D4vd is viewed as a suspect in the death of Celeste Rivas, the teenager who was found decomposing in his Tesla ... law enforcement sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ.
00:00We broke a big story. There is movement in the case involving the death of a friend of Singer David's, Celeste Rivas, who was found dead in his trunk back in early September.
00:14We now know that LAPD homicide investigators believe her death was a homicide and say he is the suspect.
00:23Even though it has not formally come out as suspect, they have eyes on David as the guy who they think did it.
00:32Right. What they have uncovered to this point leads them to believe that he is the suspect and that this is a homicide.
00:41Now, we should say that the medical examiner has still not returned the toxicology results.
00:48Nor has determined the cause of death.
00:50Determined manner or cause of death.
00:51And manner or cause of death is officially important because the coroner needs to weigh in.
00:58But it's not necessary.
01:00Even if the coroner said undetermined, and we don't know what he's going to say, or what the coroner will say,
01:05but even if they say undetermined, LAPD can still press forward with a homicide.
01:10And we'll get into why the medical examiner hasn't weighed in yet because there's a back story here.
01:16But here's the deal.
01:18We know, as everybody does, that her body was found cut up in his trunk in early September.
01:26There is a really critical fact here.
01:29And that fact is this.
01:31According to investigators, we are told that they have evidence that David made a mysterious trip in the middle of the night,
01:41back in the spring of this year, to a remote area of Santa Barbara County, around 100 miles from L.A.
01:47That, I think, the key part of that...
01:49And spent a couple of hours there.
01:50...is that it was a remote area, and, as you said, spent a few hours there.
01:55And we don't know anything more than that at this point.
02:01But here's what we know, because some people are saying, well, would he have brought Celeste there?
02:06The way it was put to us was not that he and Celeste went to this remote area.
02:12It was David went.
02:14So, look, there are a couple of theories, and I'm not going to, you know, say these are true.
02:20These are theories.
02:22It could be a body.
02:24It could be a weapon.
02:27But what's mysterious about this is if she, say, was killed in the spring, where was the body for, you know, June, July, August, and finally September?
02:40There is still a whole other chapter of this to unfold, that what happened between whatever happened in the spring in that remote area of Santa Barbara,
02:50and then to go all the way to September, and Celeste's body being found in the trunk of that Tesla parked here in the Hollywood Hills,
03:00there's, who knows what could have happened at that point.
03:03But the one thing we were told was don't try and use logic necessarily.
03:09Right.
03:09Because it may not be kind of a logical explanation.
03:13Well, we also know that we had broken that story a couple months ago that LAPD did the sweep of the house that he was renting in the Hollywood Hills.
03:20They had tested it, forensics, and we know they're still waiting for some of those forensics to come back in addition to the toxicology from the medical examiner.
03:29Could he have killed her in the house?
03:32Again, just a theory.
03:33Could he have killed her in the house and then drove her to Santa Barbara and had planned to just get rid of the body in Santa Barbara and then panic and drive back to L.A. with her body in the car?
03:44He was there for a couple of hours, and that's what's interesting.
03:47You know, if you're going to dispose, why would you be there a couple of hours?
03:53There's a lot we don't understand about that.
03:55But his mind starts panicking.
03:56We do know this, Santa Barbara is critical.
03:59And again, a theory, but I think this is a good one, that I think authorities believe her death was around that time.
04:08Because that trip is something that is front and center for LAPD robbery homicide.
04:17One other very critical fact is that we're told that they believe the manner in which her body was dismembered leads them to believe that whoever did that, whoever dismembered her body, had help.
04:31That it was not just one person who was involved in the dismembering of her body.
04:36And that in itself is interesting.
04:37And that is interesting because that means they are, and whether they know who those people are, but we don't know that they have any other suspects.
04:46But it does mean that there could be other arrests beyond whoever killed her.
04:50And finally, to close this loop, why two and a half months after the body was found has the medical examiner not determined cause of death and not given the toxicology report to the LAPD?
05:03I know it can take months for both of those to happen.
05:07But in high-profile cases, it can be accelerated.
05:12And it's weird to me that it wasn't.
05:15What I got back was the relationship between the medical examiner and the LAPD has been strained over the last few years.
05:23I'm not sure why.
05:25It's not unusual that that happens because sometimes they're technically working on the same path, but a lot of times they butt heads.
05:34But I'm told the relationship wasn't the greatest, and they may not have fast-tracked it as a result.
05:40We don't know.
05:41But it seems weird to me two and a half months in, you still don't know anything like that.
05:45I would imagine that it is more difficult to nail down those results if the body had been decomposed.
05:53So, let's say, if indeed she met her demise back in the spring and the body is not discovered until September, does that amount of decomposition make it harder?
06:07And we should just mention the decomposition.
06:12They didn't know when they discovered the body whether it was even male or female.
06:17They couldn't tell.
06:18And actually, it all came about because we got a tip and ended up calling Celeste's mom because we knew about this tattoo on her index finger.
06:28We called the mom, and the mom mentioned it was a red tattoo.
06:31So, we called LAPD Homicide and spoke to the lead investigator, gave him the mother's name and phone number, and mentioned that it was a red tattoo.
06:42And a day or two later, they identified her as Celeste.
06:45Hey, my name is Latrell from Atlanta.
06:47This D4 VD case with Celeste is a tragedy.
06:51You know, I know LAPD, they're investigating it.
06:53I just pray that they figure out what's going on with this and we get the facts.
06:57I know there's a lot of conspiracy theories on what he may have done, who might have helped.
07:01But we just need to get the facts, and hopefully he's innocent.
07:03If he's not innocent, then he will be convicted for his actions if it's true.
Be the first to comment