The rising pop singer D4vd and 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez were in the throes of a clandestine relationship months before her mangled and decomposing body turned up last September stuffed in an impounded car registered to the musician.

D4vd, born David Anthony Burke, is set to stand trial for murder, child sexual abuse and mutilation of human remains in connection to the teenager’s death.

Los Angeles county prosecutors accuse Burke of stabbing Celeste to death and subsequently severing her limbs as he sought to prevent her from revealing their sexual relationship, which began when he was 18 and she was 13 in November 2023.

Burke has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The ghastly discovery of Celeste’s remains sent social media sleuths, particularly those in corners of Discord where Burke had carved a niche as an online gamer before pivoting to music, racing through the singer’s past videos and content for any clues concerning his ties to Celeste.

The clearest picture yet of a rocky, off-on relationship emerged during a recent preliminary evidentiary hearing, where prosecutors presented text messages that the two exchanged stretching back to 2022, when Celeste was 11.

At times, Burke regaled the girl with dreams of an idyllic future: her moving into his home, getting married in Italy and having children together.

The fact that she was a minor and had been reported missing by her family, however, cast a shadow over those plans.

“i can’t wait to move in tg without the cops bitching baby,” Burke allegedly wrote in June 2024 to her, Courthouse News reported. Months prior, in February, police officers visited him at a residence in West Hollywood after finding his number in the teenager’s phone log as they sought her whereabouts. When police informed Burke of her age, he shared she told him she was 18.

Texts indicate that he wanted the sexual nature of their relationship to be a secret. She had asked him in July 2024 if anyone knew they had intercourse. “Nope and I would like to keep it that way before we get married,” Burke replied.

Their relationship hit a few rough patches. The teenager expressed a desire for a more serious connection. “All we do is have sex and just hang out man i want more than that for myself,” she reportedly said.

In January 2024, after Celeste had become pregnant with Burke’s child, she had an abortion, which she later regretted. “I don’t like talking about it because it gets me really upset, but I’d do anything to have it back,” she reportedly wrote to Burke in August 2024.

“Let’s end that there,” he replied. “I don’t like talking to u when you’re upset,” adding later that while the abortion “saddened” him, he did not “dwell on it”.

The night before prosecutors say Burke killed Celeste in April 2025, they had a heated argument over text about his relationship with another woman. The teenager allegedly threatened to end his career.

Prosecutors had also presented evidence of Burke having a cushy recording label deal, which they suggested gave him motive to allegedly silence Celeste.

“What was presented by our office over the course of the last week is a small but illustrative fraction of the evidence investigators have accumulated that proves defendant Burke is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the brutal murder of Celeste Rivas Hernandez,” the Los Angeles county district attorney, Nathan J Hochman, said in a statement. “This has been a parent’s worst nightmare, hearing the ghoulish details of how their child was killed, dismembered and left as trash.”

It remains unclear what strategy Burke’s attorneys will employ at trial. They did not reply to a request for comment on the case proceeding forward.

During the preliminary hearing, the defense team cast doubt on a medical examiner ruling Celeste’s death to be a homicide.

Defense attorney Marilyn Bednarski asked Grant Ho, a doctor who performed Celeste’s autopsy, if his report could rule out that the teenager could have been holding an instrument that caused her stab wounds.

Ho said he could not, but that the teenager’s autopsy did not indicate self-harm.

Prosecutors presented forensic testing that found blood probably originating from Celeste in Burke’s former residence.

A second defense attorney, Blair Berk, questioned a Los Angeles police criminalist about why other items in the house were not tested for DNA, noting that multiple people lived in the home.

Burke, who remains in custody without bail, will be arraigned in court on 31 August. His trial date has not been announced.

Hochman said in a Thursday appearance on NewsNation he will confer with Celeste’s family as well as Burke’s lawyers before deciding whether to pursue the death penalty.

The Associated Press contributed reporting