Los Angeles (United States) (AFP) – A dismembered corpse found rotting in an impounded Tesla registered to rising American rap star D4vd was that of a teenage girl, a US medical examiner has said. Los Angeles police discovered the body in the car’s trunk last week when they were called to a Hollywood tow yard by workers and neighbors who complained of a foul smell.
When officers arrived, they found a badly decomposed body that multiple reports said was in pieces, wrapped in a plastic sheet in the electric vehicle’s front luggage compartment. The Los Angeles County medical examiner said the body was that of Celeste Rivas, who would be 15 years old if she were still alive.
Entertainment outlet TMZ said Wednesday that its reporters had spoken to Celeste’s mother, who said her daughter had a boyfriend named David. The outlet carried a missing person poster published by Riverside County Sheriff seeking the whereabouts of Celeste, who was 13 when she went missing in Lake Elsinore, southeast of Los Angeles, in April last year.
The medical examiner’s office had earlier described the dead person as a woman of unknown age with wavy black hair. “The decedent was found severely decomposed inside a vehicle,” the statement said. “She appears to have been deceased inside the vehicle for an extended period of time before being found.”
Los Angeles Police Department investigators said the Tesla had been parked in the tony Hollywood Hills area for nearly a month before being towed. TMZ reported that the car, registered in Texas, to David Anthony Burke — D4vd’s real name — had never been reported stolen.
A representative for the singer said he had been informed of the discovery and was fully cooperating with investigators. The 20-year-old has continued a world tour since the grisly discovery and is due to play at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles at the weekend.
The young star shot to internet fame in 2022 when his “Romantic Homicide” became a breakout hit on TikTok. The tow yard where the car with the body was found sits a stone’s throw from Elon Musk’s new Tesla Diner, which opened to great fanfare in Hollywood in July.
© 2024 AFP
