Los Angeles prosecutors presented forensic evidence on Thursday showing DNA matching 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez in the garage where indie-pop singer D4vd allegedly killed and dismembered her in April 2025. The testimony emerged during a preliminary hearing to determine if the singer will stand trial on murder, sexual abuse of a child, and mutilation of a body charges.
DNA Evidence Ties Victim to Garage Stains as Defense Challenges Blood Claims
A preliminary hearing in Los Angeles revealed that samples from apparent blood stains in the Hollywood home garage of singer D4vd—whose legal name is David Anthony Burke—matched the DNA profile of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez. Los Angeles police criminalist Samantha Tosch testified that the matches on several recovered samples were one septillion times more likely to occur if it originated from Celeste rather than anyone else in the population,
and pointed out the number had 24 zeros.
Police technicians collected the forensic samples from a rubber floor mat, a rowing machine, and a Tesla charger inside the garage. Tosch conceded under questioning from the defense that she couldn’t say with certainty that the DNA profiles came from blood, and could’ve been from touch. Testing was also done on a trash bag in the garage and stained cleaning wipes inside it. Tosch said the bag swab showed a mixture of DNA from four people, at least two of them male — and one of them that she said was Burke’s. Rivas Hernandez’s DNA was found on the wipes but not the bag, while Burke’s was not on the wipes. Another police criminalist testified that most of the garage stains were not visible to the naked eye and were uncovered by a chemical test that makes the area glow blue, with a photo displayed in court showing the rubber mat cloaked in bright blue.
Autopsy Findings Reveal Severe Upper Body Trauma and Extended Postmortem Degradation
Dr. Grant Ho of the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner gave the difficult details of her death Friday at a hearing to determine whether singer D4vd should go on trial in her killing. Much of what Dr. Grant Ho of the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner said on the stand was already known: She had been killed by two sharp force wounds to her upper body and that her dismembered, decomposing body was found in the trunk of a Tesla. The details he shared of what the autopsy showed — and tellingly, what it was unable to determine because of how degraded her body was when it was found — made Friday’s proceedings perhaps the most difficult so far, bringing uncomfortable shifting in seats and murmurs in the courtroom. Rivas Hernandez’s parents were not in court as they have been for parts of the two previous days. D4vd, whose legal name is David Burke, sat next to his lawyers in orange jail clothes and glasses, and did not show any emotion during the testimony.
Rivas Hernandez’s body was discovered in a Tesla towed from the Hollywood Hills in September, nearly five months after authorities said Rivas Hernandez was killed. Ho testified that he could not say when the death occurred — one of many challenges to the autopsy brought on by how badly the body had degraded. It’s extremely difficult to tell,
Ho said. He said she had been dead for at least weeks.
Asked by Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman whether it could have been four to five months, he said “potentially.” Authorities believe she was killed in April 2025; her body was discovered last September. Rivas Hernandez was found the day after she would have turned 15. She didn’t make it to her 15th birthday, correct?
Silverman asked. “Correct,” Ho replied. Ho said there were many “skin defects” that could have been postmortem.
Forensic Analysts Detail Garage Evidence
A forensic analyst said in court Wednesday that evidence of blood was found in multiple sections of the garage where the singer D4vd allegedly cut apart a teenage girl with a chainsaw last year. Lauren Wallace, a criminologist with the Los Angeles Police Department, said she found evidence of blood on gym mats and flooring inside the garage at the artist’s Hollywood Hills residence. Wallace was the latest witness to take the stand as a preliminary hearing on murder and sex abuse charges against the Romantic Homicide
singer continued in downtown Los Angeles. D4vd, whose legal name is David Anthony Burke, is charged with fatally stabbing 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez last April and then using a chainsaw to dismember her body before shoving it inside the trunk of his Tesla, where the girl’s remains were discovered months later. Prosecutors say Hernandez was last seen alive at the 21-year-old’s Doheny Place residence. If convicted as charged, Burke would face life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty, though prosecutors have not indicated whether they intend to pursue capital punishment. At the end of the preliminary hearing, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Charlaine Olmedo will decide whether prosecutors have enough evidence to take Burke to trial. Burke has pleaded not guilty and denied all wrongdoing through his attorneys. On cross-examination, defense attorney Blair Berk prodded Wallace to admit that her chemical analysis — done months after prosecutors believe Burke turned his garage into an abattoir — did not definitively prove the presence of blood. I cannot say it is definitely blood,
Wallace said. I can say it is possibly blood.
The chemical deployed by Wallace during her investigation reacts with the iron in hemoglobin, a protein found in red blood cells. In an April 2026 court filing, however, Deputy Dist. Atty. Beth Silverman wrote that evidence recovered from Burke’s garage specifically matched the victim’s DNA.
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