The autopsy of Celeste Rivas Hernandez was sealed for months at LAPD’s request. The medical examiner publicly objected. And when the findings were finally unsealed, they confirmed what prosecutors had been building toward: this was not a death that could be explained away.

Two stab wounds to the torso — one perforating the liver, the other damaging the ribs — both with smooth edges consistent with a sharp, deliberate instrument. Her body had been dismembered, her limbs severed with blue plastic fragments embedded in the cut surfaces. Toxicology found benzodiazepines and what screened as methamphetamine or MDMA in her system. She was fourteen.

On the digital side, prosecutors told the court that forty terabytes of evidence from David Anthony Burke’s phone, computer, and iCloud contained what they described as a significant amount of child exploitation material. That disclosure came during proceedings where Burke was charged with first-degree murder with special circumstances — lying in wait, financial gain, and the alleged killing of a witness — along with lewd and lascivious acts with a minor under fourteen and mutilation of a body.

Retired FBI Special Agent Jennifer Coffindaffer breaks down the forensic significance of the wound patterns, what embedded trace evidence means for connecting Burke to the dismemberment, how the volume and nature of the digital evidence could reshape the prosecution’s entire theory, and what the decision to seal the autopsy tells us about the investigative strategy behind this case. Every piece of physical and digital evidence in this case points in one direction — and Coffindaffer explains exactly why.

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