Listen Now! Watch Now!
On July 14, 2019, images of a young woman’s lifeless body appeared on various social media platforms, including Discord & stunned users were unsure if the images were real or not. 911 calls started coming in from around the country & one caller actually identified the woman in the photo as 17-year-old Bianca Devins.
Bianca Michelle Devins was born on October 2, 2001 & raised in the small city of Utica, New York which sits 245 miles north of New York City. Bianca faced some difficulties during her childhood & battled mental illness at an early age. Beginning at age nine, Bianca’s mother Kim reached out for professional help when her daughter began struggling with separation anxiety. Kim noticed that Bianca didn’t want to leave her side & she didn’t want to go to school. At age thirteen, Bianca began to show signs of depression. As she progressed in her teenage years, Kim noticed that Bianca was isolating herself from others, spending more & more time online. With this, her moods & behaviors grew increasingly erratic. According to Kim, her daughter was very intelligent & intuitive & was able to identify that something was wrong & admitted that she needed help.
At age sixteen, Bianca was diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder. The main feature of this serious mental health condition is a strong pattern of instability in a person’s relationships, self-image or emotions. Rapid changes in mood can happen which can last for a few hours to a few days & a person with this diagnosis can experience issues of self-harm, impulsivity, fear of abandonment & feelings of emptiness. Bianca was estranged from her father & had difficulty making friends. Thankfully, with treatment, she eventually returned to being the devoted big sister to Olivia & Maddy.
To cope with her struggles, Bianca often turned to her computer where she immersed herself into the online world. Her mother Kim felt that she was able to “escape her own mental struggle” while utilizing various social media platforms. Bianca was very prevalent on social media & morphed into an online persona known as an “E-girl.” An E-girl spends time online & has a certain edgy, dark aesthetic. She began to grow her followers on 4chan, Tumblr, Instagram, Snapchat & Discord. 4chan is a simple, image-based bulletin board where users can share images & post comments. However, according to EJ Dickson, who is a writer for Rolling Stone, 4chan can be a dangerous, misogynistic space.
Bianca loved anime, manga, Minecraft, the color pink & emo fashion. Her hair was often a vibrant pop of color, she wore dramatic makeup & clothing & posted webcam selfies on social media. Soon, she had thousands of followers on her various platforms & while on Instagram, she would post about mental health & borderline personality disorder.
Bianca attracted male “orbiters” as followers online which is when a user is following someone’s life over social media, yet rarely or never speaking or interacting in real life. If there is a face-to-face meeting, the person may back-off from meeting again yet continue to silently observe their online life by continuing to like photos or watch Stories. Those who say they have experienced “orbiting” indicate it feels very passive-aggressive & a “silent & lonely battle.” Bianca did have at least one in-person encounter with an orbiter & spent years running away from home & receiving intensive mental health therapy at various facilities.
In 2019, things began to settle down in the Devins household & Bianca went on to earn her high school diploma by home tutoring. She planned to begin college classes in the fall at Mohawk Valley Community College where she would major in psychology. It was her goal to help others who struggled with mental illness like she had. Bianca’s grandfather Frank was so thankful to see the glow in his granddaughter’s eyes when Bianca talked about her future. She had immersed herself in art & was even getting noticed as a promising young model. Kim indicated that her daughter’s self-esteem was on the rise as models & agents gave her compliments & said that she felt truly good about herself when she was modeling. Tragically, Bianca’s life came to a sudden, violent end before she could ever move on to college & everything else that lay ahead of the young woman.
In the spring of 2019 Bianca met an “orbiter” named Brandon Andrew Clark. Brandon was a 21-year-old Lyft driver who connected with Bianca on Instagram in May & they became fast friends. Brandon was born into an abusive household & was moved to foster care where he was raised. Brandon & Bianca shared many similar interests; he loved Pokemon & Lolicon which in Japanese pop culture is a genre of fictional manga-style young girl characters who are portrayed in a sexually suggestive, erotic manner.
Brandon & Bianca eventually did take their relationship offline & dated for a short-time, though not exclusively. Because Bianca had her sights set on college, she didn’t want to pursue a romantic relationship & chose to keep their relationship friendly & casual. Brandon did refer to himself as Bianca’s “boyfriend” but both she & her mother, Kim, felt no sense of worry. He was obsessed with Bianca on social media & saved her photos & sent her messages, often keeping tabs on her social media activities.
According to Kim, Brandon often came around & she viewed him as a “goofy, nerdy, boy-next-door.” He even attended Bianca’s high school graduation. Kim never saw any red flags with Brandon so when her daughter asked if she could go into the city with him for a concert, Kim didn’t hesitate to agree & thought nothing of it. In fact, she took comfort in the fact that Bianca would be with Brandon because she trusted him.
Kim last saw her daughter on Saturday, July 13, 2019 when she headed to New York City with some friends to attend a concert by gothic singer Nicole Dollanganger. Kim said that Bianca was extremely excited since it was her first real adult concert. She tried on multiple outfits & settled on wearing a black tank top with a plaid skirt & set out in Brandon’s car for the four hour drive into the city.
Bianca touched base with her mom after the concert when she texted Kim & let her know that she was heading home. Bianca had only graduated from high school two weeks earlier & she was thankful for her newfound freedom.
Sunday, July 14, 2019 was a gorgeous day in Utica & the city was hosting their Boilermaker Road Race which is a popular 15K road race where participants come from across the globe to run. As the first runners began to cross the finish line, Utica Police Detectives Bryan Coromato & Michael Curley heard disturbing murmurs of a potential homicide that involved a horrific photo that was spreading throughout the social media platform Discord.
One of the callers indicated that they saw a photo of Bianca Devins & went on to say, “I’m hoping the girl is just bleeding badly & maybe still alive.” People were uncertain if the photo was real or not so as officers approached the Devins’ home, body cams were rolling as they arrived for a welfare check on the 17-year-old girl.
Kim Devins recalls hearing a knock on the door & an officer asking if this was where Bianca Devins lives. Bianca’s younger sister Olivia had been the one to answer the door & went to tell her mom that the police were there & something was going on with Bianca. The police did not show Kim the photo of Bianca they had in their possession but told her that they feared that she may be in danger. They asked Kim if she could try to get a hold of her daughter & Kim remembers being completely confused. She didn’t know where Bianca was & her call ended up going to voicemail.
As the search for Bianca began & her friends became aware of the situation with the alarming photo, they suspected & hoped & prayed that the photo might be a hoax after they learned that it was Brandon who posted it. They assumed that he was making a sick joke & potentially trying to scare them. According to reporter EJ Dickson, on Discord it’s fairly common for users to post gory photos to get a rise out of people so it was within the realm of possibilities that the photo was fake.
However, when Brandon Clark called 911, things turned very real, very quickly. As the 911 dispatcher answered his call, he said: My name is Brandon. The victim is Bianca Michelle Devins… I’m going to kill myself.
The officers who remained at the Devins’ home could hear what was happening over their radios & they asked Kim if Brandon was Bianca’s boyfriend. They told her that he was indicating that he was suicidal & that he hurt her daughter. Kim recalls that nothing was making sense to her because she never would have believed that Brandon would have been capable of hurting Bianca. She said that she felt as if she was in an out-of-body experience, she was shaking as she tried to reassure herself that her daughter was fine, that they could find her, get her help & she would be okay.
Investigators turned their full focus on Brandon who by that point, had posted additional disturbing images of Bianca, one that included the caption, “I’m sorry Bianca.”
Detectives knew that they needed to work quickly in order to find Bianca, hoping they would be able to save her. Brandon was not telling dispatchers where he was located so they tried to ping his phone. The dispatcher asked Brandon to stay on the line in hopes that police could pinpoint his location. Brandon responded: No, I’m not going to stay on the line with you. I’m going to be dead on the ground.
Just before Brandon ended the call, he told the dispatcher his exact location; he was at a dead-end road, not far from Bianca’s home. When the first officer arrived at the location, they found Brandon’s car parked ahead & noticed that he was armed with a knife. The officer had his gun trained on Brandon as he demanded that Brandon drop the knife. He screamed at him: Where’s the girl?! Where is she?!
As the officer moved into position, Brandon slashed his throat with the knife & took a selfie in which he captioned “Ashes to ashes.”
Backup arrived & additional officers began to engage with Brandon in front of his car. There was a brief struggle & Brandon was eventually disarmed & placed under arrest. By the time Detective Bryan Coromato arrived, Brandon was being wheeled to an ambulance where paramedics raced to save his life. He was transferred to the hospital where he had emergency surgery for his self-inflicted injuries.
In the meantime, investigators made the horrific discovery of Bianca’s body hidden beneath a tarp. Before police could even inform Kim of the devastating news that her daughter had been murdered, Kim had already learned the painful truth. Her daughter Olivia had been in the kitchen with her friend when Kim heard a blood-curdling scream from her teenage daughter. Someone had texted Bianca’s family the horrific photo. Kim recalls screaming over & over, “it’s not her, it’s not her, it’s not my baby!”
Investigators clearly knew who was responsible for the murder of 17-year-old Bianca Devins. Now they needed to figure out why this happened. They began at the crime scene & as they learned more about Brandon, they came to realize that every single thing that he did at the crime scene had a special meaning to him.
Brandon had spray painted a cryptic message on the ground at the scene that read: May you never forget me. When this phrase was Googled, investigators learned that the message was taken from a series of Japanese comic books called “Punpun” that Brandon & Bianca often read together.
The books are dark & violent & resemble a Japanese version of “Romeo & Juliet.” Music was also playing after Brandon had utilized a bluetooth speaker & programmed his phone to play a particular song on repeat. The song was “Test Drive” by Joji which was about a person who is more invested in the relationship than the other person.
In order to better understand exactly what was happening between Bianca & Brandon that night, investigators began combing through their social media accounts & discovered that they hadn’t been alone at the concert. Direct messages from Bianca’s Discord account indicated that she had invited a new friend named Alex who she would be meeting for the first time & was worried that Brandon might become jealous. Prosecutors soon tracked Alex down.
Alex was very helpful in explaining the last moments he had spent with Bianca & it was clear that Brandon had not wanted him there. As they continued to look through Bianca’s phone, they saw a message that Bianca sent Alex after she left the concert with Brandon that read: I think he saw me kiss you. She also sent a message to another friend on Discord about Brandon being “so mad” about the situation.
This made investigators wonder if this was a crime of passion or was it a snap. Just before dawn, as Brandon & Bianca headed back to Utica, Brandon made an ominous post on social media. He posted a photo of what appeared to be the New York State Thruway with the caption “Here comes Hell. It’s redemption, right?”
Investigators tried to put the pieces together in terms of what happened after that. After Bianca’s murder, overnight, investigators within the Utica Police Department conducted a forensic analysis of Brandon’s phone & nothing could have prepared them for what they soon uncovered. They found that they were watching a horror film playing out in real life when they realized that Brandon had videoed himself murdering Bianca.
The room of detectives sat in stunned silence, realizing that this was the most horrific thing they had ever seen & many of the details were too gruesome to even describe. It appeared that Bianca was sleeping & the back seat was folded out into a flat position. Brandon took the camera & clipped it to one of the air vents at the front of the car. He then reached into the back seat, collected a knife which clearly showed that he had pre-planned what he was going to do next. He hid the knife along the right side of the car & woke Bianca up.
Brandon asked Bianca about her kiss with Alex at the concert & she said that she was sorry. He told her that sorry wasn’t enough & Bianca reminded him that they weren’t exclusive. She asked him if he was ready to take her home & as he reached down to grab the knife, it was clear that Bianca had no idea what was happening.
As Brandon viciously stabbed Bianca to death he screamed at her, “Why did you make me do this?!” as if it was her fault. When he finished, he took the graphic photos of her body & posted them on social media, including Instagram, Discord & 4chan. The photo showed Bianca in his car with blood spattered across her tank top, her throat slashed. She had been murdered sometime between 5:47 am & 6:40 am. At 5:47 am, she messaged a friend & by 6:40 am, the horrific photos had been posted.
Though they were aware that the video existed, thankfully Kim & Bianca’s grandfather, Frank, have never seen it. Kim is fully aware that at the time her daughter was being horrifically killed, she was home, unaware, only ten minutes away. It’s a detail that haunts her to this day.
Bianca fought for her life as Brandon ruthlessly killed her. It wasn’t just the gory video that sickened investigators in terms of evidence in this case, but also the fact that they learned that Brandon was intent on killing Bianca long before that night.
Brandon was very calculated & meticulous in his planning. Two days before he murdered Bianca, he utilized the Notes app on his phone & typed an evil checklist which was basically a to-do list of things he would need to not only murder the girl who viewed him as a trusted friend, but also stage the crime scene. This checklist happened before he ever went to the concert & witnessed Bianca having an innocent kiss with another boy & included: Set up speaker, tie rope, livestream & last song?. He set up the speaker & chose his song. There were multiple disturbing internet searches that showed he researched ways to kill Bianca, “how to choke someone out”, “how do you hit the carotid artery to kill someone.”
This proved to investigators that this had not been a crime of passion. Brandon thought of every detail & it’s likely when he realized that Bianca didn’t share the same feelings that he did, he made the decision to kill her. Brandon wanted to be with her & she did not want to be anything more than his friend. No matter what Bianca said or did after that concert, Brandon was going to be sure that she wound up dead.
Two weeks after the murder, Bianca’s family & friends came to the courthouse wearing pink, her favorite color. They waited for Brandon Clark to make his first public appearance. When he was brought into the courtroom, Frank Williams, Bianca’s grandfather, described him as looking “pathetic.”
Brandon was officially charged with second-degree murder & pleaded not guilty despite the fact that there was video evidence to prove what he had done. The defense was considering an Extreme Emotional Disturbance defense, but authorities & Bianca’s family knew otherwise. They saw Brandon as he was; an evil person who simply wanted to murder someone.
As the prosecution prepared for the trial, they had two goals in mind; get justice for Bianca & make sure that Brandon Clark can never hurt anyone else ever again.
In the meantime, Bianca’s family, who struggled to grieve & attempt to cope with the horrific loss of their loved one, was faced with a vile campaign of hate that was brewing on social media. They were being targeted as a result of her death & faced non-stop harassment that became a form of psychological terrorism. Images of Bianca’s bloody, lifeless body poured across social media & it was clear that those that shared the photo did not see Bianca as a human being who had a life & a family who loved her. The images were made into memes as well as jokes which were all meant to be incredibly cruel.
Kim Devins pleaded with social media companies to remove the unthinkable images of her baby girl, knowing that if Bianca was alive, she would be so embarrassed & heartbroken by what was happening. The images did not come down immediately & stayed on Instagram & Facebook for at least a couple of weeks. Each time one came down, another took its place since these social media platforms don’t have the infrastructure in place to prevent that from happening.
In response, some social media users attempted to replace the death photos with messages of love & hope that included images of clouds, bunnies, ribbons or fan art of Bianca with hashtags in order to push the death photos down in the search results. Despite this, Kim indicates that they continued to be subjected to online trolls that continued to send them the horrific photos. Kim received them as well as her daughter Olivia who decided to take a break from social media to avoid seeing the awful pictures of her big sister.
Along with the photos, there were messages of hate as Bianca was being blamed for her ruthless murder. Kim described it as traumatizing to see people saying such awful things about Bianca, who was her baby, that she deserved such a cruel end to her short life.
Direct messages & text messages continued on to the family & behavioral scientist Stephen Crimando believes that those who are responsible for the online attacks on Bianca’s family belong to a community of online men known as “incels.” Incel is short for involuntarily celibate & are men who are 21 & older who have gone six months or longer without any sexual activity, not by their own choosing. Because incels can feel so badly cheated by life, they can become obsessive with the idea that they need to strike back for the unfairness.
According to Crimando, incels view themselves as victims who are in a never-ending struggle to win the affection of attractive women whom they refer to as “Stacys.” They fully believe that they have no chance with Stacys at all & Bianca would have been considered a Stacy.
Brandon Clark did not identify as an incel but he was celebrated by this dark community for what he did to Bianca & the dark, hateful community celebrated Brandon. Some wrote: He did the world a favour. She was disgusting & treated so many like they were worthless. She was the one who was worthless. Well done Mr Clark. Mr Clark is a legend. There is a history of this shared hate among incels that have previously led to murder. In 2014 a 22-year-old self-identified incel went on a deadly rampage in Isla Vista, California & six people were murdered. The intelligence community believes there have been more than a dozen mass murders in North America resulting in 50 deaths related to incel ideology.
Stephen Crimando feels that those on this extreme end of the spectrum of incels are absolutely capable of murder & because of that, it’s now recognized as a terrorist threat.
The response to Bianca’s murder by the incel community served as a wake-up call for other young women in the online world who realized that they could be targets.
As Bianca’s family prepared for the trial, they feared that they would be subjected to watching the murder video in court. Kim realized that her last memory of her daughter was Bianca full of life & excited. She did not want to be traumatized by the brutal attack on her daughter in her last terrifying, painful moments of life.
Shortly before his trial began in February 2020, Brandon Clark pleaded guilty to Bianca’s murder, sparing her family from hearing & seeing the details of her murder. He said: I know that sorry is not enough, I know it won’t take back what I did.
Kim Devins was not buying the fact that this ruthless man, who was not only responsible for ending her daughter’s life, but also for recording & posting the horrific images, was suddenly trying to protect them from further pain. Kim may have been correct in this belief as before sentencing, Brandon yet again changed his mind & indicated that he wanted to go to trial. It was clear that he was playing a game with everyone & only five months after pleading guilty to Bianca’s murder, he went back to court in hopes of changing his plea back to not guilty.
The Devins family were infuriated & disgusted with this request, having already been subjected to so much pain & anguish. Kim knew why Brandon now wanted to go to trial; he had learned that there were media & production companies interested in Bianca’s story who wanted to be able to tell his side of the story.
Months later, Brandon took the stand to plead his case where he blamed his former attorney, Luke Nebush, for not visiting him enough in prison & pressuring him into pleading guilty. Nebush, who was a well-respected public defender, took the stand & said that these accusations were absolutely untrue, saying: I went to the Oneida County jail 15 times prior to his plea.. There were moments where I spent 4 or 5 hours with him. There were moments where I probably spent 2. Maybe an average of 3.
Nebush went on to elaborate that he actually encouraged Brandon to plead not guilty & go to trial & it was Brandon who refused. Brandon made claims that because he was a first-time offender, he had no knowledge of the legal system or court proceedings.
The judge denied Brandon Clark’s request to withdraw his guilty plea & on March 16, 2021, nearly two years after Bianca’s murder, he was finally facing sentencing.
Bianca’s younger sister Olivia gave a statement in court at the time of sentencing & indicated that she was traumatized by the image of her big sister’s death being shared on social media, being used as profile pictures & being sent to her. She struggles to meet new people out of fear that they could be capable of hurting her as Brandon hurt Bianca. Each night, as she tries to fall asleep, she sees the image of her sister’s death. At this point, Olivia was 17-years-old, the same age her sister was when she lost her life.
Kim Devins & Frank Williams had been eagerly awaiting the moment they could face Bianca’s killer. Kim described the unimaginable pain that goes with the death of a child which is a pain that time could never heal. She said that Bianca had always promised to stay with her because she knew what her death would do to her mom, but now it’s a promise Bianca can no longer fulfill because of Brandon.
Frank spoke & said: Brandon, for the cruel manner in which you took my granddaughter’s life, for the total disregard you had for a human life; for the callous act in which you posted pictures of her murdered body on social media to gratify your own selfish purposes, you Brandon, deserve to spend the rest of your life in prison.
Before the judge read his sentence, Brandon gave a statement: I hate myself for what I did. I am so sorry that I put everyone through this. I’m so sorry that I put Bianca through this. I – I wish I could apologize to her & just apologize & apologize & take it back but.. [looks down shaking his head]
Bianca’s family did not believe a shred of his remorse & knew that he was just using it to add to his story, trying to make himself the victim, making it all about him. The judge was also unmoved by his apology & gave him the maximum sentence for murdering Bianca – 25 years to life.
Bianca’s family realize that Brandon will only be in his 40s after serving 25 years in prison & know that their fight is not over. They will face that fight when he becomes eligible for parole.
Bianca’s family have taken their grief into action & have worked with local politicians to get “Bianca’s Law” passed. This would hold social media companies accountable for violent & graphic content that they allow on their platforms, hoping that what happened to them, never happens to another family. They want to prevent death photos like Bianca’s from being put on social media. They’ve also established a scholarship in Bianca’s name that will go to a student to help adolescents with mental health struggles like Bianca had.
Kim wants her daughter to be remembered for her smile, her bright spirit & her huge caring heart. Bianca always looked to help others & even when she was struggling to help herself, she still helped others.
In January 2022, the New York State Assembly passed a version of Bianca’s Law, which criminalizes posting, sharing or publishing personal images with intent to degrade or abuse under certain circumstances.
When Bianca had her darkest of days & struggled with her mental health, Kim said that she made her daughter a promise that if she fought to live, Kim would never leave her side, “As part of honoring Bianca’s memory, I will always keep that fight alive.” Despite their fight, the Devins family continue to receive graphic photos from Bianca’s murder.
References:
- rtor.org: Borderline Personality Disorder
- 4chan
- The New York Times: Orbiting, another thing for online daters to worry about
- CBS News: Family targeted by online community after teen’s murder: “Absolutely traumatizing”
- CBS News: Violent images sent to victim’s family a form of “psychological terrorism,” expert says
- Wikipedia: Lolicon
- Medium: The brutal murder of Bianca Devins on social media
- Medium: The murder of Bianca Devins was recorded & posted on social media
- Observer-Dispatch: ‘Today we utter his name for the last time’: Man sentenced for murder of Bianca Devins
