The Case of "D4VD" - ATC International

**Matthew Tankard** (0:03)
This is Australian True Crime International with Meshel Laurie. I'm Matthew Tankard, the producer. And before we start the interview, I just wanted to jump on and give you a quick update as to where this case currently stands.
David Anthony Burke, he's an American singer-songwriter. You're probably more familiar with the spelling of his stage name, which is D4VD.
He's charged with the murder of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez in September of last year. He's pleaded not guilty, and last month, after a five-day preliminary hearing, a Los Angeles judge ruled that there was sufficient evidence for him to stand trial. So he's currently in custody, and we can expect the criminal trial to start in about two to three months. It's important to note that David Anthony Burke is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. Joining Michelle in this episode is American reporter and host of the podcast, That's So Criminal, Lynden Blake.

**Meshel Laurie** (0:55)
This is Australian True Crime. We acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which this podcast is created, the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation. And a warning, this episode of the podcast contains graphic descriptions of violence.
Now, I, like many people, Lynden, first heard of David or D4VD, whatever this guy's name is. When I heard of this, my kids came and told me, well, have you heard about this guy? And there's a human body in the trunk of his car, his Tesla. And I had never heard of this person, you know, except for this terrible crime. So firstly, how do we say his name?

**SPEAKER_3** (1:38)
David.

**Meshel Laurie** (1:40)
It's just David.

**Lynden Blake** (1:41)
Yes.

**Meshel Laurie** (1:41)
Nancy Grace insists on calling him D4VD. Every time she says his name.

**SPEAKER_3** (1:47)
Bombshell tonight in the D4VD courtroom, aka David Anthony Burke. It is grim.

**Lynden Blake** (1:55)
And she is my sorority sister. I love her so much. But she loves it. But it is David. And his real name is David Anthony Burke.

**Meshel Laurie** (2:06)
I think she does it deliberately to be disrespectful of him because we know how she feels about an offender, an alleged offender even. So I think she's doing it deliberately to annoy him potentially. But yes, what's his real name? Tell us about this guy.

**Lynden Blake** (2:20)
David Anthony Burke. And I love how you said you didn't know really who he was until your kids brought you some music of his. The same thing happened last September when they first found the body in the Tesla. And one of my friends who is younger than me, she was like, oh my gosh, have you heard about this guy? There's this body found and it's Tesla.
And I was like, I don't, and she showed me a picture, you know, David D4VD. I'm like, who is that? And she's like, no, no, no, like, you know his songs. I'm like, do I? Like, I don't know. And then she played one of his songs. And I was like, oh my goodness. Like it was all over TikTok a couple of years ago.
And like a sweet like love song. And everyone was playing it to like, you know, just wedding videos and cute videos, hugging their significant other. And it was just a very, at the time, again, at the time, this is like body just found. You're like, what? This is so weird. Like, what could this mean? Like, just weird that he's kind of caught up in this scenario. Like, that's a little odd.

**Meshel Laurie** (3:43)
Coming from our different perspectives, my children immediately said, oh, someone must have stolen his car and then something terrible has happened. But, and meanwhile, I've never heard of him. And I'm coming from the true crime perspective. And I'm like, kids, I think he murdered somebody. And they said, no, no, no. So, you know, there was that initial reaction to, and he's very young, right?

**Lynden Blake** (4:03)
Yeah, very young. And the girl, poor Celeste, the victim, was even younger. But he was young. And just to put it in perspective of where his career was, at the time this alleged murder happened last April, a weekend before that, the alleged murder took place. He was doing flips and hanging out on the Coachella stage. And he was clearly on that path. And first album had just come out. And that's what, when we were digging into the timeline of when this murder actually took place, when you get over the horrific details, because those are insane, I know we'll get to them. But when you start being like, oh, he was on this radio show on this date. That was the day after he allegedly murdered her. Oh, he had friends over on this date and they smelled something. And her body was still there. And you're just thinking, what was going on at the end of April, May and June in the start of July, a year ago, for him to just have this body in the front part of his Tesla.