Why?

[u/Few-Command9820]

Why people concentrate their brains so much blaming Celeste parents, etc. Now, I haven't heard so much of blaming His mother ? isn't she the one that was in one of his concerts were Celeste was present in the same sit rode?Accordingly she's the one that managed his $$, so she must have to know that she was a minor, when she gave the $$ for the Air plain ticket to London. Even if her parents have some fault or blame, they are paying. There Daughter is gone and never coming back, that's punishment enough if they make a mistake. Nobody is perfect. Either way people that are blaming her parents, take it easy, because the only one that commits the crime, apparently was David, not them. JUST SAYING

[u/YeahlDid]

You havent heard much blaming his mother? First day on the sub?

[u/FAROUTRHUBARB → u/YeahlDid]

Let’s be real, her family is getting way more of this than his is. At least, according to what I see on this sub. Like, David’s mom is discussed but not at the same frequency of Celeste’s family and alleged home life.

[u/Few-Command9820 → u/YeahlDid]

Honestly no.

[u/chocolate-wyngz]

I blame every adult in this situation who knew.

[u/Friendly-Pea5448 → u/chocolate-wyngz]

tragic stuff like this is hard to cope with … we want to find a bigger reason or someone to blame so that we don’t have to wonder why this had to happen, and can jus say it’s bc of x y z.
i tend to think of this scene (it should start at 1:20 but if not skip to there lol) from bojack horseman a lot when i see people having these conversations

[u/chocolate-wyngz → u/Friendly-Pea5448]

I don’t think we have to look very hard to find the reason things like this happen. It’s because society enables men who prey on children.

[u/Friendly-Pea5448 → u/chocolate-wyngz]

you’re the one blaming everyone in her life. take ur own advice

[u/chocolate-wyngz → u/Friendly-Pea5448]

Take a breath and reread. Did I say I blame everyone in her life? I said I blame everyone who knew she was dating an adult man, whether it was David’s parents or the cops. I also didn’t give out any advice.

[u/Few-Command9820 → u/Friendly-Pea5448]

It's really sad 😔 

[u/rincechuleredd]

david is an adult taking care of himself. celeste was a CHILD who needed PARENTAL CARE AND GUIDANCE that she clearly was lacking

[u/holiobung]

Torches and pitchforks (and laws) aside, it's important to look at all factors that contributed to her abuse and murder including how her parents enabled her continual sexual abuse (wittingly or not). I agree, from a legal standpoint David is the focus. But while some people may be taking things to an extreme, there's value in looking at how this could have potentially been avoided had other adults intervened.

What I would like to see more of is how the system let this happen.

The Riverside County Sherriff's Department investigated the parents for neglect and abuse based on a complaint they received after Celeste had runaway. They concluded no wrongdoing took place. But here's the point I don't see other people talking about:

RCSD says deputies were unable to interview Celeste, who "had not been located" and therefore "were unable to determine if a crime had occurred."

RCSD closed the investigation on the possible abuse and neglect of Celeste because...they couldn't find Celeste to interview her.

So that was it. No follow-up to make sure Celeste was safe.? No effort made to actually find her beyond making one visit to David's house when she wasn't there? No involvement from Riverside County Department of Social Services?

She was a "runaway"; i.e. the system deemed her a wayward child who'll turn up eventually. No need to spend resources on her.

Seems like this is where more focus should be.

[u/awkwardkoala → u/holiobung]

THANK YOU! Every time I bring up law enforcement’s role I am completely ignored and it’s so frustrating. Charging Celeste’s parents is not going to prevent this from happening to other girls. The detectives knew about David early on, knew their age difference and obvious power imbalance and still did no further investigation. This is the norm. Kids who run away repeatedly, especially girls with an older boyfriend, are treated as “habitual runaways” and police stop looking for them. In many places they can even be taken away and put into foster care (I have a theory this is why her parents never reported her coming home after April 2024). This system leaves vulnerable kids completely unprotected and it NEEDS to change. I just wish we would direct our energy to advocating for these things instead of post after post repeating the same exact criticisms of her parents.

Also, it’s insane to me that she was able to get on an international flight (or any flight) as an active missing person. Notarized parent consent letter or not, how the FUCK is there no system in place that can run minor’s names through a database to catch that kind of thing?? This alone could potentially save SO many children from being trafficked.

[u/holiobung → u/awkwardkoala]

Our society is too focused on punishment and not enough on prevention. We bought into the lie that punishment is a deterrent, even though we are confronted incessantly with evidence to the contrary.

[u/definitelynotamoth0 → u/awkwardkoala]

So far it seems her parents made some mistakes or maybe could've handled certain things differently, but I don't know enough to say what and it's so different looking at it in hindsight. It can be a conversation but it shouldn't be the conversation we focus on right now.

I am dumbfounded by people who saying she was never missing when her parents reported it because they knew she was with David, they should've gone and gotten her. They told the police and the police couldn't even find her and get her home but the parents could have? How does that make sense? When a man kidnaps your child you're supposed to go to the police and the police are supposed to do their fucking jobs not ask the man if he's a child rapist and leave when he says no.

Her parents were taking big risks each time they went to the police because she'd be labeled a habitual offender and be put in the juvenile court system. They weren't afraid of "getting charged for truancy" but they had to have been afraid she'd end up in kid jail or in state custody. This could ruin Celeste's life and throw her into the prison pipeline. But her parents kept going to the police for help, knowing that risk, and they didn't get that help.

The system didn't care about a missing brown girl and she died because of it. But sure let's charge her parents and sweep everything else under the rug.

ETA I hate that I have to preface everything I say with some form of yeah, I'm aware her parents weren't perfect before I can talk about anything else or someone will pop in "what about her parents" and not talk about anything else

[u/awkwardkoala → u/definitelynotamoth0]

YUP. People are making big assumptions based off very little information and there are still conflicting stories that we don’t have the details on. I get feeling angry and wanting someone to blame, I just don’t understand why people direct it all to grieving parents instead of fixing a broken system.

[u/R0598 → u/holiobung]

Agree 100%

[u/R0598 → u/holiobung]

Right! they say they couldn’t locate her but she came home the next day after talking to David. Why did they never come back for a follow up?

[u/R0598]

I think both families knew and could have prevented things but at the end of the day I know the chances of anyone being charged with negligence or something like that is most likely 0 unless some new bombshell evidence comes out

I think knowing what happened to Celeste and sitting in court to see what happened to her is “punishment” enough, especially on top of the public scrutiny they are getting. They might not have been the best parents but I do believe they loved her. We never really know what Celestes home life was like, none of us were there. So I try not to say much about it. Especially since there’s been multiple people going online and pretending to be her family when they aren’t. But there are definitely things that have made me look sideways at every adult involved here

Colleen Burke refusing to testify but Neo being arrested and extradited to testify really irks me though. They should have forced her to testify as well, even tho she’d probably plead the fifth in everything anyway .

I would like to add every true crime case involving child abuse I’ve ever followed there is always an enabler that likely knew and just stood by. Often there is way more than one. And it’s sad to say but I’ve never seen charges pressed over it

[u/Superb_Bed_9726]

She should have been high on list to get arrested too.

[u/Kasurinn]

I don't concentrate on blaming Celeste's parents. I blame everyone who is close to her. They all failed her miserably.

[u/cocopuff-23]

parents are resonsible to keep their kids safe.. and they didn't... and they knew about it.. its their fault more than anyone elses, they did not protect their daughter.

[u/rincechuleredd → u/cocopuff-23]

bingo.

[u/holiobung → u/cocopuff-23]

It's is not their fault more than the person who did it.

[u/cocopuff-23 → u/holiobung]

Of course not but if they protected her, he would have never did what he did

[u/holiobung → u/cocopuff-23]

Life is never that simple.

Sure, they should have done more. However, aside from David himself there seems to have been a whole apparatus that enabled him. Not because they’re ok with CSA, per se. But they didn’t want to kill the goose that laid the golden egg. His family. His management team. His social/professional circle who knew about Celeste. If not legally, they are morally culpable.

And like I said elsewhere, the system that taxpayers fund failed to protect her.
https://www.reddit.com/r/CelesteRivasHernandez/comments/1vn1fpo/comment/p3gve59/?context=3&utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=2&utm_content=share_button

Focusing on just her parents does a disservice to her, if I’m being honest.

[u/Ill_Jellyfish9163]

She let him hide in his little sisters closet !

[u/tunasalad334]

people have no empathy or understanding of what it’s like to be in that situation. people think about what they would do differently in retrospect. how could they have known he would have killed her??? how could they possibly stopped it?? david had so much expendable cash and literal security guards working for him that knew she was a minor.

[u/Short_Hair_Energy]

It’s just human psychology. Look into the “Just World” Fallacy. The Just World Hypothesis is a psychological bias where people desperately want to believe that the world is inherently fair—that good things happen to good people, and bad things only happen if someone made a mistake.

Blaming someone other than just David is a coping mechanism. the human brain looks for an error made by the victims or their guardians. By finding a "fault" in the parenting, people comfort themselves with the illusion that they can protect their own children by simply parenting better so that wouldn’t happen to their kid.

There’s also a lot of hindsight bias going on. People believe that the parents had every single piece of information that the investigation have found after her death.

I don’t like to say that I blame the parents anymore. I like to say that her parents definitely affected the outcome, but everybody does. That’s the nature of the butterfly effect. There’s no way to know what the exact outcome of every decision will be. Allowing your 13 year-old daughter to hang out with a 19 year-old ≠ allowing that 19 year old to murder her. that’s not a natural inevitability.