Latest / Murder Files Unsealed / The Tesla Trunk Horror: Inside Private Investigator Steve Fisher’s Shocking Probe

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The Tesla Trunk Horror: Inside Private Investigator Steve Fisher’s Shocking Probe · Murder Files Unsealed

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the deep dive. Today, we're opening upset of
• 0:03
  sources that honestly tell a story of just breathtaking contrast.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's the kind of rapid, really dark celebrity collapse
• 0:11
  you just don't see very often, especially.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Now exactly we're going to unpack the evidence, the timeline, yeah,
• 0:16
  surrounding the tragic death of fifteen year old Celestiy of
• 0:19
  This Hernandez, and.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Of course the subsequent just complete implosion of music star
• 0:24
  D four vd's career.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: David Anthony Burke. I mean, just months ago, I'm thinking
• 0:29
  about it. He is basically the prince of gen Z music.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Right came ot Tusten seemed like almost nowhere, and suddenly
• 0:34
  billions of streams romantic commicide here with me, huge track.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: His debut album, Withered, was all lined up, world tour.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: Ready to go, and then boom, his entire world just
• 0:45
  slams to a halt September eighth, twenty twenty five, completely cold.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: And the sources we have, they paint an immediate, pretty
• 0:52
  shocking picture of why it all stopped.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: It started with something so mundane, almost visceral.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: Smell, A foul odor coming from a.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: Car, A black twenty twenty three tesla, specifically an expensive
• 1:03
  electric card is sitting abandoned in a Hollywood towyard.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: And when the towyard staff finally went to check out
• 1:09
  that smell, well.
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: That's when they made the grim discovery. Inside a black
• 1:14
  nylon duffel bag stuffed in the front you know, the
• 1:16
  front trunk.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: On a Tesla, they found severely decomposed, dismembered human remains.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah awful.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: And those remains were quickly identified as Celeste Revis Fernandez,
• 1:27
  fifteen years old, a runaway from Lake Elsinor, California.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: And here's the detail that just it hits hard. She
• 1:33
  had turned fifteen, literally the day before her body was found.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: She just turned fifteen. Found like that, it's yeah.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: And the car, the Tesla that was basically her temporary
• 1:42
  crypt registered to David Anthony Burke D.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: Four VD, so not random, a direct traceable link right
• 1:51
  back to this massive young music star.
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: Right. This wasn't some anonymous crime scene found by chance.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: So our mission today, using this stagosaurs, we've got private investigation, finding,
• 2:00
  police reports, digital evidence the works, is to really dissect
• 2:04
  that forensic timeline.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: We need to understand how this went from essentially a
• 2:08
  missing person's.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: Case to maybe the darkest celebrity scandal of twenty twenty five.
• 2:14
  We're going to detail every step from that first connection
• 2:17
  to know where things stand legally.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: Right now, this is the deep dive into dfourvd's dark
• 2:23
  down fall.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's start with those initial connections, because they go
• 2:26
  way beyond just him owning the car. They're personal, almost
• 2:30
  immediately incriminating.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the La County Medical Examiner when they were processing
• 2:34
  celeste remains, they found something very specific, a tattoo.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: Relatively fresh right, the word ssh on a right.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: Index finger exactly, And that, unfortunately for Burke, was the
• 2:46
  first really solid link proof of intimacy or at least
• 2:49
  some kind of very specific relationship.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: Because Defourved himself has the exact same tattoo, same word,
• 2:54
  same finger.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: An identical mark. It's undeniable, a shared visual signature. The
• 2:58
  police couldn't just ignore that.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: And Celeste, she wasn't just some random fan who stumbled
• 3:03
  into his worlds recently. Our sources show she had this history,
• 3:06
  this tragic pattern.
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, she was only thirteen when she first went missing
• 3:09
  back in April twenty twenty.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: Four, Riverside County deputies found her quickly that time, but
• 3:13
  it set a pattern.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: Three more runaway reports just that year, thirteen years old.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: It paints a picture of vulnerability, doesn't it already kind
• 3:21
  of detached from home, active in the LA scene, maybe
• 3:24
  looking for something stability, perhaps in really risky places, and.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: People in her community they apparently already knew something was up.
• 3:32
  Neighbors in Lake Elsinore told KNEX News. They consistently said
• 3:36
  Celeste had an older boyfriend named David.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: And they specifically mentioned the tattoos that he and Celeste
• 3:42
  had matching finger tattoos.
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: So the community knew the police had these runaway reports,
• 3:47
  and once the body was idd online, sleuths connected the
• 3:50
  dots fast right.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: They dug up old photos a girl looking like Celeste, weavy,
• 3:55
  black hair, the tube tops, she wore posey with a
• 3:57
  guy who looked a lot like d four VD.
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: By early twenty twenty five, the sources say, Celeste had
• 4:02
  basically dropped off the map completely until you know, September,
• 4:06
  the tow yard and.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: The fallout from that discovery, Yeah, it was immediate total.
• 4:10
  The second the Tesla registration link, the remains to David
• 4:13
  Anthony Burke.
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: His career was just over done. The sources list the consequences,
• 4:17
  and they rolled out in like less than forty eight hours.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: I mean instant collapse. His US tour, those big venues.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: Gone, just vanished from the schedules, not postponed, just scrubbed
• 4:28
  like they never existed, and.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: The album withered, set for a huge release shelved instantly.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: You can't drop an album from someone potentially tied to
• 4:37
  well to this.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: Plus, the sources detail him physically bailing on La that
• 4:42
  huge Hollywood Hills rental the four point one million dollar place.
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: Movers were seen clearing it out almost immediately after the
• 4:49
  news broke. It really suggests a coordinated effort to just
• 4:53
  get away from the scene and create distance.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: Now, the LAPD Robbery homicide team, they did serve a
• 4:57
  warrant on that mansion September seventeen, took laptops, bags of evidence.
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: But here's where the official timeline starts to feel slow,
• 5:06
  really slow compared to the public's need for answers.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the official investigation moved at what you can only
• 5:12
  call a glacial pace.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: And that's critical context law enforcement. You know, it's meticulous,
• 5:16
  it has to be, but it's slow. Autopsy reports, toxicology,
• 5:20
  the stuff that really determines the charge, right, was it
• 5:22
  an overdose? Was it murder?
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: Still listed as deferred two months later according to these sources.
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: And that slow pace, that official silence, it created this
• 5:31
  huge vacuum information just wasn't coming out.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: And who filled that vacuum?
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: Private investigator Steve Fisher. He basically jump right.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: In, hired by the mansion's owner, mad Laden Traffonovich, and
• 5:43
  his job initially was pretty specific, even a bit self serving.
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Trifunovich just wanted to know one thing, did Celesterevus
• 5:50
  Hernandez ever actually set foot inside his twenty thousand dollars
• 5:54
  a month rental, because that directly impacts his property value liability.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: All that Rusher's work ended up providing the public and
• 6:02
  maybe even the LAPD with the detailed timeline everyone was
• 6:06
  desperate for exactly.
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: He wasn't tied up in the same bureaucratic knots. He
• 6:10
  had owner's consent, which is a shortcut to getting evidence.
• 6:13
  His findings really drove the public narrative and definitely put
• 6:16
  pressure on the official investigation.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's dive into section two because this is where
• 6:21
  the car that black tesla registered to book becomes so
• 6:24
  central it tells the story of well calculated concealment.
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: PI. Steve Fisher's work here was really meticulous. He used
• 6:31
  everything LAPD, citation data, license plate readers, neighborhood security cameras,
• 6:36
  and this timeline.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: It does more than just track a car's location. It
• 6:40
  suggests the car wasn't just forgotten, It was moved intentionally
• 6:46
  at a very specific moment.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: Which reveals this this panic right that seems to have
• 6:51
  quickly turned into a coordinated effort to hide evidence.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: Burke apparently called this tesla his daily driver.
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: And the ticket data backs that up. Sources say as
• 6:59
  late as February twenty seventh, twenty twenty five, it got
• 7:02
  its forty fifth parking ticket right in front of the
• 7:04
  Duheini Drives mansion.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: Forty five tickets. That tells you how often it was there? Yeah,
• 7:09
  how visible? It was routine?
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: Definitely, But then July twenty ninth, twenty twenty five, everything changes.
• 7:15
  Security cameras catch someone, a hooded figure moving that very
• 7:19
  visible tesla.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: Moves it three blocks away off the main drag onto
• 7:23
  a quieter street, Bluebird Avenue, out of site.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: And that day July twenty ninth. That's like the smoking
• 7:29
  gun of the timeline, isn't it? Why that date, specifically
• 7:32
  because our sources confirmed that was the exact day David
• 7:34
  Anthony Brook and his whole crew flew out of la
• 7:37
  headed for Europe tour rehearsals.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: Wow, so the car gets moved the very moment they
• 7:41
  leave down.
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: The timing is just too precise to be a coincidence.
• 7:45
  They needed that car gone right then.
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  Speaker 1: So the car then just sits there on Bluebird Avenue.
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: Yep, gets an abandoned vehicle citation on August twenty seventh,
• 7:55
  a month.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: Later, and then a neighbor complaints finally.
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: Right, that complaint triggered the on September third, which led
• 8:02
  to the discovery five days later September eighth.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: It makes you wonder if they hadn't left for Europe,
• 8:08
  would they have managed to get rid of it before
• 8:10
  it got towed.
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: That's the million dollar question, isn't it. Look at the
• 8:13
  sequence daily driver, highly visible ticket magnet, then suddenly moved
• 8:19
  hidden away the day they fly internationally.
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: It strongly suggests the body was already in the front
• 8:24
  before they moved it.
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: And the move itself was just the first step in
• 8:26
  the cover up.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: Which is why that quote from PI Fisher is so chilling.
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: He really nailed it, Yeah, he told the press, and
• 8:32
  the source material highlights this. That car was D four
• 8:35
  vd's daily driver until February. After that it became a
• 8:39
  coffin on wheels.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: A coffin on wheels, that's stuff.
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: It's not just dramatic language though. It's a pretty accurate
• 8:46
  forensic description of the car's role here. The goal seems
• 8:50
  to have been disposal of the whole car like hope.
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: It gets stolen or maybe crushed as abandoned. Destroy the
• 8:56
  evidence without actually having to touch the body again.
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: Seems to be the likely strategy based on the car's movement.
• 9:02
  The European trip just put that final disposal plan on pause.
• 9:07
  They bought time, but ultimately that time ran out.
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: Okay, now let's get inside the mansion itself. The twenty
• 9:13
  thousand dollars a month placed D four Vady just abandoned.
• 9:17
  What did Steve Fisher find there?
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: Right? So, remember Fisher got in after the movers had
• 9:21
  cleared everything out. He had that owner's consent form from Trifunovich,
• 9:25
  the landlord, which.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: Was a huge advantage for him investigation wise.
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: Massive. It let him catalog what was left behind, some
• 9:31
  really disturbing stuff the police might have been slower to
• 9:33
  process or publicize, and he got there before. You know,
• 9:37
  things could be completely sanitized or lost in the shuffle.
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: So what did he find. Let's start with the physical
• 9:43
  evidence that suggests well, more than just panic, maybe preparation.
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, this is where it gets really dark. Fisher found
• 9:51
  these heavy duty farm implements.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: That's the term used, farm implements. What does that even
• 9:57
  mean in this context.
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: We're definitely not talking about gardening tool. Fisher found several
• 10:01
  items and get this, they were still in their original
• 10:03
  shrink wrap packaging, brand new. And Fisher was very clear,
• 10:07
  he told the press and the LAPD these aren't for landscaping,
• 10:11
  he said, and I'm quoting the vibe here. You'd see
• 10:14
  these on a pig farm, maybe a rendering plant. God
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  tools specifically capable of dismembering or dissolving a human body
• 10:21
  in just hours.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: The thought process to even buy something like that, Yeah,
• 10:25
  but the timeline link is key.
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: Here, right, absolutely critical. The sources state that at least
• 10:29
  one of these implements was delivered to the mansion after
• 10:33
  July twenty.
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: Ninth, after the car was moved.
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: Yes, think about that sequence. Phase one panic, body wrapped
• 10:39
  in plastic, stuffed in the funk car, moved blocks away. Okay,
• 10:42
  Phase two calculation. After the initial concealment, these sophisticated, gruesome
• 10:47
  disposal tools are ordered online and delivered to the house.
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: That suggests the panic very quickly turned into a cold
• 10:54
  thought out plan to completely erase the evidence.
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: Seems like it. The idea was probably to use these
• 10:59
  tools when they got back from Europe. The tow truck
• 11:01
  just got there first.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: Beyond the tools, what else Fisher mentioned? Widespread evidence of drug.
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: Use, overwhelming evidence this wasn't casual. Prescription pill bottles everywhere oxycodone, xanax.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: Soma under dfour vd's.
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: Name, no, under various names, and critically none matched the
• 11:17
  known names in D four d's crew, which suggests fake
• 11:20
  prescriptions or a wider supply network.
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: And empty blister packs just littered everywhere. Bathrooms, guest rooms.
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, bedside tables everywhere, indicating heavy constant consumption, plus actual
• 11:31
  drug paraphernalia like what glass pipes, digital scales the kind
• 11:35
  use for weighing doses, and a powerful buttane torch found
• 11:39
  specifically in one of the guest suites.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: It paints a picture of the environment Celeste walked into,
• 11:45
  just a wash in available drugs, heavy unregulated.
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: Use, which is incredibly relevant if the toxicology report eventually
• 11:52
  points to an overdose.
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: And did Fisher find anything directly linking Celest herself to
• 11:57
  the house. That was his original job for the owner,
• 11:59
  right he did.
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: He catalogued specific women's clothing and toiletries, size, excess tube tops,
• 12:06
  black leggings, items that matched exactly what the medical examiner
• 12:09
  listed as Celeste's outfit when she was found, along with
• 12:12
  a distinctive bracelet, a yellow metal bracelet, again matching the
• 12:16
  inventory from her remains recovered from the tesla.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: Now, Fisher being a PI, he bagged this stuff as evidence,
• 12:23
  right preserved it.
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: Yes, protected the chain of custody, but it's important. As
• 12:28
  of the time these sources were compiled, police hadn't confirmed
• 12:32
  if they'd done DNA swabs on the clothes in the
• 12:35
  house or forensically link the bracelet from the car to
• 12:38
  items in the house.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: But visually the match is strong. The specific clothes, the
• 12:42
  size of the jewelry. It puts her right there. We're
• 12:44
  in close contact with that house just before the car.
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: Was moved, and there was one more piece digital.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: Breadcrumbs from security cameras.
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, most of the highdef ring cameras in the neighborhood,
• 12:53
  their footage overrates pretty quickly. But a neighborhood a cheaper wise.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: Camera, and it caught something.
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: It caught a petite feet figure long, dark hair clothes
• 13:02
  matching celeste description, entering the side gate of the mansion
• 13:07
  when at two fourteen am on July twenty seventh.
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: July twenty seventh, that's only two days before the tesla
• 13:12
  was moved and the crew flew out exactly.
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: The sequence is just crystal clear. Now Celeste goes into
• 13:17
  the property on the twenty seventh, the group leaves town
• 13:20
  on the twenty ninth, the car with her body inside
• 13:23
  is moved at the exact same time they leave.
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: It really backs up Fisher's theory. She was there in
• 13:28
  the days right before.
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: The move, and the car relocation happening precisely as they
• 13:32
  left town strongly suggests the body was already inside and
• 13:35
  they were trying to create distance, hoping it would just disappear.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: Okay, Section four, This pulls it all together. Pi Fisher's
• 13:43
  comprehensive theory. He put it all in this massive forty
• 13:46
  seven page dossier he gave to LAPD Robbery Homicide.
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and Fisher's theory provides the most complete narrative we
• 13:53
  have so far. It tracks this progression from potentially human
• 13:57
  error to absolute horror.
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: He theorizes it celest overdose right inside the mansion, sometime
• 14:03
  between that wise camera sighting on July twenty seventh and
• 14:07
  the car move on the twenty ninth.
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: And he's careful to say accidentally or otherwise. We don't
• 14:12
  know the specifics of the death itself yet, but.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: The immediate aftermath, according to the theory, was just sheer panic.
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. Imagine finding the body of a fifteen year old
• 14:21
  girl in your rented mansion, surrounded by illegal drugs. The
• 14:25
  instinct for them seems to have been immediate cover up.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: So body wrapped in plastic, put in the front car,
• 14:30
  driven three blocks away, out of sight.
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: The initial goal, Fisher lays out, was probably passive disposal.
• 14:37
  Just park it somewhere less obvious, hope it gets stolen,
• 14:39
  maybe towed and crushed. Problem solved without getting their hands
• 14:42
  dirty again.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: But the theory says it didn't stop it panic, it shifted.
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: Yes. Fisher describes the next phase moving from panic to
• 14:50
  something he called sadistic calculation.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: That's strong word.
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: It reflects the evidence. The group then ordered those heavy
• 14:56
  duty disposal tools online after the initial concealment. Plan B
• 15:00
  to come back from Europe, retrieve the remains from the
• 15:03
  front and then drive out somewhere remote like the Angelus
• 15:06
  National Forest and use those tools for final disposal obliteration essentially.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: But the European tour got in the way the timing.
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: It interrupted the execution of that final gruesome step. The
• 15:19
  tools arrived after the body was already hidden in the
• 15:22
  car and the team was already overseas, meaning.
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: The plan was in motion. It just got paused by
• 15:26
  their travel schedule exactly.
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: And that failure to execute is frankly, why we know
• 15:33
  any of this. The Towchuck beat them to it.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: Okay. So that's the physical evidence in the PIS theory.
• 15:38
  But then there's the digital side, the stuff online detectives
• 15:42
  dug up, Oh.
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, these online communities, they go deep. They found a
• 15:45
  TikTok duet from back in twenty twenty four.
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: What did it show?
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: It shows D four VID tracing that sh tattoo on
• 15:52
  his own finger, and you hear a girl's voice off
• 15:54
  camera giggling and saying we match now, David Wow.
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: So that links the tattoo, the victim's potential voice, and
• 16:00
  Burke long before any of this came out.
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: Reinforces that connection absolutely. But the real bombshell, the thing
• 16:06
  that feels like a virtual confession.
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: Is that deleted band lab track.
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: Yes, titled Rush and it was uploaded get this October
• 16:14
  twenty seventh, twenty twenty five.
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: Wait after the body was found. Yeah, after the investigation turned.
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: Well after and the lyrics they connect all the dots
• 16:23
  from Fisher's investigation. I should probably read this exactly as
• 16:26
  the sources report it.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: Please.
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: The lyric is Fronk full of regret farm tools in
• 16:32
  the shed, she said, now she's dead.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: Oh my god, frank farm tools, she said.
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: It's astonishingly specific. How does a defense lawyer argue that away?
• 16:40
  It directly names the three most critical and previously non
• 16:43
  public details, the cars Fronk, the specific type of tools found,
• 16:48
  and the victims identifying tattoo linked to her death.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: You can't just call that artistic license, can you not?
• 16:53
  With that level of detail matching the crime scene.
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: It seems incredibly difficult, and Fisher confirmed and audio forensic
• 16:59
  analysis was done on that track. The voice print a
• 17:01
  match for David Anthony Burke, so.
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: That Lyric ties the whole circumstantial case together, the car,
• 17:08
  the tools, the tattoo, and points directly at Burke's knowledge
• 17:11
  at least of the concealment.
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: Even if the exact cause of death is still officially undetermined.
• 17:17
  That Lyric speaks volumes about the cover up, which.
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: Brings us to section five. The legal situation. And this
• 17:24
  is where that missing piece, the official toxicology report is
• 17:27
  causing the biggest delay, the biggest roadblock.
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Captain Scott Williams from LAPD, he was very precise
• 17:34
  when he spoke publicly about this back on September twenty ninth.
• 17:37
  He basically framed the core legal question they're grappling with woe.
• 17:41
  He said, we know someone concealed a body, we don't
• 17:44
  yet know if that someone killed her. Toxicology is key.
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's break down why tox is so key. The
• 17:50
  potential charges.
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: Are very different, right, hugely different. If the toxicology comes
• 17:54
  back showing say, lethal levels of opioids or fentanyl. The
• 17:58
  likely charges start around manslaughter, maybe the child endangerment given
• 18:01
  Celeste was only fifteen that.
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: Aligns with the overdose, then panic theory, accidental death, but.
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: A criminal cover up exactly. But if the forensics find
• 18:10
  something more direct, more malicious, like what like trace DNA
• 18:14
  on those farm tools, or worse, if there are microscopic
• 18:18
  saw marks on the tools that match the cuts on
• 18:20
  celeste remains, that changes everything dramatically. That points towards premeditation
• 18:25
  or at least direct involvement in the act that caused death,
• 18:28
  or the dismemberment itself, that could elevate the charge all
• 18:31
  the way to murder one.
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: So the investigation has to figure out was the dismemberment
• 18:37
  just a horrific way to hide the body after she died,
• 18:40
  or was it part of the killing itself.
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: That's the crucial distinction the forensics need to make, and
• 18:45
  those tools they are now potentially the centerpiece of the
• 18:48
  prosecution's case.
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: You mentioned luminal testing earlier. What exactly is that? Ah?
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: Right, Luminol is a chemical. It reacts quite visibly with
• 18:57
  tiny trace amounts of blood. Even if someone has tried
• 18:59
  really hard to clean a scene. It glows.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: So if they spray illuminal on those shrink wrapped tools
• 19:04
  or in the garage and.
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: It lights up positive for celest blood, that's huge. It
• 19:09
  proves intent to use them was definitely there, and maybe
• 19:12
  that they were used, even if briefly. It doesn't matter
• 19:15
  if the tools caused the death or just helped hide it.
• 19:18
  Blood evidence on them is damning.
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: So the DA's office, Nathan Hockman's office, they've said they
• 19:23
  have a voluminous case file but still no charges.
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: Why the delay, Sources suggests it's procedural but also strategic.
• 19:31
  It's rumored they need a grand jury subpoena to get
• 19:33
  defourvd's phones.
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: His phones, and that delay is an accidental is.
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: It almost certainly not. Look who's handling Burke's defense, Blair.
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: Birt, Harvey Weinstein's former lawyer. Yeah, one of the biggest
• 19:44
  defense attorneys out there.
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Her involvement signals this is going to be a major,
• 19:48
  high stakes legal fight, and she's aggressively protecting any direct
• 19:52
  evidence like phone communications.
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: So by forcing the DA to go through the grand
• 19:56
  jury process for the phones, she's buying time.
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: Buying time and forcing the prosecution to build their case
• 20:02
  for now solely on the circumstantial evidence, the car, the tools,
• 20:07
  the lyrics, the phones, they could contain the direct evidence texts, calls,
• 20:14
  search history, things that show explicit intent or conspiracy.
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: Things that could confirm the murder charge.
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: Potentially, Yes, Burke's strategy is likely to see what kind
• 20:23
  of deal she can negotiate before the prosecution gets full
• 20:26
  access to those communications.
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: While all this legal maneuvering is happening, Where is D
• 20:30
  four VD not just waiting around in la Is he?
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: Oh? Definitely not. Industry sources say he's basically hold up
• 20:36
  in Texas Hempstead, Texas in this huge gated compound worth
• 20:41
  something like twenty two million dollars.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: And there's something about that property too.
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: Right, Yes, asset protection one oh one. He transferred ownership
• 20:47
  of that twenty two million dollar Texas property to his
• 20:50
  mother when on September twenty second, which was just two
• 20:53
  days after the LAPD rated the Hollywood mansion he'd been renting.
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: That's a very clear move to protect assets from seizure
• 21:00
  or civil suits related to this case.
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: Classic legal strategy in a situation like this, and his
• 21:05
  travel is tracked two a private jet linked to his
• 21:09
  label Interscope flew from lax to Houston on September nineteenth.
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: So he's out of state. Does that complicate things?
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: Extradition sources say no extradition worries yet, meaning charges haven't
• 21:21
  been filed, so there's nothing to extradite him for right now.
• 21:24
  But his relocation is clearly not a coincidence. It's calculated.
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: And the owner of the house, the landlord, Miladim Trofunovich,
• 21:31
  he's just caught in the middle of this nightmare completely.
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: He spoke from his office in Belgrade, apparently just shell shocked.
• 21:37
  He stressed, you know, he leased the property to a
• 21:40
  major record label, not not this.
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: He proved the pi's work though, even though it cost him.
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he's shelled out forty seven thousand dollars for Fisher's
• 21:48
  investigation so far. But he expressed absolute disgust about the
• 21:51
  tools being found, specifically mentioned they were in his garage
• 21:54
  where his own kids play when he's in la It's.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: A reminder, isn't it. This hidden world of select liberty,
• 22:00
  excess and partying, It can just chatter the lives of
• 22:04
  people completely unconnected to it. Like Landlord's hashtag tag tag outro.
• 22:10
  So as we wrap up this deep dive. We really
• 22:12
  have to circle back to the human cost. So he
• 22:13
  gets lost so easily in the headlines about celebrity scandals
• 22:17
  and legal tactics.
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the victim, celestiebus Hernandez. Her funeral was October fourth,
• 22:23
  back in Lake Elsinore.
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: Very small, wasn't it? Only about thirty eight people attended.
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: And her mother, Maria Hernandez, she was there apparently clutching
• 22:31
  that yellow metal bracelet, the one recovered from Celeste's wrist
• 22:34
  by the medical examiner, the last piece of her daughter.
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: She had, and her statement. It just captures the layered
• 22:40
  tragedy here, how the scandal piled on top of the
• 22:42
  initial loss.
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: She said, whoever did this stole my baby twice, first
• 22:46
  her childhood, then her life.
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: God, that really drives home that before she became evidence
• 22:51
  in a case, she was a fifteen year old girl,
• 22:53
  already struggling, already a runaway multiple times.
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: And her life ended like this, abandoned in the trunk
• 22:57
  of a car.
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: Pi Steve Fisher. He gave a final prediction standing outside
• 23:02
  that empty mansion, sort of tying the investigation timeline to
• 23:06
  what happens next.
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: Legally, Yeah, he seemed pretty confident the delays were ending.
• 23:10
  He basically predicted, look give it ten days. The talk
• 23:13
  report finally lands, the tools, get that luminal testing for blood,
• 23:17
  the grand jury convence, and his bottom line, David Burke
• 23:20
  will be in handcuffs by Thanksgiving, and those farm tools
• 23:24
  they're going to tell the story. The tesla already started.
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: Strong words, but it's important for you listening to know
• 23:30
  where things actually stand right now. Legally, as of November two,
• 23:34
  twenty twenty five, when these sources were put together.
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: Despite all this circumstantial evidence, the La County Medical Examiner
• 23:40
  officially lists Celeste's manner of death as undetermined.
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: Still undetermined. And that's the key legal firewall for Burke
• 23:48
  right now.
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: Isn't it It is? It stops an automatic murder charge.
• 23:51
  It forces the DA to lean heavily on the concealment evidence,
• 23:54
  the lyrics, everything circumstantial, while Blair Burke continues to play
• 23:58
  for time and negotiate.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: So what does it all really mean? The sources we've
• 24:02
  looked at, they present these two kind of competing realities, right,
• 24:06
  and that seems to be the core challenge for the DA.
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: On one side, you have the possibility of an accidental
• 24:11
  overdose followed by sheer panic leading to the immediate clumsy
• 24:15
  concealment by moving the car.
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: But on the other side you have the cold, hard
• 24:19
  evidence of those premeditated disposal tools ordered online after the
• 24:24
  initial panic seems to have subsided.
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: And that raises the crucial question here, the one the
• 24:29
  legal system has to untangle. When does that decision to
• 24:32
  cover up a death, maybe starting in pure terrified panic, across.
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: The line, when does it become calculated intent, the kind
• 24:40
  of intent needed to research and order tools designed for
• 24:43
  dissolving a body.
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: Exactly the moment that purchase order was clicked. Arguably the
• 24:48
  act shifted. It became a calculated conspiracy to destroy evidence,
• 24:53
  and that fundamentally changes how you view the whole tragedy.
• 24:56
  It's not just an accident cover up anymore.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: And one last thing to think about. Consider the timing again,
• 25:01
  that European tour, the delay it caused in the discovery
• 25:05
  of the body.
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: How might that have changed everything? If they hadn't left,
• 25:09
  if they'd stayed.
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: In LA, would they have actually gone through with the
• 25:13
  disposal plan, driven out to Angelus National Forest. Would Celeste's
• 25:17
  body have ever been found?
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: The fact that the tesla was found was basically a
• 25:21
  failure of execution on their part, caused by their travel schedule.
• 25:25
  It wasn't seemingly a change of heart. The only thing
• 25:27
  stopping the potential complete disappearance of the evidence was a
• 25:31
  plane ticket, and that.
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: Pause, that failure, led to the tow truck, the odor,
• 25:36
  the investigation, and to.
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: This deep dive, bringing scrutiny, hopefully some measure of truth
• 25:41
  to a really dark chapter, a.
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: Deeply complex, incredibly tragic case, and clearly far from over.
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: Thank you for joining us on the deep dive.