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- [00:02]
Progressive Insurance Announcer
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- [00:22]
Wes (Podcast Promoter)
Hey, it's Wes. Today we are sharing an episode of the award winning podcast Red Handed. Hosted by Suri Tibala and Hannah McGuire, Red Handed is the UK's number one true crime podcast with 4 million monthly listeners, Red Handed blends razor sharp storytelling and deep cultural analysis to unpack the psychology systems and cultural forces that shape crimes of all kinds. The result? A show that's both thought provoking and addictive. In this episode, Surity and Hannah kick off part one of a two part series diving into the murder of 14 year old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, whose body was found more than four months after she visited up and coming singer David's house in the Hollywood Hills. The story exploded across the Internet and this episode is exactly the kind of gripping and thoughtful investigation Red Handed does best. If you want to hear part two of the case, make sure to follow Red Handed on your favorite podcast app and tell them we sent you. Now here's the episode.
- [01:39]
Suri Tibala
On 8th September 2025, workmen at an LA impound lot called the police after they noticed a foul smell smell coming from a Tesla Model X. The car had been towed from a swanky Hollywood Hill street three days before after it seemingly been left abandoned. Inside the front trunk or frunk, which I guess us Brits would call the foot, police found a black cadaver bag covered in flies. Inside the bag was was a severely decomposed human head and torso. There was also a black rubbish bag stuffed underneath which contained the body's dismembered arms and legs. The car belonged to Gen X idol and singer songwriter D4V, D pronounced David
- [02:31]
Hannah McGuire
Henry Zabrowski, says Deforvid. And I can't get it out of my head.
- [02:36]
Suri Tibala
They do also say that it became like a joke. So David was the original name and then people started calling him D Forward and then he was like oh, I actually kind of like that. But we're going to call him David throughout this episode because I'll do as I'm told because I can't. So they know who the car belongs to and soon the victim was identified through dental records as 14 year old Celeste Rivas Hernandez. She had been reported missing by her family a year and a half before and now with A celebrity and a minor at the heart of this story. Naturally, the Internet exploded with speculation. Had David, a man who had just announced a world tour and who had just released his first studio album that had landed 15 on the Billboard 200, really just killed a child? Or was this 21 year old, as some of his fans believe, being framed?
- [03:35]
Hannah McGuire
Within hours of the grisly discovery, images and videos of David and Celeste began flooding social media platforms. And people were pulling lyrics from David's songs that seemed to be about the young teenager. Then there was his hit song, the one that had propelled David into mainstream fame. It's called Romantic Homicide, in which he describes killing a lover only in his mind, but still not great. And there was his music video to another song called One More Dance, where he's covered in blood and stuffing a dead body into the boot of a car. That's just art, right?
- [04:19]
Suri Tibala
Well, at first, many people, us included, because we have been talking about this on under the Duvet for quite a few weeks, wondered if this had all just been some sort of horrible but tragic accident. Perhaps maybe drugs were involved, there was some sort of overdose and then, you know, like a stupid decision to try and get rid of Celeste's body. Even the LAPD initially came out and said that there may have been no crime at all except for concealment of a body. Which, like, given the fact that David was at least six years older than 14 year old Celeste, I really struggle to understand how that could have been the case. Like if a 20 year old is giving a 14 year old drugs that she then ODs on or is taking drugs with her that she then ODs on and then he hides her body, that still feels like a crime. But you know, what do I know? Regardless of what they said then, the story has completely changed because it soon became very clear that what had happened to Celeste was far, far darker than an od. And then some sort of panicked body disposal situation. I'm Saruti.
- [05:32]
Hannah McGuire
I'm Hannah.
- [05:33]
Suri Tibala
And this is Red Handed where today we are going to get into the story that has dominated the conversation everywhere from mainstream media headlines to TikTok, Reddit, 4chan, Discord, and even the skywriting at
- [05:45]
Hannah McGuire
Coachella, which someone told me in the comments was actually. It was an ad for a TV show. It was completely unrelated.
- [05:52]
Suri Tibala
No, just you.
- [05:53]
Hannah McGuire
Honestly, just complete chance.
- [05:55]
Sleep Number Mattress Announcer
No.
- [05:56]
Hannah McGuire
Yes.
- [05:57]
Sleep Number Mattress Announcer
No.
- [05:58]
Suri Tibala
Who's Celeste? What the shit?
- [06:00]
Alloy Health Announcer
Anyway?
- [06:01]
Suri Tibala
All right, well, I'm leaving that in because I was happy with that line. Sorry. Now look, if you don't know what on earth we are Talking about, do not worry, because today we are going to pull you kicking and screaming, out from under that rock you've been living under and hit you with one of the most shocking stories that we have come across in quite some time.
- [06:20]
Hannah McGuire
So after Celeste's body was discovered in September 2025, things went quiet with the LAPD for a while. And it would be a whole seven months before we got our next big public update. And that happened on the 16th of April, 2026, when David was finally arrested on suspicion of murder. A few days later, he was charged with first degree murder, continuous sexual abuse, and sexual acts with a child under the age of 14, and also unlawful mutilation of human remains. Is there lawful mutilation? Interesting question.
- [07:04]
Suri Tibala
I guess not.
- [07:06]
Hannah McGuire
It's like where they have no smoking signs on planes.
- [07:08]
Suri Tibala
Yeah, sure. Now, look, before we get into this case, I just want to clarify that this situation is still currently playing out. This is a live case. And as it stands right now, at the time of recording this on 22nd May, 2026, David has not yet been convicted. And he has also pleaded not guilty to all of those charges. Will there even be a trial? Who knows? I really, really don't know. Prosecutors do seem to have a lot of evidence against him, but they always say that. And they have also put the death penalty on the table. So it is possible that David might just plead out. But given that California hasn't executed anyone in, like, two decades, so it would basically just amount to life without the possibility of parole. Unless they offer him, like, 25 years with the possibility of parole or something like that, which I highly doubt they would do because it would be so unpopular. Given the severity of this case, given his fame, given how young Celeste was, and also given the attention this case has received, David might just be better off going to trial, to be honest with you, than, like, giving it a shot, which is what I think he will do. But whatever happens next, this is everything you need to know right now.
- [08:32]
Hannah McGuire
So after his arrest, David's defence requested an immediate preliminary hearing, which is pretty wild.
- [08:40]
Suri Tibala
It's part of the ploy, though, isn't it? It's like, do it now. We want it now to try and, like, catch the prosecution off. Off, like, kilter.
- [08:49]
Hannah McGuire
Especially when the state warned them that they had a whopping 40 terabytes of evidence in the case so far. That's fucking loads. Yeah.
- [09:00]
Suri Tibala
Yeah.
- [09:01]
Hannah McGuire
Officially, this just in. 40 terabytes is quite a lot.
- [09:04]
Suri Tibala
Are you sure you want to do this preliminary? We've got fucking Loads.
- [09:09]
Hannah McGuire
To put that into perspective for you, 40 terabytes equates to over 13,000 feature length movies.
- [09:19]
Suri Tibala
Yeah.
- [09:20]
Hannah McGuire
Or 13 million photos.
- [09:22]
Suri Tibala
Yeah, I can have like six on my phone before it's like storage full. Storage full.
- [09:28]
Hannah McGuire
So the preliminary hearing that was originally slated for the end of May has now been pushed to the end of June. But we still have quite a lot to discuss before that even happens.
- [09:40]
Suri Tibala
If anything, I was like, we need to get all this down before June. So, yes, firstly, let's start by taking a look at the autopsy report. It was finally released to the public in April 2026. And it makes for incredibly grim reading because it seemed to sweep away any notion that Celeste's death might have been an accident. The cause of death was determined by the medical examiner to be multiple penetrating injuries caused by a sharp object. They don't say exactly what, like, they don't say it's a knife. And I think it's because they don't actually have the murder weapon. But According to the ME's findings, one stab wound had punctured Celeste's liver and the other her left lung. Either could have been fatal and the wound to her liver would likely have caused a lot of internal bleeding.
- [10:34]
Hannah McGuire
Then, as we know, Celeste's body was dismembered. And this is directly from the autopsy report. The bilateral upper and lower extremities show full thickness dismemberment. And that means that both of Celeste's arms and legs were removed. Her arms were cut off above the elbow and her legs were cut off above the knee with the dismembered legs, then cut again into two pieces through the shin.
- [11:07]
Suri Tibala
And I know we talked about this on under the Duvet over on Patreon, but we need to share this great information with everybody else because what is interesting about the way in which Celeste was dismembered, if we, you know, take off our human hats and just put on our, like, fucking horrible inspector hats, is that. I suspect if you gave Mr. Joe Bloggs on the street a dead body and you were like, here you go, chop this up. Most people would probably try and dismember that body through the joints is my theory. Yes, they'd probably go. Because I've been doing some field research,
- [11:47]
Hannah McGuire
I've been chopping up loads of bodies this weekend actually.
- [11:49]
Suri Tibala
And I've been, I've been asking people in my vicinity, how would you chop up a bobby? And they always say, well, I would go through the shoulders, I would go through the knees, I would go through the hip joints. That's what I would do. It kind of feels like it makes logical sense, because I think people think that's like, a weak spot. It's actually obviously not. It is not the most efficient way to do it. The way that Celeste was chopped up is the right way, quote, unquote. Because the joints that you have in your shoulders, in your hips, in your knees, they're actually incredibly complicated joints to cut through or dissect. So what does it tell us about the way in which Celeste was dismembered? Did the person who did it perhaps do some sort of research into this? Did they know what they were doing already? If it was David, did he perhaps have some help? Maybe. But whoever did it knew enough to cut through the middle of the limbs. And they also went through a lot of effort to dismember the body. Not just that, to also cut through the legs twice. And obviously they've done it so it would fit into the frunk, which is the front trunk. But if they had just put Celeste's body in the boot of the car, they wouldn't have needed to cut it up at all, and they certainly wouldn't have needed to cut the legs up again. So, like, why do they go to so much effort to cut her into such small pieces to fit into the frunk when they have a perfectly usable trunk? I don't know. I don't know. In any case, I think what is clear from this is someone was very, very determined to get rid of this body.
- [13:26]
Hannah McGuire
But then whoever this person is, was, who went to such lengths just left it there, left her there decomposing in a Tesla in a car that belonged to David. And then whoever it was just left that car parked 400 foot down the road from the house that David was staying in. The effort to dismember doesn't really match up with this sloppy behavior after the fact, which has led some people online to believe that David is being framed. And for the purposes of this episode, we're going to say allegedly all the time when we talk about David's possible involvement. However, the idea that he's being framed is a stretch.
- [14:16]
Suri Tibala
Just because stupid decisions are made by an alleged killer doesn't mean that that then points to the fact that somebody is framing them. People make stupid decisions.
- [14:28]
Hannah McGuire
They sure do. We don't fully understand why David allegedly left dismembered remains in his own car on his own street. But I suspect that if he did do this, David was probably just in denial. Out of sight, out of mind, ditch the body in the car. Because, as we will see, after the body was placed in the car, David went on tour.
- [14:57]
Suri Tibala
And look, if that feels like an unsatisfactory explanation for why such a huge misstep is made, we are going to come back to it. But what I wanted to say there is just that the stupidity of it isn't enough to convince me that somebody else did this and is stitching him up. But we will come back to the whole why is the body left in the car? Situation when we tackle the gargantuan timeline in this case. But for now, let's stick with the autopsy. There was a very heavy level of decomposition.
- [15:27]
Hannah McGuire
I'm not surprised. Yeah.
- [15:29]
Suri Tibala
With Celeste's body, her head was actually partially skeletonized and she was missing her left eye. And she was missing her left eye. Not because it had been removed, as many people online have been speculating. Like, why did David remove her eye? I don't think that's what happened. The eye liquefied and essentially melted away. That's how heavy the decomposition was. Two of Celeste's fingers from her left hand, so her ring finger and her little finger had also been cut off and they were actually missing from the car and they have never been found. Now, the best guess as to why this happened, why they may have been cut off and disposed of, because at first to me it was like, is this some sort of trophy? What's going on here? It's probably actually because of Celeste's tattoos. She had David's name tattooed on her ring finger, which, if you're going to frame him, why would you chop that off? Yeah, that's true. You'd probably tattoo David onto more parts of her. Like, it doesn't make sense.
- [16:29]
Wes (Podcast Promoter)
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- [18:58]
Hannah McGuire
Next, let's take a look at the toxicology report. It's confusing. Celeste's remains showed presumptive positives for benzodiazepines, methamphetamines and mdma. Fucking hell. And that was reported in the initial findings. A presumptive positive just means that there's more in the person's system than a certain cut off base level. So the drugs could have been taken long before Celeste actually died, but she still had traceable amounts in her system. But then in a later tox screen, the medical examiner deemed these findings to be inconclusive due to interfering substances, which is probably to do with the level of decomposition, which has just made being certain about anything in this case really difficult. There was some ethanol detected in Celeste's system, but again, that could have just been from decomposition. That does happen all the time.
- [19:54]
Suri Tibala
Yeah, the level of decomposition, I think is going to be a big factor for the defense. And why I think David might go to trial, because the minute you have that level of decomposition, like we're talking weeks and weeks and weeks of decomposition, being sure she was even stabbed, being sure she wasn't on drugs, being sure it wasn't an od, like so much of this can be like, beyond reasonable doubt. Like, it can be very, very murky.
- [20:22]
Hannah McGuire
I don't like it. I think he's going to get off.
- [20:24]
Suri Tibala
So it's, it's. I don't know. I don't think he will, but I, I don't know. We'll, we'll get to that at the end, but I think there is just so much decomposition. There's so many questions kind of left unanswered in this case. Now, another confusing point from the autopsy was the question of whether or not Celeste was pregnant at the time she was killed. Now, at first it was reported as not. No, she was not pregnant. And they also said nor had she been pregnant in the year leading up to her death. But then suddenly, on 22nd April, 2026, the Medical examiner revised this and amended the report from not pregnant to unknown if she was pregnant. Now, I'm not sure that they suddenly found like some biological evidence to prove that she was pregnant or anything like that because then they would have just said that she was. I think they're going off the other evidence that they have, which include text messages between David and Celeste regarding things like pregnancy, Plan B, abortion, etc. And so I think they wanted to leave it more open ended.
- [21:30]
Hannah McGuire
So let's talk about the charges before we get into the state's theory of what happened, the timeline, and of course, who David is as a person, his childhood, his psychology, all of that, we'll get to it. On top of the charge of first degree murder, prosecutors have also included three special circumstances in their case against David. Number one, that David laid in wait for Celeste. Two, that he killed her for financial gain. Three, that he killed a witness of a crime. The reason for these conditions is because in California, murder, even first degree murder, carries a term of 25 to life with the possibility of parole. But at trial, if even one of those conditions are found to be true beyond a reasonable doubt, David is looking at life without the possibility of parole or even death.
- [22:27]
Suri Tibala
And these conditions, these special conditions, are very interesting because along with the criminal complaint document that the state has also released, it tells us a lot about the prosecution's theory as to how and why they believe that David killed Celeste and also what evidence they have to back it up. So let's go through it. According to the prosecution, Celeste and David had been in an on again, off again relationship for years, with the pair meeting online. When Celeste was just 11 years old and David was 16, they started a sexual in real Life relationship when Celeste was 13 and David was 18. But just before she was killed, it seems they had broken up for good and Celeste was not happy about it. And look, I know people might be thinking, why are you even using the words relationship and all of that? She's obviously a minor and he is 16 when they meet, but by the time they're having a sexual relationship, he is 18. I get that, but I think it just makes the story very confusing if we start to say anything other than what she perceived it as, which was a relationship. But I understand that it's not in a legal sense or in a moral or ethical sense.
- [23:45]
Hannah McGuire
On 22 April 2025, the pair exchanged lengthy argument via text. Celeste was clearly jealous and angry about David's relationships with other girls, and she says that he led her to believe that they had a future together. In these messages, Celeste then threatened to release damaging information to destroy David's career and life. Presumably this information was with regards to their sexual relationship and how young Celeste was, or maybe she was pregnant and saying that she would expose him.
- [24:17]
Suri Tibala
So the prosecution haven't released these text messages, and I think possibly the reason they haven't done that is because I think perhaps they worry that it might make Celeste look more unsympathetic. She is a child, right? She is 14 years old when she was killed. So I don't personally care what she was saying in those text messages, but I assume she's being maybe quite aggressive with him, threatening to ruin his life, maybe even threatening to lie about things. Who knows? I mean, not that she has to. They were in a very, very illegal sexual relationship. But I think that they're hiding that back because of maybe what's being said in those messages. But they are making it very clear that she was making threats that would have ruined his career. Because of course, if she was pregnant, a pregnant 14 year old making accusations like that would not have been a good look. And this is the point the prosecutors are referring to with their special condition on David having killed the witness of a crime, basically the crime being his sexual activities with a minor, and she is the witness to the crime committed against her. And they can prove they're saying that there was a sexual relationship between David and Celeste down to using text messages exchanged between the pair, like this one that was sent from Celeste to David in March 2025, just one month before she died. She texts David saying, all we do is have sex and hang out, man, I want more than that for myself.
- [25:51]
Hannah McGuire
And even if you like me, had never heard of David Anthony Burke before all of this happened. He was absolutely on the up and certainly had a lot to lose. His songs were streaming in the billions. He'd just been on tour with sza, and his first studio album was due to be released on 25 April, just days after Celeste started threatening to expose him. He had also just announced his own world tour for his new album, Withered. And he had very lucrative product endorsements lined up. Fortnite had just made his song Locked and Loaded, the game's first official theme song. They had even created David related in game items that people could buy. So at this point, David was worth around $3 million, but his stock was well and truly rising. And this all ties into the state's second special circumstance, that David killed Celeste for financial gain.
- [26:57]
Suri Tibala
So the day after these argumentative texts, David invited Celeste over. On the 23rd of April, 2025, at 8.40pm, an Uber that he ordered picked Celeste up from her home in Lake Elsinore and drove her to his house 90 miles away. The pair were texting throughout this journey, and Celeste was dropped off at 10.10pm Twenty minutes later, at 10.30pm, David texts Celeste's phone asking, where are you? But she didn't reply. In fact, Celeste never uses that phone again and was never seen alive again. The theory is from the prosecution that this text was sent by David as a cover to pretend that Celeste had never arrived at his house.
- [27:47]
Hannah McGuire
You can check on Uber. Quite.
- [27:51]
Suri Tibala
And look, this is the point, right? Like, okay, okay, he's trying something here. He's like, let me send this text message. And then I've got some plausible deniability. I could say she never turned up here, but, like, let's say she got out of that Uber, because again, I'm pretty sure Uber have records of all of those things, right? People getting out. Yeah, Cameras.
- [28:11]
Hannah McGuire
I check them all the time. Yeah. What time did I get home? You know?
- [28:14]
Suri Tibala
Yeah. So. And maybe people will be like, maybe this Uber driver did something to her. But I'm like, maybe. But then he drove her 90 miles to the exact place she was meant to go, because his GPS will prove that he did that. Instead of driving her out into the fucking desert somewhere and killing her, he drove her to exactly where she was meant to go. Then he does something nefarious like kill her. Then he chops her up, and then he finds out whose car belongs to the house that he was meant to drop this girl off at, and then gets that body chopped up and then put into the car of the person whose address he was driving this girl to. Like, it doesn't make any sense. You could maybe make that argument that the Uber driver did something nefarious. If Celeste just vanished, she stopped messaging David halfway through that journey and she just vanished. She turns up, she gets to his fucking house and then she turns up dead, dismembered in his car. There's no fucking killer Uber driver running around here, not in this story. So, no, let's just put that nonsense aside. Let's say maybe, as some people have said online, maybe she gets out of the Uber, she's alive, she's fine, but then she's had an argument with David and she walks off into LA and she doesn't go into his house again. If that was the case, why does she never use her fucking phone again? And also again, how does she get dismembered and shoved into his frunk? It all comes back to how she is in his Tesla. And also. Fine, let's go with what I think the defence might argue, right, that there was some sort of drug overdose. So she turns up at his house, they take drugs, she dies. He drops the body up and stuffs it into his car. The fact that he sends that text message is what kills that theory for me. You're going to walk into that house and have die of an overdose in 20 minutes. Come on. That's a pretty swift OD. Like, it doesn't make sense to me. Which brings us to our final special circumstance that David laid in wait for Celeste.
- [30:08]
Hannah McGuire
The prosecution's theory, outlined in their people's brief regarding preliminary hearing evidence, is that very soon after Celeste arrived at his house, David stabbed her to death multiple times and stood by whilst she bled out. At no time did he call law enforcement or 911 or take her to an emergency room to try and save her life. The term stood by is very specific and people online are speculating hard over these two words.
- [30:39]
Suri Tibala
Honestly, over the past week, I have immersed myself fully into this case and I feel like tearing my hair out when I see people talking about this particular bit, because people are losing their minds over the possibility that the phrase stood by means that someone else must have been there, like a witness must have been there, who has now turned on David and is giving the police some sort of blow by blow of what happened that night, saying, oh, and then he stabbed her. And then he stood by and just watched. And I was like, oh, my God. Or they're saying, like, the police have got some sort of CCTV or like video recording of what happened? I personally don't think so. I think people are reading way too much into this. A lot of people online are also quoting it wrong. They keep saying, stood by and watched. Where did the and watched come from? Because I've read the document. It's not in there. Hannah, just read the quote verbatim. It just says, stood by. Doesn't say and watched. Like that is what takes it to another level, because that makes it seem like you are seeing him do that. Like that's a big jump to make. They don't say that. They say stood watch by. And I think the prosecution is just saying that David stabbed Celeste and then didn't try to help her, so he stood by as she died. And I think the reason they're saying this. And look, they're going to have to explain all this. This is just what I'm like, inferring from it. But I think where they're getting that from is that the injury to her liver suggests that Celeste probably didn't die immediately. That kind of injury isn't an immediate fatal wound. Like it probably would have resulted in a slow, prolonged death, so he would have had time to do something. Now, again, David's defence is going to argue that there's too much decomposition with the soft tissue for you to even be sure. How can you even be sure there's a stab injury to the lung or to the liver? Like, we don't buy that. Which, again, I'll be interested to see how the prosecution refute.
- [32:33]
Hannah McGuire
Let's keep going with the brief. Got another quote for you. Evidence will show that the defendant lied and said he didn't know where Celeste was. In fact, immediately after he killed her, David drove to Santa Barbara county to try and dispose of Celeste's property and Destroy evidence. At 11:30pm on 23rd April, 2025, David drove away from his home as he texted and called the victim's phone, asking where she was. He drove his Tesla north on the 101 freeway to San Marcos Pass Road near Lake Kachuma in Santa Barbara County. He returned home early the following morning on April 24, before going to a radio interview. David then sent two additional texts to Celeste's phone that day, which went unanswered. And after the 26th of April, he never attempted to contact her again. And while it's not mentioned here, we actually also know that the night Celeste came to his place and then vanished, so likely the day she died, after his trip to Santa Barbara, David actually went to an album launch party.
- [33:43]
Suri Tibala
He goes to an album launch party that night in la and the next day he gets up and goes to that radio interview and look, people again could be like, that's so stupid. Blah blah. It's him sticking to his routine. He's not like swaying from that. He's very clearly like, look, I'm meant to be here, gotta be there, gotta act normal. Can't have any weirdness showing up. But it also shows just how fucking cold this all is. Allegedly.
- [34:11]
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- [34:50]
Alloy Health Announcer
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- [35:51]
Suri Tibala
And look after he does this, he's like, gotta get back down to business. Allegedly. Because on the 24th of April, so the day after Celeste vanished, David ordered a shovel from Home Depot that was delivered to his house by Postmates, which is basically Uber eats.
- [36:08]
Hannah McGuire
Couldn't even be bothered to go and get it.
- [36:11]
Suri Tibala
Honestly, it's like a Deliveroo murder she doesn't want to even go. Like all the stuff of like you go somewhere far away. Maybe you go to like a fucking car boot sale or something.
- [36:27]
Hannah McGuire
Paying cash. No, receipts.
- [36:28]
Alloy Health Announcer
Pay in cash.
- [36:29]
Suri Tibala
Yeah, like all of that stuff. And another reason this is something I've learned. Do you know when you take receipts, you have plastic BPAs flooding into your bloodstream within seconds? So I'm like, I don't take receipts anymore. So now I'm like, I've been telling everybody to take receipts. You're poisoning yourselves. Don't take the receipts or have a little. A receipt grabber and a little bag that you put them in. Anyway, anyway, I'm just saying. So, yes, like all of those things he does not do. He's like, it's slowly becoming Howard Hughes.
- [36:56]
Hannah McGuire
He's just gonna start pissing in jars.
- [37:00]
Suri Tibala
But yeah, he like orders a fucking shovel to his house and I'm just like, also, if you are a delivery driver and you turn up and deliver a singular shovel to a house, to a house, by the way, that doesn't scream of somebody who's doing their own gardening. It's not his house. He rents it or his manager rents it for him in the Hollywood Hills life. It's not people that are doing their own housework, their own yard work, garden work. And maybe there's. I guess there wouldn't have been a smell yet, but still, like, you know, I'm not going to put it on.
- [37:32]
Hannah McGuire
I'm not going to put it on that.
- [37:34]
Suri Tibala
Yeah, it gets worse. It gets worse. We'll get to that. Because a week later, on the 1st of May, David ordered two chainsaws to his home from Amazon.
- [37:47]
Hannah McGuire
Fuck's sake.
- [37:48]
Suri Tibala
You knew Amazon did chainsaws?
- [37:50]
Hannah McGuire
Oh, I'm so into everything that's true
- [37:51]
Suri Tibala
now I say it, I'm like, of course they do the next one bit more sus. On 5 May, David ordered a cadaver bag, heavy duty laundry bags and a blue inflatable pull all again from Amazon, all again to his own house. And yes, I have checked Amazon sell cadaver bags.
- [38:14]
Hannah McGuire
Why?
- [38:16]
Suri Tibala
I don't know.
- [38:16]
Hannah McGuire
The world is terrifying.
- [38:18]
Suri Tibala
Why would anybody need to buy a cadaver bag?
- [38:20]
Hannah McGuire
Only thing I can think of tell me is maybe they're a set dresser. Maybe that's literally the only thing I can think of. Why? But there must be a demand, otherwise Amazon wouldn't stock them.
- [38:33]
Suri Tibala
I don't. Gen Z killers. Apparently David, like I said, he orders all of these things to his own house. He does try one little diversion tactic, allegedly because he uses a fake name, the fake name of Victoria Mendes.
- [38:49]
Hannah McGuire
Oh, good.
- [38:50]
Suri Tibala
I'm not sure how much that's going to protect him. However, like I said, he used his home address and I'm also sure he used his own bank card.
- [38:57]
Hannah McGuire
I also think all of this just screams of like, this man has been given everything he has ever wanted instantly. He is an instant gratification type of guy. I imagine that he really doesn't think anything can ever happen to him.
- [39:15]
Suri Tibala
I mean, there's lots of questions about how much David Anthony work is living in reality. I don't know, we'll get into it when we talk about his psychology and his childhood and all of that stuff. But yeah, the laziness of it really does take your breath away. And look, other people are like, maybe there's a perfectly rational explanation for why he's buying all of these items. And I'm like, what reason he's not doing his own tree felling? Why would he need two chainsaws? And like, some people have theorized that maybe, maybe these things were like props to be used in a music video. And he does have a lot of like, you know, macabre scenes in his music videos. I could certainly have believed that had his ex girlfriend not turned up chopped to bits with a chainsaw in the front of his car in a cadaver bag. Like had that not happened. Yeah, I'd be like, probably was just for a music video. But like, do we have to suspend all rationality to find any other explanation for this? Like, come the fuck on. So yeah, there's a lot going on. But the Amazon purchases don't stop there. On 8 May and 31 May, David returned to Santa Barbara County. It was the same area he had been to immediately on after he allegedly killed Celeste. An isolated site off State Road 154. And this, this is just unbelievable, this area where his car went to. And I believe he took his phone. And that's how they know. And even if he didn't, there's fucking. He took his fucking Tesla, which is like a giant computer. He took his fucking Tesla there. This is where months later in January 2026, Celeste's passport would be found by a maintenance worker. Fuck yeah.
- [41:08]
Hannah McGuire
And then on the 7th of July 2025, six weeks after Celeste was likely killed, David ordered a burn cage, also known as an incinerator from Amazon.
- [41:25]
Alloy Health Announcer
Why?
- [41:26]
Suri Tibala
And look, people, I like, I was like, why the fck? And people online like, oh, people use it to like incinerate like Garden waste and things like that.
- [41:34]
Hannah McGuire
And, like, you can just burn it. That's what people. You just. You just set it on fire in your garden and then it goes away. Everybody knows that. Why would you need an incinerator?
- [41:44]
Suri Tibala
I don't know. I don't know. Little home pet crematorium? I don't know. I don't know. Why would this be needed?
- [41:54]
Hannah McGuire
And this is unbelievable. Said burncage is visible. I've seen it in some of the livestreams that David did after Celeste was killed. Yeah.
- [42:08]
Suri Tibala
Oh, he carries on. He carries on. He's like living two parallel lives. I think he lives two parallel lives for most of his life, but he is immediately living two parallel lives after Celeste is killed, allegedly by him, where he is, like, ordering all these things off Amazon. He's frantically trying to, like, think of a way to get rid of the body and, like, deal with this situation that he's created for himself, allegedly. But he's also still on TikTok, going to, like, album launch parties, like, doing his live streams, like, he's still doing all of the things that he normally does. And with mirth. It's not like, oh, I gotta just look normal, I gotta just act normal. No, he's like, he's having a great time. From what it looks like.
- [42:49]
Hannah McGuire
We've seen some people theorizing online that perhaps the burn cage is where Celeste's missing finger went.
- [42:57]
Suri Tibala
Fingers, wow.
- [43:01]
Hannah McGuire
Was David using those fingers as test runs to see if the burn cage could destroy human remains? But apparently the burn cage hadn't actually been opened or used.
- [43:17]
Suri Tibala
I mean, we've all been there. We're so dark. We've all ordered things and then we've
- [43:22]
Hannah McGuire
all ordered a burn cage.
- [43:23]
Suri Tibala
And then just be like, I'll get to it later. I've got my burn cage at home next year. I'm currently also, like, planning to grow my own broccoli sprouts because apparently they're really good for you. So I've ordered a little terracotta planter to grow them and some broccoli sprout flesh. I haven't opened them yet.
- [43:41]
Hannah McGuire
Seems like.
- [43:42]
Suri Tibala
Seems like such a lot of effort. So it does feel like David was slowly but surely, over the course of weeks trying to figure out what to do with Celeste's body allegedly. And online, there has been a lot of speculation as to where her remains were for all this time. This is going on for weeks. And I honestly think they were just in his house or maybe in the garage before he eventually placed the remains in his car. And I think he probably did that because of the smell, because a lot of people in the area could smell something very weird. Apparently the neighbors noticed a foul stench coming from the garden and they had actually just recently buried their husky who had died in their garden. And apparently they thought, like, we need to dig this dog up, because I don't think we've buried him deep enough. Like, that's got to be what the smell is. But then suddenly they noticed that the smell went away after they realized eventually because the Tesla had been towed. There's also a live stream. This is gross. There's also a live stream that David is doing with his friends at his house after he allegedly killed Celeste there and probably has her fucking remains there, where he apologises. You can hear him on the stream. Apologise to them for the smell, saying that he just used the toilet before they got there.
- [45:12]
Hannah McGuire
Probably realising that he couldn't keep this up indefinitely. The prosecution alleges that David got to work and set up the garage as his body disposal room. They claim that he placed Celeste's body in the inflatable pool that he bought off Amazon to stop her blood spilling onto the garage floor.
- [45:34]
Suri Tibala
An inflatable pool, though, when you're going to use a chainsaw.
- [45:39]
Hannah McGuire
And then the prosecution alleged David used a chainsaw and perhaps some other tools to cut off Celeste's limbs. Small blue plastic fragments were found embedded in Celeste's remains and when they were analysed, they were found to be a physical match to the inflatable pool that David had purchased. And then, allegedly, David put Celeste's remains into the body bag and heavy duty plastic bags and then into his car. According to the investigators, CCTV and other evidence shows that David was the last person to drive that car on 29th July, 2025, right before he left LA for a concert tour. A month later, on 5th September, the car was towed and Celeste's decomposing, dismembered body was discovered.
- [46:38]
Suri Tibala
And look, as we touched on at the start of this episode, why didn't he get rid of the body? Why on earth would you go to the effort of chopping up her body and leaving it in your car and then just disappear and fuck off on tour? It's so bizarre. Now, some people online have been theorizing that maybe he wanted Celeste to be found to somehow legitimize his very dark music. But, like, it is dark, but it's not that dark. It's not like he's, you know, Marilyn Manson or something. That was the darkest person I could think of. I don't know. You know what I mean? It's not like he's actually being dark. It's like a lot of dark imagery. But it feels very obvious that it's all metaphorical about, like, the death of love rather than the actual death of a killer, as he says in the back of my mind. But like I said, I don't really get it. It's not like he's, you know. Remember that case we did about, like, the Norwegian, like, black metal bands that were, like, you know, actually trying to be. Go beyond just being edgelord by burning down churches and, like, killing people? I don't really get that with his particular brand of, like, sort of bedroom pop music. So I don't know. I don't really buy that. And I don't buy that David wanted to get caught. Some people are saying that. I was like, why the fuck would he want to get caught? Because, yes, it is weird that in some ways he takes a lot of actions to cover up what he's done.
- [48:09]
Hannah McGuire
Yeah.
- [48:09]
Suri Tibala
But then he also makes the huge mistake of just leaving the body in his car outside his house. Maybe because, remember, he is 20, 21 years old. Maybe he just didn't know what the fuck to do. Maybe also possibly, was somebody else meant to get rid of the car and the body while he was on tour, to give him that distance, to be like, well, I was on tour. I don't know. You know, I was away. I don't know. And maybe that person didn't do what they were supposed to. Who knows? Lots of people online are also saying maybe he's just lazy. You know, he had no follow through. Which, like, maybe, sure, I could see that. But allegedly, David already had killed Celeste, chopped up her body and moved her remains into his car. He's kind of already done the hard part.
- [48:53]
Hannah McGuire
That's what I was gonna say. He does a lot of work, allegedly. Like, it's so odd to just, like, at the last hurdle, just be like,
- [49:02]
Suri Tibala
yeah, I don't get that. It's like, why not just drive out? Why not just drive out to some remote spot? It kind of felt like when you kept driving out to Santa Barbara county into that remote spot, it was like he was scouting out an area to maybe bury her. Why not just do that and take a fucking postmate shovel and bury her somewhere in the desert? Like, I don't know.
- [49:21]
Hannah McGuire
Or like, you're in la, throw her in the tar pits?
- [49:23]
Suri Tibala
I don't know. I Don't know. Because I honestly think if the police had not found Celeste's body, especially if they had not found Celeste's body in his fucking car, I think he would have got away with it.
- [49:35]
Hannah McGuire
I think. I'm with you on that.
- [49:37]
Suri Tibala
I don't even think he would have been arrested because Celeste was known, even though she was only 14 years old, she was known to be a runaway by police and she'd already been reported missing by her family. Anything could have happened to her. So, yeah, I don't know. I really. That is the biggest question for me in this entire case is why he leaves Celeste's dismembered remains in his car outside his house and then just goes on tour.
- [50:01]
Hannah McGuire
When Celeste's remains were initially discovered in the Tesla, the police didn't know who she was. All they knew was that the car belonged to David. David's team released a statement saying that they had absolutely no clue what happened, but they were cooperating with the lapd, which was a lie. They absolutely were not.
- [50:23]
Suri Tibala
They're just like, we're cooperating. No, they weren't. They were completely not doing that.
- [50:28]
Hannah McGuire
David continued with his tour and.
- [50:31]
Suri Tibala
Can we just talk about this, right, if you are going to even remotely pretend you didn't have anything to do with this. If we were on tour and the police called us and were like, excuse me, we found a dead, chopped up body in your car, I'd be like, hannah, man, we gotta go home. Like, I don't know what's going on. This is fucking bonkers. I wouldn't be like, oh, okay, well, sorry, I'm out of town right now. Like, it goes beyond like reasonable logic that you wouldn't come back. He just carries on like it doesn't make any fucking sense.
- [51:09]
Hannah McGuire
David only cancelled when the police finally identified Celeste. And what's really interesting is that while it took the police a little while to figure out who the deceased was, David's discord knew immediately. When the news of the body in the car broke, the channel went into meltdown. It had to be Celeste, David's underage girlfriend, that they all knew about. The relationship between David and Celeste was a very open secret.
- [51:47]
Suri Tibala
Celeste regularly appeared on David's social media in pictures, videos, and even on live twitch streams with him. Now, she did usually tend to try and like hide her face or obscure her appearance in some way, like with a hoodie or big glasses or something like that. And also David and her did lie. They would lie and say that she was a 19 year old college student, but she's 13 and 14 when this is all happening. And look, his followers, although the majority of them in his discord are also children. And, like, we know that for a fact. That's not just me guessing. We know that for a fact because at one point David is in there and he's very communicative in there. At one point he's in there and he says something like, basically trying to identify the ages of the people in his discord. And he, like, gives them different emojis to use to show how old they are. And it was something like 30,000 of the people in there were minors. So even these children who were in his discord knew that it was Bullshit. Celeste wasn't 19 years old and she certainly wasn't at fucking college. They knew she was a child. And look, we're going to play you a clip now that is from 2024. It's a live stream that David and Celeste did together. And you'll hear it in a moment and you'll hear him read these. But I'm just going to read it because it's not totally clear what he's saying sometimes. But basically they're on the stream and they're reading the comments that are popping up from his fans. It's his discord or twitch or whatever. And David visibly starts to look panicked when he's reading these because they're saying things like. Because Celeste is sat next to him saying things like, pray for his career Chat, you dumb bro. There's no escaping this, bro. Caught you in 4K. Nah, you're going on the Epstein list. Don't get cancelled. Dog,
- [53:38]
Hannah McGuire
Dog with a W, dog.
- [53:40]
Suri Tibala
So, yeah, this Twitch stream is. Is pretty wild. All right, I'm only going to play you. This one is your media. I personally don't. Yo, I media trained you.
- [53:52]
Hannah McGuire
No, you didn't.
- [53:52]
Suri Tibala
That's controversial. It's controversial of raping kids.
- [53:59]
Progressive Insurance Announcer
Really good. It's been a good one. Bye.
- [54:02]
Alloy Health Announcer
Bye, guys.
- [54:05]
Suri Tibala
Oh, my.
- [54:06]
Progressive Insurance Announcer
Delete everything. Delete, delete everything.
- [54:08]
Suri Tibala
Everything goes, Everything goes everything. Chat, chat. Pray for his career chat.
- [54:16]
Wes (Podcast Promoter)
Are we done?
- [54:17]
Sleep Number Mattress Announcer
Are we?
- [54:17]
Suri Tibala
Are we? We need to delete this, are we?
- [54:21]
Progressive Insurance Announcer
Can we delete all vods and then
- [54:22]
Wes (Podcast Promoter)
as soon as the stream ends, delete the stream, too.
- [54:28]
Suri Tibala
Can we delete anything you done for bro? Y' all are not done. Now you're gonna.
- [54:36]
Progressive Insurance Announcer
Yo, yo, yo, yo. Wait, wait, wait, wait.
- [54:40]
Suri Tibala
Oh, look it.
- [54:41]
Alloy Health Announcer
Answer that one.
- [54:42]
Suri Tibala
That's so mean if you don't answer.
- [54:43]
Alloy Health Announcer
Which one?
- [54:43]
Progressive Insurance Announcer
Which one?
- [54:43]
Sleep Number Mattress Announcer
Which one?
- [54:46]
Hannah McGuire
I'm upset. Yeah, it's A lot. It's a lot. It's very obvious that David knows that Celeste is too young for him.
- [54:57]
Suri Tibala
Otherwise why lie? Why lie and say she's 19 and why hide her face?
- [55:02]
Hannah McGuire
And in the clip we just played you at that time, he's 18, she's 13. Why would you take such a huge risk and put Celeste on a livestream? And he's talking about deleting it. You can't.
- [55:19]
Suri Tibala
He has. So it is gone.
- [55:23]
Hannah McGuire
But. But we have it.
- [55:24]
Suri Tibala
No, this is a clip and the reason we have this clip, we don't have the whole stream because it sounds like a joke where he's like, delete it. Delete it all. Delete it all. It's not a joke. He's deadly serious. And I believe the screenshots have come forward from the mod that he messaged to be like, I'm serious, delete that stream. So we don't know what else was said on that stream. And the only reason we have that tiny clip is because of Celeste. You notice in that bit where she goes, read out that comment, the guy who made that comment started screen recording because he wanted David to read out his comment to him and say his name. And that guy saved it and then has leaked it. That's the only reason we have script. So we don't have the full stream. We don't know what was said, don't know what has rattled him so much other than the bit that we have, which, like, if it wasn't for Celeste, we actually wouldn't even have. But yeah, it's very, very weird. Like, yeah.
- [56:17]
Hannah McGuire
Did he perhaps think that no one
- [56:20]
Suri Tibala
would notice that she was 13? I mean, like a hoodie and some glasses aren't really going to do it. And look, people keep saying, people say all the time with this case, like, oh, well, she was very mature for her age. She was very mature for her age.
- [56:35]
Sleep Number Mattress Announcer
So.
- [56:36]
Suri Tibala
And I, like, I don't even think that's true. I don't even think that's true. Like, I'm sorry, we just watched that video. She comes across like a, like a teenager. She comes across like a 13, 14 year old. I don't think she comes across as particularly mature for her age in like all of the messaging that she does in like, I've seen a lot of things that she was like, reposting on TikTok and stuff. I'm like, that is not. That's a 13, 14 year old. That is not somebody who's mature. I even hate that word that they're using, mature. I think at most I could say advanced. Advanced for her age because they were living a very horrifically advanced life together. Like, she's talking about taking drugs very openly. She's talking about drinking alcohol very openly. She's talking about sex. And like, very explicit commentary around sex. That to me doesn't scream mature, it screams too advanced for her age. But she certainly doesn't look older. There's no mistaking that she is a child, in my opinion.
- [57:37]
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- [58:10]
Hannah McGuire
So is putting her on the live stream? Is he getting off on it? Is he flaunting his underage girlfriend in plain sight?
- [58:18]
Suri Tibala
It's so unnecessary.
- [58:20]
Sleep Number Mattress Announcer
Why do it?
- [58:21]
Suri Tibala
Maybe it's just for the content, but I'm like, it kind of feels like, you know, when people say, like duping delight, when people are smiling, when they're getting away with, like, it kind of. Is it a bit of that? I don't know, but it's very odd.
- [58:31]
Hannah McGuire
It is. And either way, however you slice is very obvious that David's audience, his fans, his live stream attendants, they all know that she's a child.
- [58:46]
Suri Tibala
And let's talk about Celeste's comment where she says it's controversial of you raping kids. What does she mean? Is she referring to herself? Is that how she then sees that relationship? Is she, you know what I mean? Like, if a child is in a relationship with somebody who's inappropriately older, they are going to be like, no, I'm old enough to be in this relationship. This isn't rape. Like, I'm consent. Why is she making that joke? I don't know. It's very weird. But I feel like their entire relationship, a lot of his Persona online is being edgy, like saying controversial. So is she just playing into that because somebody mentions Epstein? I don't know. It's very weird. And then also the way he puts his hand on her shoulder. Like, I don't think it's particularly aggressive, but it is, like, quite odd the way he puts his hand on her shoulder. He says, I media trained you. Again, it's all being played off As a joke. And if she was of age, if she was 19, I'd be like, yeah, it's just some funny joke they've got between the two of them. But it's very weird. Like, is it. He's directing her on how to behave and then she crossed that line because that's when he freaks out because the comments start rolling in and then he's like, delete it all. Delete it all. I don't know. It's very strange. And like I said, even though it's paid off as a joke on the stream, he does message the mods after and they do delete everything. Some people are saying. Maybe the prosecution have access to the full stream. I don't know if they need it. They got a lot of evidence, but we certainly don't have it.
- [60:08]
Hannah McGuire
Investigators have also stated that they found a significant amount of child pornography on his devices. That is a quote. Don't say child pornography. Say child sex abuse images.
- [60:20]
Suri Tibala
Yes. I think they're very purposefully using the word child pornography because they say it again and again and again and again. It's not just written. It's at that first hearing, I think they're doing it on purpose. And the entire time he just sits there looking straight ahead. No reaction, nothing. Maybe he's been told to act like that. I don't know.
- [60:38]
Hannah McGuire
And was all of that child sex abuse material downloaded off the Internet? Doubt it.
- [60:45]
Suri Tibala
Yeah, I don't think so. Maybe there was some. Maybe there was some that was downloaded off the Internet. We really don't know. We don't know. But, yeah, I don't know. The way they were saying it, it kind of made me feel like that's not what it was.
- [60:58]
Hannah McGuire
It's probably pictures and videos of Celeste, possibly other minors that David is also allegedly to have had sexual relationships with. And again, strange. If David killed Celeste to cover up sexual abuse, why did he not delete all of the sexual images?
- [61:19]
Suri Tibala
That's the evidence again. Maybe he just thinks he's not going to get caught.
- [61:24]
Hannah McGuire
This material could make things even worse for David. Those images, videos, whatever they are, could make this a federal case. And federal prosecutors have vast resources available to them, meaning they get much higher conviction rates and they hand out much harsher sentences in much more horrific prisons.
- [61:47]
Suri Tibala
Yeah, man. I think if this stays a state case, maybe it's worth a shot for him to go to trial, give it a go. You know, if it goes federal, he should just be like that. I'm out.
- [61:59]
Wes (Podcast Promoter)
Yeah.
- [61:59]
Suri Tibala
Federal prosecutors have like a 99% conviction ring. Forget it. But for now, before we get to all that, let's rewind a bit to take a look at who knew about the situation between David and Celeste and how it was allowed to go on for so long. Like we said, it seems that they probably met online. That's what the prosecution is saying. And it does seem to bear out probably they met through his discord in January 2022, when she would have been 11 years old and he would have been 16. Now, this was before he blew up and got really famous. Romantic Homicide would come out later that same year. And it seems that for nearly two years after they met, their relationship was strictly online. They physically met, it is believed, for the first time in November 2023, when Celeste was 13 and he would have been 18. And it is then that they started a sexual relationship. And look, this is also like, is it a coincidence? Is it all part of the grooming? Was he. Did he really think he loved her? Whatever. The music video for Romantic Homicide was actually released on Celeste's birthday. Again, is it just him doing things to make her feel special? It's like a nothing thing for him, but it makes her feel special, keeps her, like, in his sphere of influence. It's like adding to the grooming. He even wrote a song called Celeste in December, talking about Celeste, the girl with my name tattooed on her chest. It's not on her chest, on her finger, but, you know, it feels like it's very. It's very obviously about her. Yeah, exactly. And it's after this that she also started appearing on his social media with David even openly referring to her as his girlfriend.
- [63:44]
Hannah McGuire
And shortly after the twitch stream that we played for you earlier, Celeste was reported missing by her family in February 2024. And at this stage, the police did actually connect David with Celeste, and they even contacted him to ask if he knew where Celeste was. He told them that he had last spoken to celeste on the 13th or 14th of February, but he was unaware that she was a minor or that she was missing on Valentine's Day. Don't think so. He even claimed that he'd only ever met her once in person in November 2023, which was definitely not true. Just have to look at his social media. What's very important here is that the police told David loud and clear that Celeste was 13 and a runaway. Even if we gave him the enormous benefit of the doubt that he didn't know before this, which makes absolutely no sense, because if he didn't know Celeste was underage, why would he lie to the police about knowing her.
- [64:53]
Suri Tibala
Yeah, and about having literally just done a twitch stream with her.
- [64:57]
Hannah McGuire
But after this visit there is no room or any doubt about whether he knew that Celeste was a child. He did know and he continued a sexual relationship with Celeste for another full year before he killed her. Allegedly.
- [65:18]
Suri Tibala
Okay guys, we didn't actually plan for this episode to be a two parter but we have talked so long, we have so many interview clips, we have so much information on the David case that I think it's worth stopping here for today and we will pick back up next time with the second half of David and I promise you it's only going to be two parts because we've already recorded it. So yeah, stopping now and we'll see you in part two. Listen, because there is so much information in the second part including a Haitian warlock ritual cult.
- [65:49]
Hannah McGuire
Clickety click.
- [65:50]
Suri Tibala
We have to talk about. See you then.
- [65:52]
Hannah McGuire
Bye.
- [65:53]
Wes (Podcast Promoter)
Foreign. Wes here again. If you enjoyed this episode, head over to Red Handed on your favorite listening platform to catch part two of the series where Hannah and Suri dive into the arrest and trial of David Burke. Follow Red Handed on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you're listening now. New episodes are released three times a week.
- [66:27]
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- [66:56]
Suri Tibala
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Suri Tibala
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