50
the story of how she died or even exactly when
25:54
the entire investigation is forced to pisit doesn't it It
25:57
has to rely almost completely on that digital lifeline, the ste.
26:00
Speaker 2: That's absolutely right. The importance of those electronics, the phones, laptops, tablets,
26:04
whatever they got from D four views rental, it just
26:06
cannot be overstated. At this point, they're not just looking
26:09
for a smoking gun message. They're looking for context from motive,
26:12
for a timeline like what specifically communication logs, texts, emails,
26:18
app messages, even deleted ones if they can recover them
26:21
web search history, critically, location data. Can they place D four,
26:26
VD and celest together their rental home. Can they track
26:29
the tessel's movements during that crucial window between early July
26:32
when she was last contacted and late August when the
26:35
car was abandoned. These digital records have to try and
26:38
fill the enormous void left by the loss of physical
26:41
trauma markers in the ambiguous toxicology.
26:44
Speaker 1: So as we kind of wrap up this deep dive,
26:46
we're left sitting with this huge tension, aren't we, between
26:49
the facts we do know, which are incredibly disturbing, yes,
26:53
and the legal uncertainty that's paralyzing the case. We know
26:55
a fifteen year old girl died tragically. We know her
26:58
body was dismembered and hit in the front trunk of
27:00
a car registered to this famous singer.
27:03
Speaker 3: Those facts seem definitive.
27:04
Speaker 1: They are definitive, but the legal system is stuck stalled
27:08
on that one crucial question. The official cause and manner
27:11
of death.
27:11
Speaker 2: And that uncertainty creates the bottleneck exactly. This case is
27:16
just such a stark public example of how the inherent
27:20
limitations of forensic science, especially when accelerated by environmental factors
27:24
like heat and decay, can end up maybe unintentionally protecting
27:28
a suspect even when the circumstantial picture looks incredibly damning.
27:33
Investigators are forced to build their entire potential case around
27:37
circumstantial evidence and digital forensics, and while that can be powerful,
27:42
it always leaves more room for reasonable doubt, especially when
27:45
you've got a high profile defense attorney ready to pick
27:47
it apart.
27:48
Speaker 1: And amidst all the legal strategy, the scientific challenges, the
27:51
celebrity drama, we absolutely cannot lose sight of the human
27:54
tragedy at the center of this o Never the sources
27:56
keep reminding us of that poignant, heartbreaking detail Celeste Revas
28:01
Hernandez's life ended just one day after her fifteenth birthday.
28:05
It just underscores the unimaginable grief for family and community
28:08
in Lake Elsinor must be feeling and their desperate need
28:11
for real answers.
28:12
Speaker 2: And if we pull back look at the bigger picture here,
28:14
this case is just such a painful reminder of the
28:17
specific vulnerabilities that runaway teens face, especially those like Celeste
28:22
with a documented history of instability. Their lives can become
28:26
almost disposable, tragically overshadowed when they intersect with fame, potential exploitation,
28:32
and then tragedy and the apparent lack of accountability so
28:35
far for the adult parties involved, even just on the
28:38
clear statutory issues around her age. It really highlights how
28:41
resources and legal protection can shield people, perhaps obscuring the
28:45
full truth.
28:46
Speaker 1: So the LAPD waits for theme's final word. D four
28:50
vd's legal team continues to manage the situation, and the
28:53
public and Celeste's family are left with these huge gaps,
28:56
these unanswered questions about how justice can be served when
28:59
the science itself hits.
29:00
Speaker 2: A wall, which brings this, I suppose to our final
29:03
provocative thought for you, the listener, to confider, Given that
29:07
extreme legal chasm between a misdemeanor charge for concealment and
29:10
a homicide charge, and given that advance the cake can
29:13
make determining the original cause of death scientifically impossible, rendering
29:17
it undetermined, does that possibility that scientific ambiguity ultimately end
29:23
up protecting whoever was responsible, regardless of how they got
29:26
the body, whether it's murder or accident followed by panic.
29:28
Does the failure of forensic science in a case like
29:31
this inadvertently shield the guilty party simply because the initial
29:34
act can no longer be definitively proven.
29:37
Speaker 1: Something to definitely think about as this incredibly disturbing case
29:40
continues to unfold.