---
title: "At the D4vd hearing, a criminalist links fragments on the teen to a pool in his garage"
description: "On the third day of the preliminary hearing, an LAPD criminalist testified that blue fragments recovered from Celeste Rivas Hernandez's remains were once part of an inflatable pool found in David Burke's garage. She acknowledged the match was a visual comparison with pieces missing. The defense pressed on what testing was, and was not, done."
category: "Los Angeles"
category_url: https://herald.la/category/los-angeles
author: "Valeria Ortiz"
published: 2026-07-24T01:44:00.000Z
updated: 2026-07-24T01:44:00.000Z
canonical: https://herald.la/article/at-the-d4vd-hearing-a-criminalist-links-fragments-on-the-teen-to-a-pool-in-his-g
tags: ["d4vd", "courts", "los-angeles", "preliminary-hearing", "forensics"]
---
# At the D4vd hearing, a criminalist links fragments on the teen to a pool in his garage

On the third day of the preliminary hearing, an LAPD criminalist testified that blue fragments recovered from Celeste Rivas Hernandez's remains were once part of an inflatable pool found in David Burke's garage. She acknowledged the match was a visual comparison with pieces missing. The defense pressed on what testing was, and was not, done.

The preliminary hearing for the musician David Burke, who performs as D4vd, reached its forensic core this week, with an expert tying physical evidence found with the victim's body to an object recovered from his home, [ABC7 reports](https://abc7.com/post/d4vd-murder-case-singers-lawyers-ask-more-dna-testing-wasnt-done-chain-saws-car-celeste-rivas-hernandez-killing/19564190/).

## The pool testimony

On the third day of testimony, LAPD criminalist Lisa LaHendro told the court that blue fragments collected from the remains of Celeste Rivas Hernandez, who was 14, matched an inflatable pool found in Burke's garage. She compared the fragments to the damage on the pool and concluded, in her testimony, that "the fragments were once part of the pool."

An earlier witness, criminalist Lauren Wallace, had testified that the pool showed "multiple cuts" and gave off a "fresh, almost laundry-like scent," a detail the prosecution presented as consistent with recent cleaning.

## The limits the expert acknowledged

What separates responsible reporting from tabloid coverage here is stating the qualifications the witness herself put on the record. LaHendro was candid about the limits of her analysis. For some of the fragments, she said, she could not match them to the damage on the pool because pieces were missing. And her comparison was a visual one rather than an exhaustive scientific analysis.

That does not make the testimony meaningless, a criminalist concluding that fragments came from a specific object is evidence, but it does define what kind of evidence it is: a visual match, partial, offered at a hearing whose purpose is to decide whether the case proceeds, not to reach a verdict.

## The defense's line of attack

Burke's attorney, Blair Berk, used cross-examination to press on exactly that point, questioning whether more rigorous testing protocols had been used and asking about DNA testing on chain saws and on the vehicle connected to the case. The available account does not include the experts' full answers to those questions, and it would be wrong to assume them. What is clear is the shape of the defense: an argument that the investigation's forensic work was less than thorough, aimed at the reliability of the evidence rather than a competing account of events.

## Where this sits

This remains a preliminary hearing before Judge Charlaine Olmedo, not a trial. No jury is present, no verdict is being reached, and Burke is presumed innocent. He is charged with first-degree murder, continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14, and mutilation of human remains, and has been held without bail. The judge will decide whether there is enough evidence to send the case forward.

The Herald is covering this case with the restraint a proceeding involving a dead child demands: the testimony as given, the qualifications the witnesses themselves attach to it, the defense's challenges, and the presumption of innocence that holds until a verdict, if there is one, says otherwise. We will report the judge's ruling on whether the case goes to trial when it comes.

## Sources

- [Fragments found on teen matched pool at singer D4vd's rented home, expert testifies](https://abc7.com/post/d4vd-murder-case-singers-lawyers-ask-more-dna-testing-wasnt-done-chain-saws-car-celeste-rivas-hernandez-killing/19564190/)