D4vd Case: Why Deputies Just Walked Away

Two sheriff’s departments, one phone call, and a yearbook photo, that’s as close as anyone came to stopping what happened to Celeste Rivas Hernandez. Tony Brueski lays out the full D4vd case for Hidden Killers, starting with the welfare check that should have changed everything and didn’t. 
Celeste was reported missing from Lake Elsinore three separate times in early 2024. Riverside County deputies traced her phone records back to musician David Burke and called him. LA County deputies then went to Burke’s West Hollywood home. He showed them a yearbook photo, claimed he’d met her once, and deputies told him straight to his face that she was thirteen and a runaway. Then they walked out the door. 
Prosecutors say what followed was calculated. Burke allegedly paid one of Celeste’s junior high classmates a thousand dollars to slip her a new phone so contact never had to stop. Over the next year, she reportedly traveled with him to Las Vegas, London, and Texas, met his family, got matching tattoos, and had his name on her ring finger, all while she was still in seventh grade. 
Then there’s the art. D4vd’s biggest song, his album title, and the alter ego built around it all echo what prosecutors now allege took place inside a Hollywood Hills home. Seven months separated the discovery of Celeste’s remains from Burke’s arrest. Three grand jury panels heard testimony in that window. A friend fled to Montana to dodge a subpoena, and Burke’s own family fought the grand jury in a Texas courtroom rather than answer questions. 
He now faces first-degree murder with special circumstances, including lying in wait, murder for financial gain, and murder of a witness. Prosecutors say the financial gain charge points directly at motive tied to Burke’s public career. 
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