warning: sensitive content
Celeste was born in September 2010. She was 11 years old when she met singer D4vd aka David Burke online in January 2022, shortly before he turned 17. According to an unsealed pretrial brief filed in April 2026, they began having a sexual relationship in November 2023 when she was 13 and he was 18. Over the next year, she spent weekends at his house, met his family, and took trips with him to Las Vegas, London, and Texas. They got matching tattoos that said “shhh…” on their right index fingers and they had each other’s names tattooed on their left ring fingers.
Her parents contacted the Riverside County Sheriff’s department three times in February, March, and April 2024 to report Celeste missing. The first time, the sheriff found David’s phone number in Celeste’s phone records. When they contacted him, he said he was not aware that she was a minor or that she had been reported missing. He claimed that he had only met her once in person in November 2023.
When Celeste showed up at home two days later, her parents took her phone away. David paid one of her classmates $1000 to give her a new cell phone so he could stay in touch with her.
They broke up in November 2024 but continued to text each other and have sex. In March 2025, Celeste sent David a text that said “all we do is have sex and just hang out man I want more than that for myself.” They had a fight via text in April 2025 where Celeste confronted him about him having relationships with other women after he had led her to believe they had a future together. She threatened to go public about their relationship which could impact his upcoming album release and his career.
The next day (April 23), he had an Uber pick her up at her parents’ home in Lake Elsinore and take her to his house in Hollywood. Her cell phone ceased all activity the same night. At 11:30 PM, David drove to an isolated area near Lake Cachuma in Santa Barbara. He returned to the same site two more times in May. Prosecutors claim he disposed of evidence here. Celeste’s passport was found here in January 2026.
On April 24, he began ordering items to be delivered to his house addressed to Victoria Mendez, including a shovel from Home Depot and two chainsaws, a body bag, heavy duty laundry bags, an inflatable pool, and a burn cage incinerator from Amazon. Prosecutors allege that he put Celeste’s body in the inflatable pool before dismembering her. Blood samples later taken from his garage were a match for Celeste. He put her remains in the trunk of his Telsa. Surveillance footage show he was the last one to drive this car at the end of July. He left it parked near his house before leaving on a world tour.
After neighbors complained about the car being parked in the same spot, parking enforcement chalked the tires at the end of August and then ticketed the car for violating the 72 hour parking ordinance. The car was impounded and towed at the beginning of September. An employee at the tow yard called the police to investigate an odor coming from the car, which is when Celeste’s body was discovered in the trunk, one day after her 15th birthday. Plastic fragments that matched the inflatable pool in David’s garage were found embedded in her body. Two of her fingers had been cut off and have not been found. One of the missing fingers had a tattoo of David’s name.
On September 16, the medical examiner identified the body as Celeste. Because people are absolute ghouls, David’s song Romantic Homicide re-entered the charts immediately afterward, climbing to #13 on Spotify and #38 on the Hot 100.
In April 2026, David was arrested and charged with seven criminal charges including first degree murder with special circumstances (lying in wait, financial gain. use of a deadly weapon, and to prevent testimony), continuous sexual abuse of a child under the age of 14, and unlawful mutilation of human remains. Prosecutors said they found “a significant amount” of child sexual abuse material on his iCloud storage.
This week’s preliminary hearing is to determine if the case will go to trial. David has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges, including continuous sexual abuse of a child under the age of 14. On Friday, prosecutors presented text messages between Celeste and David from January 2024 where they discussed her being pregnant and having an abortion, which pokes a pretty big hole in pleading not guilty to the charge of sexual abuse.
In the texts, David apologized for “putting her through this” and Celeste responded: “neither of us are capable of watching and taking care of the baby. it’s for the best no?” He then texted her: “also my mother always told me to ask this question if I was ever in this situation … it is mine right?” Celeste responded, “of course its yours David.” A few months later in June 2024, David texted her: “Let’s let this abortion be the last one til we have the real one…” At the time, Celeste was 13 and David was 19.
Additionally, prosecutors presented data from David’s iCloud account showing texts between Celeste and David going back to August 2022 when she was 11 and he was 17. LAPD testified that his phone also included photos of Celeste [sensitive content]during the alleged sexual abuse. Celeste’s mother became upset when some of the photos were described and had to leave the courtroom.
