Celeste Rivas’ ex-boyfriend is speaking out.
In an interview with TMZ, 15-year-old Damien Hernandez, a former middle school boyfriend of Rivas, shared some details about her troubled home life and the impact of her tragic death.
Damien, who met Celeste at Lakeland Village Middle School in Lake Elsinore when he was in 8th grade and she was in 7th, described her as “really kind” and someone who “wanted something serious.” He said their relationship began when she showed interest in him and they quickly started talking.
Damien revealed that Rivas confided in him about her difficult relationship with her parents, saying they were “mean” and that she “didn’t like them.” He said that Rivas often talked about running away and even joked about it at school, but no one thought she was serious.
“We were at P.E. and she told me [and] my friend that she was running away,” Damien recalled in the video linked here. “She was, like, joking about it … like, it didn’t seem real because she was, like, playing around … The next day she wasn’t at school and that’s the last time I saw her.”
The teen said he was shocked when he learned Rivas’ dismembered body had been found in the trunk of D4vd’s Tesla in Los Angeles.
Though he had heard rumors about Rivas’ connection to the “Romantic Homicide” singer, Damien admitted he was surprised, “I didn't think it was gonna happen, like at all, cause like she was always, like, so happy and stuff.”
When the news broke, Damien said, “My heart dropped. I just couldn’t believe it … when I saw it was really her I was like, ‘Yeah, I already knew.’”
Damien’s mother, Jamie, also spoke with TMZ, sharing how close to home the tragedy hit while urging caution about social media, saying, “If it could happen to her, it could happen to anyone.”
Damien added, “I just think, like, if someone should’ve just did something … I feel like no one cared.”
In a statement shared with Complex, the Los Angeles Police Department says detectives are still waiting on the results of Rivas’ autopsy and the investigation is ongoing.
It was previously reported that Rivas “very likely” had been dead for “several weeks” before she was discovered in the 20-year-old singer’s car.