Latest / Murder Files Unsealed / Celeste Rivas Was Likely 'Dead for Weeks' Before Being Found in d4vd's Tesla Trunk

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Celeste Rivas Was Likely 'Dead for Weeks' Before Being Found in d4vd's Tesla Trunk · Murder Files Unsealed

0:00
Speaker 1: Okay, So for this deep dive, we're starting somewhere unexpected,
0:04
not a concert, not a studio.
0:06
Speaker 2: No, definitely not. We're starting on a specific date, September eighth,
0:10
twenty twenty five.
0:11
Speaker 1: And the location is well, it's pretty stark a commercial
0:15
tow yard in Hollywood.
0:16
Speaker 2: Exactly, just a standard industrial lot. And for the workers there,
0:20
it seemed like just another Monday morning, routine.
0:23
Speaker 1: Stuff until it wasn't routine at all. Something in the air.
0:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, the air itself. There was this odor and not
0:30
your usual towyard smell, like oil or old metal.
0:33
Speaker 1: What was it.
0:34
Speaker 2: It was described as foul, organic, really unmistakable, and it
0:42
just got stronger and stronger, impossible to ignore.
0:44
Speaker 1: Wow, And they knew it was serious.
0:46
Speaker 2: Oh yeah. They pinpointed it coming from one specific vehicle.
0:49
They realized pretty quickly this wasn't just you know, a
0:50
leak or something minor.
0:51
Speaker 1: So they called the police.
0:52
Speaker 2: They did, LPD, came down, got a search warrant, and
0:56
they had to force open the front trunk of this car.
0:58
Speaker 1: The front, as Tesla calls it, right.
1:00
Speaker 2: The front and inside that's where they found the source
1:03
of that horrific smell, which the remains of a young girl,
1:06
severely decomposed, tightly wrapped in a plastic bag.
1:10
Speaker 1: Oh my god, just awful.
1:12
Speaker 2: Instantly it flipped from a weird smell investigation to a
1:15
full blown homicide case.
1:16
Speaker 1: And they identified her later.
1:18
Speaker 2: Yes, using dental records, physical markers, they confirmed it was
1:23
fifteen year old Celeste Revas.
1:25
Speaker 1: Hernandez, fifteen and she'd been missing for.
1:28
Speaker 2: Over a year, a runaway from Lake.
1:29
Speaker 1: Elsinore, Lake Elsinor, Okay. And the car, this is where
1:33
it gets even more shocking, isn't it? The owner?
1:35
Speaker 2: Yes, The car itself was a high end one, a
1:39
sleek black twenty twenty three Tesla Model X and registered
1:43
to David Anthony Burke, who the world knows is D
1:46
four VD, the R and B star chart topper, multi
1:50
platinum artist.
1:51
Speaker 1: So you have this huge celebrity connected to this absolutely
1:54
horrifying discovery fame and well, this lonely, terrible death.
1:58
Speaker 2: It sent shockwaves obviously through music, social media, everything.
2:02
Speaker 1: So that's what we're digging into today. This deep dive
2:04
is about getting past those initial screaming headlines.
2:06
Speaker 2: Right. We want to lay out the facts as we
2:08
know them. Look at the timeline, which is really complex
2:10
and chilling.
2:11
Speaker 1: See how Celeste's vulnerability might connect to D four vd's world.
2:14
Speaker 2: And examine the bigger picture too, what this says about fame,
2:18
social media risk.
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Speaker 1: Okay, let's do it a careful fact based look at
2:24
the D four VD homicide investigation. All right, let's start
2:26
with the car, that Tesla Model X. You said it
2:30
was more than just a car.
2:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, the sources really painted as a symbol for D
2:35
four VD, this artist who just exploded onto the scene.
2:38
It wasn't just transportation.
2:39
Speaker 1: It was like a trophy kind of yeah, a.
2:42
Speaker 2: Very visible sign of his super fast rise, you know,
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the money, the success. He apparently featured it a lot
2:48
on his social media, this sleek, black, electric status symbol.
2:52
Speaker 1: But then it became abandoned. How did that happen? The
2:55
sequence of events leading up to the discovery is pretty.
2:57
Speaker 2: Important, absolutely critical for the timeline. The Tesla was found
3:00
just parked on a street, a quiet, pretty expensive residential
3:04
street up in the Hollywood Hills. Here is place very near,
3:08
sources say, just moments away from the five million dollar
3:10
mansion he was renting.
3:11
Speaker 1: At the time, and it just sat there for days.
3:14
Speaker 2: Neighbors started noticing it on August twenty sixth, they began complaining.
3:18
Officially said it hadn't moved into over seventy two hours,
3:21
which violated parking rules there.
3:23
Speaker 1: Okay, so was it just illegally parked, But there was
3:25
something else, wasn't there something kind of weird?
3:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, this detail is really unsettling. Some neighbors were reported
3:30
hearing music coming from the car for several days.
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Speaker 1: Music blaring. Eerie music blaring is how it was described, moody,
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spooky tracks apparently echoing around this quiet street. Eventually, the
3:43
battery must have died or the system shut off.
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Speaker 2: That is strange. Gives you a timeframe for when it
3:48
was definitely inactive, though exactly so.
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Speaker 1: Complaints start August twenty sixth, A ticket gets issued on
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the twenty eighth, and then shortly after that it was
3:56
towed taken to the impound lot.
3:58
Speaker 2: Right now, here's the really crucial part you mentioned earlier.
4:01
Speaker 1: When it was towed, no smell, nothing recorded in the
4:04
toe report about any odor at all. That was late August,
4:08
early September.
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Speaker 2: But by September eighth in the impound lot.
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Speaker 1: The stench was overpowering, so bad the workers had to
4:14
call the police. They needed that warrant to get inside
4:16
the front, which brings us back to the discovery and
4:19
the police confirmation was pretty blunt.
4:23
Speaker 2: Very direct, LPD Captain Scott M. Williams. He laid out
4:26
what they knew for sure right away.
4:28
Speaker 1: What was the quote?
4:30
Speaker 2: He said, Uh, we know for sure that Celestia Reeves
4:33
Hernandez died and someone placed her body in the front
4:36
trunk area of David Burke's tesla. No ambiguity there, okay.
4:40
Speaker 1: And the timing, Yeah, the decomposition told a story, it did.
4:45
Speaker 2: The medical examiner looked at the state of the remains
4:47
advanced decomposition, It suggested she'd been dead for several weeks,
4:51
several weeks, possibly even a month, which points to late
4:54
July or early August twenty twenty five as the likely
4:57
time of death.
4:58
Speaker 1: Late July, early August. What was D four V doing?
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Speaker 2: Then, that's the really daring part. He was on tour,
5:03
midway through his Big Withered World tour, playing sold out shows,
5:07
huge crowds all over the world.
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Speaker 1: So while he's on stage, this global star.
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Speaker 2: This tragedy was unfolding or had already concluded, with the
5:15
body apparently inside his car parked just near his la Home.
5:18
It's a horrifying.
5:19
Speaker 1: Disconnect and the cause of death.
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Speaker 2: Officially it's being treated as a potential homicide, but the
5:24
me had to defer the final ruling on cause and
5:27
manner of death.
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Speaker 1: Why, just because of the decomposition exactly.
5:31
Speaker 2: The decay was so advanced it created huge challenges for forensics.
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We can get into that more later, okay.
5:36
Speaker 1: But they were sure it was Celeste.
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Speaker 2: How key identifiers. She's about five foot one, wavy black hair,
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the close she was found in a tube pop, black leggings,
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a yellow metal bracelet, study rings, kind of typical teen fashion.
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Speaker 1: But the definitive thing the tattoo, right, That was the clincher, right,
5:54
the one you mentioned on her right index finger.
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Speaker 2: It rich that tattoo matched missing persons reports, family photos
6:02
and ultimately helped confirm her identity through dental records too.
6:06
Speaker 1: And tragically, she just turned fifteen the day before they
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found her.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, the timing is just brutal.
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Speaker 1: It's really important, I think to focus on Celeste herself now,
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beyond just being the victim found in the car.
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Speaker 2: Absolutely, she's the human center of this entire tragedy. Celestrevus
6:20
Hernandez from Lake Elsinor.
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Speaker 1: Which is in the Inland Empire, right, kind of a
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working class area, decent way out from the La Glamour scene,
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about eighty miles or so.
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Speaker 2: That's right. And the dates, they're just heartbreaking when you
6:32
lay them out. Born September seventh, twenty ten, so she.
6:35
Speaker 1: Turned fifteen on September seventh, twenty twenty five.
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Speaker 2: The day before her body was discovered. Her family described
6:42
her through their grief as a sweet child.
6:45
Speaker 1: What was she into art?
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Speaker 2: Music, very active on social media, outgoing personality, like dyeing
6:52
her hair bright colors, and she had this dream like so.
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Speaker 1: Many kids her age, to be an influencer.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, that was a big ambition for her.
6:59
Speaker 1: But her life it wasn't stable, was it. The sources mentioned.
7:03
Speaker 2: That No, definitely not. There was significant instability at home
7:06
and this wasn't the first time she disappeared. Authorities knew
7:09
about her vulnerability.
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Speaker 1: How many times she.
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Speaker 2: Was officially reported missing? Three times just in twenty twenty four. Yeah, January,
7:15
March and April, usually right after big arguments at home.
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Speaker 1: Wow, three times in just a few months, and the
7:21
last time.
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Speaker 2: Was April twenty four to twenty twenty four. That's when
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she vanished for good, and she was only thirteen.
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Speaker 1: Then thirteen, just a kid. Her mom talked about it.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, Maria Hernandez, her mother spoke to TMZ, gave a
7:33
really raw, honest account. Confirmed things were tough at home.
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Speaker 1: What did she say?
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Speaker 2: Described Celeste as getting more rebellious, lots of clashes over curfews,
7:44
and especially her online life. Her mom said she was
7:47
always on her phone talking to boys. You really sense
7:50
this widening gap between them.
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Speaker 1: In her school situation that.
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Speaker 2: Also points to her being at risk. She went to
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Canyon Academy. It's a continuation school specifically for kids who
8:00
need more support.
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Speaker 1: So counselors knew her, they did.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, they noted she was creative, but also tended to
8:05
be isolated, felt misunderstood. The picture painted is that these
8:09
weren't just acts of defiance running away.
8:12
Speaker 1: More like desperation, trying to escape.
8:14
Speaker 2: Exactly, Escaping a home situation with a lot of emotional stress,
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financial stress too, apparently, and for a kid in a
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place like Lake Elson, or maybe feeling stuck Hollywood.
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Speaker 1: And the whole online world, must have seemed like this
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incredibly powerful escape route, a very.
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Speaker 2: Powerful and ultimately incredibly dangerous.
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Speaker 1: One, and her social media reflected this, the desire to
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escape it did.
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Speaker 2: It was like her diary. You had the usual teenage stuff, selfies,
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lip sync videos, caption saying things like living my best life.
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But underneath that there were darker posts too, cryptic things
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about heartbreak, about wanting to get away from her reality.
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Speaker 1: Okay, so this is where the connection starts to form,
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right between her private struggles and the celebrity world.
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Speaker 2: This is the tragic intersection point. There were persistent rumors
9:00
among her family and friends that before she disappeared for good,
9:03
she'd been secretly dating someone, someone specific, someone named David.
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This had apparently been going on for months. Family members
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knew she'd sneak out sometimes to beat this person. A
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cousin apparently thought it was just, you know, puppy love.
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Just a rumor until until after her body was found.
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Then the visual evidence surfaced. A photo started circulating online.
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Speaker 1: What did it show?
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Speaker 2: It showed Celeste clearly smiling, standing right next to a man,
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and that man looked a lot like dfour VD.
9:30
Speaker 1: Okay, but the really key thing in that photo the tattoos,
9:34
both of them, Celeste in the man resembling dfour VD
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were flashing the exact same tattoo on.
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Speaker 2: Their right index fingers. The tattoo the very same one
9:42
found on her remains. Given how specific that is, you
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just you can't dismiss that as coincidence. Analytically it's a
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direct link.
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Speaker 1: Were there other sightings people seeing her around him?
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Speaker 2: There were witness reports, yeah, placing her in the Hollywood
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Hills area around June and July of twenty twenty five,
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attending parties, sometimes in defour Ved's circle.
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Speaker 1: But police warned about jumping to conclusions like calling her
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a groupie right.
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Speaker 2: They stressed caution there she was a miner the known
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history of running away, it seems more likely she was
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drawn into this world by the allure of celebrity, the access.
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It wasn't an equal footing.
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Speaker 1: So her vulnerability, that difficult home.
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Speaker 2: Life collide it head on with this powerful fantasy of
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Hollywood glamour she was chasing.
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Speaker 1: And the final piece confirming she was in Hollywood around
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the time she died.
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Speaker 2: Her phone records when police subpoenaed them the last pains
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the last known activity from her device. It was late
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July twenty twenty.
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Speaker 1: Five, matching the estimated time of.
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Speaker 2: Death exactly and those pings came from cell towers right
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near Hollywood. It places her geographically in the same area
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at the same critical time.
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Speaker 1: Okay, let's shift now to defour Vid himself. David Anthony Burke.
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His career trajectory was well insane, right.
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Speaker 2: Truly mediorc critics often called him the epitome of gen
10:55
Z success. It happened so fast.
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Speaker 1: Tell us about his background again.
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Speaker 2: Born Yeah, split his time growing up between Houston and Brooklyn,
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dropped out of high.
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Speaker 1: School actually and got into gaming first right esports.
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Speaker 2: He was a competitive Fortnite streamer, used the handle D
11:09
four VD. Then pretty suddenly in twenty twenty one, he
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pivoted to music. Started simple, just uploading these low fi
11:16
R and B tracks he made on garage band of SoundCloud, and.
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Speaker 1: Then Romantic Homicide happened.
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Speaker 2: Oh Yeah, twenty twenty two. That track didn't just do well,
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it exploded, went absolutely viral on TikTok, and.
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Speaker 1: That translated to real chart success big time.
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Speaker 2: It hit number thirty three on the Billboard Hot one
11:30
hundred when platinum. By twenty twenty five, he was at
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his peak. His debut album, Withered, came out and debuted
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at number one.
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Speaker 1: What was this sound like?
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Speaker 2: His themes very moody, lots of synse atmospheric production, and
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the lyrics they often dealt with relationships, but often fragile,
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even toxic ones.
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Speaker 1: Okay, and this is where his art starts getting looked
11:53
at very differently. After the discovery, people started digging into the.
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Speaker 2: Lyrics intensely, scrutinized for clues for foreshadowing. And there was
12:02
one thing in particular, the demo track exactly back in
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December twenty twenty three, way before any of this happened publicly,
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a demo leaked and the title is chillingly celested, d'monfin.
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Speaker 1: Celeste, same name, and the lyrics.
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Speaker 2: Explicit, uncomfortably detailed. They directly connected him to a girl
12:21
named Celeste who had a tattoo.
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Speaker 1: Can you share some of those lines?
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Speaker 2: Yeah, Designs like ooh, Celest, the girl with my name
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tattooed on her chest, though the actual tattoo was on
12:29
her finger, the name and tattoo references there. I hear
12:31
her voice each time I take a breath. I'm obsessed.
12:34
Speaker 1: Wow. How did fans react back then when it leaked?
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Speaker 2: Sources say they mostly brushed it off, you know, typical
12:39
dark R and B drama. Maybe fiction part of the
12:42
artistic persona you built, but after September eighth, impossible to ignore.
12:46
It just reads completely differently now, like this dark prophecy,
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the clear artistic link using her actual name, referencing a tattoo.
12:56
It's undeniable.
12:57
Speaker 1: So the news breaks about the body in his car.
13:00
What was the immediate fallout for him?
13:02
Speaker 2: Professionally swift and devastating. He was actually on tour performing
13:06
in Chicago when the news hit.
13:08
Speaker 1: What did his team say?
13:09
Speaker 2: They put out a quick, concise statement said something like
13:12
David has been informed and is fully cooperating with the authorities,
13:16
standard damage control language.
13:17
Speaker 1: But cooperation didn't stop the career.
13:19
Speaker 2: Of damage, not at all. Just two days later, September tenth,
13:22
the rest of the tour was canceled. Officially, the reason
13:25
given was personal reasons.
13:27
Speaker 1: But here's a weird twist. The scandal actually boosted his music.
13:30
Speaker 2: Paradoxically, Yes, it's complex. Sponsors they fled immediately. Big companies
13:36
hate negative publicity like this. His record label, Interscope went
13:40
completely silent, very strategic silent.
13:42
Speaker 1: With the streams went up surged.
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Speaker 2: By something like forty percent. All the morbid curiosity, people
13:48
rushing to listen to romantic homicide or that Celeste demo
13:52
trying to find clues. It translated directly into more place.
13:55
Speaker 1: An online reaction wasn't just passive listening, right, People were
13:58
actively investigating.
14:00
Speaker 2: So yeah. His official subreddit, usually a fan space, had
14:02
to be locked.
14:03
Speaker 1: Down entirely why too much traffic?
14:05
Speaker 2: Traffic but also chaos. Users were posting wild theories, fighting
14:10
and crucially accusing the moderators of trying to delete old
14:14
posts or discussions that might implicate D four VD, trying
14:17
to bury evidence.
14:18
Speaker 1: Was there actual evidence being shared or just speculation?
14:22
Speaker 2: There were reports of resurfaced clips from his old live streams,
14:26
back when he was primarily.
14:27
Speaker 1: A gamer, and these clips showed.
14:29
Speaker 2: Reportedly, they showed Celeste, who would have been only thirteen
14:31
at the time, calling him out, interacting with him on
14:34
his stream before the mods supposedly deleted the comments.
14:37
Speaker 1: And footage really thirteen.
14:39
Speaker 2: Yeah, and one source quoted a viewer comment from back
14:42
then reflecting this dark online awareness. The comment was something
14:45
like the chat new they joked about Epstein.
14:48
Speaker 1: Island Grim suggest some people in his orbit, or at
14:52
least his viewers, might have known about this connection for
14:54
a while.
14:55
Speaker 2: It certainly suggests that a connection that was maybe ignored
14:58
or dismissed until tragedy struck and.
15:01
Speaker 1: This online frenzy had real world consequences for the investigation
15:06
it did.
15:06
Speaker 2: Police executed a search warrant at that Hollywood Hills rental
15:09
house on September seventeenth, took a lot of stuff. We're
15:13
kind of stuff electronics, mainly phones, computers, hard drives vital
15:18
for tracking communications. Plus they collected several items of evidence
15:22
from the property itself and.
15:24
Speaker 1: D four vd's reaction.
15:26
Speaker 2: He didn't stick around. Within a week of that search.
15:28
By September twenty fourth, he was gone, abruptly vacated the property,
15:32
ended the lease on that five million dollar mansion.
15:34
Speaker 1: There was also that weird incident with the key fob
15:37
contaminating evidence.
15:38
Speaker 2: Right, that's a serious issue. Someone on Reddit claimed they
15:41
found a Tesla key fobb just lying in the gutter
15:43
outside the house after he'd left.
15:45
Speaker 1: And they picked it up.
15:46
Speaker 2: They admitted they picked it up, handled it, tampered with it,
15:49
which is terrible from an evidence perspective. That fob could
15:53
have held DNA fingerprints. It really shows how public curiosity,
15:58
even if well intentioned can mess up a crime scene.
16:01
Speaker 1: And all the while people kept dissecting his.
16:03
Speaker 2: Music relentlessly, Critics, fans, everyone combing through his work. They
16:08
pointed to the music video for Withered, his album track
16:11
What Was in the video a specific shot a woman
16:13
being dragged into a.
16:14
Speaker 1: Car trunk and other lyrics.
16:16
Speaker 2: Another track called dead Body had lyrics about hiding secrets meticulously.
16:21
The big question everyone was grappling.
16:23
Speaker 1: With and still is coincidence or confession exactly?
16:26
Speaker 2: Was he just leading into a dark, edgy artistic style
16:30
or were these lyrics and visuals reflecting something real, something
16:33
hidden in plain sight. We just don't know.
16:35
Speaker 1: Let's talk about the investigation itself. You mentioned the decomposition
16:39
created huge forensic challenges.
16:41
Speaker 2: Immense challenges for the LAPD. That level of decay it
16:44
was accelerated by the heat, especially being inside the enclosed
16:47
front of the car during a hot LA period.
16:50
Speaker 1: So determining how she died is difficult.
16:52
Speaker 2: Extremely difficult. Toxicology figuring out if there were drugs involved
16:57
becomes much harder, and identifying the exact cause of death
17:02
was it blunt force strangulation something else. The tissue damage
17:06
makes finding that definitive proof really.
17:08
Speaker 1: Tough, so investigators have to rely more on other things
17:11
circumstantial evidence.
17:12
Speaker 2: Heavily and technological evidence. They did manage to get some
17:16
DNA because she was wrapped in plastic that offered a bit.
17:19
Speaker 1: Of protection, and it wasn't perfect.
17:21
Speaker 2: No, the sources are clear that heat and insect activity
17:24
still caused significant damage to the tissues. Getting a clean,
17:27
full DNA profile is challenging under those conditions. Sometimes they
17:32
have to use secondary methods like looking at the insects
17:35
found on the.
17:35
Speaker 1: Remains entomology to help pinpoint timing exactly.
17:39
Speaker 2: Analyzing insect life cycles can help narrow down when the
17:42
body might have been placed there.
17:43
Speaker 1: What about the car's data, the tesla itself, that's hugely significant.
17:47
Speaker 2: First, the license plates Texas plates were checked, they hadn't reported.
17:50
Speaker 1: Stolen okay, And the GPS.
17:52
Speaker 2: They got a warrant for the GPS data and it
17:55
showed the car was parked stationary in that Hollywood Hills
17:58
spot as early as August first.
18:00
Speaker 1: First August first, that's crucial. That places the car there
18:04
potentially with the body inside, well before D four vd's
18:08
team left for the later part of his tour.
18:10
Speaker 2: Correct, but it doesn't fully solve what investigators are calling.
18:14
Speaker 1: The frunk question, which is when exactly was the body
18:17
put in the front right.
18:19
Speaker 2: There are two main competing theories, and they conflict based
18:22
on the evidence we have.
18:23
Speaker 1: What's theory A.
18:24
Speaker 2: Theory A says the body was put in alf in
18:26
the car was parked and left there. This fits with
18:29
the toe report. Remember no smell reported when it was
18:32
towed in early September, So.
18:33
Speaker 1: If the body was in there since August first, why
18:36
no smell until weeks later?
18:37
Speaker 2: That's the question theory A raises. Maybe someone put her
18:40
there later, closer to when it was towed, or even
18:43
after it was towed somehow, though that seems less likely
18:45
in a secure lot.
18:46
Speaker 1: Okay, What's theory B.
18:48
Speaker 2: Theory B argues the body was inside from early August.
18:51
Matching the GPS data, it suggests the decomposition just hadn't
18:55
reached the point of creating an overwhelming noticeable odor until later.
18:58
Speaker 1: Maybe triggered by the heat in the impound lot or
19:01
the car losing.
19:02
Speaker 2: Power precisely the intense LA heat, maybe a change in
19:07
ventilation once the car's battery died, the constant sun exposure
19:10
in the lot. It could have crossed the threshold, causing
19:13
gases to release. Suddenly, they're actually looking into the tesla's
19:16
internal temperature systems, trying to model how decomposition might progress
19:21
under those specific conditions.
19:23
Speaker 1: Fascinating, But regardless of when she was placed in the front,
19:26
that tattoo.
19:27
Speaker 2: The sh tattoo remains the undeniable physical link connecting the
19:32
car's owner D four VD directly to the victims Celeste.
19:35
It confirms the relationship was personal, sustained, definitely not just
19:39
a typical fan interaction.
19:40
Speaker 1: Okay, let's look at the public reaction. How do people respond,
19:44
especially back in celeste community.
19:46
Speaker 2: The response was immediate and very strong, grief, anger, a
19:51
real demand for answers for justice, and like Elsinor her hometown,
19:56
they held a candlelight vigil on September twenty second. One
20:00
hundred people showed up.
20:01
Speaker 1: Did her family speak.
20:02
Speaker 2: Her mother, Maria Hernandez did. She was incredibly emotional, obviously grieving,
20:06
but also fighting back against how Celeste was being portrayed
20:10
in some media, just as a troubled runaway.
20:12
Speaker 1: What does she say?
20:13
Speaker 2: She was quoted sobbing saying she deserves justice. My baby
20:17
was sweet, not what they say it was powerful a
20:20
mother defending her child's memory.
20:22
Speaker 1: People supported the family immensely.
20:24
Speaker 2: A GoFundMe page set up for burial costs raised over
20:27
fifty thousand dollars really quickly. It showed that despite her
20:31
running away, she wasn't forgotten the community care and this.
20:34
Speaker 1: Case sparked a bigger conversation. Didn't it about systemic failures?
20:38
Speaker 2: It absolutely did activists commentators. They immediately started asking hard questions,
20:43
why wasn't a kid like Celeste, with a documented history
20:46
of running away from a tough home life bet are protected?
20:49
Where were the social safety nets?
20:50
Speaker 1: And connecting it to celebrity culture, yes, highlighting what they
20:54
see is the dark sight of stardom.
20:56
Speaker 2: Sources directly compared this situation to other high profile file.
21:00
Speaker 1: Cases like r Kelly or Sean Diddycomb's.
21:03
Speaker 2: Exactly cases involving powerful men allegedly using their fame and
21:07
access to target vulnerable young people. The argument is that
21:11
social media creates this direct line. A DM from an
21:15
idol can bypass parents, bypass any kind of protection, and
21:19
offer this dangerous illusion of escape to kids who are desperate.
21:23
Speaker 1: There was an expert cited on this as a psychologist.
21:25
Speaker 2: Doctor Lena Rivera. She explained how teens like Celeste might
21:28
get caught up in the fantasy they're seeking escape, so
21:31
they might ignore warning signs because the promise of glamour
21:34
feels more real, more appealing than the risks.
21:37
Speaker 1: Has this tragedy led to any actual changes or calls
21:39
for change.
21:40
Speaker 2: Yes, there's already legislative action happening. Lawmakers in California are
21:44
pushing for stricter laws around online grooming, specifically citing Celeste's case.
21:48
Speaker 1: What kind of changes.
21:50
Speaker 2: Things like increasing penalties for inappropriate online contact between adults,
21:54
especially public figures and miners, maybe even mandating reporting if
21:58
suspicious interactions involving celebrities and young fans are flagged.
22:03
Speaker 1: So real world impact potentially, But for the investigation itself,
22:07
it's ongoing. Lots of unanswered.
22:10
Speaker 2: Questions, The huge questions remain. Autopsy results are still pending.
22:14
Forensics are complex and take time. We have the facts
22:16
of her disappearance, the discovery, the links, But the core
22:20
questions linger did D four.
22:22
Speaker 1: V know she was in the car? Was it impulsive,
22:24
a crime of passion? Was it a calculated cover up
22:27
or something else?
22:28
Speaker 2: Entirely right? The timeline is messy. The evidence is conflicting
22:31
in parts. The truth for now feels locked away, just
22:34
like that tesla in the evidence yard hashtag tag.
22:37
Speaker 1: Outro So we followed this absolutely horrific story from Celestrie
22:41
Vas Fernandez's life in Lake Elsinore the vulnerabilities, the online connections.
22:45
Speaker 2: Through to that grim discovery in the towyard, that foul
22:48
smell leading to something unimaginable. We've tried to lay out
22:51
the confirmed facts for you piece together that intersection of fame,
22:54
risk and ultimate.
22:55
Speaker 1: Tragedy and that tesla, that symbol of success he posted
22:59
about elect dreams. I think one caption read.
23:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, now it just sits in an evidence lock up,
23:04
a trophy turned into a tomb, A really grim symbol
23:07
now of how badly things went.
23:09
Speaker 1: Wrong, so less deserved, so much more safety a future.
23:13
Not that her story really is a terrible indictment of
23:16
the ways systems failed her. Absolutely and that leaves us
23:20
and you with something to think about. When celebrity culture
23:23
gives stars this direct pipeline through social media into the
23:27
lives of vulnerable kids looking for escape, what responsibility does
23:31
that culture bear when things go tragically wrong.
23:34
Speaker 2: And beyond just blaming celebrity what real, concrete things can
23:37
we do better social services, stronger laws, more education. How
23:41
do we actually protect the forgotten teens who see online
23:44
fame or connection to it as their only way out.
23:47
Speaker 1: That's a question that goes far beyond this one case,
23:50
something for all of us to consider.