D4vd and Celeste Rivas Hernandez: a timeline of their romance

The case against alt-pop singer D4vd has turned a private relationship into a public record that stretches from early online contact in 2022 to a murder charge in 2026. Court documents now lay out the sequence in detail, giving fans and observers a clear line from first messages to the discovery of remains and the arrest that followed. The timeline matters because it frames every current headline about the artist.

Early online meeting

Prosecutors say the first contact between D4vd, then sixteen, and Celeste Rivas Hernandez, then eleven, occurred in January 2022. Court filings describe messages exchanged on platforms that included Discord and Roblox. That single starting point now anchors every later allegation.

The age difference was already fixed at that moment. Five years separated the two, a gap that would remain constant through every subsequent development. Prosecutors have used this detail to establish the length of the documented connection.

At the same time D4vd was posting Fortnite clips on TikTok that would soon lead to music releases. The parallel tracks of his rising profile and the private exchanges would continue for the next three years.

Shift to physical relationship

By November 2023 prosecutors allege the exchanges had become sexual. Celeste was thirteen and D4vd was eighteen. Court records cite explicit photos and texts as evidence of the change in the relationship.

The timing placed the escalation at a moment when D4vd’s single “Romantic Homicide” was moving up the charts. The contrast between public visibility and private conduct would later become part of the prosecution narrative.

Defense attorneys have not disputed the existence of the relationship in filings released so far. Their statements have focused instead on denying responsibility for the death itself.

Travel and family visits

Throughout 2024 court documents describe repeated travel between Celeste and D4vd. Summer weekends at his home, trips to Las Vegas and London, and a visit to Texas where she met his family are all listed in the timeline.

Celeste was reported missing in February and again in April of that year. Her family had already noted her connection to someone named David, and investigators later traced calls from his number in her phone records.

Those absences did not end the contact. Prosecutors say the pattern of meetings continued even as law enforcement became involved in the missing-person reports.

Reported breakup and continued contact

Court papers state the relationship officially ended around November 2024. Prosecutors add that communication and sexual contact persisted after that date according to recovered texts.

The distinction between a declared end and actual ongoing exchanges is one prosecutors have highlighted in filings. It sets up later messages that show dissatisfaction on Celeste’s side.

Those messages would become evidence in the months that followed, bridging the 2024 period to the spring 2025 events that precede the disappearance.

Dissatisfaction in messages

In March 2025 a text from Celeste to D4vd reportedly read, “All we do is have sex and just hang out man I want more than that for myself.” Prosecutors have entered the message into the record as evidence of tension.

The exchange came one month before the last known contact. It shows a shift in Celeste’s stated expectations during the final phase of communication.

Investigators later recovered the message during the examination of phones connected to the case. It now forms part of the documented sequence leading into April.

Final argument and disappearance

Prosecutors allege an argument occurred on April 22, 2025, in which Celeste threatened to expose the relationship. She was last known alive the following day when she arrived at D4vd’s rented Hollywood Hills home.

The location would later factor into the discovery of her remains. The timing of the argument and the arrival at the residence have both been cited in charging documents.

Her disappearance after that date triggered renewed missing-person efforts, though the case did not surface publicly until months later.

Discovery of remains

On September 8, 2025, decomposed remains were found in the front trunk of a Tesla registered to D4vd. The vehicle had been towed from a Hollywood Hills neighborhood and appeared abandoned.

The discovery immediately connected the car to the missing-person case that had begun in April. Autopsy results released in 2026 ruled the death a homicide caused by multiple penetrating injuries.

The find shifted the investigation from a missing-teen matter to a homicide inquiry centered on the registered owner of the impounded vehicle.

Arrest and charges

In April 2026 D4vd was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14, and mutilation of a body. He pleaded not guilty.

His attorneys stated they would vigorously defend his innocence and that he did not cause her death. Prosecutors have alleged the motive involved preventing exposure of the relationship.

The charges now sit at the center of every current search tied to D4vd. The case remains active in Los Angeles County court with pretrial proceedings scheduled.

Legal path ahead

The timeline from January 2022 through the 2026 arrest supplies the factual spine for the prosecution’s case. Each documented stage has been entered into the record through court filings and investigative reports.

Defense arguments will test the chain of evidence and the interpretation of texts and travel records. The outcome will determine how the documented relationship is ultimately framed in court.

For readers searching updates on D4vd, the sequence now functions as the primary reference point. Future proceedings will build directly on these established dates and communications.