가수 D4vd의 자동차에서 발견된 살해당한 것으로 추정되는 10대 소녀의 사망에 관한 세부 사항 공개

A postmortem report into the death of Celeste Rivas Hernandez was kept under wraps as police investigated – now a judge has ordered its release.

Los Angeles: Celeste Rivas Hernandez, the teenager whose severely decomposed body was discovered in 2025 in the trunk of the singer D4vd’s car, died in a homicide involving “multiple penetrating injuries,” according to a report released Wednesday by the County of Los Angeles Department of Medical Examiner.

In the 26-page report, the office said that the body had two “penetrating wounds of the torso” — one to the right abdomen that punctured the liver and one to the left chest — and “dismemberment of the upper and lower extremities.” The injuries were caused “with object(s),” the report said.

Examiners also said that they had found multiple “skin defects,” and that when they examined the body, it had undergone “severe postmortem changes.” Eventually, the report said, the body was identified through “dental radiograph comparison.”

The report listed the date and place of injury as “unknown.” The cause and manner of death were determined on December 9, 2025, the office said.

The report’s release comes more than seven months after Hernandez’s remains were discovered in the front trunk of a Tesla registered to D4vd, whose real name is David Burke.

On Monday, prosecutors in Los Angeles charged Burke, 21, with murdering Hernandez, as well as with the continuous sexual abuse of a child younger than 14 and the unlawful mutilation of human remains. Prosecutors allege that Burke killed her with “a sharp instrument”.

Burke has pleaded not guilty, and his lawyers have said he did not cause Hernandez’s death. The lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

During the months-long investigation into Hernandez’s death, the police and the medical examiner’s office apparently clashed over whether the medical examiner’s report should be released. At the request of the police, and over the objections of the chief medical examiner, a judge placed a security hold on the case that prevented the report’s release.

The police said the hold was necessary to ensure that its detectives learned critical information about Hernandez’s death before the news media and the public did. With the records under seal, the police would not say whether they considered the death a homicide.

At Burke’s arraignment on Monday, a judge ordered the release of the medical examiner’s report.

“After several months, I am grateful this information can now be released, not only to the public, but also to the grieving family enduring loss,” the chief medical examiner, Dr Odey Ukpo, said in a statement. “It is unfathomable they have had to wait this long to learn what happened to their daughter.”

Some elements of the report were redacted, but the release did include an investigator’s observation that the dismembered body had been found inside a “large, black, zippered body bag with handles.”

At Monday’s court proceeding, Burke’s lawyers pushed for a preliminary hearing to be held soon and urged prosecutors to turn over documents, including the medical examiner’s report. That led the judge to order the report’s release.

An initial status hearing in the case is scheduled for Thursday.

The first-degree murder charge against Burke includes the special circumstances of lying in wait, committing the crime for financial gain and murdering a witness to an investigation. Those factors mean that Burke faces a maximum sentence of life without the possibility of parole, or the death penalty. The office of the Los Angeles County district attorney has said it has not decided whether it will pursue the death penalty.

In a felony complaint, prosecutors alleged Burke engaged in three or more acts of “substantial sexual conduct” with Hernandez in the year between September 7, 2023, and September 7, 2024. At the time, she was 13 years old.

On April 23, 2025, when Hernandez was 14, she went to Burke’s house in the Hollywood Hills at his invitation, according to the district attorney, Nathan J Hochman, and “was not heard from again.” The complaint said the mutilation of human remains occurred on May 5, 2025.

According to a statement that Hochman released Monday, after Burke allegedly sexually abused Hernandez, she “threatened to expose his criminal conduct and devastate his musical career.” So Burke “allegedly murdered her.”

The car in which the remains were discovered had been left on a public street for weeks before it was towed to an impound lot in Los Angeles, according to the authorities.

Hernandez’s body was found on September 8, 2025, a day after what would have been her 15th birthday.

Investigators examined her body on September 10, according to the medical examiner’s report. But they did not determine a cause of death for another three months.

A spokesperson for the district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

A lawyer for Hernandez’s family, Patrick Steinfeld, also did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the findings of the medical examiner’s report.

Repeated efforts to reach members of Hernandez’s family have been unsuccessful, but in a statement given this week through Steinfeld, her parents said they “miss her deeply.”

“All we want,” they added, “is justice for Celeste.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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