"ROMANTIC HOMICIDE" TAKEN OFF THE STAGE?

Intro:

On September 8th, 2025, the remains of 15-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez were found inside an impounded Tesla, located in a Los Angeles tow yard. The Tesla in question was registered to the well-known singer-songwriter d4vd. What led to this tragic discovery was a tow yard worker being brought to the attention of a foul smell coming from said Tesla. Local law enforcement was called out to the scene, and everything unfolded from there, but where was d4vd when this was all going down? D4vd was in Minneapolis, Minnesota, performing at The Fillmore Minneapolis as a part of his tour for his newest album, “Withered”. As to why Hernandez was found decomposing in the front trunk of a car registered to d4vd was a question raised by many.

ROMANTIC HOMICIDE IN A VINYL PLAYER COVERED IN BLOOD SPLATTERS; GRAPHIC BY LILI NANDELL

Background:

David Anthony Burke, professionally known by his stage name, d4vd, was born on March 28th, 2005, in Queens, New York. Twenty-four-year-old American singer and songwriter is known for his popular hit singles “Here With Me” and “Feel It", but as of recently, his award winning single “Romantic Homicide” has been the song on people’s minds. In July of 2022, d4vd released “Romantic Homicide", and at the time no one really thought much beyond it just being a good song, that was until September 2025, the discovery of Hernandez’s death. Celeste Rivas Hernandez was born September 7th 2010, in Lake Elsinore, California. In April 2024 Hernandez’s family reported her as missing, and she was never reported found, until now. With all of that being said, how does the death of Celeste Rivas Hernandez connect back to the song “Romantic Homicide" being more prominent in people’s minds?

Connection:

Speculations arose over d4vd’s song “Romantic Homicide” shortly after the death of Hernandez. One of the lyrics that grabbed the attention of many was “In the back of my mind, I killed you. And I didn’t even regret it.” Additionally, the music video depicts a teenage girl in a white dress with blood on her and coming out of her. Many say that both of these pieces of information foreshadowed d4vd’s killing of Hernandez, as the video was published a couple of years before her death. 

Closing:

Often, we find ourselves in situations where an artist we enjoy is engaged in something that is morally unjust. An example of this would be Kanye West and his outward anti-semitic behavior. When this occurs, many say, “Just separate the art from the artist”. While this sentiment applies to many situations, this does not apply to d4vd and the current allegations against him. Murder is not something you can just look past and move on from. Murdering someone is a choice, a life-altering one at that. Personally, I enjoyed some of d4vd's music, and since seeing this in the news, I have found it quite hard not to listen to his music and support him. Celeste Rivas Hernandez was a young girl reported missing. She had a long life ahead of her. Instead of being reported on the news for being found alive, she was found deceased, broken apart, withered.

Additional information:

With this being said, there is still some odd information regarding d4vd and Hernandez, the biggest one being that the two were alleged to be in a romantic relationship. Multiple pieces of information led to this allegation. Hernandez’s mother confirmed with TMZ (popular news website) that her daughter was dating a boy named David before she went missing. D4vd had an unreleased song labeled “Celeste,” the name of the girl found dead in his car. Additionally, to further link them, they both have a tattoo on their fingers that says “Shhh…”. The relationship was officially confirmed by friends of d4vds after the remains of Hernandez were discovered. If you truly think about it, Hernandez would have been around 13-14 and d4vd would have been 17-18 when the two of them started dating; that is quite the age gap.