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00:07The platinum-selling artist with hits like Romantic Homicide.
00:16And Here With Me.
00:24Embarking on a world tour for his debut album, Withered.
00:29David is a young 20-year-old singer who really is just on the cusp of superstardom.
00:36You know, he really got his start because his music went very viral on TikTok.
00:40He also was very popular in the video game spectrum from Fortnite.
00:45Now he's at the center of a weeks-long mystery after a severely decomposed body
00:49was found in an abandoned Tesla registered to the singer's legal name, David Anthony Burke.
00:54When the body was found, the LAPD didn't know much about it because it was so heavily decomposed.
00:59But it was a female who had been around 5'2", they thought.
01:04And from what they could tell, around 71 pounds or that is what was left of the remains.
01:11So, I mean, it got really gruesome in that moment because the body had clearly been in that trunk for so long.
01:18The body, that of a young teen named Celeste Rivas, seen in this photo from authorities,
01:23who authorities say went missing last year from Lake Elsinore, California.
01:28She was 13 years old when she went missing. She would have been 15 had she been living now,
01:33but she'd been missing since last year.
01:35Celeste Rivas' mom talked to TMZ and she said that her daughter was dating somebody named David.
01:41She didn't know who he was, but all of this is gonna come into play as the LAPD is trying to understand
01:48if there was a relationship between David and Celeste Rivas.
01:53The questions continue to mount, medical examiner still trying to determine how the teen died.
01:59David has not been arrested or charged with any crime,
02:02has not issued a public statement since the body was found.
02:06ABC News has reached out to David's team for comment and has not heard back.
02:10They're not calling this a murder investigation right now.
02:13They don't know necessarily that it was murder.
02:15It could have been something else, like an accident or an overdose,
02:18and that the body was disposed of improperly. They don't know.
02:22When the news first broke on September 9th, David was nearly 2,000 miles away in Minneapolis on tour.
02:28David went on stage and performed that night and didn't acknowledge anything that happened,
02:37and I think that that appeared to be a little bit offsetting for people.
02:42Late last week, Los Angeles police searching a home in Hollywood Hills that the singer was staying at,
02:47removing several items, including a computer.
02:50Neighbors saying the Tesla had been parked in front of the home for a while
02:53before moving to two different places on the street.
02:56It's a little weird to see a car that I haven't seen here for a long time.
02:59Had a big dent on it, had a Texas plate on it, so all a little odd.
03:03But at the same time, you know, people could be hanging out with friends for, you know, for a long time.
03:08It was banged up and kept moving from one place to other place within a couple of blocks from here.
03:14The body discovered after the Tesla was impounded and taken to this tow yard for two days
03:19before workers noticing an odor coming from the front trunk.
03:22There was one real identifying feature that was on the human remains.
03:27It was left behind.
03:28And that was a tattoo on the right index finger on the inside that read,
03:33David has that exact same tattoo on his right index finger, as do other celebrities.
03:38Rihanna apparently made this popular.
03:41This tattoo is not incriminating yet.
03:43And the LAPD doesn't even know if the tattoo will come into play in all of this.
03:46The singer canceling the rest of his domestic tour after Celeste's identity was released.
03:51The repercussions that David is facing right now is he's being tried in a court of public opinion.
03:58His label has paused all the promotion.
04:00These past few months have been full of big milestones for David,
04:04from performing at Coachella to appearing on late-night shows like Colbert.
04:12He reflected on his blossoming career to Lindsey Davis last year.
04:16Success has kind of been quite literally overnight,
04:18so it's kind of hard to kind of be in the moment sometimes,
04:21but I'm just taking it and slowly appreciating it.
04:23David has had some pretty significant moments in the last year.
04:27He also had a mainstream branding deal with Hollister and Crocs, which is colossal.
04:34The brands telling Footwear News,
04:36we have removed the campaign content featuring David while the investigation continues.
04:40Some of the artists who he's collaborated with, like Cagliucci, also taking action.
04:44The singer saying she's in the process of pulling down their song, crashing.
04:48David's lyrics to Romantic Homicide now being reexamined and dissected online.
05:01If you, like me, had no idea who David or D4VD is before this body was found in the trunk of his car, let me catch you up.
05:11Some of the lyrics in Romantic Homicide say things like, in the back of my mind, you died.
05:18In the back of my mind, you died.
05:24And he's really leaned into that darkness.
05:26You know, he even posted on his social media that he's selling custom bloody T-shirts by him that fans can purchase.
05:36Other creative choices being reexamined too, like this scene in the music video for one more dance, where a body is being placed in the trunk of a car.
05:49All of this, a far cry from the optimism David conveyed to our Gio Benitez just last month.
05:55It's such a blessing to be able to, like, express myself and release my art and help people around the world too.
06:01I'm loving the social aspect of it, you know, getting to meet new people and producers and artists and just musicians that I can get inspired from and also inspire too.
06:08It's, it's, it's beautiful.
06:10Police say the investigation continues. No arrests or charges have been made.
06:16Mourners gathering over the weekend in Celeste's hometown to keep her memory alive.
06:21I didn't know her personally. I just want justice for this little girl. I don't want her to be forgotten.
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