Clues with Morgan Absher and Kaelyn Moore - Celeste Rivas Hernandez: The Case Against D4VD

Episode Date: August 26, 2026

In April 2024, 13-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez vanished from Lake Elsinore, California. Seventeen months later, her remains were found in the trunk of an impounded Tesla at a Hollywood tow yard—registered to rising R&B star David Burke, known as d4vd. Prosecutors allege he began sexually abusing Celeste at 13 and killed her to protect his career. After a preliminary hearing, a judge ordered Burke to stand trial; he has pleaded not guilty. This week, Morgan and Kaelyn unpack the case dominating headlines all summer.Head over to our Clues YouTube channel to WATCH this episode: https://www.youtube.com/@CluesPodIf you’re new here, don’t forget to follow Clues to never miss a case! To hear episodes ad-free and released a day early, subscribe to Crime House+. Join at crimehouseplus.com or if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts, tap “Try Free” at the top of this show’s page. Clues is a Crime House Original Podcast, powered by PAVE Studios.🎧 Need More to Binge? Listen to other Crime House Originals including Crime House 24/7, Crimes Of Reddit, Serial Killers & Murderous Minds, Murder True Crime Stories and more wherever you get your podcasts!Follow us on SocialYouTube: @CluesPod | @crimehousestudiosInstagram: @cluespodcast | @CrimehouseTikTok: @CrimehouseFacebook: @crimehousestudiosX: @crimehousemediaClues is hosted by Morgan Absher & Kaelyn Moore Instagram: @morgsyabsher | @itskaelynmooreTikTok: @twohottakes | @heartstartspoundingSponsors:We’ve partnered with Minky Couture to bring our listeners an exclusive 50% OFF discount! That’s right—50% OFF! Use code CLUES at checkout for 50% off all full-priced items. Head to https://www.minkycouture.com, use code CLUES, and get into the BEST. BLANKET. EVER.Get started now at ⁠⁠https://www.HelloAlma.com/CLUESGet started today at https://www.StitchFix.com/CLUES to get $20 off your first order.Start with a demo at https://www.ElevenLabs.io/CluesUpgrade today with Zenni! Go to bit.ly/4cwlUFi and use code PODCAST15 for fifteen percent off your first order, plus free shipping on all US orders over sixty five dollars.

On Reddit, true crime doesn't come from journalists. It comes from the victims, the witnesses, and sometimes the suspects themselves. Every Tuesday on Crimes of Reddit, we read these posts out loud. I'm Sabrina DeAnna Roga. And I'm Alexis Linkletter. One of us brings the story, the other goes in blind, reacting in real time just like you. New episodes drop every Tuesday. Listen to and follow Crimes of Reddit on Apple Podcast and Spotify.

Subscribe on YouTube at Crimes. of Reddit pod for video episodes. This is Crime House. A black Tesla sits abandoned for weeks on a quiet street in the Hollywood Hills. When it finally gets towed, workers at the lot notice a smell coming from the trunk, and inside is the body of a 14-year-old girl. The car is registered to a 21-year-old pop star with millions of fans, who's actually heading out on an international world tour,

all while detectives are trying to figure out what exactly happened. Hi guys, welcome back to Clues, where we sneak past the crime scene tape to explore the key evidence behind some of the most gripping true crime cases. I'm Keel and Maure and I'm going to be the one digging deeper into the timelines, the backstories, and the court files released on these cases. And I'm your internet sleuth, Morgan Apshur. I'm the one who's diving into the Reddit forums and anything else I can find online to talk about the lesser known details and pull the threads that just don't add up.

Don't forget to share your thoughts on social. want ad-free and early access to clues and the rest of the crimehouse lineup, subscribe to Crimehouse Plus and get at least two bonus episodes from across crimehouse every month. To join, go to crimehouseplus.com or if you listen on Apple podcasts, tap try free at the top of the clues page. Now let's get into the case of Celeste Rivas Hernandez and the clues that defined it. This is probably one of the most jarring cases. I think that's happened in modern, recent times, with internet slews and a public figure.

And I'm absolutely bewildered by it. I'm just like I don't understand the thought process and how deranged this all is. It is incredibly upsetting. Everyone listened to this one with care. It's even hard for us to like read through parts of it. Like when we were doing the research and stuff, like I found myself having to stop a lot to like. Yeah. And there's so much on social media.

Like I think that's what I'm, I think that's what I'm having the hardest time with is, you know, there's a handful of journalists and TikTokers that have been let into the grand jury. And they will immediately come out and get on TikTok and describe exactly what they just saw in horrifying detail. And I'm like, I feel like we're losing a lot of respect. Humanity. Yeah. And Celeste is kind of getting lost in this. Yes. And it just is so deeply upsetting.

Yeah. On all fronts. I know this is going to be a really tough one. This is a 14-year-old little girl that was killed in a horrific way. Everyone's mad at all the adults and families involved. Oh, yeah. And it's just, it's quite frankly, a shit show. It is.

It really is. And so we wanted to have a place where we were just going to put together all the information that we found, keep everything organized, where we're at. So we're recording this before. the arraignment that's supposed to take place on August 31st. So we're just doing it with all the available information that we have at this time. More stuff I imagine will come out at the arraignment, but definitely will. With that, we're going to start getting into it. As a reminder, if you're watching on YouTube, you're going to see pictures, videos, maps, those kinds of things that will help you visualize the case. And if you're listening, you can find all the same assets on our

Instagram that's at Clues Podcast. You should follow us there anyways. And just again, a warning, very clear before we begin, this episode does contain discussions of murder, dismemberment, sexual abuse of a child, sex trafficking, grooming, emotional abuse, and intimate partner violence. So please just listen with care, you guys. And another quick note before we get started, this is still an active case. So despite how horrible and how shocking some of the things we're going to talk about are, no one in this crime is legally guilty as of this recording. So just keep that in mind. And all criminal defendants are legally innocent until proven guilty. And with that, we're going to start at the end of August in 2025 a year ago. On one of LA's wealthiest streets, someone is really sick of looking at this

abandoned car that's been sitting on Bluebird Avenue since late July. It's a black 2023 Tesla Model X. Now, this is a part of the Hollywood Hills West neighborhood called the Bird Streets. Some of the most famous people on Earth live here. We're talking Keanu Reeves, Jennifer Anniston, Drake, Leonardo DiCaprio, there's houses in this neighborhood that sell for $70 million, some even more. But unlike flashy Bel Air, which is the neighborhood next door, the Birdstreet actually keeps a pretty low profile. Most of the people who live in L.A., honestly don't know that this part of the Hollywood Hills exists. People only drive through this neighborhood if you're visiting someone. If you go on one of those tours that we have here in L.A. where you're

visiting the houses of famous people, they're not going to take you through this neighborhood. This is people pay for this privacy. The side streets are all dead ends. The through roads are really windy. And like most of the Hollywood Hills, the roads are barely two cars wide. So it is actually a problem that someone has ditched a Tesla there. And it's very noticeable. This is not a neighborhood where you just leave a car on the side of the road.

And it's actually been there for so long that Apple Maps has a picture of it on their street view cameras. Someone picked it up and put it on Apple Maps. That's insane. Plus, this car is starting to look like an eyesore. It's covered in dust. It has a big dent in the back. There's tape on the bumper, trim that's missing over the left front wheel. And based on the neighborhood I just described to you, it sticks out like a sore thumb. Very out of place. So an officer comes out on August 27th. But he just writes a warning and then he moves on. And then the same thing happens on September 3rd. This time, though, the car does get a ticket. Finally, on September 5th, the officer comes back. The car is still there. So they just call a tow truck. The Tesla gets towed to Hollywood tow yard. It's five miles away. And no one really thinks about it again.

I mean, this is L.A. Thousands of cars get towed every single day. Maybe not from this neighborhood. But how many cars get towed? No one really thinks about it. Until a few days later, that's when workers at the impound lot call police because they've noticed that this car smells so bad.

There is a very strong odor that's coming from this car. And around 12.20 p.m. on September 8th, the LAPD sends detectives over to take a look, and they notice this smell too right away. They walk up to this car and they're just hit with this smell. So they tape off the area and they pop the front trunk of the car. And inside is a zippered black body bag and a black trash bag. Both have human remains inside that look like they've been dismembered. The remains are very deep. composed when they look, they can tell that she's female and has wavy black hair, but there's really not much they can discern other than that. This body that they find is still dressed in a tube top, black leggings, socks, underwear, a yellow chain bracelet and stud earrings. There's also a tattoo on her right index finger that reads, shh-h-h-h-h-h dot, dot. Now, in this moment, detectives don't know who this girl is and they, from the state of the remains, can tell that it's going to take some time to find out. But already, you can get a sense that this is turning into a story because as they're looking

at this active crime scene, you can hear choppers start flying around overhead. Like the news has picked up on this and is now circling this lot. And the reason that the choppers were on the scene so fast is they figured out who the car is registered to almost right away. His legal name is David Anthony Burke, but he's better known as David spelled D4VD. I've heard so many people call him DeForvid, not realizing that it's pronounced David. He's this millionaire. He's a massive TikTok star.

At the time, I didn't know who he was and someone played me one song and I was like, oh my God, I've heard that song. It's everywhere on TikTok. He's one of those people you've heard his voice if you didn't even know who he was. He's a major label recording artist. And right now, while detectives pull a dismember. body from his Tesla, that 20-year-old star is out on a world tour. Right away, not even really knowing what happened, officers know that there are charges to press, starting with the unlawful mutilation of human remains. It was too early to say if the young woman had in fact been

murdered. I'm sure that they had the sense that she had. There is a lot more evidence you need to be able to say with 100% certainty that this person was murdered. Yeah. They could have died of natural causes and them as dismembered and put in. So I get it. I know hearing that, people are like, what do you mean? She was dismembered. Of course. But yeah, there's a lot that could have happened where they're like, maybe it was an overdose and someone panicked. You don't know you need to do a thorough investigation. Totally. But I think even then they had a sense that this was probably going to be a homicide investigation. Regardless, it's too early to say what happened or who was responsible. And just because the car is registered to David Burke, I mean, it didn't prove that he had any. anything to do with this? And I think right when the news started coming out, people assumed that he

didn't have anything to do with it. I think a lot of people were like, oh my God, someone probably stole this guy's car and put a body in it or something. I remember that being the headline. I mean, his fans, whether it's on Discord, Reddit, TikTok, his fans were like, there's absolutely no way. I mean, they were really coming about defending him initially. And so there's, I mean, this is a major artist. He's surpassed a billion streams on Spotify. He is huge. Again, on two words. He's not even there.

He's not even there. He hasn't been there for months. And because he's been gone for so long, I mean, there could have been other people that had access to his car. And as the story spread, a spokesperson for David comes out and says that he is, quote, fully cooperating with the police. So once detectives finish at this impound lot scene, they towed David's Tesla to a police facility. The next day, September 9th, an LAPD criminalist went through it looking for more evidence like, being really thorough, and she made some really grim discoveries, which brings us to our first clue, the evidence inside the Tesla. There were at least 11 air fresheners packed into this car.

Most were in the center console. There were some in the back seat, some up in that front trunk area, which a lot of people refer to it just as the frunk. Yeah, so they call them on Tesla's. And there were so many, like, in that area, and there was a lot of insect activity that, like, You can't even really tell that there's air fresheners. Like, there's maggots covering the air fresheners. Obviously, these air fresheners didn't work as impound lot workers were able to smell this. And the car still reeked when it was processed even after Celeste's remains were removed. Again, there were a lot of insects, huge numbers of fly larva all over the frunk.

That suggested that the body had been decomposed in there for a while. And she was also able to spot stains that looked like blood. The investigator sprayed blue star. It's sort of like a luminal all over the interior of this car and several spots lit up. The third row seats, the left side paneling, and the lower cargo compartment in the rear trunk. And here's the thing about the rear trunk. The Model X has a false floor that you can lift to reveal a hidden compartment underneath. So finding blood down there when the body was found up in the front also suggested that she had been moved after she was put in the car, which again is why this is looking more and more like a murder. But again, that is ultimately going to be the medical examiner's decision.

Yes. So the very next day, before the medical examiner even did an autopsy, the LAPD got a phone call. A man named Jesus Rivera thought that the body might be his daughter, Celeste Abigail Rivas Hernandez. He said that the police description matched Celeste down to that tattoo that was on her right in X finger, the sh tattoo. And Celeste's mother, Mercedes Martinez, said Celeste had been dating a boy named David. And also, he had the same tattoo that she had. Plus, Jesus knew something about his daughter's tattoo that the police hadn't released yet. It was in red ink, not black, which matched the body in the car. Detectives requested Celeste's dental records to make it official, but they were already pretty sure that

her father was correct. If so, that meant something really big and really disturbing, and that is that this victim was a minor, which means that they could be dealing with potential additional charges. Before anyone could think about the charges, they needed to know how Celeste had died, though. So that same day, September 10th, two LAPD robbery homicide detectives went to observe the autopsy, and that was performed by Dr. Grant Ho. It is our second clue. The advanced decomposition made the Emmy's job so much harder. There was a large number of what he called in his report defects. Now, in an autopsy, a defect just means a place where the skin is split, injured, or damaged.

They use that neutral word because not every split is a wound, and reports do have to hold up in court. Yeah. Now, this next section does describe how Celeste was found, and if that is triggering for you, please skip ahead. In this case, two of the defects stood out. Dr. Ho believed that they were too stab, well. wounds, one in her right abdomen, deep enough to penetrate her liver, the other in her left lower chest cavity, damaging her ribs. He determined that those two wounds were her cause of death. He couldn't pin down a time of death, though, but he believed that she'd been dead at least a few weeks,

maybe a few months at that point, and the manner of death was homicide, although this determination was not released to the public until three months later on December 9th. This was now officially a murder investigation. And there are three other important findings from this examination too. First, there were tiny bits of blue plastic that was embedded in the cut marks where her limbs had been severed. The Emmy couldn't explain it. So his team collected the fragments and sent them to evidence.

Second, her left ring finger and pinky finger were missing. Every other part of her was in the Tesla, but those two fingers were just going. on. Third, toxicology. With no blood left, they had to test liver tissue instead. It first came back positive for benzodiazepines or benzos, which can be a type of anxiety medication, and also came back positive for meth. But further testing was negative for benzos and inconclusive for meth. And we have talked about this in other cases. Decomposition, especially this severe, can throw off these toxicology reports, so the tests are all still up for determination, but they were confidently able to say that she was indeed stabbed, just not in a way that killed her instantly.

The Emmy believed that she lived at least a few minutes before dying of blood loss, and she most likely wasn't drugged, which means she was probably conscious when this happened. It's a horrible way for anyone to die, but I mean, they're looking at this 14-year-old, teenager child and it just makes this all so, so much worse. This episode is brought to you by Alma. Alma is on a mission to simplify access to high quality, affordable mental health care. When you want to talk to a therapist, the last thing you want to do is fight with insurance, figure out if someone's available. Like the process can be so long that it actually turns you off from doing it.

But Alma has built a community of over 26,000 diverse therapists. Also, clients with insurance pay $20,000, $20,000. on average. Which is so important. Ninety-eight percent of their therapists actually accept insurance, which makes it easy to get affordable mental health care. And you can know exactly how much you'll pay up front with their free insurance cost estimator calculator. We've had listeners comment about Alma and how beneficial it's been for them. I've loved online therapy in the past, taking my sessions from the comfort of my car, my bed, wherever. And with Alma making it more affordable, it could be a great time to try. Yes. Over one million people have found care with Alma. Get started now. at helloalma.com slash clues. That's helloalma.com slash CLUES.

Early morning on a Manhattan sidewalk, a shooting caught on surveillance video. It was an assassination style killing, and everybody saw it. Now, as Luigi Mangione prepares to stand trial for the murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, which he denies, a new podcast series from ABC Audio in 2020 goes inside this captain evading case. I'm ABC News legal analyst Brian Buckmire. Listen to burden of proof Luigi Mangione, wherever you get your podcasts. So on the morning of September 16th, 2025, eight days after Celeste's body was found, dental records did confirm that it indeed was Celeste Abigail Rivas Hernandez. Celeste is so much more, though, than how she died. She was born on September 7th, 2010, in Lake

Elsinore, California, which is about 70 miles from L.A. Celeste was the youngest of three. She had a brother, Matthew, and a sister, Jennifer. Her parents became U.S. citizens in 2001. And it seems like their family did come on some hard times in the recent past. So a neighbor had told News Nation that the family spent 2019 and 2020 in public housing. Celeste would have been nine years old and 10 years old at the time. Eventually, the family worked through the challenges and they moved into a little Spanish colonial house that had this picket fence, senator. caracotta roof, and they had a custom Hernandez family sign out front. Celeste went to Lakeland Village School where people described her as being studious, hardworking, smart. Neighbors knew her

by her long, curly black hair. And most days she stopped at the corner store for candy and tachies with friends, some that she had known since kindergarten. Her parents also described her as loving to sing and dance. And the family had this ritual where they would watch movies together every Friday. But it seems like there was maybe a bit more going on with Celeste, maybe that her parents weren't aware of. So we know that in middle school, she briefly dated a boy named Damien Hernandez, who also went to school with her. He said that Celeste was always talking about running away. According to Damien, she didn't describe there being abuse at home. She just didn't like the environment. Then on February 14th, 2024, about 19 months before the discovery, she actually did leave home.

She left a note, we're not entirely sure what it said, and she slipped out at around 2 a.m. A home security camera did catch her walking away. Her family reported the 13-year-old missing, and by 9-18 the next morning, they put up posters all over their neighborhood. Her mom, Mercedes, posted on Facebook, begging for help finding her. And Celeste eventually did come home. We don't know when that happened. We don't exactly know how she made it back home.

But she was upset about all of the publicity. that her parents had drummed up over the event. She ran away again the next month on March 19, 24, and again, her parents reported her missing, and once again, she came back. Neighbors remembered her being dropped off by a police cruiser at least once, but law enforcement didn't give any more details. We know that she was gone again by April 5th.

Once again, she came home. People in town saw her with her parents later that summer. But then, before she even finished middle school, She was gone again. However, this time she didn't make it back. As detectives are getting to learn more about Celeste, they begin looking into their person of interest as well. So they paid a little visit to David's rental house at 1368 Vieero Place, which is right around the corner from where the Tesla had been parked. This is clue number three for us. The 4,300 square foot mansion has four bedrooms, five bathrooms, a pool, a private gym, terraces, even a grand piano.

David was paying $20,000 a month for it? A month. A month. So on September 17th with David still on tour, police served a search warrant. Just like with the Tesla, a criminalist used Blue Star to hunt for hidden blood stains, and they found them in the garage. There were seven damaged black rubber floor mats. They had cut marks in them. There was no blood visible to the eye, but under Blue Star, they lit up.

So did a rowing machine, a Tesla charging plug, there were green tarps and a trash bag that lit up, and inside that trash bag they found bloodstained cleaning wipes. Now, later DNA testing did confirm Celeste DNA was on the wipes, the charger, the rowing machine, and the floor mats. There were also two chainsaws in the garage, which did not have blood on them, but there was a blue plastic inflatable pool that did. It was also covered in cuts. It had pieces missing. A criminalist saw this and compared it to those bits of blue plastic stuck to Celeste's clothes that she was found in.

And she found three fragments that fit specific holes in the pool. Coming together like a jigsaw puzzle essentially is how they describe it. Yeah. I mean, at that time, police still hadn't named a suspect, at least publicly. Which people are starting to go like crazy about this online. Yeah. This is what I remember this one who was still on tour and they were starting to put things together and she had been named and the tattoo came out that they had matching tattoos and still that he was not named as a suspect. The Reddit also was going wild during this time as well and we'll talk about all the social stuff a little bit later but like the Reddit for David was having posts about this on it.

Yeah. And like all the moderators left. There were people being accused of deleting these posts pointing this out. So much so like all the moderators left. subreddit got shut down and then a new one was made in order to gather evidence against him. People are like, why is he still on tour? Like, this is unacceptable. Oh, my God, absolutely.

I will say, like, I think the public opinion is fully against him. Like, there were people that were really defending him at this time on those reddits, the moderators too, who now have fully flipped. Yeah. So even the people that were staunchly at the time, like, I don't think anyone defends him. I would hope not. But, yeah, I remember when all this was happening. And so September 19th, two days after that search and 11 days after the body was found, that's when David finally canceled the rest of his tour.

By September 26, Movers had cleared all of his belongings out of the Bird Streets' house, and instead he quietly moved into another rental, which was two miles away behind the Chateau Marmont. And so we were talking about their Reddit. So around this time, fans are on the Reddit, they realize that in his subreddit, the R slash David subreddit, he is most likely the only moderator left. Like there's one moderator left and his fans basically figure out that it's just him. They also accused him of deleting posts about Celeste's murder and removing at least one of the other mods.

And hours later, the last moderator left the subret, which when that's how Reddit works when all the mods leave, they just auto lock it so no one else can post. Yeah, if it's a big sub and it's not being moderated properly, Reddit will reach out to you. They try to help install new mods. They're pretty good about making sure that community. are safe and protected. Yeah, yeah, which is great. And so a lot of his fans also went over to Discord. There's a server called David's Closet. And the name is a reference to David's claim that he recorded his first hit in his sister's closet using his phone as a microphone just to have music for his Fortnite videos. So in this subreddit, a 16-year-old fan and amateur hacker who goes by Ghost noticed

that one of the mods there was also deleting messages. So Ghost downloaded the entire history of the hashtag general channel, which was over three gigabytes. And he uploads, he or she, uploads all of it to the internet archive. Later, another former fan built a tool on GitHub to make the archive easier to search. And remember, David had really put together this community of like incredibly online, young fans. So his fans are, I mean, you have a hacker here. They're literally hackers. They're little tech gurus.

They're literally going on Discord, downloading, like, gigabytes of information, uploading it to Internet Archive, making it searchable for everyone. Like, it was so fast that they were able to turn against him. And so they also find a Discord account that they believe belonged to Celeste. And there's exchanges on this Discord that go back to as early as 2022. And quick math. At that time, Celeste was 11 years old and David was 16. One message from a since deleted account showed a girl's left hand wearing a small ring and it had a tattoo of David's name and red ink on one ring finger.

That photo is unconfirmed, I will add. But the police do believe that it matches a tattoo that Celeste had. And David got a matching red ink Celeste tattoo on his own left ring finger, which gave detectives a possible explanation for something that they found in the autopsy, which we talked about. But Celeste's left ring and pinky finger were missing from the scene. They were never found. And it could be that those would have had identifying characteristics on them. So if we have messages going back to when she was 11 and he was 16, it makes sense that he was trying to hide elements of their relationship. And he's also online. He's deleting messages about her. It turns out that their relationship was actually not very well hidden while it was happening.

So fans pointed to anonymous posts from two different redditors. Both of these redditors said that David had dated a girl at their middle school. And one mentioned that this girl had run away. Those posts went up before the body was identified. It was just when the body was found, these posts go up. So we don't know that they're specifically about Celeste, but the posters weren't working off of the news. They didn't have other identifying information and they still provided things that matched Celeste. Meanwhile, as David's former fans tried to get him arrested, his close friends, ones that still cared about him, went into damage control.

So unnamed associates told TMZ that all of David's friends knew Celeste and thought that she and David were a couple. A lot of them had seen the two together, but the sources claimed that they all thought Celeste was a college student at USC. Like I know even one of them mentioned, like, she was 19. She was as young as 12, 13 when they first would have seen her. Yeah, and I'm sorry. Like, I think that argument of like, she looked a lot older. No, she did not. No, she did not.

I've seen pictures of her. That was a child. A child. Like, so little. Just. Yeah, and the internet is like, we have eyes and ears. We know that that's false. Yeah.

So two friends in particular, a streamer named Neil Langston and a model named Asia Collins. They got flooded with comments accusing them. of being complicit in the abuse, maybe even a potential murder. Asia put out a statement saying that she was no longer friends with David and was, quote, working in silence to bring justice to Celeste Rivas in ways that I can. And Neo posted something similar. He said, quote, at the end of the day, this case isn't about me. It isn't about you.

It's about getting justice for the victim and her family. And I care a lot more about that than trying to fill the void because of public opinion. Yeah, I mean, at this time, you have everyone going through TikToks of the three of them. There's one in a bathroom where there is a mention of like a smell and they all kind of share this glance. And so people are like, again, the court of public opinion, they're like, they know everyone's guilty. Especially when you have David putting tweets and spamming his discord with the word decay. Just like a week after. Apparently people were going over to his house and he would immediately apologize about the smell.

Like there's a video that exists. of him. It's like a Snapchat or something where no one says anything about the smell, but he's like, sorry my bathroom smells like, I just took a shit in there two hours ago. And it kind of comes out of nowhere. So, and that was after the murder would have occurred. Yeah. So you already see these hints that he was, that people were maybe figuring out that something was going out. Or like they were going to his house and they could smell that something had happened. Yeah. But what was the Discord decay spamming? So he went on X, formerly Twitter and I believe, let me find the exact date on it.

So on April 30th, 2025, he just tweeted one word, decay. And this would have been roughly a week after Celeste had been killed. And then there's him going on his Discord, which is just like getting flooded, decay, decay, decay, decay, decay, decay, decay, decay. Because he tweeted it? That's from him. Oh, wow. He's like one single decay on his Twitter and then his discord, he's just spamming with the word decay. So it's like now in hindsight, everyone's starting to analyze this discord data and like all of his socials and all of these things.

And they're like, this is a really weird thing to tweet when a decaying, decomposing body was just found in your car. Yeah. Why are you tweeting that? Yes. It reminds me of McKenzie Shirello when everyone was mad. She dressed up as Playboy Cardi, which a lot of the adults read as just dressing like a corpse after you had killed someone. And then now you're saying that he's tweeting like decay a week after he just, or, you know, we haven't gotten to that part. But yeah, a week after Celeste was killed.

So David went from being a rising star to essentially radioactive. I mean, you just see pop culture completely turn against him. I mean, before the end of September figure skater, Elisa Liu, she went on to win Olympic gold. She was like a fan favorite. She's amazing. She pulls all of his music from her skating program. Then there's Kali Uchis, who has a song with him that's just taken off of streaming. She has it removed from streaming services.

Lots of celebrities start unfollowing him. Katzai starts unfollowing him, Ice Spice, Tyler of the creator, Addison Ray, more. And the final blow to his career, David gets dropped by Dark Room Interscope Records. Unceremoniously, there's no announcement. It just happens. Now, detectives are tuning a lot of this out to really keep their eye on this goal, which is like catching Celeste's killer, figuring out what exactly happened to her. And they had something they hadn't publicly revealed yet, which is our fourth clue, David's

first conversation with police about Celeste. Now, it turns out the LAPD had looked into Celeste way before her death. On February 17th, 2024, the Riverside County Sheriff's Department was investigating her first disappearance and actually found David's number in her cell phone records. So deputies called it. David picked a... up and admitted that he had chatted with Celeste on either February 13th or 14th, but at this point, he's claiming that he didn't know she was a minor and he had no idea that she had been reported missing. Still, the Riverside PD asked the LAPD to go and do a welfare check at David's Place, then in West Hollywood, and LAPD officers knocked on David's door at 8.15 p.m. and started asking

about Celeste. Again, he said, he didn't know she was. was a minor. He claimed he had only met her once in November of 2023. Otherwise, they only chatted online. They didn't find much there. Aside from the fact that David had a yearbook photo of Celeste saved on his phone at the time. Officers noted that she looked to be about 11 in it and was wearing a Batman sweatshirt. And just two days after David told police, I know nothing. I haven't seen her. Whatever he's saying to them, Celeste does come home on her own. So David had already admitted that he had chatted with Celeste online, which is why they are able to get a warrant for our fifth clue, David's cell phone records. Search warrants in this case are still sealed, but we can assume the police wanted their chat history, plus his text, location, calls, I mean, everything.

And sure enough, his phone is full of evidence. there are tons of text between Celeste and David, but it's the photos that really just, I don't even have the proper word, like shook investigators. They took pictures together all the time. Some showed them kissing or cuddling in bed. Others showed explicit sex acts. And because of Celeste age, those photos are actually considered child sexual abuse material and have to be handled completely differently. Yeah. Child sexual abuse material otherwise referred to as CSAM can't be emailed or uploaded anywhere. It has to go into specific, very secure platforms that are built for it. Most departments also strictly limit who can even view this. And it's to protect the victim.

I mean, even looking at some of this material can traumatize investigators. So you're very, very strict with it. And it usually can't even be shown in court. It has to be described out loud instead. And I've heard that even the descriptions traumatized jurors, like, it's horrible. It's horrible. It's horrible. Once they get into the text, it became clear how much David had allegedly groomed Celeste.

David appeared to be using money, gifts, attention to manipulate her into basically whatever he wanted. At the end of 2023, then 13-year-old Celeste and 18-year-old David texted about an unplanned pregnancy. And both of us screenshotsed this text message. because it's just like, again, so jarring. So David sends, quote, I'm sorry again, baby. I didn't want to ever put you through this. Celeste, quote, no, it's okay.

Don't worry, both of us are able to take care of it. David, I know, but still, Celeste, don't worry about it, my love. David, you so much stronger than me, I love you. Celeste, I love you more, my love. It's okay, though, neither of us are capable of watching the baby. David. When you're going to get it done? Celeste, two days. David, my mom said I have to ask this question. Don't get offended, but isn't mine. Celeste, of course it is, David. Which the fact that she's talking him down, she's the one being strong saying, don't worry about it, my love. Don't worry, we're not able to take care of it. And he's even admitting, like, you're stronger than me. She is, for not being an adult, she is the adult in the situation. And it's so sad. to read text messages where she's the one who's like more mature. Yeah.

I mean, at 12 and 13, too, there's other messages between them that got shared where, you know, he's like, you got to be on top of your shit. You need to get the flow app and start tracking. So I have that one. So that's from November 25th, 2023, where Celeste goes currently manifesting my period because I refuse to have kids. And then David, did you miss your date? You should start tracking.

Use flow. I know that's why you should start tracking. It's ovulation week. it's important. I just need to make sure you're on top of your shit. And then Celeste goes, if I'm pregnant, I'm not having it. So he's fully putting it on her. It takes two to tango, but he's fully putting it on her. Yeah, be on top of your shit. He is abusing a minor and telling her, I get so fucking mad, Morgan, when I read about this. To be abusing a child. And then you're telling her, like, be on top of your shit because I'm going to get in

trouble if you get pregnant. And I'm going to go to jail and my life will be ruined. So, like, you need the apps and you need the medicine and stuff to make sure that you're not getting pregnant. Oh my God. I mean, and again, this relationship, this grooming has been going on since she was 11. Yeah. It's just, this is years down the line now. And it's again, like, she's 13 having to make this huge decision about a teen pregnancy or an abortion. In middle school.

In middle school. I don't know. The biggest thing I did in middle school was a field trip to an amusement park. Like, it's just like it's. Because you're a child. It's insane. Like, you are so little. And it's just insane.

Absolutely insane. So obviously things progress. They go through text messages from February 2024 where David talks about something that they call Operation Awesome. Or she goes, Operation Awesome, going to be so hard. And then he says, hard is in like hard to do or hard like the full Balenciaga fit hard. And then she's saying like, I don't know what to bring. And he's like, we've been over this for weeks. Anything you use and can't replace immediately you bring. Clothes, you like make up jewelry shoes. I'm giving you two duffel bags when I see you. Yeah, essentially this was a plan to sneak Celeste out of her parents' house with her belongings and basically move her in with David. He tells her that this day that they move her in is going to be, quote, the most important day of your life next to wedding.

He says he'll have someone named Sheldon drive him to her house at 11.50 p.m. on February 14th. He even offers to hide so he can help her carry her bags. detectives later learned Sheldon was David's live-in bodyguard and all three times when Celeste went back to her parents David repeatedly complained in texts about quote police and posters. Posters referring to like the flyers up about her being missing. And he's complaining about the fact that her parents are looking for her.

Yeah. There's one message from June 2024 that really stood out. This is four months after that LAPD visit with 13-year-old Celeste back home. Then 19-year-old David texts her, quote, I can't wait to move in together without the cop's bitching baby. He says they can solve all their problems with a, quote, four-year vacation and getting married in Italy.

And like, I think he's doing the math in his head because he's like, four-year vacation, you'll be almost 18. It'll be legal. It'll be legal. You know, Italy has interesting laws, too, with like, extradition, I know. That comes, that's coming up in another case right now. So yeah, I feel like maybe they're looking at like Italy is this refuge and yeah. Oh, that's interesting. I know Roman Polanski could never go to the Venice Film Festival because if you ever step

foot in Italy, they could send him back to the United States. So that's why he's had to hide out in Poland. I'm pretty sure that's why. Yeah. Yeah. So interesting. On top of all of this, there's a lot of explicit texts. I mean, there's so much explicit content with this. It again is like very upsetting and shocking and just sad. But towards the end of all of these texts, the tone between them really does shift. On March 24th, 2025, Celeste's text, quote, this isn't happening. I feel like we can't have a balanced relationship. Maybe if things were different. All we do is have sex and hang out, man. I want more than that for myself, end quote. In April 2025, they start fighting about David's relationship with model Asia Collins, who had reportedly gotten a lot closer to him after appearing

in one of his music videos. On April 22nd, Celeste, Celeste threatens to, quote, end your career and your life over Asia spending time at his house. I mean, this is, I think, a quote that's gone pretty viral, and it was kind of over Asia sitting in her chair and her just feeling a lot of disrespect. You have the text. Do you want to get into it? Yeah, I mean, we have the whole exchange from the 22nd. I can read some of it. I mean, David does not seem that concerned that she actually is going to end his life in these text messages, but she goes, can you tell me why you want to be friends with Asia? And he says, here it says unspecified reply. Basically, he states that Asia is just a friend. She goes, bro, just bump her. There's no need for friendship. Keep her as an acquaintance like Lane or

Rob. And you're really saying you'd end our friendship just to be friends with her over me. That's disturbing and disgusting to me on a deeper level, David. It's actually crazy. And he said, When did I say I would end my friendship with you for her? And she goes, someone who's known you for years over someone you for one year. Bro, I said I didn't want to be friends with you if you want to be friends with her. Why is she at your house then? And he goes out my house when? And Celeste sends an address.

And David says, for Coachella, everyone came over to get wristbands. So Asia was over for that reason. And that's when Celeste says, oh my fucking God, I swear to God, I will kill you. She was in my damn seat. I will strangle you to dot, dot, dot, death, bro. I will tell my dad so many fucking lies about you. I will end your career and your life. I will damage anything.

She posted at your house, you weirdo. I think that those texts were shown in a very specific context in court of like, I know that they're trying to say that anything that was done was done in self-defense. She was saying she was going to come over and kill him. She was saying she was going to strangle him. And that's what a lot of legal experts online are saying, Like they're pointed to these messages as like this could be what his defense team uses to argue self-defense. Yeah, yeah.

Like that's what we'll be used as self-defense. Just create that reasonable doubt. Yes. But if we look at them in the context of the entire story, of their entire relationship, you have a 14-year-old girl who's been abused and groomed since she was, since allegedly since she was 11. And now things are ending in the relationship. Things are changing in the relationship. She doesn't have a lot of stability in her life.

No, abortion with him at 13, for him potentially. And since that abortion has expressed a lot of regret and sadness in text messages, too. Yes. So emotionally, mentally, just, I don't know, I would imagine a lot of turmoil and just. Drained. Yes. This is so, it's just. And so you can see it.

And we don't know that she did any of these things. We know that she sent a text message saying she would, but we don't know. anything that happened in that house, but we do know he had a pool full of her blood that was all chopped up and the pieces were found in her dismembered body. So, like, I don't think you can look at any of those texts and be like, well, she probably, you know what I'm saying? Like, does that make sense? And it's, it's difficult too, because at this grand jury, the defense is kind of trying to poke holes and, you know, question those on the stand of, like, could this have been self-inflicted? And then, you know, the dismemberment happened after. And I think it was the Emmy that was on the stand.

I was like, no, this is homicide. Yeah. And so you can kind of, you know, based on the questions and how they were asked during the grand jury, you can kind of see what the defense is trying to like prepare. Suss out. Yeah. That they can get away with that they might be able to convince people. Yeah, and again, like, this is a child, like, still at this point. A young teenager, and it's just, it's insane. The very next day on April 23rd, they text about David sending an Uber to Celeste House to pick her up, which police confirmed did happen that night at 8.40 p.m. And it dropped her off at David's mansion around 10.10 p.m. There's a text message exchange that occurs at 10.01 p.m.

She texted him, quote, Girlie Pop, I'm almost there. Open your door if you are home. To which David responded, quote, got you. Adding about 10 minutes later, quote, gate open, door unlocked. And that girly pop text message was the last text message Celeste ever sent. Later that night, David sent a flurry of text to her phone asking where she was. Police, investigators are kind of reading this as an attempt for him to build an alibi, made it look like she never arrived. But based on this whole exchange, detectives were convinced that Celeste did indeed make it there and that David stabbed her to death almost as soon as she walked in. And they believe the motive was right there in those texts. I mean, Celeste had explicitly threatened to ruin David's career and she was doing it at, you know, maybe a very challenging time because two days after that last text, David's debut album Withard was released. to me, and maybe this is an unsolicited hot take, you have this 14-year-old texting you these things. Like, why do you, as a 21-year-old, send an Uber the next day?

Yeah, right. If you were so scared that she was going to kill you, why are you sending? It just doesn't add up for me. I know. I don't think it adds up for anyone. We will see how it plays out in court. Well, what's interesting, too, is the people who, because David was working on his album and was like writing more music as all of this was happening and in the coming months.

And everyone that he was working with noticed he felt super locked in. Like it really sounds like no one suspected anything. Like it wasn't like he was able to just go back to the studio, sit down, was working on music, wasn't talking to anyone in a way that made it seem like he was coming undone or like was feeling haunted by something he had done. And that to me is also just so chilling. Yeah, I mean, so many people pull up clips of him doing interviews. Yeah. And like, again, I think there's the, you know, the viral song that he got famous for is about killing a lover.

And so it's just like people in hindsight, you're just like, oh, there's something just off. We've all been there. The endless hold music, the convoluted phone trees, the robotic voices that don't quite understand you, and the frustration of having to repeat your account information to a human agent after you already gave it to the machine. It's a cycle that feels broken for everyone involved. And it's not just frustrating for us as customers. Think about the people answering those calls. They're often stuck answering the same three questions hundreds of times a day. And the businesses themselves, they want to provide great experiences, but they're often limited by outdated relic technology.

It's a system-long overdue for a rethink. That's where 11 agents comes in. It's a platform for AI voice and chat agents that can actually listen, understand, and resolve customer issues. 11 agents can securely look up your account, process requests, and intelligently hand off to a human when a person is truly needed. If you run a business or handle customer operations across support, sales, or marketing, you can start with a demo at 11labs.io, See how 11 agents can fit into your workflows and help build experiences that your customers will actually love. 11 labs.io slash clues. L-E-E-V-E-N-L-A-B-S dot I-O slash clues. Especially when investigators start looking at his purchases.

So after reading all of David's text with Celeste, detectives had a pretty clear theory of why she was killed, but they still needed a lot more to tie him to the murder, which brings us to our sixth clue, David's alleged suspicious purchases. Once they were finally able to get his financial records, a few purchased items really, really stood out to them. For example, on April 24th, a shovel from Home Depot delivered via postmates. On May 1st, two chainsaws bought on Amazon. Remember, two chainsaws turned up in the garage.

They did not have blood on them. they were tested with a very, very specific, like, pH test. And it wouldn't have been that you'd be able to wash the blood off. Yeah, that would is still red. Yeah, that was my understanding, too. May 4th, he allegedly ordered a third chainsaw, again, through Postmates. The third chainsaw was never recovered. May 5th, backed Amazon for cadaver bags, laundry bags, and the blue inflatable pool.

Then on July 7th, a, quote, burn cage, a device for incinerating things, again, from Amazon. All being purchased on Amazon. The biggest paper trail you could ever have. That's what I'm like, I don't understand. The car is registered to you. Like, everything about this is so, which is so strange because it does feel premeditated to me. If she showed up and then immediately he killed her, there was some level of premeditation, but then didn't think through any other element of this, like where he would disdainting. bows of remains or how he would do it, which is so, it's just disgusting.

Police actually were able to locate that burnbox during the search. It was tucked behind the piano. And all of these were bought under one of two aliases, either Victoria Mendez or Trayvian Davis. Again, okay, I'm a master genius, whatever, da, da, da, da. He has that name in his text messages. So on December 1st of 2023, he texts Celeste. I have different names and aliases and shit, though. I go by Travion Davis here. All my purchases and everything. He literally says in his text messages, all my purchases I do under Trayvion Davis is. And she goes, please be joking. And he goes, nah. So I don't know if he was, if that was just like the alias that he was using and he just made the purchases, whatever, or if he thought he was going to get away with it because he was using a

different name. But whatever, just like the worst idiot I've ever seen. Again, it's baffling. It's like, What was he? I just don't, I mean, clearly deranged. Again, having a relationship with such a young minor, like the C-SAM, like all of this, deranged. We didn't talk about it a lot here. Like, we, I think specifically haven't gone into David's backstory a whole lot because I don't think it matters. I don't find him to be an interesting person at all. But one thing he did say in the Rolling Stone long form piece on this, they mentioned that David does have. a quote from a 2023 interview he did, like early 2023 interview he did, where he offhandedly mentioned that he used to be addicted to Gore videos. So there is something, like, I have seen people talk about his internet usage and his, like, how he was a loner. He liked using the internet. He liked using Discord. It was all anime and it was all, like, comic books and stuff that he liked. But what gets lost was he was addicted to Gore videos for some time. And I do think that that is

indicative that there was something very, very dark inside of this person. And he was maybe, this was like also maybe a fantasy. Yeah, I mean, there's another music video where he kills someone and puts them in the trunk of a car. Yeah. So what he ended up doing is almost like it was fantasized about through his music. Yeah, I think so. I mean, there's unreleased songs that have since been leaked and it's like trapped in a Tesla, locked up in a a Tesla. And it's just like, what the fuck, dude? Like, you do this and then you potentially, allegedly are making songs about it? Yeah. And the music video where he's putting someone in the trunk, right, that's before the murder took place, too. So this was like a long time in the

making. Again, kind of is it premeditated then? Was this a fantasy? So with all of this, detectives had very strong, but very circumstantial evidence. They didn't want to move too early and jeopardize the case because there were still some big things that they did not. not have. For instance, they didn't have a murder weapon. That one chainsaw, if that was used in some way, never recovered. They do think she died from stab wounds. They don't have the specific artifact that was used. There was also no confession. On top of that, there's not a witness to the murder itself. So investigators make this unusual move. And in November of 2025, they convened a grand jury, but they didn't indict David. It was an investigative grand jury. It was an investigative grand

jury, which can subpoena witnesses and compel testimony, but it can't hand down charges. So basically, they use this as a way to force people to talk, though these people could still plead the fifth. They didn't have to. And if and when they did talk, though, it would basically stay a secret. So grand jury proceedings are routinely sealed. So this wasn't going to be something that TMZ was commenting on every day. And what ended up happening. So there were three consecutive grand juries. We still don't really know what happened inside any of them because they were sealed. Except for one thing that we do know from this, and it revolves around Neil Langston, a fellow streamer. He didn't show up after being subpoenaed and he actually got arrested for it.

A week later, though, he did testify because he had to. And he was apparently never formally charged for failing to appear. And it's also since come out that David's parents and his brother were called to testify. but they successfully fought their subpoenas and never appeared. And basically right in the middle of all this, a completely unexpected piece of evidence turns up, which brings us to our seventh clue, a passport card. By the time prosecutors convened their grand juries,

they already had David's cell phone location history and data from the Tesla too. So they knew that around 1130 p.m. on April 23, 2025, what they believe is the night of the murder, David's phone left his house and traveled all the way up to Santa Barbara County. And Tesla tracking, Tesla data does match this as well. What they didn't know, though, was why. Then on January 7, 26, almost exactly four months after Celeste's body was found,

a highway maintenance worker kind of gave them a hint as to why. He was doing traffic control on state Route 154, just east of Painted Cave Road, And he ended up spotting a passport card in the brush on the side of the road. He picked it up with no idea that it might be evidence in a murder and saw that it belonged to Celeste Rivas Hernandez. The California Highway Patrol rushed to the site. They collected it. And the spot where it turned up, I mean, this is pretty remote.

The nearest business is a yoga retreat center, but it's on a road to somewhere that could matter. I mean, it's on this road that leads to Lake Kachuma. It's a 3,100 acre reserve. And again, David's Tesla data show that the car had on one occasion search directions to Lake Kachuma. Yeah, I'm looking it up now. It is, I guess it's even north of Montecito. It's really in the mountains, too.

Yeah. Just up this winding road. It's, yeah. I'm just like I'm stunned that they were even able to find this passport car, that this, you know, this maintenance worker. I'm stunned that this maintenance worker even like came across this. But again, it speaks to though, like, what were you thinking? Like, I don't know. It is, no, it is very confusing.

I agree. It's a very confusing thing. Where you're like, it's just tossed it, you didn't bury it. You had an incinerator. You didn't burn it. You had an incinerator that you hid behind your piano and you're rented home under your name while you're on tour. So you're not even home and like all this stuff is being investigated, whatever. And but like the, it's the passport card that you drop.

drive up, which I don't know, and he took the fingers. I think it was just like anything he felt like might identify her he was interested in getting rid of. It's just so, but it's all so stupid. Like he charged the Tesla on this journey as well. Yeah. Like your car, you have a Tesla. Do you know how much data? It's a tech company. That makes a car. Like, no, I mean, he's an idiot. Like, he actually is an idiot in every sense of the word. Every one. Every, f*** sense. Yeah. So after the passport turned up, prosecutors floated at maybe this explains the missing murder weapon and third chainsaw. David could have dumped those.

Maybe even Celeste's two missing fingers are out there. They could be in the lake. Like, it's just the possibilities are endless now at this point because they do know what he was doing up there, which is at least destroying or trying to destroy evidence. Yeah. So on April 16, 2026, prosecutors felt like they did have enough to make a move. And David Burke was arrested on suspicion of murdering Celeste Rivas Hernandez. He was still in his hideaway, that little place he had behind the Chateau-Mormant. Officers in bulletproof vests brought him out in handcuffs.

And David's defense team, led by celebrity attorney Blair Burke, they put out a statement. And it says, quote, let us be clear. The actual evidence in this case will show that David Burke did not murder Celeste Rivas Hernandez. And he was not the cause of her death. There has been no indictment returned by any grand jury in this case and no criminal complaint, filed. David has only been detained under suspicion. We will vigorously defend David's innocence. And four days, yeah, good luck. Four days later on April 20th, David was formally charged with one count each of murder, continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14, and unlawful mutilation of human remains.

Now, in California, quote, continuous sexual abuse of a child is a more serious alternative to unlawful sexual intercourse, the state's term for what is commonly called statutory rape. It carries steeper penalties, but prosecutors can't stack it with other sex crimes tied to the same conduct. So it is like just part of their strategy, I guess, and trying to get him the most amount of time behind bars. So the murder charge came with four special circumstances. Murder of a witness, murder for financial gain, lying in weight and use of a deadly weapon. murder of a witness because Celeste was allegedly about to disclose their relationship, which would have been reporting him for a crime. So she was witness to the crime of the grooming and abuse.

She would have reported that he killed her. That's murder of a witness. Financial gain because prosecutor said that the murder was about protecting his career. That's how he makes money. That's murder for financial gain. Lying in weight and deadly weapon, that speaks to how calculated the murder allegedly was. And adding special circumstances is something that puts the death penalty on the table in theory. Though we've talked about this before, you actually can still get the death penalty in California.

We do have a moratorium on executions. We haven't executed anyone since the early 2000s. But death penalty is on the table. So in the meantime, David was being held without bail. But as he was booked into jail, officers noticed that he still had Celeste's name tattooed on his left ring finger. Less than eight months after Celeste was found in his Tesla, 21-year-old David Burke was arrested and charged with her murder. He has entered a not-guilty plea as of this recording.

His attorneys say he's innocent. And whether or not he's convicted, the whole thing has left a lot of people utterly confused. The crime sounds sloppy. David has everything to lose. Everything. Which brings us to our eighth and final clue. what we seemingly know about David's mind. I mean, this is Celeste's story, not David's.

Again, like, he's the least interesting. Like, David. Yeah, not an interesting person, but there are kind of what we were talking about before, just like the stuff that he mapped out in his career that led up to it, because that is going to be stuff that in theory gets brought up during this investigation. So I think it's worth talking about. It can't be ignored. And so looking back, David was telling the world for years that he had a lot of violent

thoughts. I mean, again, that breakout single is called Romantic Homicide. The lyrics include, quote, in the back of my mind, I killed you, and I didn't even regret it. I can't believe I said it, but it's true. I hate you. In the music video, he introduces a, quote, murderous alter ego of himself named Itami, which is Japanese for pain. The video even has a funeral like scene with a woman who appears to be Latina with long black hair, playing a victim murdered by Atami. David later explained that Itami came from an idea he had for manga, one where he'd played detective solving murders committed by his own evil alter ego. Now, being into dark manga is far from a confession, but there's more. I mean, there's so much more.

And as fans dug through old TikTok repost, they found that he was constantly resharing videos about hurting women out of jealousy. There was one captioned, quote, me watching her scream after pouring boiling her. water on her after she told a boy, happy birthday, because why you happy he made it another year? That's the stuff that I see people just coming upon on their social media and liking because it's just like a, not that it's funny, but it is that like type of humor? It could be a reach. No, but I am also like, what is that doing to your brain if that, if you're just seeing that kind of stuff all the time?

Like, is that actually, you know, I just think people need to be really careful about like the diet they're consuming on social media. Because I do think it's getting darker and darker. And as we saw with the McKenzie Shirilla case, too, like, all of your social media can be used against you. So why engage with that? Be really intentional online with the stuff that you are consuming. Yeah. I mean, there's so much online discourse around this.

David was extremely into what he called his lore. There's hundreds of screenshots and clips that look suspicious in hindsight. Yeah, I know he was like the four and David was like part of it. He was going to do four universes or something, like four different characters with story and lore. The lore comes up a lot. Like, he was very obsessed with, like, the lore he was building for his brand. Yeah.

And, I mean, people have gone through concert clips. They've posted clips of Celeste watching with David's family from backstage, showing that, you know, she's there. Family knew. Everyone knew. There's a clip from Twitch with Celeste. It's said to be from January 2024, where David says, quote, you know, I media trained you.

that's controversial. And Celeste replies, quote, as controversial as you raping kids. And then David ends the stream yelling, quote, delete everything. At the time, his fans laughed it off as an Epstein joke. You know, that hilarious guy, Epstein, it's just so funny. Like, I'm just so confused. I also, like, flagging that Celeste is there with his family, like, your family is there with a 13-year-old girl. and not asking any questions or being like, knock it off.

There's just so, like, she was going to like, Tara Yummy parties. She was going to like parties with them. Like she was around everyone. It wasn't like this was so secret. She was failed by so many people. And that all it takes is one person to come forward to say something, to talk to her, to talk to, just to like make noise about what's happening because he's a. been abusing a child for three years in public and no one said anything. And like, I don't, we've seen the yearbook photo of her in the Batman sweatshirt. She looks like a child. Like,

when she was 11, she looked like a fifth grader because that's what she is. I mean, she was so tiny, too. So I just don't understand how you're bringing her around and no one is saying anything. No, and this is coming up a lot too. I mean, obviously her family was at this grand jury. They're listening to the way her body was found. You know, at a certain point, they do leave the courtroom. I think it's during when the autopsy photos are being shown. And there's a lot of online calls to also hold the family responsible in this. Like, they let their child go to London with him.

And I think you have a little bit about that to get into. But it's like this whole thing. and then like everyone's calling for action. It's just like, I just, it's going to be. Yeah. So that kind of brings us to the latest updates that we have in this case. A preliminary hearing was held between July 21st and July 27th of 26. Preliminary hearing just requires the prosecution to show probable cause to move towards trial.

So the defense usually does, and this is what we talked about. The defense doesn't usually present evidence or call witnesses. It's not for the defense. they can cross-examine, but they typically don't do much more. So what Morgan was saying of like, you can kind of start sussing out what arguments might work on your behalf as the defense, which is how we get them kind of sussing out if self-defense would work. Over those five days, the prosecution laid out why they believe David should stand trial on all of these charges. You've heard a lot of it already, I'm sure. but there were a few new reveals about how far David allegedly, allegedly went to groom Celeste.

Prosecutors say that Celeste came home in February of 2024 and her parents took her phone away when that happened. So David allegedly bought her a burner phone and paid a student in Celeste middle school. So he's talking to other middle schoolers. No, no qualms about that. I mean, other girls have come out since then and been like, I talked to David in middle school too when he was an adult. Like there's other people that have come forward, and this is a pattern of behavior. Oh my God. I'm going to get sued for this episode. We're going to have to cut so many things, but I'm like, was he just not interested in her anymore because she was 14 and that's too old?

Like, you fucking loser. Like going after literal like fifth graders. Children. Why? Anyways. He paid Celeste middle school classmate $1,000 to give her a phone so that she could continue to communicate with him. You are a desperate loser. You're a desperate f***ing pedophile loser.

And we're going to have to. bleep out all of this or else we're going to get sued. I do think that he will go to jail for this and then this episode will be fine. But like it's just so hard because we have to say allegedly on all of this. Like David allegedly bought her a burner phone. Like we'll know once he's actually convicted. But right now everyone is innocent until proven guilty. At this hearing though, David's defense argued that Celeste parents knew far more than they

led on about how much time she was spending with him. And according to the defense, this is a little. according to the defense, but Celeste's parents tolerated a lot of the interactions that their daughter was having with David. So David's attorney said that in 2024, Celeste's parents signed a notarized permission form for her to travel with David to London for a week. The defense also pointed to messages that suggested Celeste and her sister traveled to Las Vegas for one of his concerts, and that David and Celeste had made plans to attend church with her family. There was also testimony that Celeste sat with David's family in the VIP section at one of his concerts, which you

mentioned earlier. Yeah, pictures have been posted of that. Yeah, there's pictures. And I will say a lot of people share their own experiences and they go, I was in a relationship like this when I was young and my parents allowed me to do this because they knew that if they cut me off and it would just make it worse. Yeah. I would have ran away. She already was running away. I mean, she'd ran away four times. Three, at least three. So a lot of people, it would just make. I mean, it was. I would have ran away. I was running away. I was A lot of people, again, we do not know. This is, there's so much context. This is so nuanced.

It's horrible. It's tragic. It's sad. But there are people that are just contributing that to the conversation that like, hey, maybe that was their strategy in order to try to keep her safe. But who knows? And I want to hear from the parents in the comments right now because I have a seven-month-old son. He's not doing it.

He can't even walk. Yeah. So it's easy for me to sit here and say like, I would have done this. I would have done that. But if you have a child who you're trying to have a relationship with, they are running away, I don't know the intentions of her parents at all. I'm just trying to think if it was something like you were saying where they're like, maybe if we just give her a little bit more freedom, she won't feel like she has to escape us to get that freedom and we'll be able to stay in contact with her. Like maybe the bar is pretty low for the type of relationship they want to have with her. You wonder. Yeah. You just you wonder. And I think that's all going to come out because the defense is going to have a lot more time. during the trial to explain what was going on to talk about that. I mean, they're going to try everything. Yeah. They're really going to, I think, sling a lot of mud with this.

And I think a lot of people after this trial, unless, you know, plea changes, like a lot of people are probably going to be deeply upset by what gets said. But his lawyer said that Celeste could have just killed herself at his house. Yeah, that was posed as a question during that grand jury. And it's just like, you can already, again, see the most. mud they're going to try to sling potentially. Like it's, yeah. This is so up in the air and it's like, this is as it is today. Like, this is the conversation that's happening today.

Like, you know, I'm not a parent. I am not, I can't even imagine. But like, I know at least there's one person, David, who this is deeply, deeply disgusting behavior. Like, again, minor. Like, Celeste is just such a victim in all of this. And it's just, this whole situation's horrific. Yeah.

Again, we have written in this. script because we have to keep saying it, but David is considered innocent until he's proven guilty. On July 27th, 2026, though, the judge did rule that the case can proceed to trial, and that was expected given all of the evidence that was shown. And David is expected to be arraigned for a second time. There is no guarantee that that holds, though, because murder proceedings get delayed all the time often for years. In the meantime, David is being held without bail. His music career is over. though his catalog is still up on streaming. I'm sure there's ways to listen to it in a way that doesn't financially benefit.

I mean, I don't even think he can make any money from his streaming anymore now that he, certainly not after he gets convicted. There's a lot of talk about the uncertainty of that. Yeah, I'm not sure either. I know some people are like. There's petitions for streaming platforms to remove it. Yeah. Has not happened yet.

I'm sure like they're also trying to protect themselves illegally because if for some reason he is proven innocent and they pulled everything preemptively, then are they at risk of being sued? Of course. The legal system and everything, it's just like that is above my pay grade. Lawyers, if you're out there, please chime in. But, you know, there's so much to this. I know, I know.

There's a lot of sides to it. And yeah, pretty soon, a jury's going to decide his fate. As for loose ends and theories, well, I mean, they're infinite at this point since nothing has really been resolved. a lot of people online are wondering if anyone else is going to face charges for covering up this alleged abuse. I mean, there's the bodyguard who prosecutors say drove David and Celeste around, who supposedly picked Celeste up on Valentine's Day 24 right before she was reported missing. There's also been a lot of false rumors flying around.

Again, maybe because this case is so high profile and there is such a huge online component of it. And I think with AI now, too, like there's a lot of questions. about like photos that are being released of Celeste at shows or Celeste here and like them online. It's like, are those even real? Yeah, be so careful where you're getting your information from because there's a lot of misinformation out there. Yeah. There has been a PI named Steve Fisher.

This guy shows up everywhere also. He was all over Hannah Kobayashi when that was happening. He loves to just jump in a high profile case. But I will say sometimes he does offer really good insight that like he kind of finds the thing that the police aren't telling people and he'll just kind of say it. Yeah. Interesting. Unclear if that's what he's doing here. I mean, he has publicly suggested that the person who parked the Tesla last wasn't David,

but prosecutors indicate that they do have video showing David was the last person to drive that car. Interesting. I mean, I don't think he's saying anything that indicates that maybe David's not involved. I think he's maybe saying that other people were also involved in this. Yeah, and maybe it has a motive, right? Because Fisher also theorized that David lured. Celeste to Santa Barbara and actually killed her up there. However, prosecutors say that they have strong evidence that she did die in David's rental

house. And it could be potentially, allegedly, I don't know, motivated because it is worth noting Fisher was hired by the owner of that mansion. So confirming that the murder happened inside probably isn't the outcome that his client is hoping for. I mean, the house. So with Hannah Kobayashi, Steve Fisher was the first person to come forward and say, she's alive, she left on her own.

When the family, when everyone was saying she was trafficked to Mexico, she was traffic, like got kidnapped, she's been drug, like scam, he came forward and when he was like, I think it's actually incredibly irresponsible that we're doing this investigation because she is just an adult that left on her own. So, I don't know, but that's interesting

to hear that he was hired by the mansion. Yeah, and potentially because the house is back on the market, it's now listed for rent at $24,000 a month. So $4,000 more than David was paying after. To live in an active, like a crime was committed there.

Crime scene. I wonder if they jacked it up because they know people will want to stay there because that's where it happened. That's a sick. People are so messed up. Morbid thing. For as horrible as this case is we do like to end on activism. And I think there is a lot of activism that can be done to help people in this kind of situation. So we wanted to share some tips from healthy children.org.

It's a service from the American Academy of Pediatrics, and they have tips to prevent and recognize childhood sexual abuse. So the responsibility for child abuse falls on the abuser, full stop, no caveats, absolutely 100% of the time. But adults can help by protecting kids before it happens and noticing some of the warning signs if it does happen. So according to healthy children.org, one in four girls and one in 13 boys in the United States will experience unwanted sexual contact before their 18th birthday. They share seven tips for teaching kids about body autonomy to help prevent abuse. And if you want to learn more about that, I think it's great. Even if you don't have children, I think it's great for everyone to be aware of just so that we all kind of have our like eyes and ears open when we're interacting with people who could be victims. Yeah, this is a big conversation I've had with, you know, my family, my brother and sister-in-law that have had young kids and something they've always stressed and that this website does talk about is using correct terms to describe genitalia and body parts because oftentimes abusers will use different words. And that helps hide abuse. So it is a website that has a lot of information and just could help ensure your kids stay safe.

Yeah, and that is at healthychildren.org. And on that note, we are moving on to our missing person of the week. One of this week's partners is Zeni Optical. I can't go anywhere without my contacts or glasses. And when I had a contact pop out the other day while I was driving, I was in such a pinch because I didn't have any extras with me and I didn't have a pair of car glasses. That is why I try to always have glasses everywhere on me.

No, you're strategic. In my car, I have by my bed, one that I just keep in my bag, one that I just keep for travel because I lose glasses. And whenever you lose your glasses, it is an emergency. You can't go anywhere if you can't see. And that's where Zeni comes in. Zeni has so many different stylish, inexpensive options. So you can have glasses everywhere.

Car, house, work. You are never going to be in a pinch again. And at that price, you stop asking, do I really need new glasses and start asking, why wouldn't I just get a few? A work pair, a fun pair, a pair that only goes with one outfit. You don't have to justify it. Zeni also has a virtual try-on feature

so you can see exactly how the frames are going to look on your face, which I love because that can make or break a pair for me. That scratched up pair has done its job. Upgrade today with Zeni. Go to Zenni.com slash podcast and use code Podcast 15 for 15% off your first order. Plus free shipping on all U.S. orders over $65. The styles sell out so don't sit on it. That's ZENNNI.com slash podcast promo code Podcast 15.

Hey, Ontario. Come on down to BetMGM Casino and see what our newest exclusive, the Price's Right Fortune Pick has to offer. Don't miss out. Play exciting casino games based on the iconic game show only at BetMGM. Check out how we've reimagined three of the show's iconic games, like Plinko, Clifhanger, and the Big Wheel into fun casino game features. Don't forget to download the BenMGM Casino app for exclusive access

and excitement on the Price's Right Fortune Pick. Pull up a seat and experience the Price's Right Fortune Pick, only available at BetmGM Casino. BetMGM and GameSense remind you to play responsibly. 19 plus to wager. Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you,

please contact Connects Ontario at 1866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor, free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. This week we want to highlight the case of Lindsay Lee Watts. This is a missing person case that did come from our community. It was sent by one of you guys. Lindsay Watts is reported missing from Edina, Missouri since May 19, 2026. She is 35 years old. Lindsay was reported as a missing person to the Knox County Sheriff on May 19, 2026.

Her car, car keys, wallet, were found left behind at her residence in Edina, Missouri. And her phone was found by the sheriff in a ditch not very far from her house. She is reported as being 5'2, 125 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes. If you have any information, you can contact the Knox County Sheriff's Department at 660-397-2186 Extension 1. And that is all we have for this episode. Obviously, we got very heated, but I really want to hear from you guys now. Thoughts, theories, anything about this case. I mean, there's just, there's so much to it.

It's all devastating to hear about, but now we turn it over to you guys. Yeah, absolutely. And please practice some self-care after this one. I know looking at the subreddit for Celeste, I mean, a lot of people are deeply disturbed by all of this and rightfully so. I mean, it is a jarring, distressing, horrible case. So please make sure you take some time to look after yourself. And hopefully, you know, some point soon we will have justice for Celeste. Absolutely.

Yeah. At Crimehouse, we really value your support. So again, share your thoughts on social media. Remember to rate review and follow clues to help others discover the show. And don't forget, for early ad free access, subscribe to Crimehouse Plus at CrimehousePlus.com. Or if you listen on Apple Podcasts, tap try free at the top of the clues page. Until next time, guys. Bye.

Bye. On Reddit, true crime doesn't come from journalists. It comes from the victims, the witnesses, and sometimes the suspects themselves. Every Tuesday on Crimes of Reddit, We read these posts out loud. I'm Sabrina DeAnne Roga. And I'm Alexis Linkletter. One of us brings the story, the other goes in blind, reacting in real time just like you.

New episodes drop every Tuesday. Listen to and follow Crimes of Reddit on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Subscribe on YouTube at Crimes of Reddit pod for video episodes.