Deadly Influence: The Social Media Murders 1x3

1. Bianca Devins, the influencer,

2. spread the message of self-love.

3. Bianca was a beautiful, kind, amazing soul.

4. She knew she had a purpose,

5. and that was to help people.

6. But as an influencer there will be people who love you

7. and people who hate you for no reason.

8. It's the Wild West still.

9. There's no controlling it.

10. It's only going to get worse.

11. I'm sad.

12. Bianca Michele Devins.

13. When the hate steps off cyberspace...

14. Is your name Bianca? - ... into the real world,

15. What are you doing, man?

16. it just becomes ten times scarier.

17. Is your name Bianca?

18. We were always together.

19. Bianca and I were extremely close.

20. She always referred to me as her best friend,

21. I mean, since the time she could talk.

22. As a child, she was just very easygoing, always happy.

23. I got pregnant with Bianca very young. I was 17.

24. Always knew I wanted kids.

25. So to me it just happened a little earlier than expected.

26. Her father was a senior.

27. I don't think that he was ready.

28. When he lived with us he was a pretty good father.

29. When we split up he was just nonexistent.

30. Growing up everyone said how much she looked like her father.

31. This picture she says,

32. "I finally look like you."

33. She always loved music,

34. and art.

35. Tried just about every sport.

36. - Bianca, there you go. Yeah, good kick.

37. I remember taking her to soccer games

38. and watching her play soccer.

39. Kick it to grandpa.

40. The whole team following the ball.

41. I kicked it!

42. Well, home was in Utica, New York.

43. They came back and lived with me

44. for a few years after I was divorced,

45. and then they moved a block and a half down the road from me.

46. It was... It was just a great time.

47. Bianca referred to my dad,

48. who she called Frankie, as Superman.

49. He was always the one to the rescue.

50. If, you know, they needed anything Frankie was there.

51. His cheeks were like roses.

52. His nose like a cherry.

53. She just had the most radiant, beaming smile.

54. Beacon of light that came from that smile.

55. We've been friends ever since I can remember.

56. I was supposed to be born on her birthday,

57. and she was supposed o be born on my birthday.

58. Like, our due dates were swapped.

59. We would always combine our birthdays 'cause it was just easier.

60. We were always out, like, playing in the backyard,

61. or we would pretend that we were wizards.

62. And her little sister Liv would just go along with it and believe it all.

63. That's me, Liv, and Bianca.

64. As a young child she was very social.

65. She had a lot of friends.

66. When she got to about 7th grade

67. she kind of started to self-isolate.

68. Something changed in her where she had this really low sense of self.

69. As she got older you could see the difficulties that were coming about,

70. coping with other people.

71. Start of her mental health issues.

72. Started to become noticeable.

73. I've often said jokingly that 14 is not an age,

74. it's a diagnosis.

75. She didn't have very many friends.

76. She didn't "fit in."

77. Bianca started in online communities through Minecraft.

78. She would just have group chats with people

79. she was playing video games with.

80. And then as she got older,

81. she left the video gaming behind

82. and just connected with people on social media.

83. I didn't have anything really to do with her online presence.

84. I tried to, like, bring my friends around

85. maybe to see if that would help,

86. but she was just always online.

87. Her social life was her online life.

88. When I was 15 or 16,

89. connected with Bianca for the first time on Instagram.

90. We both kind of had the same,

91. like, struggles with being antisocial,

92. I guess, having trouble making friends in real life...

93. while still wanting to express ourselves as teenage girls.

94. She would express herself through fashion, and art,

95. different ways that she was too afraid to do in real life.

96. She was a very kind person who wanted to believe

97. in the best of everyone.

98. I met Bianca on Discord.

99. Just kind of, like, a messaging platform.

100. It's target demographic is anyone who's not cool enough to be on Instagram.

101. It's the only reason she was there was just to talk and make friends.

102. We were still both kids when, you know, we knew each other,

103. so it was kind of difficult to go hang out,

104. especially with her being in New York,

105. me being in Chicago.

106. So we'd FaceTime a whole bunch

107. and stay up real late.

108. I'd get in trouble. She'd get in trouble for doing so.

109. There was a lot to talk about.

110. But social media's definitely the Wild West still.

111. Sometimes it would get a little bit more serious.

112. More aggressive.

113. Like, a lot of emotional, verbal abuse

114. among other, like, gross tactics

115. to try to get attention.

116. Her way of dealing with people in general,

117. she would always try to take an approach of compassion.

118. Sometimes it did work,

119. and I was surprised every time.

120. But sometimes they felt threatened,

121. and they would do something drastic.

122. Bianca normally slept in late.

123. For her not to be up and moving at,

124. you know, 11:00 am on a Sunday was normal.

125. Didn't expect her to be awake yet.

126. Her little stepsister,

127. I think she was just looking for something in Bianca's room.

128. And she came back to us and said, "I think BB's gone.

129. Kim had called my mom,

130. and then me and my mom went over to the house.

131. There was a note on her bed that said,

132. "Don't worry, Mom, I will be back."

133. I think she left her phone too,

134. so we couldn't even call her, or track her.

135. I think I just went into shock because nothing made sense.

136. It didn't make sense, you know.

137. I mean, no one heard her leave the house.

138. We started going through her Instagram

139. and calling her friends.

140. Olivia got in contact with Young.

141. Her sister and her mom reached out to me

142. asking if she knew where she went.

143. If her parents didn't know where she was

144. then I don't... I wouldn't have known either.

145. Bianca had just disappeared.

146. I felt it was one of Bianca's orbiters

147. that obsessively had stalked her.

148. Orbiter is a term that is used to describe typically men

149. who find a profile online of a woman that they might find to be attractive,

150. and over time they engage with that profile.

151. And just like a planet around the sun,

152. they keep this safe distance.

153. They might comment on some of their posts,

154. and interact online,

155. but the relationship hardly ever goes beyond that.

156. But some orbiters take things one step further.

157. They're seeking out this individual,

158. and they want to make it personal

159. in real life.

160. I felt mainly fear, fear of the unknown.

161. Who was she with? Why did he take her?

162. What's going to be happening to her?

163. And you just want her home safe.

164. I'd been a volunteer

165. for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

166. So we, uh, called in as many resources as we could.

167. And law enforcement were able to track her.

168. They've got their technology

169. and their ways of doing their investigations.

170. We find out she was with John.

171. State Police Mobile Operation Center.

172. When Bianca met John,

173. it was right around her 16th birthday.

174. He had just graduated high school.

175. And she talked about starting to meet some of her

176. online friends in real life.

177. One of my biggest rules

178. was anyone that she was going to be dating in real life

179. I had to meet first.

180. I met John, uh, several times.

181. He would be driving up from where he lived

182. which was four-to-six-hour drive.

183. Bianca was drawn to John because he was a wild card.

184. I never thought Bianca would run away.

185. I never would have imagined that she went all the way to Long Island.

186. We got in contact with John's father,

187. and the father said, "Oh, yeah, Bianca was just here.

188. I thought she was just a kid from the neighborhood."

189. When I finally got down to Long island I said,

190. "Bianca, what are you thinking?"

191. She told me she ran away with him

192. because he threatened to overdose.

193. So for me it was very frustrating, like,

194. "Come on, Bianca, you know better.

195. This is not someone you want to be friends with."

196. The relationship was on and off until

197. maybe, like, June of 2019.

198. He was either all good, and everything was great,

199. or all bad, and she wasn't talking to him at all.

200. Then all of a sudden she ran away with him again.

201. Bianca did not have any impulse control.

202. Just had a thought, and went with it,

203. and didn't really think about the consequences.

204. She was in the middle of a mental health breakdown.

205. It was too much chaos.

206. They were making really poor decisions.

207. Towards the end she wanted nothing to do with him.

208. He was not respecting her, like, privacy boundaries,

209. harassing her.

210. He was someone who was chronically online,

211. and that was just the type of person he was.

212. John released some intimate video of them

213. that she wasn't aware that even existed

214. onto a Discord server.

215. Bianca ended up reporting that to the police,

216. and I did end up getting a restraining order

217. against John at that point.

218. Yeah.

219. Over my. I'm over.

220. So we're good. We're...

221. living life.

222. We took her to a facility,

223. St Anne's in Albany in New York.

224. She was determined to get better.

225. She wanted her mental health back,

226. and she fought for it.

227. She was there for about five months,

228. and she would have turned 17 in the fall.

229. She was diagnosed and got some really, really good

230. dialectical behavior therapy,

231. which is the ideal treatment for borderline personality disorder.

232. When she came home, I mean, she was the old Bianca.

233. She was happy.

234. Everybody kept repeating, "Bianca's back."

235. The girl that was so caring.

236. So easy to get along with.

237. She was stable.

238. She had plans for the future.

239. She was working with a mentor,

240. and doing some modeling.

241. Her mentor was going to build her a portfolio,

242. and stop at around to different agencies in New York.

243. This one's my favorite.

244. Bianca drew upon her own struggles...

245. and put out a positive message into the world.

246. She had her community.

247. She, um, referred to them lovingly

248. as her weirdos...

249. 'cause she felt like they were all kind of weird like her.

250. She tried to uplift people that, you know,

251. "You're going to get through this

252. and it's going to be okay."

253. I think a lot of influencers stumble into that line of work.

254. They may not realize what they're doing

255. when they share a post every day is building a community.

256. Her followers saw someone who knew what they were going through

257. because she had been through it herself.

258. I was, like, convinced,

259. "There's something wrong with me."

260. She knew a lot about borderline personality disorder.

261. She, like, went through the diagnostic criteria with me...

262. and really helped talk me through it.

263. It was really kind of her to, like, do that

264. 'cause I just didn't have any other kind of support.

265. She had the kindness in her that I... I can't, like,

266. hope to ever achieve sometimes, I, yeah.

267. This is not a phone.

268. This is...

269. This is Connect 4.

270. Bianca was a champion for girls who were suffering from mental health issues.

271. She gave them a voice.

272. But it made her a target.

273. An incel is an abbreviated term

274. to describe an involuntary celibate.

275. The man who is lacking a sex life

276. for reasons that they claim are out of their control.

277. Incels have this circular relationship with women.

278. They hate women because they won't give them the time of day,

279. but women aren't giving them the time of day

280. because they don't respect them.

281. You know, this line of thinking is very dangerous

282. because it turns that feeling of kind of, like,

283. loneliness into, like, feelings of, like, anger and hatred.

284. Incels are on Discord,

285. and they definitely came out in droves to attack Bianca.

286. One of the dangers of social media

287. is not knowing who's behind these accounts,

288. or what they're truly capable of.

289. How many do you ever know when one of those people

290. is really going to act out what they're saying?

291. When you're online it's not reality.

292. You can still escape it,

293. but when you lose that control...

294. when it steps off cyberspace...

295. into, like, the real world,

296. that is a very scary thing.

297. Bianca!

298. Bianca was very excited to graduate high school.

299. Her whole family was so proud of what she had accomplished

300. in the face of such adversity.

301. I ended up leaving my school and going to her school.

302. So we graduated together.

303. Think that she was, like, at her best self.

304. Breath of fresh air.

305. She wanted to be a psychologist so she could

306. help other teens and adolescents

307. with their mental health issues.

308. She knew she had potential, and she was going to use it.

309. He loves this book.

310. Now she was going out and hanging out with friends in real life.

311. She, like, had friends off the internet.

312. I was looking forward to meet Bianca and our friends,

313. like, in person.

314. That summer, she had met,

315. you know, a couple of new friends.

316. Bianca met Brandon on Instagram.

317. He lived in Syracuse which is about 45 minutes from Utica.

318. He seemed like your average,

319. you know, 20-year-old kid.

320. A bit nerdy, which kind of was, like, Bianca's type.

321. He started coming around regularly,

322. and Bianca would be on the phone with him quite a few times a week.

323. He would play Minecraft with Bianca's younger siblings.

324. Olivia always said, "He's goofy and nerdy,

325. but he makes us laugh."

326. He just seems like a really good friend for her.

327. Brandon was at Bianca's graduation party.

328. He was polite. He shook hands.

329. Introduced himself as her boyfriend.

330. Bianca, her eyes rolled back,

331. and she looked at me and said, "We're just friends."

332. It was definitely a friend thing.

333. I could feel that from her.

334. The fact that he was just driving her everywhere,

335. I could see that he maybe wanted it to turn into something more.

336. She was going off to college.

337. She did not want to be in a relationship,

338. and she would just say,

339. "He understands. Like, he knows my boundaries,

340. and he's okay with it."

341. She met another friend, Alex, through her Discord community.

342. Alex was very shy.

343. They had been trying to meet up,

344. but their schedules had just never worked out.

345. She wanted to go to a concert in Queens.

346. Brandon seemed very trustworthy.

347. So, yeah, I trusted him to take Bianca to a concert four hours away,

348. and bring Bianca back that night.

349. And then Bianca said that Alex was going to meet them there.

350. Her and Brandon were going to meet Alex at the concert,

351. and she was really excited.

352. This was finally a date that they were both available and able to meet up.

353. Before she left, I stopped by the house,

354. went into her bedroom to say hi.

355. She was in kind of a tizzy

356. deciding what she was going to wear.

357. So, uh, I told her I loved her

358. and I sang her song as I always do.

359. When I saw Bianca...

360. or any of my grandchildren, they all had songs.

361. And, uh, then I left.

362. And it was the last time I saw her.

363. She came up, um, upstairs,

364. gave me a hug and said, "I love you, goodbye."

365. And I said, "I love you. Be safe."

366. And that was it, she was off.

367. On the evening of July 13th, 2019,

368. Brandon and Bianca went to a concert together.

369. Alex was an online friend that Bianca had met sometime before,

370. and they had really hit it off.

371. During the concert Bianca and Alex held hands and grew close.

372. We know this because Bianca shared with some of her online friends

373. what had happened.

374. July 14th, a little after 7:00 am

375. Olivia woke me up and said, "Mom, there's police here.

376. It's something about Bianca."

377. She was supposed to come home. Okay. All right.

378. Okay.

379. I remember getting a call...

380. shortly after 7 o'clock from Kim,

381. that she said, uh, "Bianca's not here.

382. Uh, something might have happened to her."

383. I started thinking, "She was doing so good.

384. Why is she running away again?"

385. Uh-huh.

386. There were two police officers outside.

387. The way they were talking...

388. I got the sense that

389. this was not going to have a good outcome.

390. I think I immediately went into shock.

391. Nothing seemed real.

392. Go on and stay here.

393. We were frantic to find her.

394. So we were going through our cell phones,

395. Bianca's Instagram.

396. As I was speaking to the police

397. my friend Kayley, she was my roommate at the time...

398. came across a very graphic post on the internet.

399. And she did not say anything to me.

400. She brought it outside to my father who was speaking to police.

401. She got a picture on her phone

402. which she showed to me.

403. So we took that out and showed it to the police officers.

404. In the early morning hours of July 14th, 2019,

405. someone posted a graphic photo.

406. The photo depicted Bianca

407. with what appeared to be her neck slashed.

408. I'd wake up with my phone absolutely blowing up.

409. We're, like, "This can't be real, right?"

410. Like, it just did not feel real.

411. We knew that someone had called the local police at that point,

412. but we also didn't have any word back from them.

413. So I just felt fear.

414. Other officers are dispatched to where they believe

415. this photograph that was posted online came from.

416. Hi.

417. What are you doing, man?

418. There's a phrase spraypainted on the ground.

419. And then he sees...

420. Brandon Clark.

421. And in that instant

422. he slashes his own throat.

423. Oh, we definitely got a scene here.

424. A gentleman just sliced his throat.

425. EMS right away.

426. And somehow he's able to post an image to Snapchat

427. of his self-inflicted wound.

428. More officers arrive on scene.

429. And the male's still breathing here.

430. And then he's taken away to be treated

431. for his self-inflicted injuries

432. before he's eventually arrested.

433. Copy, 93, 746.

434. Police confirm that Bianca is in fact deceased,

435. and as a result they're able to confirm that the image is real.

436. When they described that she had on black Vans...

437. I didn't want to accept it, but I knew it was her.

438. Then it was her.

439. And then it struck me that someone

440. actually took a photograph...

441. of her dead body.

442. And I was sitting next to Kim,

443. and she yelled out, "My baby."

444. I think I'm still in disbelief,

445. but, I mean, it just... Nothing made sense

446. because the Brandon that I knew would not have done that to her.

447. Was completely in shock.

448. And I told myself at that time, I said...

449. "You're going to be strong.

450. You're going to get your family...

451. through this."

452. I was sleeping,

453. and my mom just,

454. she's not great with...

455. relaying, you know.

456. She just opened the door and said, "Bianca's dead."

457. And I just, like, fell to the floor.

458. I kind of felt like I was still sleeping,

459. maybe having a nightmare.

460. Um, and then I checked my phone,

461. and Liv had messaged me

462. that something happened to Bianca.

463. And then I knew it was... it was real.

464. I... I broke down.

465. I broke down and I cried.

466. When I was done crying I just cried some more.

467. The feeling of grief I felt was, you know,

468. very similar to fear

469. where it just kind of, like,

470. grabs a hold of you and...

471. drags you down to darker and darker thoughts.

472. The image of Bianca circulated through the internet.

473. It began to go viral.

474. And as if that wasn't horrific enough,

475. things were about to get so much worse.

476. Brandon wanted the notoriety.

477. He wanted people to know what he did,

478. and he wanted to see the reactions to it.

479. He knew that they were going to spread it.

480. It was like another layer of, like, terror because

481. not only are you completely out of control of your life...

482. the incels, they control what happens afterward too.

483. At around 7:20 this morning

484. police sped to a dead-end road in Utica

485. to discover a suicidal man

486. and the dead body of 17-year-old resident Bianca Devins.

487. At first, people who saw the post were incredibly disturbed.

488. But Brandon survived that suicide attempt,

489. and the incel community reared forward and presented themselves

490. in a way that was celebrating Brandon.

491. And her family had to read those comments.

492. In the aftermath of Bianca's murder,

493. her social media accounts became a spectacle.

494. And to this day people are still on her accounts leaving comments.

495. You had a lot of people

496. reposting the image over and over.

497. They just shared it because it would garner clicks.

498. I felt disgust, anger, hatred.

499. I carried a lot.

500. I still carry a lot of resentment and negativity.

501. Thousands of people online thought it was...

502. something to laugh or joke about.

503. I can still see it in my head.

504. Like, she was just exposed.

505. All these sick people can just, like,

506. look at it whenever they want.

507. I don't want to think about how it would make the family feel.

508. People posted the picture

509. under my Facebook profile picture.

510. They would send it to Olivia and I.

511. Constantly they would tag us in it.

512. It felt like as soon as we got one picture removed

513. another one was posted.

514. As a mother it was very devastating

515. 'cause I feel, like, I couldn't protect her from that.

516. Um, I couldn't protect her from her murder,

517. and then I couldn't protect her from being exploited on the internet.

518. Brandon supporters weren't the only ones who

519. took up arms after Bianca's death.

520. Bianca supporters started to redirect what people saw

521. when they looked up Bianca's name.

522. I feel like it's a really unfortunate truth

523. that it wasn't until her horrific ending

524. that people realized what she had to offer the world in masses.

525. There's still people, like, spamming the comments

526. with hearts, and butterflies, and stuff because

527. there's still people, like,

528. um, posting, like, negative comments on there.

529. Like, if we were to go on there right now

530. in say, like, two hours ago,

531. would be, like, the most recent comment.

532. And that just to me is insane.

533. At the trial there was speculation

534. about whether or not Brandon killed Bianca

535. as a response to her kissing Alex at the concert.

536. But we know that's not true because

537. evidence shows he had planning it for days before it actually happened.

538. After the concert, Brandon drove Alex back home,

539. and then it was just him and Bianca left in the car

540. for the three-to-four-hour car ride home.

541. He drove to a dead-end road.

542. He parked.

543. He pulled the knife he had hidden

544. under one of the seats and attacked her.

545. He had been making searches online

546. for how to find the carotid artery within a neck.

547. He had a tarp that he had also stored in his vehicle.

548. Incels typically have that pack mentality.

549. It's what gives them the courage to post such heinous things.

550. But I believe Brandon's biggest motivation

551. was the tale as old as time,

552. if I can't have you, nobody can.

553. I am haunted every day by the images...

554. This is someone that I trusted,

555. and so to know that he came into my house

556. and was having conversations with us,

557. playing video games with the kids,

558. and at the same time planning to murder my daughter.

559. I know it means nothing.

560. Apologies. I know that it doesn't bring her back

561. and it doesn't undo what I did...

562. In his statement to the court

563. he did somewhat express remorse.

564. I feel so terrible about what I did.

565. It was shallow

566. and fake.

567. It took a certain amount of strength...

568. to murder Bianca...

569. because I learned...

570. she fought him.

571. She did not die willingly, or easily.

572. She fought him.

573. Brandon pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.

574. He was sentenced on March 16th of 2021

575. to 25 years to life in prison.

576. He's not sorry.

577. The fact that he'll be out when I'm 40 is, like, insane.

578. I was so shocked when I seen the amount of people at that funeral.

579. There was a lot of people there that I have never seen before.

580. To know that they traveled to come out and show their support.

581. Yeah, this is, um, a page from a sketchbook

582. that, um, a friend of hers gave to me.

583. I, uh, you know, treasure it deeply.

584. Bianca's really, um, talented when it come to her art,

585. and I think just having a piece of that with me means a lot.

586. I've taken to heart her, like,

587. ambitions to help other young girls who are like us.

588. The world is worse off without her, for sure.

589. It's exhausting to constantly have to worry about

590. seeing that picture on the internet,

591. and it also makes me very angry because...

592. the pictures are most often posted on big-tech platforms,

593. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter.

594. I knew I had to do something about social media.

595. No other family should have to suffer the way that we have suffered.

596. New York State recently passed Bianca's Law.

597. Bianca's Law makes it illegal to post or disseminate

598. with the intent to harm or harass

599. any crime scene, or graphic photos.

600. An image like this

601. that was shared time and time again,

602. would never have been allowed on the local media stations

603. that are represented in this room.

604. We're hoping that will be the foundation of more laws

605. that will hold social media accountable.

606. You have the resources.

607. You have the funding

608. to prevent these type of images from being used

609. to harass, demean,

610. embarrass, and hurt the victims...

611. or in Bianca's case...

612. her family.

613. Bianca leaves a wonderful legacy.

614. People that love her

615. because of her caring, her compassion...

616. and her great smile.

617. Gives us all hope.

618. She was my best friend. She was my daughter.

619. It's hard without her every day.

620. Every day I wish I,

621. when I hugged her,

622. that I didn't let her go,

623. and kept her home.

624. And I wish I was able to keep her safe.

625. He was one of the first influencers.

626. He was a geek.

627. He was into the same things as us.

628. Being the target of hateful comments

629. would be upsetting for anybody.

630. Nobody wants to believe people they know could be a monster.