D4vd: What His Hit Song and Music Video Look Like Now That He’s Charged

**Tony Brueski** (0:00)
This is Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski. Here now, Tony Brueski.

**Tony Brueski** (0:07)
David, David Burke's breakout hit was called Romantic Homicide. Hundreds of millions of streams got him signed to Interscope Records at 17 His debut album released two days after prosecutors say he killed a 14-year-old girl.
Yeah, released that album called Withered. One of his music videos for a track called One More Dance shows him dragging a body and placing into the trunk of a car. He had a public alter ego called Itami, Japanese for pain. Oh, he's so deep, isn't he? Oh, David, you and your lyrics that he described in interviews is basically an agent of chaos. Oh, you have an agent of chaos living. That's lovely. None of that is alleged. He published it. He promoted it. He performed it on stages around the world. Most of us were just calling mental illness. California passed a law in 2022 restricting when creative work can be used as evidence. So whether any of this sees the inside of a courtroom is an open question. But those parallels are going to sit in the back of a juror's mind, whether the judge tells them to ignore it or not, as long as they're aware.
Part one was about who failed Celeste. Part two was about what prosecutors alleged happened the night of April 23rd and the months of alleged cover up. Part three is about the investigation, the people who tried to dodge it and the question. Everyone keeps asking, how does a man walk free for seven months when the body was in his car? When tow yard workers found the remains on September 8th, 25 things moved fast on the ground. The Tesla was registered to Burke. A search warrant hit his Hollywood Hills rental on September 17th. And detectives pulled electronic devices, blood evidence and materials consistent with a mutilation charge. DNA from the garage matched Celeste. She was identified in September 16th through dental records. She still had braces. She had the tattoo on her finger and Burke's name on her ring finger. The markings nobody noticed while she was alive became the forensic details that confirmed who she was.
Burke cancelled his tour September 19th. Interscope dropped him. Sony Music Publishing cut him. His management walked the music industry in industry not exactly known for its moral compass. Moved in weeks. Record labels that have stuck by artists through every kind of scandal looked at this and ran. Law enforcement took seven months from September 8th, 25 to April 16th, 26 David Burke was a free man. Seven months. Not that math register. Police had his car with a body in it. They had DNA in his garage. The Tesla was registered to him. His phone number was already on file from the welfare check 14 months earlier. And yet the LAPD classified this as a death investigation, not a murder until November 24th, when they finally called it what it was. Two and a half months to use the word murder when a dismembered body was found in a car registered to a specific identifiable person. The medical examiner was placed under a court ordered security hold initiated by the LAPD, blocking the release of any details, including cause of death. The coroner didn't rule it a homicide until December 9th. Three months, cause of death, multiple penetrating injuries with unspecified objects. There are reasons for being careful. Death penalty cases need airtight evidence. You don't get a second chance if you rush the filing. All of that is legitimate, but seven months of freedom for a man whose registered vehicle contained a child's remains is a timeline that should really bother every person listening or watching this. The system failed Celeste while she was alive. Then it failed her again when she was dead.
The grand jury started meeting in November of 25 Three separate panels heard testimony over the following months. Record label executives were questioned. Robert Morgrant, the president of Burke's Touring Company, testified and then the people in Burke's inner circle started running. Neil Langston, a streamer, close friend of Burke, seen in a lot of photos, got a subpoena, didn't show.
So Los Angeles judge signed a warrant. In January of 26, after the holidays, officers found Langston at his mother's house in Helena, Montana. They arrested him, extradited his ass across the country, booked on $60,000 bail. He eventually testified for about 40 minutes, 40 minutes after a cross-country arrest for ducking a subpoena. He later went on social media, put Burke on blast and said he was moving on. Burke's family went further. His parents and younger brother were subpoenaed in January of 26 They challenged the subpoenas in Texas, arguing due process violations because the supporting affidavits were redacted. A Texas appeals court denied them in days and ordered compliance. These are the same family members who hosted Celeste in their home. She was 13 when she visited, and when a grand jury asked what they knew about the child who had been in their house, their move was to lawyer up and fight. I think to January 2026, a Caltrans worker picking up debris on the side of State Route 154 in Santa Barbara County found Celeste's passport card. That's the same remote stretch of highway prosecutors, say Burke, drove to the night of April 23rd to dump her belongings. And where he allegedly returned at least twice more, her property tossed on the roadside by someone who thought the middle of nowhere was far enough away, a guy with a pickup truck and a trash bag found it.