Justice for Celeste: Why It’s Time We Start Believing Victims

This week, the Los Angeles District Attorney officially charged a 21-year-old musician, d4vd (David Anthony Burke), with first-degree murder in the death of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernzandez. He is facing life in prison without parole, or potentially the death penalty, due to horrifying "special circumstances" including lying in wait and murdering a witness to protect his career. 

As this case moves to court, we need to talk about two things, how victims are constantly failed and ignored, and how the internet actually solved this crime months ago. 

For over a year, Celeste was a "runaway" in the eyes of many. She was a 13-year-old girl who went missing in 2024. While she was allegedly being sexually abused and living in a rental home with a famous artist, the world kept streaming "Romantic Homicide." 

The prosecution alleges that Burke killed Celeste because she was a threat to his rising stardom. This is a grim reminder of why we must listen when vulnerable people go missing. When the system treats children, especially females who are minors, as runaways, it creates a shield for predators to hide behind. We have to stop prioritizing "talent" and "fame" over the lives and safety of victims. 

While he was charged yesterday, social media sleuths and Discord users have been sounding the alarm for nearly a year. This first came when users found David's Discord and identified a girl named Celeste as his girlfriend. In the summer of 2024, when she was already reported as missing, multiple users on Discord even told him to release the song with the missing girl. Mind you, this was in a public chatroom (which is another reason to hate Discord, but maybe I'm biased.) 

When Celeste's remains were found in an abandoned Tesla in September 2025, the internet didn't wait for a press release; instead, we immediately knew who the car belonged to due to internet detectives finding the VIN and registration to Burke's family address in Texas. While the official investigation was secret, TikTok and Reddit creators were already mapping out the matching tattoos and digital footprints that linked the two, from David doing streams with the younger girl, and even cleaning the younger girl's shoes for a TikTok video. 

It took about seven months from the discovery of her body for the law to catch up to the evidence that was hiding in plain sight online. As d4vd pleads not guilty we have to remeber that Celeste Rivas Hernandez was 14-year-old girl who deserved a future.

The internet isn't just a place for stanning, sometimes it's the only placwe where the truth is actually being told while the rest of the world is looking the other way. We cannot let her story be buried under the weight of a celebrity trial.