Los Angeles authorities are at odds as they shed light on the death of Celeste Rivas Hernandez, with the medical examiner insisting the teen’s remains were partially frozen when they were found in the impounded vehicle belonging to singer D4vd.
TMZ on Tuesday cited a source connected to the L.A. County Medical Examiner as well as a document doubling down that they couldn’t fingerprint her body “due to waterlogged fingers.”
The reports comes a day after LAPD Captain Scot Williams told People, “Celeste’s body was not frozen.”
“The whole frozen thing doesn’t even make sense,” said Williams, who’s also the commanding officer of LAPD’s Robbery-Homicide Division. “Even if she had been frozen solid when she was put in the car (which there is NO evidence to suggest she was), five or more weeks in the trunk of a car in sweltering heat in the middle of summer would not have resulted in a partially frozen body being discovered on Sept. 8.”
The strained relationship between the two agencies, which has reportedly been going on for years, reached a peak on Monday when the medical examiner’s office released a statement saying the LAPD had initiated a court order for a security hold on the case.
The hold means “no records or details associated with the case, including the cause and manner of death and medical examiner report, can be released or posted on the website until further notice.”
Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Odey Ukpo slammed the LAPD’s court order, saying he’s 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,” he 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.”
Rivas was just 13 when she was last seen by her family in the spring of 2024, after multiple attempts at running away from her home in Lake Elsinore, about 75 miles southeast of where her remains were found in L.A.
D4vd, real name David Anthony Burke, is considered a suspect in her death, which is believed to have occurred sometime in the spring of this year. The case is being investigated as a homicide, despite a cause of death not yet being confirmed.
Though the particular dynamic between Rivas and the 20-year-old musician remains unclear, people who knew the pair have said they believed they were a couple. Rivas’ mother also told TMZ her daughter had a boyfriend named David.
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