Security hold placed on Celeste Rivas-Hernandez case, prompting criticism from medical examiner
LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- The Los Angeles County medical examiner on Monday spoke out against the practice of placing security holds on cases, including the investigation into the death of 15-year-old Celeste Rivas-Hernandez.
The singer D4vd is considered a suspect in the probe of the teenage girl's death, a source told Eyewitness News last week.
On Friday, the Department of Medical Examiner received a court order, initiated by the Los Angeles Police Department, to place a security hold on the teenager's case, officials said.
The hold means that no records or details associated with the case, including the cause and manner of death and the medical examiner's report, can be released until the hold is lifted.
The mission of the Department of Medical Examiner "is to have full transparency with the community by providing information about our cases to empower people to make changes that save lives," Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Odey Ukpo said in a statement. "Since becoming the department head, I've worked on eradicating the practice of placing security holds on Medical Examiner cases simply by law enforcement request.
"The practice of security holds is virtually unheard of in other counties and has not been proven to improve outcomes in the legal system," Ukpo added. "We are dedicated to serving our community with full transparency; however, the law precludes us from doing so while the court order remains in this case."
According to the statement, the Department of Medical Examiner previously received a request for a security hold from the LAPD on Celeste's case on Sept. 15, which was denied due to "insufficient justification to warrant the hold."
The Department of Medical Examiner's statement said it "understands the public's interest in this case and remains committed to transparency when possible. Information will be made available once the court order is lifted. For questions about the court order, timeline, and the law enforcement investigation into this death, please contact the LAPD."
While the medical examiner has not yet determined an official cause of Celeste's death, investigators said her body was dismembered. The LAPD says reports that the teen had been decapitated and her body frozen are false.
Based on what they have learned in the case, investigators believe D4vd played a role in her death and got help from others in trying to dispose of her body, sources said.
One source said they are focusing in on certain individuals, and those individuals are concerned now that they know Los Angeles police are focusing in on them.
D4vd has not cooperated with investigators from the beginning, sources said, despite what his PR reps have claimed.
D4vd, whose real name is David Anthony Burke, is a suspect in the eyes of investigators, but not officially under the law because officers don't have the probable cause to make the arrest yet.
What do we know about the case?
Rivas-Hernandez was reported missing from Lake Elsinore in early 2024. She ran away a few times and returned before her last runaway in April 2024, according to the Riverside County Sheriff's Office. She reportedly called home at the end of May 2024 and had not been heard from since.
Authorities discovered her body on Sept. 8 after responding to a tow yard near Mansfield Avenue and Romaine Street in Hollywood.
Officers went to investigate a foul odor coming from the impounded Tesla, which police sources say had been at the lot for two days after it was found abandoned on a public street in Hollywood.
Police located the body inside a bag placed in the front trunk of the Tesla, LAPD sources said. The body was dismembered and in a state of decomposition, sources told ABC News.
The vehicle was registered to 20-year-old D4vd, who has more than 33 million monthly listeners on Spotify and over 3.6 million followers on TikTok, where his songs "Here with Me" and "Romantic Homicide" have gone viral.
D4vd was on tour when the body was discovered and had a stop scheduled in Los Angeles on Sept. 20. The remainder of the tour was abruptly canceled before that tour stop amid the investigation.
