LOS ANGELES, April 17 — Rising rap star D4vd was arrested in connection to the murder of a teenage girl whose dismembered body was found in the trunk of a car registered in the artist’s name, police said Thursday.

Los Angeles police arrested the 21-year-old singer, whose real name is David Burke, “for the murder of Celeste Rivas.

Burke is being held without bail,” according to a statement.

One day before she would have turned 15, Los Angeles police discovered the Rivas’s badly decomposed body in the trunk of an impounded Tesla last September.

Police were called to the Hollywood tow yard by workers and neighbours who complained of a foul smell.

No charges have been filed against the rapper yet, but local prosecutors say they will review the case and expect to issue an update Monday.

Rivas was reported missing at age 13 in Riverside County, which neighbours Los Angeles to the south-east.

After the autopsy, the medical examiner’s office said she “appeared to have been deceased inside the vehicle for an extended period of time before being found.”

Los Angeles Police Department investigators said the Tesla was parked in the tony Hollywood Hills area for nearly a month before being towed.

The young star shot to internet fame in 2022 when his Romantic Homicide became a breakout hit on TikTok. — AFP