On September 8th, 2025, police in Los Angeles responded to complaints about a foul smell coming from a Tesla sitting in an impound lot. The car had been abandoned for days. It had Texas plates and was registered to a musician named David. When officers opened the front trunk, they found the remains of a young girl.
She had been dismembered into several pieces, wrapped in plastic. She was wearing a tube top, black leggings, a gold chain bracelet, and metal stud earrings. She had wavy black hair and weighed only about 71 pounds. On her right index finger was a small tattoo that read “sh.
”
David has the exact same tattoo in the exact same spot. The coroner identified the remains as Celeste Rivas Hernandez, a 13-year-old who had vanished from Lake Elsinore in Riverside County on April 5th, 2024. Her body was found one day after what would have been her 15th birthday. Police served a search warrant on a Hollywood Hills home, an upscale rental where David had been staying before his tour.
They searched for blood evidence and confiscated electronics and computers. While that was happening, David was on tour in Minneapolis. The LAPD contacted him. Allegedly, he claimed to be completely clueless.
According to sources, he cooperated with the investigation and was not arrested. As the news broke, David canceled the rest of his US tour and the release of the deluxe edition of his album *Withered* after his label refused to promote it. Hollister dropped him as their spokesperson for their Crocs collaboration. Celeste’s family launched a GoFundMe to pay for her funeral.
At a candlelight vigil in Lake Elsinore, on the street where Celeste grew up, neighbors gathered around a makeshift memorial. One banner read, “Justice for Celeste. ” Her brother Matthew said, “I’m just trying to stay positive. I’m just trying to move forward.
My mom’s grieving really bad. My dad’s grieving really bad. ”
Celeste’s mother told reporters that as soon as police released the description of the remains, she had a feeling they belonged to her daughter. She also said Celeste had been dating someone named David before she disappeared.
Then, the internet started connecting the dots. Screenshots from David’s Discord server, “David’s Closet,” surfaced. In one, a user asked if he was married or single. He replied, “Me and deleted user got a kid on the way.
” Members of the server said the deleted user was Celeste. Someone posted a photo of an engagement ring on a woman’s left finger with the name “David” scrolled across her skin. Photos began circulating online of David with a young girl who looked exactly like Celeste. Another photo showed him in Lake Elsinore, less than a mile from her family’s home, interacting with a man holding a bag.
A year before she disappeared, David had composed an unreleased song with lyrics that included: “Oh, Celeste, the girl with my name tattooed on her chest. Smell her on my clothes like cigarettes. I hear her voice each time I take a breath. I’m obsessed.
”
Another line: “Oh, Celeste, afraid you’ll only love me when undressed. But you look so damn gorgeous in that dress. Missing you so much makes me depressed. ”
The song was leaked in December 2023 and titled *Celeste Demo Unfin*.
A live stream surfaced of David with a girl who resembled Celeste. At the end of the stream, a voice can be heard saying, “Delete everything. Everything goes. Everything goes.
”
In a TikTok video, David explained his plan for the future: he wanted the music thing to take off, then go crazy for the next three years, retire in the fourth year, and in the fifth, live off the grid on an island. No social media. No digital footprint. “I’m just gone,” he said.
Some wondered if that timeline had anything to do with the fact that in three to four years, Celeste would have turned 18. A former teacher of Celeste posted a video warning students about meeting people on social media. He claimed that when he taught her, Celeste met a rapper in LA, ran away from home, and was gone for about a month before police found her in Hollywood and brought her back to school. She disappeared again in May 2024.
He said her friends told him it was the rapper, and that they were blackmailing him. Then he said, “And then I found out yesterday that she’s now dead in that rapper’s car, cut into pieces. ”
The teacher was a mandated reporter. People started asking why he hadn’t reported the relationship earlier if he knew something.
David’s song *Romantic Homicide* went viral again in the wake of the news. It climbed to number 42 worldwide and number 13 in the US, with over 1. 7 billion streams. Online discussions focused on the lyrics: “In the back of my mind, I killed you.
And I didn’t even regret it. I can’t believe I said it, but it’s true. ”
People also pointed out that the song was released on Celeste’s birthday. Fans divided over whether the song’s rise in popularity was exploitation.
One commenter said a tragedy shouldn’t become chart fuel. Meanwhile, a photo began to circulate. It showed Celeste with David when she was 11 years old. David’s 2022 song *Decide* had these lyrics: “I know what the problem is.
Save your tears. Seven years. I know life is complicated. ”
In 2022, Celeste was 11.
As of late September 2025, the cause of death had not been released. Police had not named David as a suspect, and he had not been arrested. According to his subreddit, he had been lurking on Discord and playing Fortnite and Roblox. David’s Discord moderators claimed they didn’t know Celeste was underage or that she was missing, and then they locked down the server.
One fan summed it up in a post: “A little girl is dead, and all you care about is losing your favorite song. ”
