Latest / Murder Files Unsealed / Untangling the Death of 15-Year-Old Celeste Rivas, Found in Singer D4vd’s Tesla

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Untangling the Death of 15-Year-Old Celeste Rivas, Found in Singer D4vd’s Tesla · Murder Files Unsealed

0:00
Speaker 1: Okay, picture this Hollywood, September twenty twenty five. Ye, it
0:05
sounds like something ripped straight out of a crime thriller,
0:07
doesn't it.
0:08
Speaker 2: It really does. But this was horrifyingly real. And the
0:11
location it wasn't some dark alley. It was just a
0:15
regular towyard in Hollywood.
0:16
Speaker 1: Right, just a standard toow yard in Tinseltown. And workers
0:19
start noticing this smell, I mean, a really powerful foul stench.
0:24
It's coming from a car, a pretty nice one actually,
0:26
a black twenty twenty three Tesla.
0:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, And when law enforcement finally gets there and they
0:32
pop the front trunk, the front, as Tesla calls it,
0:34
right the front, they find a black bag and inside
0:38
the severely decomposed remains of a young woman.
0:40
Speaker 1: It's just a devastating discovery. And then the story absolutely explodes,
0:43
doesn't it, because of who won the car exactly?
0:46
Speaker 2: That Tesla was registered to David Anthony Burke you probably
0:49
know him better as D four VD.
0:50
Speaker 1: The singer huge online billboard charts, millions of fans, mostly
0:55
gen z and alt pop sensation.
0:57
Speaker 2: A global phenomenon, really, and suddenly his name is linked
1:00
to this grotesque discovery.
1:03
Speaker 1: So for you listening Our mission in this deep dive
1:06
is to really get into this collision of well trauma
1:09
and fame. We're going to untangle the facts surrounding the
1:12
discovery of this young woman, fifteen year old Celeste Revs Hernandez.
1:16
Speaker 2: It's an incredibly complex and frankly heartbreaking story. You've got
1:20
profound instability on one side and then this sudden massive
1:24
celebrity on the other.
1:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we want to piece together the timeline, look
1:27
at the forensic challenges which are huge in this case,
1:31
and the legal strategies playing out right now.
1:34
Speaker 2: Our goal really is to try and filter out some
1:36
of the noise, the intense online speculation, and give you
1:40
a clear, nuanced picture of what the LAPED is dealing with.
1:43
It's a very high profile case, but surprisingly maybe low
1:47
on concrete evidence for certain charges.
1:49
Speaker 1: We've pulled together sources that track celeste difficult past defoties
1:54
really rapid rise to fame, the exact steps leading up
1:57
to that horrific discovery in the tow yard, and where
2:00
things stan legally right now.
2:01
Speaker 2: So let's get into it.
2:02
Speaker 1: Okay, we absolutely have to start with Celestreevas Hernandez herself.
2:07
Her identity that was confirmed by the La County Medical
2:10
Examiner using dental records, right, which tells.
2:13
Speaker 2: You something about the condition of the remains straight away
2:15
it does.
2:15
Speaker 1: She was born September seventh, twenty ten, and the discovery
2:20
the date they found her remains. Yeah, it was September eighth,
2:24
twenty twenty five, just.
2:26
Speaker 2: One day after her fifteenth birthday. Yeah. It adds this
2:29
layer of just profound tragedy to everything.
2:33
Speaker 1: Absolutely, And when we talk about the context of her life,
2:36
it's really important to understand where she came from because
2:38
it wasn't Hollywood.
2:39
Speaker 2: No, not at all. She was from Lake Elsinore, that's
2:42
out in Riverside County, kind of suburbans about what seventy
2:45
miles southeast of.
2:46
Speaker 1: La Yeah, quite a distance from where the car was
2:48
eventually found in the Hollywood.
2:49
Speaker 2: Hills, and that geographical distance really highlights the stark difference
2:54
between these two worlds that ultimately tragically collided.
2:57
Speaker 1: You mentioned instability earlier, and this wasn't just like vague notion.
3:01
The sourds of the show was documented and it was severe.
3:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a pretty staggering paper trail. Actually, it shows
3:07
just how often Celeste was well.
3:10
Speaker 1: Slipping through the cracks how often are we talking.
3:12
Speaker 2: We've got records showing Riverside County Sheriff's deputies were called
3:16
to her family home at least eleven.
3:18
Speaker 1: Times, eleven times.
3:20
Speaker 2: Eleven times, and that's just in a fourteen month period
3:23
between February twenty twenty four and April twenty twenty five.
3:26
Speaker 1: Wow. And these weren't just minor calls.
3:28
Speaker 2: No, these were serious welfare checks responding to reports that
3:32
she'd run away again. It paints a really clear picture
3:35
of consistent acute struggle, a young person clearly in crisis,
3:41
with this pattern of trying to leave her home environment.
3:44
Speaker 1: That pattern. It's sobering, isn't it, because it immediately shapes
3:47
how investigators might have initially viewed her disappearance. She wasn't
3:51
say a stable child suddenly abducted exactly.
3:54
Speaker 2: That history complicates things for investigators. Her final disappearance, the
3:57
one that lasted, was reported on April fifth, twenty four, so.
4:00
Speaker 1: She would have been thirteen, maybe just turned fourteen at.
4:03
Speaker 2: That point, right, and missing person flyers went out the
4:06
usual channels, but then nothing for seventeen months. The trail
4:10
just went completely cold.
4:11
Speaker 1: Seventeen months. That's an incredibly long time for a miner
4:15
to be missing with no solid.
4:17
Speaker 2: Leads, it really is descriptions of her mentioned. She was vibrant,
4:20
maybe a bit rebellious. She had wavy black hair, was
4:23
active on social media like a lot of teens.
4:26
Speaker 1: But there was one very specific detail, wasn't there something distinctive?
4:29
Speaker 2: Yes, a tattoo, a tattoo on her right index finger,
4:33
something very identifiable.
4:34
Speaker 1: And here's where her personal story starts to intersect potentially
4:38
with the celebrity world, even before the discovery.
4:41
Speaker 2: This is a critical point. Her mother later told the
4:44
media that in the months before Celeste vanished for that
4:46
final time, she had mentioned dating someone someone named David.
4:50
Speaker 1: Just David could be anyone obviously.
4:52
Speaker 2: Of course, but given what happened later, that name became
4:55
the immediate chilling, potential link connecting this missing ap risked
5:00
team from Lake elsinor to well David Anthony Burke, the
5:03
artist d four vid in Los Angeles hashtag tag tagg
5:07
leb the discovery location in specifics.
5:09
Speaker 1: Okay, so we have this young woman's lust with this
5:12
documented history of instability of running away, slipping through the cracks,
5:17
and the cracks finally meet the celebrity story in that
5:21
Hollywood tow yard. That's right.
5:24
Speaker 2: The catalyst, as you said, was that awful smell reported
5:27
by the workers on September eighth, twenty twenty five, and
5:31
that was three full days after the tesla had even
5:33
been towed off the street, three.
5:36
Speaker 1: Days it sat there. And the specifics of the discovery itself,
5:40
they're crucial for understanding just how difficult this case.
5:42
Speaker 2: Is, absolutely crucial. The body was in the front trunk
5:46
of that black twenty twenty three tesla, it was inside
5:49
a black bag. But the key forensic challenge right from
5:52
the start was the advanced state of decomposition.
5:54
Speaker 1: Let's talk about that decomposition for a second, because it
5:57
really dictates everything that follows legally, doesn't it.
5:59
Speaker 2: It really does. The medical examiner's initial assessment was that
6:02
Celeste had likely been deceased for several weeks before discovery,
6:06
maybe since mid August, possibly even earlier.
6:08
Speaker 1: And being inside that fronk, yeah, it's essentially a sealed container.
6:11
Speaker 2: Right exactly. And think about the timing late summer in
6:15
southern California August heat. That fronk basically acted like.
6:19
Speaker 1: An oven, accelerating everything.
6:21
Speaker 2: Dramatically, accelerating decomposition and that's forensic science. One oh one.
6:26
High heat in an enclosed space just devastates biological evidence.
6:31
It can completely obscure the natural cause of death, mask
6:34
signs of trauma.
6:35
Speaker 1: Things like soft tissue injuries, maybe trace DNA evidence.
6:39
Speaker 2: Potentially lost, entirely critical evidence just gone because of the
6:42
biological processes sped up by the heat and containment.
6:45
Speaker 1: The reports noted the small size of the remains too,
6:47
only seventy one pounds, and she was clothed.
6:50
Speaker 2: Yes, specific items were noted a tube top, black leggings,
6:54
a yellow metal chain bracelet, and stud earrings. Details like
6:58
these are vital potentially for figuring out who might have
7:01
dressed the body or placed it in the bag.
7:03
Speaker 1: And then there were those early media reports adding another
7:06
layer of confusion.
7:07
Speaker 2: Right, There were some initial unconfirmed reports circulating that described
7:10
the remains as partially dismembered, specifically head and torso found
7:14
separately within the trunk.
7:15
Speaker 1: Which sounds horrific and immediately shifts the focus.
7:18
Speaker 2: It absolutely does. While the official reports later just emphasized
7:22
the severe decomposition, those initial claims briefly framed it as
7:26
a potential felony murder investigation in the public eye. It's
7:30
a distinction. The LAPD had to clarify pretty quickly.
7:33
Speaker 1: And that state the decomposition is why they needed dental
7:36
records for the ID. Right, visual identification was.
7:38
Speaker 2: Impossible precisely so the decomposition isn't just a grim detail here.
7:43
It's the central confounding factor in this entire case. It's
7:47
what's preventing so far, an easy answer to the most
7:49
basic question, how did Celeste die?
7:52
Speaker 1: Which leads us right into the other side of this
7:54
story hashtag tag two, the celebrity context and the tesla timeline. Okay,
7:59
let's shift focus now to the owner of that tesla
8:01
and his career trajectory, David Anthony Burke D four VD.
8:05
He wasn't just like a moderately successful artist. He was
8:08
a full blown internet phenomenon.
8:10
Speaker 2: He really was a classic example of a rapidly ascending
8:13
star in the digital age. He's young, only twenty at
8:15
the time, originally from Houston, but based in la by.
8:17
Speaker 1: Then, and he just exploded onto the scene while back
8:20
in twenty twenty.
8:20
Speaker 2: Two, Yeah, primarily through TikTok and SoundCloud. He had this
8:24
really unique blend of like moody indie music, R and
8:27
b alt pop. It just resonated hits like Romantic Homicide
8:32
and Here with Me got hundreds of millions of streams
8:35
almost overnight.
8:36
Speaker 1: It seemed we really need to understand the scale we're
8:38
talking about here. By twenty twenty five, D four VD
8:42
wasn't just online famous. He was operating at a very
8:45
high level in the music industry.
8:47
Speaker 2: Absolutely. He'd released his debut album in April twenty twenty five.
8:51
He was in the middle of this big, withered world
8:52
tour US, UK, Europe, major label backing from Dark Room
8:56
and Innerscope, playing huge stages like Coachella, even open for massive,
9:00
established artists like Sea.
9:02
Speaker 1: So he's the epitome of this new generation of musician, young,
9:05
digitally native, huge.
9:07
Speaker 2: Reach exactly, And that stark contrast with Celeste, this young
9:10
woman from a smaller town, troubled background, struggling with instability
9:13
seventy miles away. That contrast is just well, it's the
9:16
defining tragedy here, isn't it.
9:18
Speaker 1: And their worlds collide through this object, his car, that
9:23
black Tesla, the one with Texas plates reflecting his roots,
9:26
abandoned near the house he was renting in the Hollywood Hills.
9:30
Hashtag hashtag ot the abandoned vehicle timeline.
9:34
Speaker 2: Okay, so the timeline of when that Tesla was abandoned
9:37
is meticulously documented, and it's critical because it gives us
9:40
that window a timeframe when Celeste might have died and
9:43
been placed in the car.
9:45
Speaker 1: He was found on a residential street right near where
9:47
D four V was renting.
9:48
Speaker 2: Yes, near his temporary Hollywood Hills rental. But the key
9:52
thing here is that the car wasn't just dumped there
9:54
overnight and immediately noticed. It had been sitting there for
9:56
a while.
9:57
Speaker 1: Long enough to become part of the scenery, almost long enough.
9:59
Speaker 2: To act official attention for just being parked too long.
10:03
On August twenty seventh, twenty twenty five, police officers actually
10:06
marked the tires, standard procedure to monitor if a car
10:10
has moved, meaning it had already been sitting idle for
10:12
a considerable time by then, possibly weeks.
10:15
Speaker 1: In that detail August twenty seventh, it lines up chillingly
10:19
with the forensic estimate, doesn't it that the death likely
10:21
happened mid August or maybe even earlier.
10:24
Speaker 2: It fits perfectly. It raises the horrifying possibility that the
10:27
body was already in the car decomposing while the authorities
10:31
were just tracking it for a simple parking violation.
10:33
Speaker 1: It's a really disturbing thought. Yeah, so the official process
10:36
then just kicked in automatically pretty much.
10:38
Speaker 2: September third, a parking enforcement officer finally writes the citation
10:42
standard seventy two hour parking limit violation.
10:46
Speaker 1: Two days later, September fifth.
10:48
Speaker 2: It gets towed TOAED to the Hollywood towyard, where it
10:51
sits for three more days before the smell becomes undeniable
10:54
and leads to the discovery on September eighth.
10:56
Speaker 1: Okay, so, once the remains are found identify as Celeste
11:01
and linked back to that missing person report from Riverside County,
11:05
things get jurisdictionally complicated.
11:07
Speaker 2: Very Initially, it was the Riverside County Sheriff's office who
11:11
took the lead, understandably given celessias from their area and
11:14
reacting to the horrific nature of the find. They initially
11:18
labeled it a homicide investigation.
11:20
Speaker 1: That changed quickly, right it got handed over to the LAPD.
11:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was deferred pretty fast to the LAPD's Robbery
11:27
Homicide Division RhD. They handle the really complex, high profile
11:32
stuff in LA and critically, the car and the body
11:35
were found in their jurisdiction in Hollywood.
11:38
Speaker 1: Now, this next step is really important for listeners to grasp.
11:41
Legally speaking, RhD investigates serious crimes, murders. Yet they almost
11:47
immediately walked back that homicide classification. Why would they do that?
11:50
Speaker 2: That retraction signals a massive problem for the investigation right
11:54
from the start, a potential lack of immediate corpus delicti
11:57
for murder.
11:58
Speaker 1: Corpus delicti, meaning the body of evidence proving a specific crime.
12:02
Speaker 2: Occurred exactly in this case, evidence proving a homicide. A
12:06
murder actually happened. Given that extreme decomposition, the police couldn't
12:10
immediately point to signs of trauma like a gunshot, wound
12:13
or strangulation marks. They couldn't confirm how she died.
12:16
Speaker 1: So retracting homicide was a practical move.
12:18
Speaker 2: It was a necessary legal and investigative step. It basically says, look,
12:22
we are investigating a death. It's suspicious, we're taking it
12:25
extremely seriously, but we cannot legally call it a homicide
12:28
yet because the cause of death is.
12:30
Speaker 1: Unknown, And that shift changes everything legally, doesn't it completely?
12:34
Speaker 2: It shifts the immediate focus away from proving murder, which
12:37
they couldn't do at that point, towards potentially lesser but
12:40
still very serious felonies, things like illegal disposal or concealment
12:45
of human remains, maybe tampering with evidence. Those are crimes
12:49
regardless of how the person died.
12:51
Speaker 1: So they're following the evidence they do have. Hashtag shag
12:54
three forensic uncertainty and legal ramifications.
12:57
Speaker 2: Which brings us squarely into the state of legal limbo.
13:01
And it's all driven by that forensic uncertainty, that inability
13:05
so far to determine the cause of death. Hashtag tag
13:08
shag A. The autopsy and cause of death mystery.
13:10
Speaker 1: Okay, the autopsy, we know Celeste was identified via dental records.
13:14
Speaker 2: That part was certain certainty of identity, yes, but that
13:17
might have been the only certainty coming out of the
13:19
initial examination. When the La County Medical Examiner's Office released
13:23
its preliminary findings, the official death certificate listed the cause
13:27
of death.
13:27
Speaker 1: As deferred deferred, meaning they need more information.
13:31
Speaker 2: Exactly pending toxicology results. Primarily, they need to know if
13:35
there were drugs or poisons in her system.
13:37
Speaker 1: And what makes this so challenging for building a homicide
13:40
case is what the autopsy didn't find.
13:42
Speaker 2: Right precisely, no immediate obvious signs of physical trauma, no
13:47
reported evidence of things like gunshots, stab wounds, significant blunt
13:52
force injury. The autopsy also confirmed she wasn't pregnant.
13:56
Speaker 1: So without clear physical trauma, the entire burden of proof
13:59
for foul play shifts to the chemical evidence, the toxicology.
14:03
Speaker 2: One hundred percent, and the deferred status is made even
14:06
more difficult by that advanced decomposition. We keep coming back
14:09
to how.
14:10
Speaker 1: Does decomposition affect toxicology testing specifically well.
14:14
Speaker 2: As a body breaks down the chemicals within it, metabolites,
14:17
which are the traces left by drugs or poisons, also
14:20
break down or change their chemical structure. The heat, as
14:24
we discussed, dramatically sped up this process.
14:26
Speaker 1: Making it harder to find anything or harder to.
14:28
Speaker 2: Interpret it both. Potentially, it can make getting definitive results
14:32
much harder. You might get false negatives where a substance
14:35
was present but is no longer detectable, or you might
14:37
get readings that are inconclusive hard to interpret reliably.
14:40
Speaker 1: So forensic experts have basically warned that this combination the
14:45
heat being sealed in the bag the time elapsed, it
14:47
could ultimately lead to the cause of death being officially
14:50
ruled as undetermined.
14:51
Speaker 2: That is a very real possibility, and it's been voiced
14:54
by experts commenting on the case.
14:56
Speaker 1: And if the cause of death is legally undetermined, prosecuting
15:00
someone for murder becomes almost impossible, doesn't it virtually impossible.
15:04
Speaker 2: You can't prove murder if you can't prove the person
15:07
was actually murdered, as opposed to dying from, say, natural
15:10
causes or an accident, which.
15:12
Speaker 1: Seems to be where the main investigative theory is heading,
15:14
at least based on reports exactly.
15:17
Speaker 2: This forensic dead end has reportedly led police to strongly
15:20
consider a theory that ties directly back into celestes known
15:25
history as a runaway, the possibility of an accidental drug overdose.
15:29
Speaker 1: But that's just a theory at this point, unconfirmed.
15:31
Speaker 2: Completely unconfirmed. It hinges entirely on those toxicology results, which
15:36
are clearly taking a very long time to process, likely
15:39
because the samples are so degraded and complex.
15:42
Speaker 1: But even if it was an accidental overdose, the person
15:45
who put her body in the car and hit it
15:48
would still be criminally liable for that act.
15:50
Speaker 2: Absolutely, that's a separate crime. Concealment of human remains potentially
15:54
tampering with evidence serious felonies, but crucially not murder.
15:59
Speaker 1: So in a grim way, the decomposition itself is almost
16:03
acting like a shield for whoever was responsible. Regardless of
16:06
how Celeste actually died.
16:08
Speaker 2: It's certainly creating a massive legal and forensic hurdle for
16:12
investigators trying to determine the full scope of what happened.
16:15
Half tasch tag tab B the investigation status and legal strategy.
16:18
Speaker 1: Okay, So, with the cause of death stalled forensically, the
16:21
LAPED logically shifted focus to what they could investigate, the
16:26
concealment itself and D four d's connection to the car
16:29
and his movements right, and.
16:30
Speaker 2: They moved relatively quickly on that front. On September seventeenth,
16:33
investigators executed a search warrant at his rented house in
16:36
the Hollywood.
16:36
Speaker 1: Hills and they seized items.
16:38
Speaker 2: Yes, reports indicate they took several items, crucially including a computer.
16:42
Speaker 1: The computer suggesting they're digging into his digital footprint, communications
16:48
location data trying to find any trace of interaction with Celest.
16:52
Speaker 2: That would be the logical assumption Yes, trying to map
16:55
out any connection, any timeline, any digital evidence that might
16:59
link him to her presence or the car's movements.
17:02
Speaker 1: And there were neighbors providing information too. Yeah.
17:05
Speaker 2: Neighbors reportedly told investigators that the Tesla hadn't just been
17:08
sitting completely still for months before being towed. They said
17:12
it had been moved sporadically.
17:14
Speaker 1: Sporadically. What does that suggest.
17:16
Speaker 2: It's just that whoever was in control of the car
17:18
during that period was aware of it, present near it,
17:21
and occasionally relocating it, perhaps trying to avoid exactly what
17:25
eventually happened getting ticketed and towed. It adds another layer
17:29
to the timeline of concealment. Someone was managing the vehicle
17:33
while the body was presumably inside.
17:35
Speaker 1: Meanwhile, Defour himself was physically distant when this all came
17:38
crashing down.
17:39
Speaker 2: Yes, as we mentioned, he was on tour in Chicago, specifically,
17:43
when the news broke about the discovery in his car.
17:45
Speaker 1: His team immediately issued statements standard stuff about cooperating fully
17:50
with authorities.
17:50
Speaker 2: Which is expected, but the professional consequences were immediate and severe.
17:55
The damage control started instantly because the blowback was huge.
17:58
Speaker 1: The tour was affected dramatically.
18:01
Speaker 2: He canceled the remaining US dates of his withered World
18:04
tour that included big shows Seattle, Los Angeles, major cancelations.
18:09
Speaker 1: And the brands associated with him.
18:11
Speaker 2: They reacted with lightning speed. Major companies like CrOx and
18:14
Hollister who had campaigns featuring him. Remember his appeal is
18:18
largely to a young demographic, they immediately paused those campaigns.
18:22
Speaker 1: Wow, that shows just how quickly a celebrity's marketability can
18:26
evaporate in a scandal like this, even before any charges
18:29
are filed.
18:29
Speaker 2: Absolutely, the potential association was toxic enough for them to
18:32
pull back immediately. It highlights the extreme financial and reputational
18:36
fragility involved.
18:38
Speaker 1: And then came a very significant development signaling just how
18:41
serious this was becoming legally for D four VI's yes.
18:44
Speaker 2: By early October, maybe late September, report surface a D
18:48
four VID had hired a very high profile attorney, Blair Burke.
18:52
Speaker 1: Blair Burke. That name carries a lot of weight in
18:55
these kinds of situations, doesn't it.
18:57
Speaker 2: It absolutely does. Hiring Blair Burke is not something you
19:00
do if you're expecting minor charges. She's known as the
19:03
go to lawyer for celebrities facing potentially career ending, high
19:07
stakes legal battles think Harvey Weinstein, other major Hollywood figures
19:12
in crisis.
19:13
Speaker 1: So bringing her on board it signals D four VDS
19:17
team is preparing for what.
19:19
Speaker 2: It signals they are bracing for serious felony charges, most
19:22
likely related to the concealment of human remains, possibly tampering
19:26
with evidence depending on what the investigation uncovers about the
19:30
timeline of his interactions with Celeste. Maybe even charges related
19:33
to statutory rape or child endangerment could be on the
19:36
table purely based on her age when they might have known.
19:38
Speaker 1: Each other, even if the murder charge seems unlikely due
19:41
to the forensic issues exactly.
19:43
Speaker 2: Burke's involvement suggests a strategy focused on building a strong
19:46
defense against those non homicide felonies, mitigating the immediate legal risks,
19:51
and trying to manage the intense public scrutiny. It's a
19:54
major legal fortification.
19:56
Speaker 1: Which brings us back to that careful statement from LAPD
19:58
Captain Scott Williams. He was very precise in this language.
20:02
Speaker 2: Extremely precise. He stated clearly that there is criminal culpability
20:07
in the act of concealing the body that's almost a
20:09
certainty in their view. But he added there is currently
20:13
no evidence yet that directly ties Defty himself to the
20:16
death itself.
20:17
Speaker 1: And he explicitly said dfour b is not currently a
20:20
suspect for murder.
20:21
Speaker 2: Right, that's the tightrope the investigation is walking. They're clearly
20:24
pursuing the person or persons responsible for moving the body,
20:27
hiding it, abandoning the car. That concealment is a felony,
20:31
full stop, regardless of how Celeste died, natural causes, overdose, anything.
20:35
Speaker 1: So defour B d isn't named as a murder suspect,
20:38
but the police are definitely signaling that whoever managed that
20:40
car and hid the body will face charges.
20:42
Speaker 2: Correct focusing on the concealment gives them a clear legal
20:46
path forward a chargeable offense, even while the central mystery
20:49
of the homicide remains forensically blocked at least for now.
20:52
It's a way to pursue accountability based on the available evidence.
20:56
Hashtag tag carve, social media speculation and personal care.
21:00
Speaker 1: Okay, so while the police are navigating these really complex
21:03
forensic and legal pathways, the Internet predictably just became ground
21:09
zero for speculation trying to connect the dots between D
21:13
four Ved and Celeste, often way ahead of any confirmed facts.
21:17
Hashtag Ta ta tay today tracing the alleged relationship.
21:20
Speaker 2: Oh absolutely, the moment D four vd's name was officially
21:23
linked to the car, the online firestorm just ignited, and
21:27
it was fueled heavily by those photos that started surfacing
21:30
and by Celeste's mother's earlier comment about her dating someone
21:33
named David, So.
21:34
Speaker 1: The online community basically turned into detectives trying to piece
21:37
together this alleged relationship.
21:39
Speaker 2: Pretty much diving headfirst into mapping out the when and
21:43
where and what of any connection they might have had.
21:45
Speaker 1: And there were some pretty specific claims being made about
21:47
photos right seemingly placing them together geographically.
21:50
Speaker 2: Yes, quite specific. One photo allegedly showed D four VID
21:53
near celeste hometown Lake Elsinore sometime back in twenty twenty four.
21:58
Speaker 1: Which if true, would put him in hervicey before her
22:00
final disappearance.
22:02
Speaker 2: Potentially, and then other photos emerged appearing to show the
22:06
two of them together in a public place looked like
22:09
maybe a shopping mall, and based on the timeline of
22:12
her disappearance, Celeste would have likely been only thirteen or
22:15
fourteen years old in those pictures.
22:17
Speaker 1: Were any of these photos verified well?
22:19
Speaker 2: TMZ reported they were able to verify the location shown
22:22
in at least one of the mall photos, which added
22:25
a degree of credibility to the online claims. It wasn't
22:28
just random speculation. There seemed to be some visual evidence. However,
22:32
context poor.
22:33
Speaker 1: And this intensified scrutiny around her age, didn't it.
22:36
Speaker 2: There were rumors, yeah, unproven rumors started circulating that maybe
22:40
D four vd's team or people around him had known
22:43
Celeste's underage and had perhaps even tried to suppress or
22:47
obscure her real age during their interactions. Again totally unconfirmed.
22:51
Speaker 1: That it fed the narrative, which leads to a really
22:53
critical and confirmed piece of information. Celeste herself was apparently
22:58
misrepresenting her age.
23:00
Speaker 2: That's right. Friends of Celeste actually told media outlets that
23:03
she told people she was old, or sometimes claiming she
23:05
was nineteen, even saying she was a student at usc.
23:08
Speaker 1: That's a huge complicating factor, isn't it? Legally and ethically.
23:12
Speaker 2: It's a massive complexity for any potential criminal case. It
23:16
confirms the victim herself was actively involved in age deception.
23:20
Now legally statutory laws are designed to protect minors regardless
23:24
of whether they lie about their age. But but practically speaking,
23:28
it definitely muddies the waters for prosecutors if they were
23:31
trying to prove that D four VD, who is twenty famous,
23:35
clearly in a position of power, knew or should have
23:37
known exactly how young Celeste really was. That power imbalance
23:41
is undeniable, but the documented deception could potentially complicate proving
23:45
specific elements of certain charges like intent.
23:48
Speaker 1: And then on top of the photos and age questions
23:51
came the digital artifact the leaked song.
23:53
Speaker 2: Ah Yes, the song titled Celeste. It started circulating online
23:56
and the claim was that it contained ominous lyrics.
23:59
Speaker 1: Which natural the Internet seized upon as evidence.
24:02
Speaker 2: Immediately it became exhibit A in the court of public opinion.
24:06
Whether that song was an authentic D four VD track,
24:09
maybe an old demo, or just some fan made fabrication
24:12
that was never officially confirmed, but its mere existence and
24:15
the alleged lyrical content became a central piece of the
24:19
online narrative, fueling speculation about his knowledge or involvement.
24:22
Speaker 1: It just shows how in these high profile cases, any
24:25
suggestive data point, verified or not, gets amplified and woven
24:29
into a story, often before investigators have the full picture.
24:33
The digital world wanted answers and maybe a villain hashtag
24:37
tag tag b community and systemic.
24:38
Speaker 2: Falloff absolutely and while all this legal maneuvering and online
24:41
speculation was happening, we have to remember the very real
24:44
human tragedy playing out in Celeste's hometown.
24:47
Speaker 1: Like Elsinore, the impact on her community must have been immense.
24:50
Speaker 2: It clearly was. The grief was palpable. Local vigils were organized,
24:54
people demanding justice for Celeste, and even after her body
24:58
was found, reports mentioned that her mis person flyers were
25:01
still posted around town in some places.
25:02
Speaker 1: The reminder of those seventeen long months of uncertainty.
25:06
Speaker 2: Exactly for the people who had been searching, hoping, the
25:10
finality and the horrific circumstances were just devastating.
25:15
Speaker 1: And the trauma hit her immediate family hardest. Of course,
25:18
her body was eventually released to them, Yes.
25:20
Speaker 2: In late September for a private funeral, but the aftermath,
25:24
the intense public scrutiny and media attention focused on their
25:27
home due to the investigation, it became unbearable for her mother.
25:31
She had to move Yes, reports indicate she broke her
25:34
lease and moved out of the home that had been searched,
25:37
just trying to escape the stigma, the constant reminders the
25:40
trauma associated with this incredibly high profile case landing right
25:44
on her doorstep.
25:45
Speaker 1: It's a stark reminder of how these cases shatter private
25:48
lives far beyond the individuals directly involved. Even the landlord
25:52
reportedly faced issues dealing with the attention and the aftermath.
25:54
Speaker 2: Definitely. Meanwhile, as the family dealt with private grief, the media,
25:58
especially social media, was almost amplifying the chaos. Platforms like
26:03
x formerly Twitter just became this relentless feedback.
26:06
Speaker 1: Loop, dissecting every photo, every lyric, every timeline detail.
26:10
Speaker 2: Often leading to widespread misinformation. We saw completely false reports
26:14
spread like wildfire. Remember that claim about a fifty two
26:17
year old woman being arrested in connection with the case.
26:19
Speaker 1: Right, which is totally wrong and had to be retracted
26:22
by authorities.
26:23
Speaker 2: It just shows the intense public appetite for answers, any answer,
26:27
and the real danger of relying on unverified online chatter
26:31
during a fast moving, sensitive investigation.
26:34
Speaker 1: But beneath the celebrity drama and the online noise, this
26:38
case really throws a harsh light on potential systemic failures,
26:41
doesn't it. Yeah, especially when it comes to protecting vulnerable
26:44
young people.
26:45
Speaker 2: It absolutely does. You look at Celest's history, those eleven
26:48
prior runaway incidents documented by the Sheriff's office. The fact
26:51
that she could then disappear for seventeen months and end
26:54
up found under these circumstances seventy miles away. It points
26:58
to potential gaps.
26:59
Speaker 1: Ye communication between agencies, prioritization.
27:03
Speaker 2: Possibly all of the above, a lack of maybe coordinated
27:07
inter county communication, perhaps issues with how missing persons cases,
27:12
especially for repeat runaways, are prioritized and investigated over the
27:16
long term. Sadly, sometimes these cases get tragically deprioritized in
27:21
the system, which can lead to situations where kids fall
27:24
through the cracks for extended periods.
27:26
Speaker 1: And even the technology involved adds another layer of modern complexity.
27:30
We keep mentioning the.
27:31
Speaker 2: Tesla, right, it's not just any car. It's a highly
27:34
advanced vehicle, and that brings features like Century Mode into play.
27:38
Speaker 1: Century Mode that's the surveillance system.
27:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's essentially like an advanced dash cam system that
27:43
records activity around the car when it's parked and detects motion. Theoretically,
27:48
this could be a gold mine of evidence. It might
27:49
have recorded who access the front when they did it,
27:53
but retrieving that data isn't always straightforward. It often requires
27:56
cooperation from the manufacturer Tesla. There can be legal hurdles,
28:00
potential delays. It's not like pulling footage from a simple
28:04
corner store security camera. It adds a layer of technical
28:07
and legal complication that you wouldn't have had with an
28:10
older car, a very modern obstacle, and this very tragic,
28:14
almost old school mystery.
28:15
Speaker 1: In some ways, it just adds yet another challenge for
28:18
investigators hashtag tag outro.
28:20
Speaker 2: So let's try to synthesize this for you, bring together
28:23
the core complexities we've discussed. What we have is this
28:26
deeply troubling narrative, a chronically at risk teenager, Celesterevas Hernandez
28:32
whose life ends tragically. Her remains are found months later,
28:35
sealed inside a car registered to a globally famous musician
28:39
D four V.
28:40
Speaker 1: We've traced her documented history of instability in Lake Elsinore,
28:43
the sudden almost vertical rise of defour Vet's career built online,
28:47
and then the immediate fallout the tour cancelations, the brand's
28:50
pulling back the moment his name is linked.
28:52
Speaker 2: To this, And crucially, we've unpacked that critical legal distinction
28:55
that LAPD is working with right now, the difference between
28:59
proving criminal culpability for the act of concealment hiding the
29:03
body versus proving responsibility for the death itself.
29:07
Speaker 1: Right that distinction seems to be the anchor for the
29:10
entire investigation at this point, mainly because of the forensic
29:13
limitations caused by the decomposition exactly.
29:16
Speaker 2: The police are actively meticulously trying to trace Celeste's final movements,
29:22
pouring over any video evidence they can find from that
29:25
time frame from the locations involved. But they've been very clear,
29:28
despite intense public pressure and speculation, that no persons of
29:32
interest have been officially named in connection to her death.
29:35
Speaker 1: The crime of concealment seems clear in their view, someone
29:38
did that, But without a confirmed homicide ruling, without a
29:41
determined cause of death from the autopsy and toxicology, any
29:44
charges directly related to causing her death seem stalled, perhaps indefinitely.
29:49
Speaker 2: So the truth right now remains incredibly tangled. It's caught
29:52
somewhere in these shadows between a suburban crisis we barely glimpsed,
29:56
and the blindingly bright lights of Hollywood fame, and honestly,
30:00
progress seems to be waiting almost entirely on one specific
30:04
scientific outcome, those toxicology results from the La County Medical
30:08
Examiner's Office.
30:08
Speaker 1: This whole story, it just lays bare so many vulnerabilities,
30:12
doesn't it, Not just the terrible risks faced by runaway teens,
30:15
but also the extreme power imbalances and the complex legal
30:19
maze that emerges when celebrity, access, fame, and resources intersect
30:23
with what seem like systemic failures in our protective services
30:26
for young people.
30:27
Speaker 2: It really does, and that leads us, I think, to
30:29
our final provocative thought for you, the listener, to maybe
30:32
carry forward and moll over. When the physical evidence is
30:36
so compromised by decomposition, by heat, by time, to the
30:39
point where the fundamental question of how did this person
30:41
die might remain forever masked, forever undetermined. How does the
30:45
pursuit of justice adapt?
30:47
Speaker 1: Does the system find a form of closure or accountability
30:50
by focusing solely on prosecuting the secondary crime, the concealment,
30:55
the cover up, because that's what can be proven and.
30:57
Speaker 2: If so, What does that mean for our understanding or
30:59
the face Emily's understanding of what truly happened? Does focusing
31:02
on the concealment inadvertently obscure the search for truth about
31:06
the death itself. It's a profound question about evidence, justice,
31:10
and what answers are possible when science hits a wall.