The Celeste Rivas Hernandez Case | Runaway Found Dead in Tesla Trunk
Zone 7 with Sheryl McCollum
iHeartPodcasts and CrimeOnline
4.4 • 696 Ratings
🗓️ 24 September 2025
⏱️ 31 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode of Zone 7, Sheryl McCollum is joined by attorney Joshua Schiffer to examine the case of 15-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez. Celeste, a runaway, was found decomposing in the trunk of an abandoned Tesla registered to a rising star named David. They review what is currently known about the investigation and discuss the disturbing connections between Celeste and David, including their matching “shhh” tattoos and a song released on her birthday that now carries chilling significance. They also question how a 13-year-old could vanish for nearly two years, raising concerns about communal responsibility and the protection of vulnerable youth.
Joshua Schiffer is a veteran attorney and one of the Southeast’s most respected legal voices. He is a founder at ChancoSchiffer P.C., where he has litigated high-stakes criminal, civil rights, and personal injury cases for over two decades. Known for his bold courtroom presence and ability to clearly explain complex legal issues, Schiffer is a frequent contributor to Zone 7 and a fearless advocate for accountability.
Highlights:
- (0:00) Sheryl welcomes Joshua Schiffer and introduces the case of Celeste Rivas Hernandez
- (1:45) The discovery of the body in the abandoned Tesla and the first red flags
- (3:00) Tesla technology, surveillance footage, and how modern cars track everything
- (7:15) Celeste's background: How does a 13-year-old vanish without support or detection?
- (9:30) Fan culture and the personal connection between Celeste and the singer
- (11:30) The silence of family, neighbors, schools, and systems that failed her
- (19:30) "You’ve got a head and a torso of a 15-year-old in a Tesla.” Examining decomposition, concealment, and the physical evidence left behind
- (21:30) Third-party defense strategies and future courtroom challenges
- (28:15) A tribute to Celeste, a plea for societal change, and a closing quote from “Romantic Homicide”
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Sheryl “Mac” McCollum is an Emmy Award-winning CSI, a writer for CrimeOnline, forensic and crime scene expert for Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, and co-author of the textbook Cold Case: Pathways to Justice. She is the founder and director of the Cold Case Investigative Research Institute, a national collaboration that advances techniques for solving cold cases and assists families and law enforcement with unsolved homicides, missing persons, and kidnappings.
Social Links:
- Email: [email protected]
- Twitter: @ColdCaseTips
- Facebook: @sheryl.mccollum
- Instagram: @officialzone7podcast
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an IHeart podcast. |
| 0:12.4 | Y'all, this is a special Wednesday episode. |
| 0:16.1 | This case requires not a crime roundup, but a full-fledged zone seven episode so I welcome my buddy and |
| 0:25.9 | my partner Joshua Schiffer to zone seven hey what a story for us to cover and if there's one |
| 0:33.8 | that just has so many of the issue and it's one that's just starting and the discussion's just happening. |
| 0:41.0 | And they've got to happen. |
| 0:42.5 | And they've got to happen at every level of this thing because one of the first things I thought about is this singer-songwriter, who goes by David. |
| 0:59.2 | Most people, I think, that are going to hear this episode were unfamiliar with him until this case started. |
| 1:04.3 | But, you know, as a defense attorney, you have a PR problem. |
| 1:05.7 | Oh, a big one. |
| 1:13.5 | And this guy's got enough fame that as soon as this kind of percolated up into my network, I was like, well, hold on, |
| 1:21.9 | who's this guy? And his fan base is rabid. It only took a couple of clicks before I found, |
| 1:29.1 | you know, full on heart throbby. This is my crooner. I love him. He's the best. He will do nothing wrong. |
| 1:34.3 | He's completely innocent. And I, which, you know, that's, that's the heart of fandom. |
| 1:40.9 | It's a classic trope. You know, pinups and pop stars have been popular for a long time. |
| 1:44.6 | But I was wholly unfamiliar with this gentleman. |
| 1:53.2 | Likewise. The first thing that I heard was a 15-year-old girl was found in the trunk of a car that had been abandoned. |
| 1:58.8 | And then the next thing I read was that car had not been reported stolen. |
| 2:07.2 | Well, I got a problem off the rip because you got a car in your name that you have not reported stolen, but there's a dead juvenile in that trunk. |
| 2:13.1 | That's bad all day. |
| 2:15.8 | There's nothing I'm going to be able to spend. There's nothing I'm going to be |
| 2:18.8 | able to say, hey, you know, maybe this happened, maybe that happened because y'all in my world, |
... |
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