Singer D4vd’s family is fighting a request to testify after the dead body of a 14-year-old girl was found in the truck of his Tesla last September. 

David Anthony Burke, 20, who goes by the stage name D4vd, came under fire after Celeste Rivas was found dead and dismembered in the trunk of an abandoned vehicle near his Hollywood Hills home.

Her body was found on September 8, but her family said she was last seen in the spring of 2024, when she left home to see a movie with D4vd and never returned. 

The Los Angeles Police Department has been investigating her suspicious death and named D4vd as a ‘person of interest,’ although no official charges have been filed. 

Grand jury proceedings began in the fall, but have been closed to the public. New court filings obtained by the Los Angeles Times reveal that D4vd’s family was subpoenaed to testify in the case. 

His parents, Dawud and Colleen, and his brother, Caleb, were reportedly summoned to testify before the grand jury. 

However, the family filed three petitions in a Texas appeals court, where they currently reside, arguing they weren’t given due process because the affidavits they saw were redacted. 

Their lawyers claimed that because they weren’t given the full affidavits, they didn’t have the opportunity to understand why they would be considered material witnesses. 

David Anthony Burke, who goes by the stage name D4vd has found himself at the center of a mysterious death investigation of a teenage girl 

Celeste Rivas was found dead in an abandoned Tesla registered to D4vd. The two are pictured here together in a social media post  

Colleen Burke is pictured at a Texas pawn and gun store in September, the same month Rivas was found dead in a Tesla registered to her son 

A lower court had previously denied their petition, and the 1st District Court of Appeals affirmed the decision on Monday. 

The appeals panel set another hearing date for February 24, according to the recent filing. 

In a footnote of the filing, the court refers to an ‘underlying case’ of The People of the State of California v David Burke. 

The footnote marks the first time a case against D4vd has appeared in Rivas’s death investigation. 

There are no public filings related to the case, and the grand jury proceedings have been kept under wraps. 

An anonymous source told the Los Angeles Times that the proceedings were described as an ‘investigative grand jury.’ 

A document submitted to the court by LAPD Detective Joshua Byers in November also referred to the case as ‘an investigation into murder,’ the LA Times reported. 

The document was a petition to bar the LA County medical examiner from making Rivas’s autopsy results public or speaking about the results.

Rivas’s family said she left to see a movie with D4vd in the spring of 2024 and never returned. Her body was found in the singer’s car in September 2025. She’s pictured above in a photo shared on social media 

The medical examiner’s office removed the case from the department’s website in November. 

Neo Langston was arrested earlier this year for failing to show up in court 

The coroner confirmed to media outlets at the time that they received a court order to place a security hold on the case, and Rivas’s cause of death was never released to the public. 

Grand jury testimonies have also been sealed, but sources have previously said that D4vd’s tour manager, Robert Morgenroth, and streamer friend Neo Langston have both testified, according to TMZ. 

Langston was arrested in Montana earlier this year after failing to appear in the California court as a witness. 

Sources told TMZ at the time that police in Helena assisted the LAPD’s Robbery-Homicide Division with the arrest. 

It’s unclear why prosecutors have called D4vd’s family to testify. The Daily Mail has reached out to Dawud and Colleen for comment. Their representation wasn’t immediately made available. 

D4vd hasn’t been formally charged in connection to Rivas’ death. Prior to the incident, he was an up and coming music star and is pictured at Paris Fashion week on June 26, 2025 

The family has kept a low profile since Rivas’s death, but the Daily Mail obtained photos of Colleen in September at a Texas pawn and gun store. 

Documents obtained by TMZ in October claimed that D4vd transferred the deeds of two of his homes in Houston to his mother. 

The real estate documents reportedly revealed that the first transfer occurred on September 18, just one day after authorities raided his Hollywood Hills rental. 

Police in Texas also responded to a report on September 18 of a reported squatting incident. 

A 911 caller falsely claimed a shooting happened at the home, but police body camera footage revealed D4vd notifying authorities when they arrived that everyone was alive and well in the home. 

The second transfer was recorded just a few days later, on September 22.