Bianca Devins murder: I saw the Internet world’s heart and evil, mother reveals (exclusive) (2024)

Kim Devins has seen the best and the worst of the online world for teenagers.

The brutal murder of her daughter, Bianca, exposed the sheer cruelty of Internet users -- and the kindness of strangers online.

Bianca, 17, was killed July 13 by a friend, who put photos and video of her body online moments after the murder, police said.

The Devins family learned Bianca was dead when strangers sent the photos of her bloodied body. The photos included captions like “Look at your daughter now” and “Your daughter’s a whor*. She got what she deserved.”

But other strangers sent messages of support. Bianca loved the color pink, so many made artwork of pink skies and pink clouds.

Bianca Devins’ grisly murder in Utica made international headlines, as people were horrified by the crime and online celebration of it.

The man charged with her murder – Brandon A. Clark, 21, of Cicero – is accused of killing Devins by slitting her throat. When confronted by police, Clark slashed his own throat, managing to take a selfie of himself lying across Devins’ body, police said.

“I saw the most evil side of the Internet, which was so unexpected,’’ Kim Devins told Syracuse.com | The Post Standard in an exclusive interview at her Utica home. “I also saw this amazing compassion where people just wanted to erase the gore.”

Devins said she’s decided to talk publicly so people will know the real Bianca.

“Bianca is much more than those photos. She’s much more than her death, and she’s much more than a murder case,’’ she said. “She’s an artist, a sister, a daughter, a friend … and her bright light was taken entirely too soon.”

Bianca’s real story, it seems, is of a girl who fought mental illness that kept her from feeling comfortable relating to people in the real world.

In the online world, though, Bianca found herself – or someone different, who seemed better to her. She opened up, and her creativity flourished. People, online from all over, responded to her.

Parents everywhere confront some version of these issues in uncertain talks in kids’ bedrooms and at kitchen tables, as troubled kids retreat from the real world into online worlds.

In Bianca’s case, both worlds let her down.

Discovering a community

Bianca was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder as a teen, her mother said. People with BPD have trouble regulating their emotions. They often have a poor self-image, impulsive behavior and sensory issues.

Bianca had all of these, her mother said.

And outbursts. She’d sometimes start screaming if she felt claustrophobic in a car or if it was too loud. She had felt awkward and had difficulty making friends. She thought people judged her as odd because she was into visual arts such as anime and manga, her mom said.

She tried counseling in her early teens. She ran away to New York City on an impulse at 15. Finally, she was admitted to an in-patient mental health clinic in Albany from October 2018 to February 2019, her mother said.

It helped. She earned her high school diploma mostly through home tutoring. She planned to attend Mohawk Valley Community College this fall. She wanted to study psychology, so she could help others with mental illness, her mother said.

Isolated by her illness in real life, she found a community online.

One lifelong friend, Gianna Rosado, 18, said she was didn’t know about Bianca’s online life. The two played Minecraft and walked around Price Chopper together.

“I was here for real life," Rosado said. “I just knew she was different, but in a good way. She had her own style and personality, and she didn’t care what other people thought.”

Bianca grew active on social media platforms, posting about anime and emo fashion.

Bianca found acceptance online that life in Utica didn’t offer. She had 3,000 Instagram followers.

“That was her safe place,’’ said Kim Devins, 36. “She could be anyone, and she could create a different persona who had more confidence.”

She didn’t use her own name. Sometimes she was Bianca Ahren. Free of judgment, she could talk freely about her mental health issues.

On Instagram, she posted about her mental illness and her struggle with it. On May 1, she posted that it was Borderline Personality Disorder Awareness Month.

“A lot of you know I have been diagnosed with this,’’ she posted. “It’s a struggle I go through daily. I’ve come a long way in my progress…. I can’t be cured, but I can get control of my symptoms.

“We are not unloveable,’’ she continued. “We can have healthy relationships, and are not manipulative. A lot of what we do we don’t understand. I’m responsible for this stuff a lot. We are not evil. Our mental illness does not make us a bad person.”

Like all parents, Devins struggled with how to handle her daughter’s self-imposed isolation. For a kid with social anxiety, online friends seemed like progress.

The mother said she monitored Bianca’s accounts. If she met someone online, Devins would often ask to Facetime the person, her mother said.

At one low point, Bianca had considered suicide. Her mom got her help and secured from her a promise: Bianca would never leave her.

An online meeting

One night in early May, Bianca told her mom she was going out with a new friend.

Devins insisted on meeting him, so Bianca brought him to their Utica home that night. It was Brandon Clark. He passed the test.

“He seemed like a very nice kid,’’ Devins recalled. “He was very polite.”

That night the two went to the park and sat on the swings. Brandon started coming over regularly. He was friendly, asked about the family. Devins saw no dark side.

Clark had followed Bianca on Instagram. He then introduced himself to her on Discord, an online messaging app popular with videogamers and others looking for private chats. They chatted.

He told the Devins family at first he was 19, but they soon learned he was 21. Bianca was nearly 18.

Bianca told her mom she made it clear to Clark that she didn’t want to date him. She was going to college in the fall and wanted to be free.

Devins thought Clark wanted more, but Bianca reassured her.

Still, when Clark called 911, he said, “I killed my girlfriend.”

A concert, a meeting

Bianca was excited about attending her first concert on her own. She wanted to see singer Nicole Dollanganger, a dark, gothic folk singer, in Queens with Clark.

Her mom was nervous. “But I trusted Brandon, and she was almost 18 and I knew she’d go even if I said ‘no,’ ” Devins said. “This way seemed much better.”

At the concert, Bianca also was going to meet another guy she met on Discord, she told her mother.

That guy, Alex, lived in Jersey City. She’d chatted with him online, wanted to meet him in person. Devins said it would be fine. After all, Clark was there to protect her.

Bianca spent the late morning twirling and bouncing around the living room with excitement. She tried on outfits, asking for her mom’s feedback. She settled on a black tank top, black-and-white plaid skirt, black-and-white Vans and a black velvet mini-bookbag she carried with her everywhere.

She left about 2:30 p.m. Devins remembers that she hugged her daughter and told her to be safe. Bianca hugged her back and said she loved her, too.

Along the route to Queens, she texted and Snapchatted her mom with pictures of scenery and updates.

Her last text came in at 7:30 p.m., as they looked for a parking space.

When she didn’t hear from Bianca by 1:45 a.m. and her phone went to voicemail, she figured they had pulled over to sleep.

It was just about 7 a.m. that her other daughter, 15-year-old Olivia, answered the door. It was the police. They needed to talk about Bianca.

The kiss

Prosecutors say they believe Clark killed Bianca in a fit of jealousy because she kissed someone else at the concert.

The guy was Alex. They kissed while Clark was at a store in Queens, Devins later learned. Clark was angry, Bianca texted to a friend.

In news coverage around the world, the killing played like some modern parable about the risk of online identities and relationships.

In the end, it’s the well-worn story of so many cases of abusive male partners, for hundreds of years. Kim Devins thinks Clark wanted to control Bianca.

“If I can’t have you, then no one can,’’ Devins said.

Police were first alerted to the murder when online followers reported seeing images of Bianca’s body. At the house, the police asked about the concert, what she was wearing and Clark.

Police told Devins someone saw a post online that led them to believe Clark may have harmed her daughter.

Devins’ housemate and friend – Kayleigh Rimmer – began searching Instagram. She found it: a post that showed Bianca’s body from the neck down with blood spatter on her shoulders and chest, with the caption “I’m sorry Bianca.”

Someone then sent another grisly photo of Bianca to her sister’s friend, who was in the home with the family. She screamed.

As strangers began sending photos to Devins, the family took her phone.

Devins said she’s never seen the photos. She wants her last memory of Bianca to be when she hugged her goodbye.

Pictures from around the world

The days following Bianca’s murder are a blur, her mother said. Friends and family organized a vigil, and her funeral drew more than 300 people, including about a dozen online friends Bianca had met in person.

One of the young men came up and introduced himself. It was Alex, from the concert.

In the service, they talked about her “beautiful heart,” her love for the color pink, and her passion for cats. One of the family cats, Belle, had just died. In a rose gold casket decorated with pink and white flowers, Bianca was buried with Belle’s ashes.

Today, Devins is determined to get justice for Bianca: jail with no possibility of parole. She doesn’t want the death penalty. She wants Clark to sit in jail “and think about what he did every single day.”

Clark, who survived the suicide attempt after police say he killed Bianca, is awaiting trial.

Devins has set up a Facebook group “Remembering Bianca Devins,” where people can share memories and Bianca’s artwork. Portraits of her drawn by strangers appeared from the Ukraine, Egypt, England, Japan and across the United States.

Bianca’s mom is spearheading a campaign for social media reforms so platforms don’t allow images like the one of her daughter to be shared. She’s raising money in Bianca’s name to help others with mental illness.

Her family is planning a BEE gala Feb. 15 at the May Studio in Utica to raise money for college scholarships. (BEE, for her first initial, was the handle Bianca gave herself online.)

Devins is comforted by Bianca’s words. On Mother’s Day, Bianca posted on Instagram, thanking her mom and stepmom for support during her treatment:

“You gave me a card and you wrote so much that you had to write Love, mom off the page lol. I really cried while reading it, and I read it a lot.

“It meant a lot to me that you would express yourself like that, because I’ve had such a hard time expressing how grateful I am for you.”

The Bianca Michelle Devins Memorial Scholarship Fund has been established by the Devins/Williams family to provide scholarships to students pursuing a degree in psychology so they can continue Bianca’s dream to help adolescents with mental illness.

You can contact the fund at: Bianca Michelle Devins Memorial Scholarship Fund, c/o The Community Foundation of Herkimer & Oneida Counties, 2608 Genesee St., Utica, NY 13502

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