Singer D4vd has been charged with murder over the death of a 14-year-old girl whose dismembered and decomposed body was found in September in his apparently abandoned Tesla, prosecutors say.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office on Monday (early Tuesday AEST) said the 21-year-old D4vd, whose legal name is David Burke, was charged with first-degree murder; lewd and lascivious acts with an individual under 14; and mutilating a body over the killing of Celeste Rivas Hernandez.

She was reported missing by her family in 2024, when she was 13. Authorities say she was 14 when she died.

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The murder charges included special circumstances — lying in wait, committing crime for financial gain and murdering the witness in an investigation — that could carry the death penalty. Prosecutors haven't announced whether they will seek it.

Attorneys for the Houston-born alt-pop singer said he was innocent in a statement released after homicide detectives arrested him on Thursday at a home in Hollywood.

"Let us be clear — the actual evidence in this case will show that David Burke did not murder Celeste Rivas Hernandez and he was not the cause of her death," the lawyers said.

The long-dead body of Rivas Hernandez was found inside a Tesla that was towed from the Hollywood Hills on September 8, one day after she would have turned 15. Her family had reported her missing from her hometown of Lake Elsinore, about 110 kilometres south-east of Los Angeles.

Authorities did not publicly name Burke as a suspect until his arrest. His lawyers' statement last week, in which said they "will vigorously defend David's innocence", was the first time they weighed in publicly.

The singer had been under investigation by an LA County grand jury looking into the death. The probe was officially secret, but its existence — and his designation as its target — was revealed in February when his mother, father and brother objected in a Texas court to subpoenas demanding they testify.

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The 2023 Tesla Model Y was registered in the singer's name at the Texas address of his subpoenaed family members, according to court filings from prosecutors. It had been towed from an upscale Hollywood Hills neighbourhood where it had been sitting as though it was abandoned.

Police investigators searching the Tesla in a tow yard found a cadaver bag "covered with insects and a strong odour of decay", court documents said. Detectives partially unzipped a bag and found a head and torso.

Investigators from the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's Office removed the bag and "discovered the arms and legs had been severed from the body", according to court documents.

A second black bag was found under the first, and dismembered body parts were inside it. No cause of death has been publicly revealed, and police got a judge to block the release details of the autopsy.

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On Friday, the medical examiner told The Associated Press the court order remained in place after Burke's arrest, and suggested to ask the police whether they would ask to lift it.

The family of Rivas Hernandez has remained private and has not made any public statements on her death or the case.

D4vd, pronounced "David", gained popularity among Gen Z for his blend of 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 four on Billboard's Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart.

He then signed with Darkroom and Interscope Records and released his debut EP Petals to Thorns and a follow-up, The Lost Petals, in 2023.

When the body was discovered, the singer continued his North American tour, but when reports of his possible involvement spread widely, he cancelled the final two shows and a European tour that was to follow.

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Former champion footballer Barry Cable has been found not guilty of a slew of historical child sexual abuse accusations.

The 82-year-old faced a judge-only criminal trial over allegations he abused a girl aged about eight or nine at his family home in the late 1960s.

The former Australian Rules player returned to the Western Australian District Court in Perth today for Judge Michael Bowden's verdict more than a month after the trial ended.

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Prosecutors alleged Cable abused the girl at his family home when she was staying with him and his wife, Helen, for about a month.

The alleged victim told the trial Cable treated her well at first.

"He was loving towards me like an uncle … then things changed," she said while giving evidence in March.

"He started touching my body."

The abuse allegedly involved penetrative sex on multiple occasions when the former North Melbourne player's wife was asleep.

The woman reported the alleged abuse to police in 2023 when she spotted Cable on television, telling the court during the trial that it had "brought back memories of what he had done to me".

All told, Cable denied five counts of indecent dealing with a girl aged under 13 and two counts of unlawful carnal knowledge of a girl under 13 between December 31, 1966 and December 31, 1969.

A civil trial in the same court in 2023 found Cable abused a girl over five years from 1968 when she was aged 12.

The victim was awarded $818,700 in damages.

The civil trial judge said there was compelling evidence the former footballer had violated other children.

Cable, who repeatedly attempted to have the civil case proceedings permanently thrown out and did not attend the trial, denied the abuse.

He was later stripped of his Australian Football Hall of Fame honours following an illustrious playing career in the 1960s and '70s for Perth and East Perth in the WAFL and North Melbourne in the VFL, going on to coach in both leagues.

He has been dumped from the Sport Australia Hall of Fame, and the West Australian Football Commission revoked the former champion's Hall of Fame membership, including his Legend status.

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A bus driver has been fired after a Melbourne schoolboy became trapped in the doors of a public bus and was dragged down the road for several hundred metres.

The 12-year-old was on his way to school in Wheelers Hill in the city's south-east about 8am on March 16 when his bag appeared to become caught in the automatic bus doors.

Phone camera footage, released today by the boy's mother, shows the schoolboy being carried down the road, as he lifted his knees to avoid being scraped along the bitumen.

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A spokesperson for Ventura Bus Lines said the bus driver involved had been terminated.

"This is a very distressing incident, and we will continue to support the passenger and family at this time," a spokesperson said.

"The safety of our passengers is our priority. We have emphasised our safety protocols with all drivers and will implement a review to enhance driver training programs.

"Following a full investigation into this incident, and internal disciplinary procedures, the driver's employment has been terminated."

The boy's mother Grace shared the confronting footage on Instagram and said another school mum saw her son hanging off the bus and honked to warn the driver.

It is understood the boy was dragged for about 350 metres down Brandon Park Drive before the bus driver noticed.

"It still gives me anxiety every time I see the footage, it's just horrible," Grace told Today.

"When the bus took off he knew that he couldn't keep running at its side so he just had to lift his legs off the ground.

"And honestly, if he was a taller student, or a weaker student, there is no way he would be able to hang on to the side of a moving bus, at that speed, for that distance."

Grace earlier told 3AW that her son, who had just started year seven this year, was mostly uninjured.

He was left with some bruising on his shoulder from the strap of his schoolbag.

"We're very, very thankful that he is physically unhurt," she said.

"I don't know how it happened.

"He could have died… he could have clipped the side [of the] cars."

Grace said her son is now "traumatised" and does not like to catch the bus to school alone.

"[He] is still seeing a psychologist, but he can't travel on the bus alone anymore and he gets panic attacks when he sees a bus on the road," she told Today.

Grace called for safety improvements to ensure a similar incident does not occur.

"The bus door only has one sensor in the middle of the door and Nathaniel was caught under that sensor, so it didn't set off any alarms for the driver," she said.

"However, the door wasn't fully closed, his arm was caught in it, you would think there would be another safety feature on the bus to alert the driver of that."

"Ventura [the bus operator] are not being accountable, the responses I have received from them so far have been very dismissive and just very disappointing.

"We need our children to be safe. This should not have happened to [my son] or anybody else, it's just horrible."

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Victoria Police said it is aware of the incident but that it was not reported to police.

Police are now making enquiries.

A Victorian government spokesperson said it was "disturbing vision".

"We expect our bus operators to uphold the highest safety standards for passengers," the spokesperson said.

"Following an investigation by Ventura, which included reviewing CCTV and speaking with the impacted family, the driver no longer works at Ventura.

"The Department of Transport and Planning is continuing an investigation to ensure safety processes are adhered to by the bus operator."

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A pedestrian killed by an out-of-control car outside a Melbourne comic convention has been remembered as a "kind and compassionate young man" who was looking forward to an overseas trip with his best friends later this year.

Volkan Aksoy, 20, was killed when a Toyota Echo swerved across Langs Road in Ascot Vale and mounted a kerb outside the Melbourne Showgrounds about 5pm on Saturday.

Aksoy, who had spent most of the day with his friends at the Supanova Comic Con and Gaming event, died at the scene.

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His best friend, also 20, suffered a cracked skull and fractured leg and was taken to hospital in a serious but stable condition.

Another friend has been discharged after he was taken to hospital for shock.

Aksoy's heartbroken mother described her son as "a kind and compassionate young man who cherished time with his friends and family, whom he loved deeply".

"He had a beautiful spirit, he was very much loved and will be profoundly missed by all who knew him," she told 9News.

The family is struggling to come to terms with the tragedy, his mother said.

"His life was taken far too soon – there's no other way to describe it."

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Aksoy's colleagues at the Keysborough fast-food restaurant where he worked for several years remembered the young man as a "well-mannered, easy-going, social gentleman".

"He had big dreams, he was very intellectual, that's what I'm going to miss the most about him," friend and coworker Hasha Kong said.

"I remembered he was so excited to go to Japan at the end of the year with his high school best friends, until this happened.

"But I am so grateful to have met him. I believe that anyone would love to have a person just like Volkan in their life."

Police allege the Werribee man who was allegedly behind the wheel was on bail at the time and was unlicensed.

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Amer Dau, 33, fronted court today charged with dangerous driving causing death, culpable driving and committing an indictable offence whilst on bail.

He made no further application for bail and will remain behind bars until his next court appearance in September.

Investigations remain ongoing as to whether it was a deliberate act, but detectives have ruled out terrorism.

Further charges could be laid, police said.

He'll face court again in September.

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A powerful earthquake has struck off the northern Japanese coast, and the Japan Meteorological Agency has issued a tsunami alert in the region.

The quake registering a preliminary magnitude of 7.4 occurred off the coast of Sanriku in northern Japan about 4.53pm (5.53pm AEST), at a depth of about 10 kilometres below the sea surface, the agency said.

Japan's NHK public television said a tsunami of up to 3 metres could hit the area shortly.

It's 15 years since a magnitude 9 earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, ravaged parts of northern Japan, caused more than 22,000 deaths and forced nearly half a million people to flee their homes, most of them due to tsunami damage.

Some 160,000 people fled their homes in Fukushima because of the radiation spewed from the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. About 26,000 of them haven't returned because they resettled elsewhere, their hometowns remain off-limits or they have lingering concerns about radiation.

More to come

MetService says there’s a ‘threat to life’ from dangerous river conditions and flooding.

The theft by Jodie Wastney meant the under-13 team missed planned championships.

Australian actor Rebel Wilson took out defamation insurance before she posted a series of allegedly slanderous social media posts about the star of her directorial debut, a court has been told.

The Pitch Perfect star directed, co-produced and starred in The Deb, a musical comedy set in rural NSW which was only recently released due to various legal battles.

She is being sued by the lead actor, Charlotte MacInnes, over social media posts claiming she confided in her that she felt uncomfortable with co-producer Amanda Ghost.

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MacInnes has denied making the complaint to Wilson and said she has been seriously harmed by the older actor's suggestions she retracted the alleged comments in return for a lead role and a record deal.

"It it is a lie," her lawyer Sue Chrysanthou SC told the Federal Court today.  

"No such conversation occurred. That is a fabrication by Ms Wilson."

The social media posts are said to blame MacInnes for blocking the film's release with her lies and portray her as selfishly putting her own career ahead of the 300 cast and crew who worked on The Deb. 

But it was outrageous to suggest her client had anything to do with delaying the film's release when Wilson instigated and spread the bad publicity, Chrysanthou said. 

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Wilson took out defamation insurance with QBE after learning she would not be given writing credit for the film "so she could go ballistic on social media", she claimed. 

Instead of checking in on MacInnes as an alleged victim of inappropriate behaviour, Chrysanthou said the older actor made "grotesque" claims on her Instagram stories. 

"This is how this bully, apparently this saviour of women, the protector of the harassed, responds," she said.

But Wilson raised her concerns with others even though she had doubts about the veracity of the alleged complaint, her lawyer Dauid Sibtain SC said. 

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The central issue is not whether she was a victim but instead whether she complained to Wilson and then changed her story, he said.

"The reason she did so is obvious … to ensure her career as an actress and musician progressed by appeasing Ms Ghost," Sibtain told the court.

The lure of future opportunities, which have since materialised as a lead role in a stage production and a record deal with a prestigious label, was sufficient motive, he claimed. 

MacInnes says Wilson's social media posts damaged her professional reputation and created doubts about her trustworthiness before she could even enjoy the benefits of playing her first lead role in a film.

The up-and-coming actor is seeking aggravated damages for the serious harm caused as well as a court order preventing Wilson from repeating the claims.

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Yet Sibtain said her professional career has progressed since the social media posts were shared for 24 hours to Wilson's 11 million followers.

"She suffered no harm to her career at all," he told the court. The actors avoided eye contact as they sat near each other in court, with Wilson occasionally scoffing through proceedings. 

The Bridesmaids star praised the film as she entered the Federal Court today morning for the first day of the nine day hearing. 

"I love the movie. The Deb is so cute and amazing," she said. 

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The internationally acclaimed star wore a smile and neutral tones as she entered the courthouse after flying to Australia from the US over the weekend. 

She and her wife are expected to give evidence next week.

The Deb premiered in 2024 but had been blocked from wider distribution by legal disputes. 

The film was released in Australia on April 9, with some local reviews praising it as "joyous" and "filthy, fun, but most of all moving", while another said "many moments fall flat". 

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A pilot has died in a helicopter crash near Blackall in Queensland's central west.

Police say the chopper crashed around 9.30am just off Tumbar Road, not far outside the small outback town.

The 42-year-old male pilot, who was the sole occupant of the helicopter, was declared dead at the scene.

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The cause of the crash is not yet known but will be investigated by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau with assistance from police.

Workplace Health and Safety have been advised.

A report will be prepared for the coroner.

Luxon claims he was reacting to the Herald’s report on Friday.