Lawyers for singer D4vd say he did not kill 14-year-old girl

US singer D4vd has been arrested on suspicion of killing a 14-year-old girl whose decomposed body was found seven months ago in his apparently abandoned Tesla, authorities said.

Lawyers for the 21-year-old Houston-born alt-pop singer have declared his innocence.

Los Angeles police said homicide detectives arrested the singer, whose legal name is David Burke, on suspicion of murder in the investigation of the killing of Celeste Rivas Hernandez.

Defence lawyers Blair Berk, Marilyn Bednarski and Regina Peter said: “Let us be clear – the actual evidence in this case will show that David Burke did not murder Celeste Rivas Hernandez and he was not the cause of her death.”

Police said investigators would present a case to prosecutors at the Los Angeles County District Attorneys Office on Monday.

The office said it is aware of the arrest and its Major Crimes Division will review the case to determine whether there is enough evidence to file charges.

The defence lawyers added: “There has been no indictment returned by any grand jury in this case and no criminal complaint filed. David has only been detained under suspicion. We will vigorously defend David’s innocence.”

It was their first public statement on the case. Authorities did not publicly name Burke as a suspect until his arrest. He is being held in jail without bail.

The singer had been under investigation by an LA County grand jury looking into the death of Ms Rivas Hernandez.

The probe was officially secret, but its existence – and the designation of D4vd as its target – was revealed on February 25 when his mother, father and brother filed an objection in a Texas court to subpoenas demanding they testify.

The long-dead body of Ms Rivas Hernandez was found in a Tesla towed from the Hollywood Hills on September 8, a day after she would have turned 15. She was a 13-year-old schoolgirl when her family reported her missing in 2024 from her hometown of Lake Elsinore, about 70 miles south-east of Los Angeles. Authorities give her age as 14 when she was killed in court documents.

The 2023 Tesla Model Y was registered in the singer’s name at the Texas address of his subpoenaed family members, according to court papers.

It had been towed from an upscale neighbourhood in the Hollywood Hills where it had been sitting, seemingly abandoned.

Police investigators searching the Tesla in a tow yard found a cadaver bag “covered with insects and a strong odour of decay,” court documents said, and “detectives partially unzipped the bag and observed a decomposed head and torso”.

Investigators from the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office removed the bag and “discovered the arms and legs had been severed from the body,” according to court documents.

A second black bag was found under the first, and dismembered body parts were inside it. No cause of death has been publicly revealed.

D4vd, pronounced “David”, gained popularity among Generation Z fans for his blend of indie rock, R&B and lo-fi pop.

He went viral on TikTok in 2022 with the hit Romantic Homicide, which peaked at number four on Billboard’s Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart. He then signed with Darkroom and Interscope Records and released his debut EP Petals To Thorns and a follow-up, The Lost Petals, in 2023.

When the body was discovered, D4vd had been on tour in support of his first full-length album, Withered.

Later, the last two North American shows, in San Francisco and Los Angeles, along with a scheduled performance at LA’s Grammy Museum, were cancelled, as was the European tour that was to have begun in Norway.