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US singer d4vd’s name has been quietly dropped from the Spilt Milk line-up, days after human remains found in an impounded Tesla registered in the star’s name were identified as those of a missing teenage girl.
D4vd’s disappearance from the Australian festival’s line-up list follows moves overseas to remove the last two remaining dates in his US tour and multiple stops in his upcoming European tour from ticketing websites, as authorities continue to investigate the discovery of the decomposed body of the teenage girl in the vehicle in a Los Angeles impound yard.
US singer d4vd and (right) tape seen around his impounded Tesla.Credit: Getty Images/ ABC 9 (US)
The body has been identified as that of Celeste Rivas Hernandez, 15, who was reported missing last year. Police have not suggested d4vd (pronounced “David”) is implicated in the death and no charged have been laid over the discovery.
D4vd was due to tour Ballarat, Perth, Canberra and Gold Coast in December as part of the Spilt Milk festival, which is being headlined by Kendrick Lamar. However, his name was no longer on the Spilt Milk website or social communications on Monday. D4vd also had sideshows booked in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne around the Spilt Milk dates, but as of Monday, those dates were still live and available.
Both the organisers of the Split Milk festival and d4vd’s Australian tour promoters have been approached for comment.
D4vd’s scheduled performance in San Francisco on Friday was marked as cancelled on the venue’s website. His last US tour stop in Los Angeles on Saturday was removed from the venue’s site and both events were marked as cancelled on Ticketmaster.
The singer also had a scheduled appearance at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles on Wednesday. The event, which was listed as sold out a few days ago, has been removed from the venue’s website.
Representatives of both venues, as well as d4vd, did not immediately respond to The Associated Press’ request for comment on the status of the tour.
Several news outlets have reported that the vehicle in which the remains were found was registered to d4vd, whose real name is David Anthony Burke. Representatives for the 20-year-old have not responded to requests for comment, and police have also not publicly said whether the singer owned the car.
The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s office said last Tuesday (US time) the remains were those of Rivas, who was reported missing on April 5, 2024, from Lake Elsinore, California, about 112 kilometres south-east of Los Angeles.
Her body was “severely decomposed” and appeared to have been inside the vehicle for an extended period of time, the medical examiner said.
The Tesla had been at the West Hollywood impound yard since September 5 after it was towed there following a complaint from a member of the public that it had been abandoned for more than 72 hours, authorities said. It had not been reported stolen, said Officer Drake Madison, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Department.
On September 8, officers responded to reports of a foul odour at the impound yard on North Mansfield Avenue in Los Angeles, and found the remains inside the vehicle, Madison said.
Video from ABC 7 Eyewitness News revealed the vehicle, a 2023 Tesla, surrounded by yellow police tape in the impound lot.
Late last week, a Hollywood Hills home in which the singer had been living, but reportedly does not own, was searched by police, ABC 7 Eyewitness News reported.
“Several items of evidence were recovered and will be analysed by detectives in the coming days,” LAPD said in a statement, the outlet reported. “This is an ongoing investigation. Investigators are following up on several leads.”
An unnamed representative for d4vd told NBC Los Angeles the singer has been cooperating with authorities since the body was found. It’s not clear why the car had been impounded.
The Houston-born singer-songwriter began the North American leg of his tour in early August and was set for Europe in early October. At least nine of his European dates have also been cancelled on Ticketmaster, including his first stop in Norway on October 1.
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The alt-pop singer was on tour for his first full-length album, Withered, released in April.
D4vd is popular among Gen Z, mixing indie rock, R&B, and lo-fi pop. He went viral on TikTok in 2022 with the hit Romantic Homicide, which peaked at No. 4 on Billboard’s Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart.
He then signed with Darkroom and Interscope and released his debut EP Petals to Thorns and a follow-up, The Lost Petals, in 2023.
With AP
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