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November 23, 2025 17 mins

The latest reports show the body of 15-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez had been frozen after it was dismembered before eventually being placed in singer D4vd’s Tesla. Police say that has made determining a cause of death that much more difficult, and now there are competing reports that the L.A. medical examiner will either have a determination in a matter of days or weeks or, according to one source, possibly never. All this, as investigators say they are looking at more than one suspect for different roles in the death and dismemberment of Rivas Hernandez.

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:02):
It has been a week of fast moving and pretty
gruesome developments and updates in the case of singer David,
who had a teenage girl's dead and dismembered body found
in the trunk of his car, And with that, welcome
to this episode of Amy and TJ. Roobs. I mean,

(00:22):
this story sounded weird from the very beginning, and now
it gets in some cases, weirder and more gruesome.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
It absolutely has, And just when you think that you've
heard the worst detail, you get more trickling out. And
I think that's been the tough One of the tough
parts about this case. We heard in September a young
teenage girl's decomposed and dismembered body was found in the
trunk of David's car, and then there was nothing, I

(00:54):
mean almost no information coming out of the LAPD. And
now once we've gotten the confirmation that David, Singer David,
is in fact a suspect, now we're starting to get
more information coming out.

Speaker 3 (01:08):
And the the.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
Details we got over the weekend were exceptionally tough to hear.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
Well, people we're wondering. Quite frankly, I am not necessarily
surprised by some of the details because it fits with
the story we got at the beginning. They just didn't
fill in any blinks, right right, So now I'm hearing, Okay,
she was the way she was decomposing, she was dismembered.

(01:37):
And now the new updates we're getting Robes and we
were going to get into is that she was possibly
they believe frozen her dismembered body parts at some point.
So Robes, Yes, all this is gruesome and awful, but
it fits with some of the little information we had,
which is that they thought she was dead for a

(01:58):
while before she was. That would explain why maybe God, again,
this is gruesome, maybe there wasn't an odor initially coming
from the car. That's awful to say that's what we're doing.

Speaker 2 (02:09):
It is you have to actually take it for the
facts in this case. So we started hearing that police
initially said this has been a body that has been
decomposing for weeks.

Speaker 3 (02:19):
Now they're saying months now.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
There are reports that she may have died as early
as the spring, like we're talking April. So if her
body hasn't been discovered until September, where has it been,
where has it been? And so what we're hearing, Yeah,
what we're hearing now, is it seems as though she
was dismembered and then frozen, and for whatever reason, it

(02:43):
did time out with David then having to leave for
his scheduled tour. But then it's believed that perhaps those
frozen body parts were moved into the front trunk of
his Tesla suv and that they literally started to melt,
and once it became unfrozen, the smell happened pretty quickly.

Speaker 1 (03:09):
Nothing you could do to cover that up. But if
someone's been dead for that long, there's noe. What do
you do? How do you store a body? So, like
I said, some of the details now seem to fit,
and folks will take you back. This is September eighth.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
Yes, I believe she was discovered. Her birthday was September seventh,
So her body was discovered on September eighth.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
And we're talking about and make sure I get this right, Robes,
fourteen year old Celeste Reevist, because her birthday was the
day what'd you say?

Speaker 3 (03:37):
On September seventh was her birthday?

Speaker 2 (03:38):
Her? That would have been her fourteenth, sorry, her fifteenth birthday, and.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
Police do not believe she made it to her fifteenth birthday.

Speaker 3 (03:45):
Absolutely not.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
But you will see plenty of articles out there and
maybe you understand why it said fifteen year old, fifteen
year old, fifteen year old. I know, there's what what's
the difference? Fourteen fifteen. It is a difference. It really
is in fourteen and fifteen, ten to eleven, eleven to twelve.
I mean it's he's a fourteen year old child, but
she was found in the trunk of a Tesla southern California.

(04:08):
The car is registered to singer David. And I always
keep explaining we do how his name is spelled for
the sake of performing. I think it makes a difference
because people might recognize it if they saw it, and
might not recognize us just saying David d.

Speaker 3 (04:25):
Four v D goes by David.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
We even talked about how we just said deforvid so
we can remember how it's spelled. But he's even joked
before all of this came up, he had done some
interviews and he joked about how some people actually only
knew his name based on seeing it on Spotify or
seeing it show up on some streaming service, and so
some people actually really did believe his name was Deforbit

(04:49):
And he said you know what, I answer to it.
So he's even joked about the fact that I realized
that he knows some people don't even know his name
the way it's spelled is pronounced David. His actual given
name is David Anthony Burke. And he's twenty years old,
twenty young kid and.

Speaker 1 (05:05):
On the way up. Considered a top rising star in
many circles. I keep saying neo soul the right way
to describe some of his music. But he got popular
on social media, started going viral on TikTok, has put
together a career, a tour fans. He was on his
way up at twenty years old. We mentioned her body

(05:28):
was found in the trunk of a car registered to
him September eighth. He was on tour at the time.
Do I have right rhobes with my recall? How soon
after the discovery did he get back on stage.

Speaker 3 (05:38):
The next night? Actually, you know what, let me let
me take that back.

Speaker 2 (05:44):
He got back on stage the night after her body,
her identity was confirmed, the body was found, and he
kept touring. It wasn't until it took it took authorities.
This is just this, This is tough to say, but
just to give a clear picture of just how bad

(06:05):
the condition was that this body. Initially, police didn't even
know if it was male or female. They didn't know
the gender of the body, so it took them several
days up to a week, I believe, for them to
be able to actually identify the remains. And when they
named her as Celeste Rivas Hernandez, he still went on
stage the following day, and then after that he ended

(06:28):
up slowly canceling the rest of his tour because a
lot of folks immediately connected her name with him.

Speaker 3 (06:36):
They started pointing to those.

Speaker 2 (06:37):
Photos, they saw the song he has that Celeste, and
certainly people in his inner circle said that the girl
in the photos released by her family resembled the girl
who he was with. They thought she was nineteen, they
thought she was much older. And so when that's as
soon as her name became public, it took He still
went on stage the next day, but that's when he

(06:59):
canceled this tour.

Speaker 1 (07:00):
The internet sleus really got to work and there were
several things you pointed out. You just said some that
triggered another memory. Oh, his family was saying that he
she's not his family. Her family didn't A couple of
them name and say she had a boyfriend and na David.

Speaker 3 (07:17):
Yes, so immediately there was a connection.

Speaker 1 (07:20):
So people start putting this stuff together. He finally stops
his tour and do I have right forgive me? Robes.
I keep leaning on you if I'm forgetting something, because
I think this is right. We have not heard a
peep out of him personally a comment about any of this, not.

Speaker 2 (07:34):
One thing, only from his reps initially that he was
cooperating with police, and now we hear the very opposite
from the police. They have formally and officially and told
many news outlets that David Singer David is no longer
cooperating with them.

Speaker 1 (07:51):
Okay, he may, or I should say, they may never
find out that they're saying. Another headlinehere we're getting, Robes,
is that at least I think it was TMC reporting
that they have a direct source related to this investigation
that's telling them that they might not be able to
ever determine the cause of death for celestreebus. But you

(08:14):
just saw totally different reporting. Was it not from ABC
out in La about a determination of the cause of death?

Speaker 2 (08:22):
Yes, so ABC seven out in La KTLA absolutely said
that they are hearing this from the medical Examiner's office
that they believe the cause of death will be determined
in the next days to weeks, so it won't be immediate,
but they believe that within the next days or weeks
we will get a cause of death. And as soon

(08:43):
as they say, investigators told their reporter, as soon as
they determine that cause of death, things will start moving quickly.
That was the quote they gave, an investigator telling their reporter,
once we get the cause of death from the medical examiner,
thing will start to move quickly.

Speaker 1 (09:01):
Okay, Well, it took them a while to confirm this
was a homicide, right, This is a body that has
been chopped up, yes, say decapitated. The limbs were cut off,
the torso is intact. Forgive me you all with These
are just the reporting and the facts of what's out there.
Limbs cut off, and the limbs were actually in pieces

(09:21):
as well. I was struck role it was very early on.
Her funeral was quite some time back, and they released
her remains to the family and Harry, how do they
determine a cause of death? If they have released they
must be done in some way. And I was trying
to figure out how they could still be working on that.

(09:42):
That must mean are there no physical wounds?

Speaker 2 (09:45):
That would be one way to look at it. The
other idea that folks have floated out there in terms
of what investigators are looking for, and certainly the medical
examiner is a toxicology report.

Speaker 3 (09:55):
Those do take a lot longer.

Speaker 2 (09:57):
But the other thought is could she have over and
then someone panicked?

Speaker 3 (10:02):
So could she?

Speaker 2 (10:04):
So if they can determine that there were a certain
amount of potentially lethal drugs in her system within the
tissue that they were able to test, could that then
perhaps rule out a murder charge. But obviously someone dismembered
her body, someone placed it in a freezer or in
some way to buy time, and someone put it in

(10:26):
that vehicle. So I think the toxicology report might, if anything,
rule out an overdose or something else that could be
explained away. And if you don't have any sort of
chemical inside of you that says, hey, this could have
been it's I'm guessing they might end up just having
to like rule out what could have happened to try

(10:49):
and figure out what did happen.

Speaker 1 (10:50):
I don't know how they're piecing this and how they're
going to do this. But it is possible, and there
are cases and there's a current one going on right
now where guys arguing, yep, I cut my wife up,
but I didn't kill a I mean, so if you
can't prove a murder, somebody would much rather go to
jail for one to three years for dismembering a body

(11:12):
than for the rest of your life for murder. So
that's an option. And maybe he had nothing to do
with any of this. Robes, you innocent to a proven guilty.
But good god, all this stuff is stacking up and
he's not speaking, so people are filling in blanks, which
is awful. But he might be getting advised by damn
good lawyer not to say a thing. But Robes, you
said something to me. It was the first time I thought, oh,

(11:36):
maybe he didn't do it. That is the best reasoning
I have heard so far. And folks, stay here. I
will tell you what Robox said to me earlier that
finally made me think, Okay, maybe he's innocent. Stay here,

(12:03):
all right? We continue now here on Amy and TJ.
Robes this. I didn't know where this story was going
to go, but we've been covering singer David since September
when it came out, we weren't familiar with him or
his music. But we have been following this case with
intrigue from the very beginning and here we are now
with a we got nothing, and now it seems like

(12:23):
we're getting so much with yes, trickling, but these are
some pretty earth shattering details that are coming out.

Speaker 2 (12:30):
There have been daily headlines ever since police acknowledged that
David in fact is a suspect in the death of
celest Revus Hernandez. And once that became known and official
reporters are having better luck, I guess, so to speak,
to get investigators to give them some information because everyone's
running to their sources to find out exactly what the

(12:51):
latest is. And yes, we got some pretty gruesome details
about what happened after revs death. We don't know how
she died yet, but we know what happened to her
body afterwards, and they are tough details to process. And yes,
it did start to raise some questions about if you've

(13:13):
been able to get away with and I hate to
say it that way, but she'd been missing for a
year and a half and if she hadn't been found,
and even though people were looking for her. Somehow, it
was all still under the radar. It didn't feel like
there was any pressure. So now, okay, something happens. I
don't know how she died, but if you've been able

(13:35):
to hide her body for months, why then put her
body somewhere where it would be directly attributable to you?

Speaker 1 (13:45):
And there it is. Folks, When you said that to me,
I said, nobody is that.

Speaker 3 (13:52):
Dumb, not even a twenty year old Nope.

Speaker 1 (13:54):
When you said, I swear to you that might sound wild,
that is the best defense I have heard for the
possibility of him having nothing to do with anything. Is
that No one in God's green earth the car I'm
going to put this dead teenager in the trunk of
my car and park that car on a prominent street

(14:19):
a block from where I'm living. No nobody does.

Speaker 2 (14:23):
That in a car registered to me with legal plates
yeah from Texas, where I'm from. Then number goes straight
to me, and I'm going to go put it a
block from my home and go. Then I'm going to
go on tour and think no one's gonna notice.

Speaker 1 (14:40):
I mean things. That's when you said, I say, obviously,
nobody is that stupid? And by that. I'm telling you,
that is the best case I have heard for why
there's got to be something else going on.

Speaker 2 (14:53):
The only other thing I thought about, well, because here's
the deal. Obviously, whoever did this to her body. I
can't get my head around who has that in them
to do that to any human body.

Speaker 3 (15:07):
But to go through all that work with what pol
police have said.

Speaker 2 (15:12):
It was and I don't even need to know how,
but they just said because of the way her body
was dismembered, they don't think one person could have done
it alone. So whatever that means, You've gone through this
much work and now you've hidden the body in a freezer.
Now you're leaving to go on tour four months, not

(15:34):
just in the country, in this country, but you're going
to Europe. Oh okay, you're gonna go ahead and just
now take that and put it in a ca That
makes no sense. But I'm now thinking accomplices. I'm not
thinking riffs. I'm not thinking he thinks if it's if
it's even David, if he thinks it's safe in a freezer,
in a home that he's paying rent on that he's

(15:55):
not there for, who's going to disturb it?

Speaker 3 (15:57):
Who's going to do anything with it.

Speaker 2 (15:58):
I'm the only Oh wait, there's an accomplice, according to police.
Could he have angered somebody enough where they said, I
know how to ruin his life, I know how to
I know how to make somebody pay the ultimate price,
And they could have then taken what he thought was
safely in a freezer or a refrigerator and then put

(16:18):
it in his car, knowing it would directly link him.
Could it be a setup, could it be someone trying
to frame him, or could it be somebody who he upset,
or it's wild.

Speaker 1 (16:31):
All these scenarios of explain any scenario that makes sense.
What if somebody didn't do their job and they were
supposed to take care of that car while he was gone,
and they never got it off the street, never got
around to it, it didn't take Oh I don't know.
Maybe they didn't know the urgency. Maybe he told them
to pick it up and didn't say what was that?
Who the All of this assumes his involvement. But I'm

(16:54):
telling you, Robes, that argument you make nobody is that
stupid is the best argument I could hear for why
he's an innocent man and he is right now that
needs to be said at the beginning of the middle
of the end. He is an innocent man until otherwise
proven guilty. But it's a fascinating case. It's a sad

(17:15):
when it's a tragic when he was tragic. Before this
young girl died, he's gone missing since eleven as early
as eleven or twelves.

Speaker 2 (17:24):
Apparently been reported missing up to four times up until
her thirteenth year. So yes, there there was a lot
of disruption and upheaval on her life, a tragedy.

Speaker 1 (17:34):
Before the tragedy, it was yeah, God, this poor girl.
But folks, we'll keep our eyes on this one. We
always appreciate you spending some time with us. From now on, TJ. Holmes,
alongside my partner Amy Roepike, will talk to you all real,
real soon
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