What D4VD's Deputies Actually Missed That Day

The D4VD case starts with a welfare check that got everything right except the one thing that mattered, and it ends with a first-degree murder charge. Tony Brueski lays out the complete timeline of what happened to Celeste Rivas Hernandez, from her first missing person report to the arrest.
Celeste disappeared from Lake Elsinore three times in early 2024. Riverside County deputies traced her phone records to musician David Burke and called him directly. LA County deputies then conducted a welfare check at Burke's West Hollywood home, where he showed them a yearbook photo and said he'd only met her once. Deputies confirmed to him that she was thirteen and a runaway. Then they left.
Prosecutors say that's when Burke allegedly paid one of Celeste's junior high classmates a thousand dollars to hand her a new phone so the two could keep in touch. Over the next year, she reportedly traveled with him to Las Vegas, London, and Texas, met his family, got matching tattoos, and wore his name on her ring finger, all while she was in seventh grade.
The unsettling overlap between Burke's public persona and the allegations against him is hard to ignore. His breakout song, his album title, and the alter ego built around both all echo what prosecutors now allege happened inside a Hollywood Hills home. Seven months passed between the discovery of Celeste's remains and Burke's arrest, a window that included three grand jury panels, a friend fleeing to Montana to dodge a subpoena, and Burke's family fighting the grand jury in a Texas courtroom.
Burke now faces first-degree murder with special circumstances, including lying in wait, murder for financial gain, and murder of a witness. The financial gain charge is the one prosecutors say connects the case most directly to Burke's public career.
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