Kim Devins is still receiving painful reminders of her daughter Bianca’s horrific death from strangers online.
“I just got a message yesterday,” Devins told Fox News Digital. “It wasn’t a picture of Bianca, but someone recreated the picture of death with a Lego person and then sent me a nasty message about her.
He said, “This still happens. Suddenly we find out that the photo has been posted somewhere.”
Bianca Devins is the subject of the true-crime series “Deadly Influence”. (Utica Police)
On July 14, 2019, Bianca Devins was murdered by a man she met on Instagram, who then posted photos of her corpse online. The photos went viralAppearing on online chat sites such as 4chan and Discord, many online posters mocked or celebrated the 17-year-old’s death.
Kim Devins, Utica, New YorkSpeaking on Investigation Discovery’s (ID) true-crime series, “Deadly Influence,” it exposes the dark side of social media, and exposes the dark reality of toxic online communities.
“I want to tell the world about Bianca,” Devins said. “I always want to talk about my daughter, but we also have a very important message to send. There are some important changes that need to be made as far as the law and social media companies are concerned.”
Kim Devins (left) said she carefully monitors her daughter Bianca’s (right) social media presence. (investigation Discovery)
“I’m her mother. I can’t allow that picture to go online,” Devins said.
Bianca was described as “a bright light”, calling Devins her best friend. Bianca had a close relationship with her sisters and found solace in drawing. But after being diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, Bianca struggled to form relationships with other teenagers. Like many, she turned to social media to find a sense of community.
“He had to struggle a lot in his life mental health” Devins said. “But even in her worst times, she would help others. Sometimes, when she was struggling, she couldn’t always follow her own advice, but she always got good advice from her friends.”
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As Bianca Devins grew up, she struggled to form real-life relationships, her mother, Kim Devins, told Fox News Digital. (investigation Discovery)
“I think as she got older she found it harder to cope with her disorder,” Devins added. “She found it harder to connect with people in real life, as they say. And on the internet, she found a community of people who were going through the same things as her or struggling with the same disorder.”
Devins grew increasingly concerned as Bianca’s followers grew. She said she closely monitors her daughter’s online activities.
“She was 17, so I relaxed the rules, but I always taught my girls not to trust anybody, no matter what they say,” Devins said. “These people can create themselves on the Internet. I always told them you could be talking to a teenage boy who is a 52-year-old man trying to groom you.
“But Bianca would talk to her friends on FaceTime, so we knew they were real. And I would always meet them on FaceTime. I was completely aware of what she was doing online and who she was talking to.”
Bianca Devins met Brandon Clark (left) on Instagram months before his murder. (Picture)
Police said Bianca met 21-year-old Brandon Clark on Instagram about two months before her death. According to authorities, they were initially only acquaintances online, but “the relationship progressed to becoming closer in person.”
“They had spent time together and were acquainted with each other’s families,” police said.
Devins said she met Clark “several times.”
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Bianca Devins was preparing to enroll at a local community college before she met her horrific death. (investigation Discovery)
“He was at my house all the time,” she said. “My first impression was that he was very nice, very friendly. He acted like the boy next door. … We had no idea what he was planning.”
Devins still vividly remembers the last time she saw Bianca. Her daughter was excited to see “her first adult concert,” her first show in New York City without her mother. Bianca, who had just graduated from high school, would have been enjoying her newfound freedom with her friends. When Devins found out Clark would be taking her to the concert, she thought nothing of it.
“She was so happy,” Devins said. “I remember we were both getting ready. She was going to the concert, and I was getting ready to go to the graduation party. She came up behind me and hugged me. She said, ‘I love you.’ And I said, ‘I love you. Be safe.’ Those were our last words to each other.”
“She said, ‘I love you.’ And I said, ‘I love you. Be safe.’ Those were our last words to each other.” (investigation Discovery)
According to the police statement, Bianca and Clark argued sometime Saturday night. They returned to Utica early Sunday morning and went to a location on a dead-end road. There, they continued to argue until Clark used a large knife to stab Bianca, police said. Officers began receiving calls around 7:20 a.m. Sunday reporting that a man posted on a social media site that he had killed a person.
Before officers took Clark into custody, he slit his own neck, lay down on a green tarp and took a selfie while lying on top of the dead teen.
The photos immediately circulated online.
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On July 15, 2019, family, friends and the community held a vigil in Utica, New York, to remember Bianca Devins, 17, of South Utica, who was killed by a man she met on Instagram who then posted photos of her body online, police said. (Greg Mason/Observer-Dispatch via AP)
“You can see in the body cam footage that my roommate gave my father a cellphone,” Devins said. “My roommate and my father found a picture of Bianca dead. … They didn’t say anything to me at the time. We were immediately tagged in those pictures.”
Multiple times a day — every day — Devins and her family were tagged in photos of Bianca’s corpse, accompanied by “vile, disgusting messages.” Devins said she and her family had trouble removing the photos quickly enough because the flood of tags came.
“There’s no good way to report these incidents,” Devins said. “All social media platforms have reporting mechanisms … (but), in most cases, we would get reports that the photo wasn’t against their guidelines. That still happens today. There’s no person to contact … so you can report what’s going on.”
Friends, family members, and loved ones posted photos of Bianca Devins’ body on social media and called for them to be removed. (Picture)
“I wasn’t able to contact Instagram until I went to my local congressman,” Devins claimed. “I was very lucky because I had a connection. His wife was a friend of my best friend’s sister, so I was able to get in touch fairly quickly and easily. Most people don’t have that. … This is something I would like to see put into federal law. I have proposed that these social media companies should have a crisis response center. We should be able to contact these companies in real time. These photos of our kids are being sent online, and parents have no one to contact.”
“Some of these social media apps say they have human moderators,” Devins said. “I don’t know how a human moderator can look at that photo and say it doesn’t violate community guidelines.”
Devins said each tag was “re-traumatizing.”
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“As a mother, you don’t have time to grieve,” Kim Devins told Fox News Digital. (Greg Mason/Observer-Dispatch via AP)
“As a mother, you don’t have time to grieve properly,” she said. “I’m constantly worried about my other children and how this will affect them. It’s psychological terrorism. You’re re-traumatized every time. You have no choice but to look at the picture. Some people say, ‘Just don’t look at it, ignore it.’ But it’s a picture of my child on the Internet. To get it taken down, I have to look at it and report it. … But that only prolongs the trauma. You never get over losing your child and having it thrown in your face.”
Devins campaigned to hold social media platforms accountable while mourning. And in late 2022, Bianca’s Law was signed into law By New York Governor Kathy Hochul.
Bianca’s Law was signed by New York Governor Kathy Hochul. (John Lamparski/Getty Images)
“This establishes the crime of unlawful dissemination of personal images, particularly crime scene images,” Devins said. “In New York State, if you upload and disseminate graphic personal images or photographs of a crime scene, It’s illegal. But I’m still advocating for it because we need to expand it into federal law. Right now, limiting it to New York is too narrow. The only way to hold social media companies and Big Tech companies accountable is to establish federal law.”
Brandon Clark was sentenced to 25 years to life in state prison for the murder of Bianca Devins. (Picture)
Clark was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. For Devins, her work is far from over.
“I never felt justice was done until the law was signed, because having her killer in prison won’t bring her back,” he said. “It doesn’t take away all the pain we’ve suffered. But I finally feel we’ve gotten some justice for Bianca. Her name will prevent other families from experiencing what we’ve suffered.”
When asked what advice she would give parents today, Devins admitted it’s complicated.
A woman in the spectator area during Brandon Clark’s trial wears a “Justice for Bianca” pin. (Picture)
“I don’t blame the Internet. She could have met him anywhere,” Devins said. “And Bianca did whatever she had to do to keep herself safe online. … She didn’t see any alarm bells. I didn’t see any alarm bells. Investigators told us she hid it very well.”
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“Was there something I forgot? There wasn’t. I think that’s the scariest part of Bianca’s story. You never know. My advice to other parents is to do what I did – keep an eye on your children’s activities and know their friends. But, in the end, even the safest precautions couldn’t prevent this from happening.”
“Deadly Influence” airs June 17 at 9 p.m. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
