As D4vd awaits a judge’s decision on whether he will face trial in the murder case involving Celeste Rivas Hernandez, unsettling details from the investigation are now emerging in court.
At a July 22 preliminary hearing, Los Angeles Police Department criminalist Chelsea Murillo testified that investigators found nearly a dozen air fresheners inside the singer’s Tesla, along with maggots, dead flies and the decomposing remains of the 14-year-old girl.
D4vd has pleaded not guilty.
“I gathered some of the air fresheners and found 11 throughout the vehicle,” Murillo said, according to People, adding that most were located in the center console, rear seats and front trunk.
Murillo also told the court that the 21-year-old artist’s Tesla gave off a “strong odor” that “smelled like a decomposing body.”
The testimony shed new light on the disappearance and death of Hernandez. Prosecutors allege the teen had threatened to reveal “damaging information” about her relationship with D4vd, information they claim could have harmed his music career, according to a preliminary hearing brief obtained by People.
Hernandez vanished on April 23, 2025, after going to the Hollywood Hills home of D4vd, whose legal name is David Anthony Burke, and was not heard from again, authorities said.
More than four months later, her decomposed and dismembered remains were discovered in the trunk of a car registered to D4vd after the vehicle had been abandoned and impounded.
According to a petition filed by prosecutors, the manager of a towing company called police after noticing “a strong smell of decay coming from the vehicle which was attracting flies.”
LAPD Detective Joshua Byers later testified that he could not discern Hernandez’s facial features and that she was identified by dental records, according to CBS News.
In April D4vd, was charged with first-degree murder, continuous sexual abuse of a child and unlawful mutilation of human remains, according to court records viewed by Oxygen.
At the time, according to ABC 7, D4vd’s legal team vowed to “vigorously defend David’s innocence.”
“We believe the actual evidence will show David Burke did not murder Celeste Rivas Hernandez,” lead defense attorney Blair Berk said, according to the Associated Press. “We would like to have the evidence come into the light of day.”
