As D4vd awaits his murder trial, three animators behind his violent “Rehab” video tell USA TODAY how they brought his dark vision to life—and what those images really tell us.
Singer D4vd ordered to stand trial in killing of 14-year-old girl
After a five-day preliminary hearing, the judge ruled there is enough evidence to take D4vd’s murder case to trial. The singer has pleaded not guilty.
- Singer D4vd was arrested in April 2026 for the murder of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez.
- Fans and investigators have scrutinized his 2023 animated music video “Rehab” for its violent imagery.
- Animators who worked on D4vd’s gruesome “Rehab” music video are now questioning if it was a warning sign.
When D4vd released the video for his song “Rehab” on Sept. 8, 2023, its gruesome imagery appeared to be another extension of the rising singer’s fictional universe: A young man resembling D4vd, whose real name is David Anthony Burke, brutally dismembers a brown-haired woman before leaving her severed arm behind.
At the time, “Rehab” seemed like a somewhat typical anime-style video about heartbreak and horror. Then on April 16, 2026, the 21-year-old singer was arrested for the murder of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez. Burke has pleaded not guilty. Soon more details came to light: Hernandez had been missing for five months before her dismembered body was found in the front trunk of Burke’s Tesla at a Los Angeles city tow lot.
The video suddenly looked very different.
Three animators who worked on the “Rehab” video spoke to USA TODAY about how they helped create Burke’s dark imagery, if the videos were a possible warning sign, and what safeguards—if any—the music industry should put in place.
“When I watched that music video again, given the accusation, the arrest, and the crime, I felt such an overwhelming sadness. I just started sobbing because the worst thing that could happen to this young girl who’s no longer with us did happen,” one animator says. “Did this music video play a part in this story?”
New talent trying to break through
It isn’t easy for an unknown artist without industry connections to break into the music business. But after finding success as a Fortnite gamer and YouTube streamer, Burke’s songs “Romantic Homicide” and “Here With Me” blew up on TikTok in 2022.
The artist was soon signed to Darkroom Records, an imprint of Universal Music Group’s Interscope Records. In May 2023, Burke released his debut EP “Petals to Thorns,” followed by a number of music videos that reached millions of viewers online. As his star continued to rise, freelance illustrators and animators were excited to land a gig contributing to his music videos. They were trying to get a foot in the door, too, and were grateful for the opportunity and to add his buzzy name to their résumés.
What they didn’t know is that Burke had been involved in an on-and-off relationship with Hernandez. Prosecutors say she was 11 years old when they were first in communication, and in January 2022, when she was 13, their relationship allegedly became sexual. Authorities allege Burke killed Hernandez to stop her from exposing their sexual relationship and jeopardizing his burgeoning music career. He is charged with first-degree murder, continuous sexual abuse of a minor and unlawful mutilation of human remains. Now Burke is being held without bail, and prosecutors have not announced whether they will seek the death penalty.
Representatives for Burke, Darkroom, and Interscope Records did not respond to requests for comment.
In light of the gruesome circumstances of the case, fans and sleuths have since pored over his art and imagery, particularly his video for “Rehab.” They point to what they believe to be physical similarities between the animated woman and Hernandez, and the video’s violence and the allegations against Burke.
The four-minute anime video shows two versions of Burke repeatedly confronting each other in a brightly colored, illustrated world. A blindfolded character he named It4mi — after Itami, which means pain in Japanese, and as a reference to his stage name D4vd — is shown covered in blood, while Burke’s other animated counterpart appears largely uninjured. The two characters fight with swords and exchange blows as the action moves between a bar, rooftops, and a bridge.
Burke explained in a 2025 YouTube interview with Mahogany that has since been deleted that It4mi is a murderous alter ego who appears throughout his art and is responsible for committing crimes that another, better version of himself would then investigate.
The video shows a brown-haired young woman wearing a cropped white shirt and star-patterned jeans. During one of the more graphic sequences, It4mi swings a blade at the woman, severing her arm and sending blood across the frame. Her detached limb is later shown lying on the ground as the violent confrontation between the two versions of Burke continues.
Those examining Burke’s digital footprint pointed out Hernandez also had long brown hair; the woman’s jeans were celestial, a reference to Hernandez’s name. Two of Hernandez’s fingers, including one with Burke’s name tattooed on it, had been dismembered, when she was found, according to prosecutors.
Screenshots of alleged text messages between Burke and the music video’s director reviewed by USA TODAY, along with written directions for the video, paint a picture of the singer’s involvement in shaping its violent imagery and narrative. All three animators who spoke to USA TODAY asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retaliation from others in the music industry and harassment online.
“Had I known what I know now, obviously I wouldn’t have had anything to do with this,” a second animator says. “But at the time it was just a good opportunity for me.”
How D4vd’s violent vision came to life
The animators say their work on “Rehab” began in August 2023, just one month before it was released to the public. All three say they were hired for the project by Tristan Zammit, who is credited as directing “Rehab” and has worked with famous bands like Metallica, as well as hip-hop stars like Lil Uzi Vert, The Game, and Logic, and new and emerging artists like Sleepy Hallow.
The animators say they were not directly in touch with Burke and were unfamiliar with his music prior to this assignment, and say Zammit primarily communicated instructions via Discord. (Twenty-six artists were originally credited on Burke’s YouTube video, but their names were removed during USA TODAY’s reporting. Many of them still appear in a 2023 post on Zammit’s Instagram feed.) Zammit did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
“When I was pitched the brief of the music video it was like, [the character] has this internal struggle, which is a really common theme in anime,” the second animator explains. “That’s what you’re seeing in the duality of the character: There’s one with blood all over him, and then the other one. At the time I was like, ‘Oh, it’s a cool concept.’”
For an animated music video, the director typically creates what’s called an animatic, a type of storyboard, based on the artist’s vision to guide the animators. The written captions from the “Rehab” animatic, which were reviewed by USA TODAY, offer insight into the story Burke was trying to tell.
When the woman first appears in the animatic, the captions describe her control over It4mi. After seeing her silhouette, It4mi is “entranced/alarmed” and removes his blindfold, revealing glowing purple eyes.
“It4mi becoming more hypnotized as petals swirl around him,” the caption reads. “Vines and thorns wrap around his arms—bringing him to his knees and piercing his skin—injecting poison that fully places him under the girl’s spell. In an endless ocean world-polluted in purple. This is the representation of the girl’s genjutsu over It4mi.”
In Japanese anime and manga, particularly the “Naruto” franchise, genjutsu refers to a supernatural illusion that manipulates a person’s senses and perception. Under its influence, It4mi follows a trail of petals toward the woman. “It4mi approaches the girl,” the caption says, “Reaches out and she disappears.”
One animator highlighted this moment in the “Rehab” animatic, as a reflection of how, in Burke’s world-building, the woman manipulates his character and says the portrayal makes it seem like it was her fault that It4mi went on to be so violent in the story.
In the sequence depicting the woman’s dismemberment, the captions read: “Slice! The girls [sic] arm flies off in an impact. Arm falls off and turns into dead thorns and petals.”
When the character’s katana, a traditional samurai sword, is thrown into the air, the caption reads: “The katana spears the girl and pins her into the wall like a thumbtack.”
USA TODAY reviewed screenshots of text messages that, according to the three animators, were from Burke and shared by Zammit in a group Discord chat with six people including Burke. The screenshots show that during the making of the video, Burke gave positive feedback to Zammit about the video, including the moment when It4mi hits the woman.
“THE IMPACT FRAMES BROOO,” Burke wrote. “Let the staff see their families dawg they going too crazy.”
When Zammit sent sketches of the woman to the same chat, Burke replied, “DAWGGGGGGGG OMG.”
At the time, this didn’t alarm the animators. “I was just happy to be drawing anime-style stuff for music videos. I thought, this is such a great trend, I’m so happy this is happening,” the first animator says. “It felt like a really tight deadline with a lot of work, so it was definitely stressful. But cool to be involved with a high-profile person for your portfolio.”
Animators revisit ‘Rehab’ in a new light
When news broke of Hernandez’s death and Burke’s possible involvement, the animators struggled to reconcile their role in creating the video with the emerging details of the case.
“When I saw all these stories coming up in the news I was like, ‘Oh my god, that’s crazy. I can’t believe I’ve done work for this guy,’” the second animator says. “I saw that people were saying he hints at a lot of things in his lyrics, and maybe these were all clues that he was dropping in his music.”
The first animator became immersed in fans’ speculation and sat in front of their television screen and sobbed because, in this new light, the video “was just so dark.”
“I thought, this is so tragic. If any of his art and his music have anything to do with this young girl losing her life, I was just lost for words,” they explain. “It just felt so gross and disgusting to have potentially helped tell that story.”
Particularly haunting: that “Rehab” video was released on Sept. 8, 2023, one day after Hernandez’s 13th birthday.
“I think it is very odd that it was released on YouTube around her birthday,” the first animator continues. “It’s hard to ignore that. It’s just very strange.”
What the online theories get wrong
While the animators say they see distinct similarities between the case and the video, they also point out that some matching details were merely due to chance.
Many commenters, for example, speculated about the star designs on the jeans worn by the woman character in the video.
“I saw people tying Celeste’s name to the jeans because the star pants were ‘celestial.’ I drew her wearing star jeans because I owned the same pair of jeans,” the first animator says. Some artists “didn’t have any clue what the narrative was, [we were] just picking stuff that we liked or thought was cool.”
The first animator says the speed and collaborative nature of productions like “Rehab” also complicate attempts to interpret every visual detail as a message directly from Burke. “These videos are made on such a tight deadline that a lot of us are just taking things we like, or inspiration from our own lives, and drawing things fast and putting them in there,” they explained.
Despite wanting to sometimes speak out and clarify these details for fans, the first animator was afraid to get too involved given the heightened scrutiny and attention surrounding the public discourse.
“It’s so sensitive, and [Hernandez’s] life is so important,” they said. “There are some things chosen in that music video that weren’t by the artist. It’s a mix of both. Some of it is not from David, and some of it is.”
While many in the music industry still have yet to speak out about their involvement with Burke, some people have clarified their relationship with the singer. Actress Cassidy Clarke, who played Burke’s love interest in the 2022 music video for “Here With Me,” shared that she met Burke only through the project and had not remained in contact with him. “I don’t associate with Burke by any means,” she said in a post on TikTok. “I’m an actor.”
Another artist who goes by the name catuqu__ online said on TikTok that they worked as an animator on “Rehab:” “It’s crazy looking back now, the animation team and directors were just trying to make a cool anime music video but now it feels dirty, like we were a part of his guilty confession, Celeste you didn’t deserve this.” The artist didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment.
The animators who spoke to USA TODAY are struggling to separate the art from the artist. “I am an open-minded person but when the artist does something really, really awful, it’s hard to separate it,” the third animator says. “In David’s case, he [allegedly] killed someone and I don’t want to hear anything from him. It’s awful.”
Burke is not the first artist to explore dark themes in his music and lyrics. But few musicians have pointedly portrayed violence against women in their videos, especially when it comes to depicting explicit or graphic images of men killing or dismembering women. The inspiration for “Rehab” however is less traditional pop music and instead draws from anime and video games, both of which have faced criticism for their portrayals of women and use of gendered violence.That kind of content desensitizes people to violent artwork in “Rehab,” the third animator says, so the video doesn’t shock. But, they add, it also shouldn’t be looked at in isolation—is this artistic expression, or are there other patterns or concerns that suggest there are potential warning signs worth paying attention to?
“I always thought the video was very childish. The themes and everything were a bit morbid,” that animator explains. “After Burke’s arrest, everyone was saying, ‘Wow, he already put all this here for everyone to see, he already had these tendencies.“
Who bears responsibility for an artist’s vision?
The case also raises questions about the roles and responsibilities of the broader ecosystem that helped bring Burke’s artistic vision to life. Zammit was tasked with directing Burke’s vision and Darkroom/Interscope Records oversaw that process, as is common practice for a record label, but the freelance animators described the production as an informal process without contracts or institutional safeguards that might exist at a larger entertainment company.
“As people and artists who are just trying to make a living and follow our dreams, we don’t always go through the same vetting process that I’m sure someone like Disney or other major corporations do,” the second animator says. “For us, there was no guide to sign a contract or anything. There’s no paper trail of this. We don’t know what goes on in these people’s lives. We’re just trying to pay the bills.”
Yet they invite the scrutiny of their work that was done in the name of Burke’s ultimate vision. “I do think with the severity of what happened to Celeste and her losing her life, we should look back at everything—the videos, the music,” says the first animator. “If that helps us help this girl and her family because an arrest has been made, then it seems like the responsible thing to do.”
Krystie Lee Yandoli is a senior entertainment reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach her at kyandoli@usatoday.com, and follow her on Instagram, Threads, and X.