The TikTok Murder Pipeline: D4vd, Runaway Victims, and the Cost of Viral Fame
We're pulling back the curtain on the TikTok machine to expose the devastating murder and crime that lurks beneath the surface of viral fame. This episode traces a pattern of modern horror where the pressure to maintain a perfect online persona—the For You Page ideal—led to the most shocking acts. Our main story follows the rapid rise and sudden collapse of music star D4vd (David Anthony Burke), but he is not the only influencer whose life turned fatal.
The Decomposed Life: D4vd, A Runaway, and the Tesla Model S
D4vd's story was the epitome of the TikTok dream: from a teen recording "Romantic Homicide" on his phone to a star signing with Interscope Records. But that dream turned into a nightmare when the body of 15-year-old runaway Celeste Rivas Hernandez was found in his abandoned Tesla Model S in the Hollywood Hills. We dive into the most disturbing evidence: the shared "Shhh..." tattoo, the horrifying meaning behind his murderous alter-ego, Itami, and the timeline that allowed a decomposing body to sit for weeks while D4vd maintained his touring schedule.
When the Camera Turns Off: JinnKid and the Bukhari Double Murders
The pattern of social media crime is shockingly consistent: a facade of perfection hiding a dark, controlling secret. We cover the gruesome double murder committed by influencer Ali Abulaban (JinnKid), who used a surveillance app to track his estranged wife, Ana, before his rage exploded. Plus, the chilling story of UK mother-daughter TikTok duo Mahek Bukhari and Ansreen Bukhari, who plotted a high-speed chase and double murder to protect Mahek’s influencer career from blackmail. This is the Dark Side of the FYP, where image is protected at any cost.
DAVID_MANDY
Mandy: [00:00:00] Hey guys, and welcome to the Moms and Mysteries podcast, a True Crime podcast featuring myself, Mandy,
and my dear friend Melissa. Hi Melissa.
Melissa: Hi Mandy. How are you?
Mandy: I'm hanging in there. How are you?
Melissa: I am doing well. We have a short week this week with my kids at school, so, I'm enjoying these last few hours of freedom
Mandy: What? What holiday is it now?
Melissa: fall break two and a half days. Yeah. You know, we all need a break in the fall. I do, but they don't.
Mandy: Well, don't feel too down
about their two days. Is it two days they have
Melissa: Two and a half, yes.
Mandy: in another week.
My kids have a
full week of school for
fall break,
Melissa: Okay. Yeah, you win. And by that I mean you
Mandy: Yes.
Melissa: time.
Um, yeah. So Mandy, before we get started real quick, one thing I was just thinking about, if you are a listener of the show, if you're new here, thank you so much for joining us. Please make sure you subscribe. Uh, we don't really ask a lot of our listeners, but it'd be really great if you subscribe, if you leave a review.
All of that [00:01:00] really helps share the episode. Um, we would very much appreciate it.
Mandy: we would. Thank you. Okay, Melissa, I am super excited to get into this story,
uh, or this set of stories, if you will, for
this Thursday episode. Uh, but there's one in here that has been in the news like just super recently that I'm excited to talk about because it's absolutely bonkers. today we're talking about TikTok murders, which
unfortunately there are more than
one of those. but as we all know on TikTok, you can really be anyone, right? You can be a comedian, a dancer, just a star. You can actually build a world for yourself or make it look like it's perfect and shiny and new, and you can do all of this in 15 second videos. I never really was into TikTok myself. I know you always have
been. You've,
you
Melissa: 2023 I or 2223, I like held back. I did not wanna join another freaking app, and then when I did, I was like, you idiot, this is wonderful.
Mandy: Yeah, so [00:02:00] I do like TikTok, but I have periods where I like, I don't know, I just had to Erase and like redo my phone and I haven't even downloaded it again 'cause, but I will. As soon As
someone sends me a TikTok and then it forces you to
like download the app. You can't open it on the browser, so it's a whole thing. But TikTok, yes, it's a big thing. Millions of people scroll through, you know, they're endless feeds, curated to perfection every single day. There's dance challenges, there's comedy skits, there's lifestyle content, music things that just go viral overnight. So it's a platform where ordinary, everyday people like you and
me become millionaires.
Unlike you and me.
Melissa: Right.
Mandy: With TikTok though, teenagers can become household names and one single video that hits the right part of the algorithm can change your entire
life. I'm still waiting for the day that happens for
Melissa: Yeah. We are not on there nearly enough for that.
Mandy: but what happens when the cameras turn off and that carefully crafted image, you know, kind of shatters for some, the line [00:03:00] between performance and reality is really blurred and there can be deadly consequences.
So today we're diving into the dark side of TikTok where the quest for fame and the pressure to maintain this perfect life have led to some of the most shocking crimes we've ever covered. We are talking about a string of murders that are all connected in one way or another to the social media giant TikTok. It's terrifying
because it feels like so modern and current.
This is like, you know, these are not cold cases from decades ago, which we do a lot of on our show, but these are crimes that are actually happening right now in 2025. they're all tied up with TikTok, this app that our kids, our friends, and even we use every single day. Um, and the victims range from a 15-year-old runaway to young adults just trying to live their lives. And the perpetrators include some of
the platform's biggest stars.
Melissa: So before we get into the cases, we really need to talk about what TikTok is and how it became this massive cultural force because its power and its influence are really a huge part of this [00:04:00] story. So if you're not familiar with TikTok, that is okay. We are gonna take you to the beginning, but it feels like it really just kind of came out of nowhere.
To me, this is very much A-C-O-V-I-D thing, that 2020 is when people started watching it and that's when I started refusing and it was a whole, a whole thing. But the way it kind of started is pretty fascinating and it's this tale of like corporate strategy and technological innovation and really cultural timing.
It started with an app called Musically, and I don't know if your son was into that. My daughter loved that. Like she had it on my phone. I feel like
Mandy: remember it.
Melissa: of were at the time for some reason. Um, but this launched back in 2014 in Shanghai. So the founders are Alex Zoo and Liu Yang and they originally wanted to create an educational platform, which LOL that did not happen at all, although I do learn a lot of things from TikTok.
But, uh, when that failed, they pivoted to short form video content that focused on music. So that's when it was [00:05:00] musically, it became incredibly unpopular with American teenagers who would lip sync to their favorite songs and create these elaborate dance routines. And by 2017, musically had over 200 million users worldwide.
Most of these were young people between the ages of 13 and 24. Meanwhile though, in 2016, a Chinese tech giant called Bite Dance, founded by Jang Ming, created a similar app for the Chinese market called Do Yin. So the word do y literally means shaking sound in Chinese. If I said that correctly. it exploded in popularity getting 100 million users in China and Thailand within just one single year.
And with by dance, they realized they struck gold with their algorithm and user engagement model. So they decided to go global. In November of 2017, they made a huge move and they bought musically for nearly a billion dollars, actually $800 [00:06:00] million to be
Mandy: That's insane Money.
Melissa: That is, I love that. It's like almost a billion, but like only $200 million off.
And I'm like two quarters. When I find those on the ground, I'm like, awesome.
Mandy: I.
Melissa: Bang up day. So then on August 2nd, 2018, they merged musically with the international version of DO Yin, creating what we now know as TikTok. And that's when it really took over the world. The secret sauce that made TikTok different from every other social media platform and why I am there is because of the algorithm.
It's almost scary how well it knows what you want to watch, and I should be scared. I truly should be scared, but it makes me so happy and it really does know me so well and the things I want to see. Every once in a while I'll think I'm getting a video that I do not care about, and it's like something totally weird, and then all of a sudden halfway through it stops and either the person was being sarcastic or something and I'm like, oh, algorithm, good job, because I thought you failed me this time.
But it never fails me. It just never does. [00:07:00] So unlike Instagram or Facebook where you mostly see content from people you follow, boo yuck, um, tiktoks for You page is entirely algorithm driven. It learns your preferences incredibly fast. What you watch, what you skip, what you like, what you share, and even how long you watch each video and it feeds you this endless stream of personalized content.
I learned very early on I could not go around liking things where people didn't have any likes. 'cause I would feel bad. And so if it came up on my for you page, I would like it. But then I kept getting more and I was like, I have to let this go. I can't be everybody's best friend on this. I just need the things I want.
I cannot give you a pity like anymore. So anyway, with TikTok, you could sit down for hours, you could sit down just planning to watch one video and it's two hours later and you've watched hundreds of clips and that one lady pops up that says, Hey you, are you still scrolling?
And I go by her so fast, she makes me so mad. But they do kind of give you a warning, but the AL algorithm is really [00:08:00] so sophisticated that it can detect microexpressions and engagement patterns that you might not even be aware of.
Mandy: Creepy,
Melissa: Yes.
Mandy: but it's also not just about watching. TikTok is also largely about creating, and this is really where TikTok revolutionized social media, because as we said earlier, anyone can go viral. You don't even need a million followers or a professional production team. If your video is really good, if it's creative, or if it just hits at exactly that right moment, the algorithm will magically push it to millions of people. So it created this brand new path to fame and kind of like a digital
American dream. It's what everybody always wants to get.
Fame, and you
know, fame and fortune, TikTok made it happen for so many more people. Suddenly regular kids from suburban towns and teenagers that were just hanging out in their rooms, making videos, you know, college students making videos in between classes. These people were becoming household names with millions of followers, and they were starting to get these lucrative brand deals. [00:09:00] And that is where you get people like Charlie Emilio, who is probably the perfect example of tiktoks power to, you know, create instant celebrities. So Charlie was just a regular teenage girl from Norwalk, Connecticut. She was a competitive dancer, but at this time she was not famous at all. In May of 2019 though, she started posting her dance videos on TikTok and she was mostly doing those popular TikTok dances to trending songs. I don't, is TikTok are, are TikTok dances
still a thing or was that more of a COVID thing too?
Melissa: I think that was more of a COVID thing. But every once in a while you'll get a new song or a new clip that people will do, and then it will be enjoyable for about a week. And then after that, I get so mad when I see it, that's when the algorithm fails me. I'm like, I'm done with it.
Mandy: I know. I get so tired of different TikTok and real sounds like I'm, I've, I'm like getting to the point where it makes me angry when I hear the
Jet two holiday one
now, like I, I wanna
snap, like
sometimes it goes on too long and too far. People,
you [00:10:00] need to know when to cut it off and move on to the next one.
Melissa: and here's the thing. When it gets to Instagram reel or Facebook, I've already known about it for two months, so I am even
Mandy: news. Yesterday's news. Yeah. Yeah. So, Charlie's videos were really good, but there were also thousands of other dancers doing the same thing at this time. But something about Charlie clicked with the algorithm and with audiences, and maybe it was her technique, maybe it was her personality, maybe it was just pure sheer luck and timing. But by November of 2019, she had gained over 5 million followers, and by April of 2021, she became the first person to hit
50 million followers on the app, and
then a
hundred million. Today she has over 150 million followers on TikTok alone. But Charlie didn't just stay on TikTok, she branched out. She leveraged that fame into mainstream success. She actually had a reality show that ran for three seasons with her family, called The Emilio Show on Hulu, and she [00:11:00] won Dancing with the Stars. She actually has performed on Broadway. She has endorsement deals worth millions of dollars, and she really is just a story of how someone went from being a regular teenager to a multimillionaire celebrity in less than two years, all because of these 15 second dance videos that she posted on TikTok, which honestly good for you.
I'm very happy and proud of everyone who has found their way on
TikTok, but dang it. Why couldn't it be me
Melissa: I know.
Mandy: like.
Melissa: This is one of those things that makes me so mad. 'cause it's like Melissa, you just absolutely fought it for those first years. When anyone could do anything, you could have made a stupid sound or some dumb thing you had to say. And at the time it would've been revolutionary. Now it's just noise. I can't do it.
Um, so I'm not bitter. You're bitter. But then there is Addison Ray, you may have heard of her. She followed a similar trajectory. She was a college student at Louisiana State University studying broadcast journalism. And in July, 2019, she also started posting these dance videos on [00:12:00] TikTok. And within months, she has millions of followers.
She goes on to drop out of college, move to Los Angeles and become one of tiktoks highest earners. She's a sometimes friend of the Kardashians. I can't remember which one she was friends with. It doesn't matter. It started with a K. That's all I know.
Um,
Mandy: be
any of them.
Melissa: exactly. So Forbes estimated that she made $5 million in 2020 alone.
She started Netflix's movie. He's all that, which I guess was a spinoff from, she's all that, but I didn't see it. I'm not giving that my time. and she launched her own makeup line. She also had brand partnerships with companies like American Eagle and Spotify, but it's not just dancer. Musicians have also found incredible success on the platform.
I didn't realize this, but little Nas X, his song Old Town Road, became a massive hit largely because of TikTok. The song was used in thousands of videos, probably more than that now, creating this viral moment that propelled it to number one on the billboard, hot 100 for a record breaking [00:13:00] 19 weeks. Um, another person that I love and isn't in this research but is Noah Khan.
He had the song stick season. He became super popular on TikTok, and now he's touring with like these big names and he's got his whole thing going. It's really awesome. I love it. Yeah. And then it's like,
it's cool when you see them, like, and that's what people do a lot of times. It's like, oh, I knew them when, and you know, everybody feels like they're a part of their success, which I think is like the exciting thing on TikTok and places like this.
Mandy: Do you think anyone ever says that about us?
Melissa: no, absolutely not. What kind of question is that?
Mandy: I just wanted to see what you would say.
Melissa: No, but if I go to family things, they're like, and this is my famous cousin, like, I had to go to a thing,
um, Melissa, and I'm like, you're a freaking er doctor. Can we just go back to what you're talking about? Like, don't talk about me. Um, but then as far as music goes, there's also this guy named David, which is actually written out d the number four VD.
And that's how I know I'm old because I was like, Defor, [00:14:00] my son's like, absolutely
Mandy: It, it.
makes me think of like trying
to figure out how you can put your name on your License.
Melissa: License. Exactly. That has to be it. Um, because there's no other reason to do that. But his rise to fame is a perfect example of how TikTok can transform someone's life really overnight, and how quickly that fame can turn into a nightmare. But with that level of fame comes an incredible amount of pressure that.
Most people really just don't fully understand. It's something I can't understand. But these creators, and another reason I could not be like a talker, is they have to be on all the time constantly creating content, constantly engaging with millions of followers, and maintaining this perfect, you know, happy, successful image 24 7.
now my algorithm sends me to a place of people who are hot messes, living hot mess lives. So I don't think they're having to deal with this as much, but like my sister's algorithm, she'll send me stuff. I'm like, please don't send me that anymore. I don't need the algorithm. Think I'm interested in organizing my [00:15:00] pantry.
I'm not. I'm past that.
Mandy: In a dress.
Melissa: Please don't. I know my, please don't confuse it. My gosh. on TikTok, your relationships, your mental health, your financial success, all of it is tied to this app and your ability to really keep people entertained and with one wrong move, one scandal. You know, it can all really disappear really quickly.
And that pressure and the need to protect that image at all cost is really this dark undercurrent to all the stories we're gonna tell.
Mandy: Okay, so let's set the scene. It's September 8th, 2025, which was just a few weeks ago. And we're in Hollywood, California at a city tow yard. You know, one of those kind of sprawling lots that has cars that are, have just been impounded for parking violations or have been in an accident, or even just abandoned vehicles.
It's just a car lot, so it's dusty, it's hot, and it's the kind of place most people never really visit or even think about existing. But the workers there have really seen it [00:16:00] all. They've seen luxury cars come in that have been repossessed from, even from celebrities. They've seen beat up vehicles from people who just couldn't afford the towing fees. They've seen cars that have been involved in crimes. They really have just seen everything. But on this particular Sunday morning, one of the workers noticed something that stopped him in his tracks. There was a foul odor, and they noticed that it was coming from a very specific vehicle.
It was a sleek, expensive 2023 Tesla model s and the car itself was in pristine condition. So, as I said, this worker's been doing this job for years. He knows that there's all kinds of things you can encounter. He knows what different smells mean, but this smell was unmistakable to anyone who's ever been around it before, and it was the smell of death and decomposition. Once you've encountered that, you never forget it. you always hear that. And of course, I have never, thankfully have never smelled a decomposing human body, but I have smelled other decomposing
animals. So You [00:17:00] you definitely know what that smell
Melissa: You have an idea? Yeah, and this always reminds me of, of course, Cindy Anthony during the whole Casey Anthony, Kaley Anthony, and that being her big thing, like I know what this smells like. I know what I'm smelling.
Mandy: So the worker immediately called the LAPD, and when detectives arrived, they agreed that something was extremely wrong. The smell was very overwhelming, and it was definitely coming outta the Tesla. So they ran the plates on it and they got a warrant, and they were preparing to open what Tesla owners would call the fr, which is a word that
I Absolutely refuse to ever say again.
Melissa: Absolutely not. I'm so sorry. It's even in here for you to have to say it once.
Mandy: But for those of you wondering, that's the front trunk where the engine would be in a traditional car,
but not in a Tesla, because that's where
the front is. Okay. That's the last time I'll ever say it.
Melissa: twice.
Mandy: So what they found inside though was a nightmare that will haunt even the most seasoned detectives. Tucked away in a black holdall bag [00:18:00] are the heavily decomposed remains of a young girl. The body was in such an advanced state of decay that identifying it would require dental records and DNA testing an autopsy later revealed that the girl weighed only 71 pounds and had been dead for weeks, possibly even months. And here's the most heartbreaking detail of the whole thing. This discovery of these remains was made on September 8th, which is one day after what would've
been her 15th birthday.
Melissa: So the cars registration leads police to a name that really shocks everyone. It's David Anthony Burke, known to his millions of fans as David. And to understand how shocking this is, you kind of need to understand his whole trajectory and who he was becoming in the music world. So, David Anthony Burke was born on March 28th, 2005, which is crazy to think of.
Celebrities born in the two thousands.
Mandy: know.
Melissa: it's killer.
Um. How are you old enough to do anything?
You're still a baby. Get a bottle. [00:19:00] Um, so he was born in Queens, New York, but he was raised in Houston, Texas. And he was a regular kid who just enjoyed anime video games and music and like millions of other teenagers, he started making content online.
Initially he was creating gaming montages for Fortnite videos on YouTube. I asked my daughter about this case 'cause like she's old enough now where we talk about different things going on like this and was like, how did you know who he was? And she said she remembers all these like song things that he was doing for Fortnite.
Um, and of course Fortnite is huge. but David really did have something special. He has this unique voice and an ear for melody that would soon change his life forever. So in 2021, while he was still in high school, he started experimenting with making music and he doesn't have access to, you know, professional recording studios or a fancy studio.
Instead, he literally records his first songs on his iPhone using a free app called Band Lab. He was [00:20:00] literally just making music in his bedroom closet so he could get better acoustics. Yeah, I know, I know. I was thinking, I'm like, wow, that's very similar. Been there, done that, buddy. Um, but his sound was this unique blend of indie rock r and b and alternative pop that kind of resonated with the Gen Z listeners who are looking for something more authentic.
And it's different from this overproduced pop dominating the charts. So in July of 2022, when David was 17 years old, he released a song called Romantic Homicide. He recorded it to his phone, uploaded it to streaming platforms, and he posted clips on TikTok.
And what happened next was the kind of viral success story that TikTok is famous for. The song has these haunting melody and they struck a chord with listeners. TikTok users started creating videos using the song, some dancing to it, And others using it for emotional storytelling, um, or relationship content and aesthetic videos.
I didn't [00:21:00] realize that that's who I was hearing when I heard that song. Like, did you feel the same way? It's like, I don't care how long it takes, or whatever that song,
Mandy: I listened to it, earlier today 'cause I just wanted to like, listen to
something. I didn't wanna listen to too many things, but I wanted
to just listen to something, um, by him. and I hate to even say, but I
liked it. I mean, I'm not
Melissa: It's a good song.
I know. Yeah. It, it is, it's a good song. I mean, bad people can be challenged.
I was shocked because I assumed, I wouldn't even know who this guy was, but I was like, oh yeah, okay. That song is everywhere. And within weeks, that song, romantic homicide had been used in hundreds of thousands of TikTok videos.
Mandy: So the viral success of the song on TikTok translated into real world success. Incredibly quickly. The song started climbing the charts and eventually reached number 34 on the billboard Hot 100, which is an incredible achievement for a teenager who just recorded this thing on his phone a few months earlier and just released it out on TikTok record label [00:22:00] started calling in, and in September of 2022, when David was still 17, he signed a massive record deal with Darkroom and Interscope Records, who's part of Universal Music Group, according to reports that surfaced during the investigation.
This wasn't just any record deal either. It was worth at least $3 million in advances for an ep, an album, and other deliverables. David received $500,000 just for signing, So suddenly this kid from Houston is now collaborating with these big stars. He's done work with 21 Savage. He's worked with a Korean pop star from Stray Kids, also with Jazz Sensation Lofi and Cali ucis. He created an anthem for the massively popular video game Fortnite,
which my kids probably would recognize.
Um, and his debut album Withered was released in April of 2025. It debuted at number 13 on the Billboard 200. The album has over 521 million [00:23:00] streams on Spotify alone.
So at this point, David is living the dream that millions of aspiring musicians have, which is going from completely unknown to a chart top topping artists in less than two years. That's always the craziest thing too about these TikTok transformations is
like, it's literally, it happens in like a year or two.
Like you're
Melissa: Yeah.
Mandy: you just, everything takes off and it happens so quickly.
Melissa: For sure.
and
by 2025, David was on a national tour promoting his album Withered. He was performing and sold out venues across the country from Boston to Montreal, Toronto, Detroit, Chicago, and Indianapolis. And he was still very active on his social media. He was showing behind the scenes footage from his concert or studio sessions, and of course his glamorous new lifestyle.
Into his millions of followers. Of course, it looks like he's living the perfect life. He's young, he's talented, successful, and seemingly happy. His last Instagram post was on September 7th, 2025, just one day before this grim [00:24:00] discovery announcing that he was gonna have a deluxe version of his album. And on that day, everything appeared normal, successful, and bright.
But while David was performing for thousands of screaming fans and posting about his success, his Tesla was sitting abandoned on a residential street in the Hollywood Hills. And inside that car was the decomposing body of 15-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez.
the investigation revealed that the Tesla had been parked on Bluebird Avenue, which is not far from the Hollywood Hills home that David had been renting. I think he was renting it with his manager, and it was parked there for so long that neighbors started complaining to the city and. It's kind of crazy 'cause there is this like nice Tesla, you know, a nice car in a nice neighborhood, and it's just sitting there day after day, week after week.
Meanwhile, there is a body inside and the timeline is really very chilling. the car was first noticed by residents in late August. It ended up being ticketed for a 72 hour parking [00:25:00] violation on September 3rd, meaning it had been there for at least that long. When it wasn't moved, it was finally towed on September 5th.
So this Tesla sat on a public street in one of the most affluent neighborhoods in Los Angeles for at least 11 days, maybe longer before it was even towed. Then it sat in the impound lot for another three days before the body was discovered. And during all this time, David was touring, performing, and posting on social media as if nothing was wrong.
Mandy: So let's talk about the victim, because Celeste was more than just a statistic and a headline. She was a real person with a real story, and understanding her background is crucial to even understanding this case. Celeste was born on September 7th, 2009 in Riverside County, California. She lived with her family in Lake Elsinor which is about 75 miles southeast of Hollywood. This is a working class community. It's very different from the glitz and glamor of Hollywood, which is where her body was eventually found. According to the Riverside [00:26:00] County Sheriff's Office, Celeste had been reported missing by her family, not once, not twice, but at least three separate times in 2024 alone. Each time she was classified as a runaway, meaning she had left home voluntarily rather than being abducted. But the pattern of her disappearances tells a story of a deeply troubled young girl who was struggling with something that made staying at home just feel impossible to her. The first time Celeste was reported missing was in April, 2024, when she was just 13. Details about this first disappearance are really limited, but we know she was gone for several days before returning home. The second disappearance happened sometime in the summer of 2024, and again, she did eventually return home. but there was a pattern that was becoming more and more clear about Celeste running away, you know, and her family is not really sure
what to do.
Melissa: So the third and final time Celeste was reported missing was in late 2024 or early 2025. This exact date hasn't been released by authorities, at least at the time of recording, but we know it [00:27:00] was the last time her family saw her alive. And this time she didn't come home. Her family filed missing persons reports, but because of her history as a runaway, the case may have not received the urgent attention that a typical missing trial case would receive.
And this is one of the tragic realities of cases involving chronic runaways. With each subsequent disappearance, it's it's taken less seriously because there's this assumption that the child's left and they'll come back home and you know, that was just a pattern. So it makes sense that police are gonna look at it and say, well, she's come back home two other times, she's gonna come back home again, even though.
As a parent, I don't think that would work for me. Um, but according to her family's GoFundMe page, Celeste was described as being a beloved daughter, sister, cousin and friend. So during one of her disappearances, Celeste somehow came into contact with David Anthony Burke, AKA David. Her mom later told TMZ that Celeste had mentioned.
She was dating someone named David, but her mom hadn't met him. [00:28:00] She didn't know his last name. She didn't know any other details about him. Of course, this raises a lot of disturbing questions. How does this 20-year-old rising music star meet a 13, 14, or even 15-year-old runaway from this, you know, town 75 miles away?
Of course, they're also wondering what's the nature of this relationship? How long have they known each other? Like. Don't know, like this story made me so sad. Yeah, because you're just like, oh my gosh. There's so many things that get normalized in this story that you're like, oh my gosh, how did this happen?
Exactly.
and we're gonna talk about more of this after. One quick break to hear word from this week's sponsors.
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Marker
Mandy: Before the break, we were getting into the whole shiny and viral world of TikTok and how things can turn dark really fast. And we started talking about the ominous case of David, the singer that blew up on TikTok and the investigation into what happened to this 15-year-old girl that was found inside of a Tesla that belonged to him. So the investigation into Celeste's death has revealed several clues that suggest a deeper connection between her and David than just, you know, a chance encounter. The first clue is something that has sent chills, really down the spines of everyone following this case. And that was during the autopsy.
The LA County Medical Examiner noted that Celeste had a tattoo on her right index finger. It was just a tattoo of the word, just shh. [00:32:00] Just SHHH. And finger tattoos, of course, are not very uncommon. A lot of people have them, especially younger people. But where it gets weird is that when the media started digging into David's social media history, they found something that really took them by surprise and shocked them. And it was a photo from September, 2024, just a year before Celeste's Body was found. And David is seen with the exact same tattoo on the exact same finger on his right index finger. So matching tattoos. Are not a coincidence between these two people. They definitely represent a connection or a shared experience or possibly a relationship. The fact that both Celeste and David had these identical tattoos in identical locations suggested that they knew each other well enough to get this matching ink. This really is not something that you would do with someone who was just a casual acquaintance. And the second clue is even more disturbing when you kind of look at the context of everything. So back in March of [00:33:00] 2025, David did an interview with a platform called Mahogany where he discussed the inspiration behind his music, and he explained that he's a huge anime fan and his songs are based on a manga that he created about a detective character.
But this wasn't just any like detective story. David described that he created a character with a murderous alter ego that he named I Tommy, and that is Japanese for pain. So. Of course, whenever you find these things out about
David, you're like, okay,
what's going on up there?
Melissa: Right. In that interview, David said that a big part of this manga was that there's this evil version of himself named Itam, And in this manga, I guess he wears a blindfold and he's this agent of chaos, basically. David's alter ego.
And the way the story of the manga went is he's this detective and there's this evil version of himself that comes out at random moments, kind of like fight club with Tyler Durden. And he commits these crimes that then he would have to solve afterwards as a [00:34:00] detective. So like his bad side would do these things.
His good side would fix them or, or find out about them. So as a detective, he said he'd be solving murders that he's committing himself. So he goes on to explain that his hit song romantic homicide, was based on this character. And that in the music video, the it Tommy character quote holds a bloody knife and faces a bloody female character, which he described as quote the ghost of the person that he had killed and the first victim in the manga.
My gosh, it's like one of these things like as we learn more and at this point he's not been arrested. Nobody's been arrested for this yet, but it's just so much where you're like, oh my gosh. Or everything is just out there in the open and like how, how do we not see this And at the time this interview is recorded, it seems like, I guess, an interesting artistic concept for this creative young musician.
But now with Celeste's body being found in the car, the words take on this much more sinister meaning.
Mandy: You know, who else has songs that sometimes you're like, I don't know. [00:35:00] Uh, the Weekend. I love, I'm a Huge Weekend fan, but like
that music is dark and twisted.
Melissa: I am an, I'm not a big the weekend fan. I don't have anything against him. I just never really got into it. But there are songs like, especially growing up, remember when you would have like CDs and you would have the music, like the lyrics, like that would be a big thing. Like as soon as you got your cd, you opened it up, you read like the credits, you saw the cool pictures, and you're going through the lyrics, and then you get to one and you're like, oh,
okay, I, I've been singing this song wrong.
Or you know, you just don't hear the music. You're singing it, but you're not listening. And I feel like that happened with this guy. So the third clue involves the timeline and David's behavior during the period when Celeste's body was likely in this car. So while the Tesla sat abandoned on the Hollywood Street for weeks, David's still maintaining this public schedule.
He's on tour, he's performing concerts, meeting fans, posting on social media, and his Instagram and TikTok account showed no signs that anything was wrong. He's posting [00:36:00] these behind the scene content from his tour, promotional material for his album, and interacting with other artists. And so to the outside world, everything was perfectly normal.
Mandy: On September 19th, which was 11 days after discovering Celeste's body, the LAPD's robbery homicide division served a search warrant on the Hollywood Hills home that David had been renting. This was no casual search. This was a major operation involving multiple detectives and forensic specialists. They seized electronics, computers, phones, and bags of other evidence that could potentially shed light on what happened to Celeste and how her body ended up in David's car. The impact on David's career was immediate and devastating. Within days of the news breaking, his entire world began to collapse and his remaining tour dates were canceled. Major brands that had just signed endorsement deals with him, including Crocs and Hollister, who had announced him as the face of their dream drop collaboration, um, immediately dropped him. His record label. Interscope pulled all promotion for his music, [00:37:00] and the deluxe version of his album that he announced on September 7th was quietly shelved streaming platforms.
Did not remove his music, but the promotional push that had been planned came to an abrupt halt. It was interesting because I mentioned I
just went and listened to that romantic homicide song today
on Spotify, and Spotify has not got what the program, because they were still
trying to tell me the tour dates, like the upcoming ones.
Like there was still one that was saying like,
he, it's gonna be in your area or
near you on
Melissa: oh.
Mandy: And I was
like, no, he is not.
Melissa: No girl. He is not. Um, and I know that like last week, I wanna say that his Spotify, I can't remember what number he was, but it's like, ugh. Like he doesn't need that. But at the same time, there's this curiosity. We all have that curiosity and, um, I don't know, that's, it's just like he does not need anything else.
But here's what makes this case so frustrating as of today's recording. David hasn't been arrested. Nobody's been arrested. He's actually not even been named it as a person of interest or a suspect
Mandy: is wild.
Melissa: It totally is. But it's like one of those things [00:38:00] where you're like, okay, they're getting everything together so they have this solid case to be able to put against him if they have it allegedly.
Like it's, he hasn't been charged and he hasn't, he's not even a person of interest. So this is all like, connected to him, but we don't know his role, right? Like that's really where it is. but according to his representatives, he's fully cooperating with the authorities. But again, no charges have been filed.
The investigation is ongoing and police are extremely tight lipped about what they found or what direction the case is heading. I look today just to check, to make sure there's been no cause of death determined yet. So that's obviously gonna be an important part of this as well. This all leaves us with a mountain of circumstantial evidence, but no clear answers. We have David's car with Celeste's body inside. We have matching tattoos that suggests some sort of a relationship between them. We have his own words describing a character who commits murder. We also have the timeline showing his car was abandoned while he continued his normal life.
We even have his shows where [00:39:00] he had a casket at the entrance and like his merch has blood all over it, but there's literally a CA coffin at the entrance of this thing and people are like putting flowers on it or something. But again, we don't have an arrest, we don't have charges, and we don't have a clear explanation of what happened.
And of course, my biggest question is, oh my gosh, this happened in plain sight. It was so it was out there. There's videos of him allegedly talking to this girl on like a TikTok or a live, I can't remember what it was, but like she's a young girl, very clearly. She's young. And the question is, how does this celebrity's car sit on a public street for weeks without anyone connecting it to, uh, the missing person's report for Celeste?
And how does a 20-year-old start a relationship with this 14-year-old runaway with no one really noticing, or getting involved is what I really think because I think people notice, but they never want to say anything. And of course, how does someone maintain this public persona while they're potentially, potentially harboring such a dark secret?
And again, the [00:40:00] case is still developing and we're gonna be following it closely is more information becomes available. But what is clear is this pattern we've seen before. There's this power of social media fame to create this facade that can really hide the darkest secrets. And unfortunately, David and Celeste's story is not an isolated incident.
The dark side of TikTok has claimed other lives and the pressure to protect that perfect online image has driven others to commit unthinkable acts.
Mandy: So, yeah, the David and Celeste case is really a chilling example of how a public persona can mask a dark secret. But this pattern of perfect online life, hiding a violent reality is something that we have seen before in the TikTok world. Another story is the case of Ali Abbu Labban. He's a man known to his millions of TikTok followers as gin kid. Ali was a 29-year-old and had built a massive following, doing comedy skits and impressions. His Tony Montana impression from Scarface was particularly popular and he had over a million followers who loved his [00:41:00] content. He and his wife Anna, who was 28, seemed to have a perfect, funny, loving relationship from what you could see online. They would appear in videos together, and Ana was often the subject of Ali's romantic posts to their followers. These two were relationship goals, but behind the camera it was a different story. Ali was actually incredibly controlling, possessive, and jealous. There was a documented history of domestic violence that Ana had been hiding from their online audience. Friends and family knew that Ali had anger issues and that he was becoming increasingly unstable, but to the millions of people who followed them online, they just looked like the perfect couple. In October of 2021, Ana had finally had enough and she asked Ali to move out of their luxury apartment in San Diego's East Village, and she filed for
separation.
Melissa: But Ali couldn't let her go. He became obsessed with her and monitored her every move in a way I have not heard before and could not believe how disturbing this was. He made a copy of their apartment key, [00:42:00] and while Ana was out, he sneaks into their apartment and installs a listening app to their five-year-old daughter's iPad.
So involving your kid in any of this, just.
Makes me beyond angry, And he used this device to spy on his estranged wife. So every conversation that Ana had in the apartment was being recorded and transmitted to Ali's phone on October 21st, 2021. While listening to this surveillance app, Ali hears Ana talking and laughing with this male friend named Rayburn Baron.
And in a jealous rage, he drove to the apartment, used that copy key he had made to get inside, and he shot both Anna and Rayburn to death. The evidence against him is obviously very overwhelming. The listening app on his phone, the GPS data, showing his movements and even surveillance video from the apartment building that captured him admitting to the murders while on the phone with his mother immediately after the shooting.
So during his trial, prosecutors painted a picture of a man [00:43:00] who was so possessive and controlling that as prosecutor Taryn Bassett put it, quote, if he could not have her, no one could and she couldn't live. And any man she was with could not live either. End quote, which is terrifying because you can't stop someone like that.
Like that's. The most terrifying thing. Ali was convicted of two counts of first degree murder with special circumstances and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The judge told him, you are a very selfish person. The bottom line here is he will die in prison. He will never be a free man.
He will take his last breath there. And we still have another story to get into right after one last break to hear word from this week's sponsors.
Marker
Melissa: And now back to the episode.
Mandy: Before the break, we discussed a couple of different stories where talkers have turned murderers, and we actually have even more stories to tell. In both of the cases that we've already discussed, it involved a perpetrator who kind of had a facade, you know, [00:44:00] that they were putting on, uh, on TikTok or out to the world, but then they also had this other alter ego, you know, behind closed doors. And sometimes that facade doesn't just involve one person, but it can involve an entire family.
And that brings us to the case of Mahe Bukari And her mom and Serene, they're from the uk Mahe was a rising British TikTok star with nearly 129,000 followers. She was known for her glamorous lifestyle content, her fashion videos, and her luxury shopping halls. And in these videos, she would often feature her mom, and they presented themselves as having what Mahe called an elite relationship. They were this mother-daughter duo just out there living their best life, attending parties, showing off designer clothes, and projecting this image of success and happiness. But behind this glamorous facade was a secret that would ultimately lead to murder. And Serene, who was 46 and married, had been having a three-year long affair with a much younger man named [00:45:00] Shakib Hussein, who was just 21, they had met on a video chat app called Azar in 2019 and had been in an on and off relationship ever since then. When Ann Sere finally tried to end this affair in 2021, Shakib didn't take it very well, and he threatened to send explicit photos and videos of her to her husband, which would've not only destroyed her marriage, but also potentially ruined Maha's influencer career and their entire family's reputation in the community. So instead of going to the police about this black male, Mahe decided handled the situation herself. She and her mom, along with a group of friends, hatched this elaborate plan. They would lure Shakib to a meeting. by promising to pay him 3000 euros, which is the amount that he claimed to have spent on answering during their relationship.
So they're like, meet us here, I'll pay you back, and then you gotta leave. Leave
me alone. Basically, that's what I guess they're saying.
so on February 11th, 2022, they arranged to meet him at a Tesco parking lot in Lester. [00:46:00] of course
this was a trap.
Melissa: so when Squib arrived with his friend, Hashem Ine, who was just innocently giving him a ride and knew nothing about this entire situation. They quickly sensed something was wrong though, and they tried to leave. What followed was a terrifying high-speed chase down the A 46 dual carriage way. So Keib managed to call 9 9 9 during the chase, and in a heartbreaking call that was played during the trial, you can hear him screaming that they were being run off the road.
The victim's car was eventually rammed off the highway. It crashed into a tree and burst into flames. Both Shakib and Hasheem died at the scene. The evidence against the mother and daughter, though were overwhelming. CCTV footage tracked their movements. Phone records showed the coordination of the plot and automatic nameplate recognition cameras captured their vehicles at the scene.
After the murders, the group was seen on surveillance cameras walking the streets of Lester in the early morning hours, apparently trying [00:47:00] to establish or coordinate their alibis. Makin and Serene were both convicted of double murder and sentenced to life in prison. Mahe received a minimum sentence of 31 years and eight months while on Serene got 26 years and nine months.
The judge noted that TikTok and Instagram were at the heart of the case as the murders were committed to protect their online reputation. Emma heck's influencer career.
Mandy: So our final case today might be really the most chilling example of how social media can be used to manipulate public perception, even in the aftermath of murder. So our last story is a story of 17-year-old Sarah Grace Patrick from Carrollton, Georgia in February, 2025. Sarah's mom. Kristen Brock, who was 41, and her stepfather James Brock, who was 45, were found shot to death in their home. This discovery was made by Sarah's 6-year-old sister, which
just adds another horrible layer
of trauma to this whole situation. And in the days and weeks [00:48:00] following the murders, Sarah took to TikTok to publicly grieve. She posted these emotional videos where she was expressing her heartbreak and her fear that the killer was still out there, as well as her desperate desire for justice for her parents. She really played the part of the devastated daughter perfectly, and
her videos garnered a lot of sympathy and support
for viewers who just felt terrible for this young girl who had lost both of her parents in such a violent way. But it was all just a performance. In July of 20, 25 months after the murders, police arrested Sarah and charged her with two counts of murder and two counts of aggravated assault in connection with her parents' deaths. The arrest revealed that while she was posting these grieving videos and playing the victim, she was also secretly messaging true crime influencers and bloggers begging
them to cover her parents' case.
Melissa: I did check our TikTok just to see, and we did not have her name as one of the messages in there. Yeah, I know. But in messages to a true crime blogger named, allegedly, reportedly, Sarah wrote, and this is a direct quote, I think [00:49:00] this would be a really big hit, and that's her talking about her own parents' murder a crime she allegedly committed and she's pitching it to content creators like in the immediate aftermath, I guess.
I mean, people do that in the sense that they're looking for who's done it, and I totally. I'm on board with it. I understand why somebody would do that, but her knowing what she has done is just so sick. But she was offering to provide like Intel to help with coverage and
Mandy: wants to be interviewed. She wants to be a part of
Melissa: absolutely she wants to be, she wants to control the narrative and position herself as this, you know, helpful victim obviously rather than a perpetrator.
So, Sarah Grace Patrick was denied bond and is currently awaiting trial, and the motive for the murders at this point have not been revealed, but her behavior afterward paints a picture of someone who's deeply manipulative and obsessed with public perception. She used social media not just to cover up her alleged crimes, but to actively insert herself into the true crime community [00:50:00] as a victim, all while potentially being the person responsible for the very tragedy she was asking others to cover.
Mandy: So we have told four different stories. These are for four completely different cases, but you know, they have this common thread in every case. The red flags were there if you just knew where to look. But of course, a lot of it was masked by these TikTok accounts. There was a history of domestic violence, a pattern of running away these desperate attempts to control narratives and protect images.
And the clues were really all just in their digital lives and in their behavior, but they were buried under the noise, as you called it, you know, of these perfectly crafted online personas. And it really just goes to show how
technology. It is wonderful. It is
great. We
love TikTok, we love reels, we love all of that.
But it is a double-edged sword because it gives people a
very large platform to become stars,
but also gives them tools for different things that are not so, so rosy, like surveillance of [00:51:00] people. Then manipulation and deception,
and it just also creates new motives for murder that previous generations couldn't have even imagined having to deal with, you know, having to protect your follower account and your brand deals and your
online reputation,
it just, Yeah, it really gets to people.
Some people, not everyone, but the cases that we did discuss today are a reminder that what we see online is almost never the full story. There's always this reality that. The camera just doesn't capture and people aren't posting online. And sometimes that reality is a lot more horrifying than you could possibly even think. And because this is domestic Violence Awareness month, we did wanna share some information. If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, please contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1 807 9 9 7 2 3 3. And if you know of a missing person, please don't assume they'll come home on their own, report it to the authorities and keep pushing for those
answers.
Melissa: So Mandy, I mean this David Case, of course, has been in the news for a while [00:52:00] and just, I think, I can't decide what is the most shocking thing about it. Just that it could have gone unknown for so long, or that potentially people knew that he had a relationship allegedly with a young girl and no one did anything.
It was like this big open secret with a
Mandy: Yeah. Yeah. And of course the, there's so many important questions that need
to answer still in that case of,
you know, in that case with David, but I, I mean, yeah, there's so many bizarre, uh, things about the case. Like even the body being left in a car that was just parked somewhere out in the open, like
that, it could be found at any time,
like. That is also weird to me. Like I just wanna know more details about what happened to Celeste. Why is she, why did she die? Like how and what was David's plan? I mean, we don't even know, like
we said, if he, they haven't arrested him. We don't
Melissa: Yeah.
Mandy: about what's going on. So,
Melissa: It could be somebody else, it's his vehicle, but it does, that doesn't mean it [00:53:00] was him. Um, so that, like those, of course, if you were a defense attorney, those are the kind of things you'd be looking at. But also, you know, Tesla's, people keep pointing out. They have cameras so it'll be interesting if they're able to pull anything to see who's coming and going and all of that, if it's not been erased, I guess.
so it'll be interesting to see what happens, but I just feel for her family and all the families, but I, I can't imagine waiting for somebody to come home and then finding out this is what happened. So I hope they get justice for Celeste.
Mandy: me too. All right guys. Thank you so much for listening to this Thursday episode. We'll be back next week. Same
time at same Place. News Story.
Melissa: have a great week.
