Bianca Devins

This is the story of Bianca Devins, a young woman who put too much trust into a man she’d met online, and a man who used a murder to elevate his social media clout. We’ll go over the role technology played in this crime and the distribution of the horrific photos taken at the crime scene, how always looking for more internet influence can sometimes lead to bad decisions, and how the internet was used to stalk and ultimately murder a young Instagram Influencer. But if we dig a little deeper into this freakshow, I think we’ll find that this story is also about how, sometimes, the good of the internet can overpower the bad.

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Go up that freak kind, invitethe grounds, make us grip our thin
with a nitement I set of theMama's fritual scene Internet Each Show. Welcome

(00:30):
back to Internet Freak Show. Today, we're going to talk about the story
of Bianca Devins, a young womanwho had put too much trust into a
man she had met online. Andwe're gonna be talking about that man who
used a murder to elevate his socialmedia clout. We'll go over the roles
that technology played in this crime andthe distribution of the horrific photos taken at

(00:51):
the crime scene, how always lookingfor more Internet influence can sometimes lead to
bad decisions, and how the Internetwas used to stalk and ultimately a young
Instagram influencer. But if we digget a little deeper into this Internet Freak
Show, I think we'll find thatthe story is about how sometimes the good
of the Internet can overpower the bad. But let's start at the beginning.

(01:14):
Bianca Devons was a fairly typical seventeenyear old. She had recently graduated high
school, and she was very activeon several social media sites and services,
namely Instagram, where she had amasseda small following of about two thousand people
through Instagram. She came to knowone of her followers. His name was
Brandon Clark and he was a fewyears older than Bianca. He was twenty

(01:37):
one and she was seventeen. Brandoncame from a difficult and complicated background.
His home life was sometimes abusive anddangerous. He was placed at the foster
care at age ten following an incidentwhere his father held his mother at knife
point. Still, Brandon and Biancabecame friends and ended up meeting in real
life. Despite his unstable upbringing,most report of people who met Brandon describe

(02:00):
him as polite and charming. However, something was brewing just under the surface
for Brandon. He obsessed over Bianca. He constantly visited her social media accounts,
he saved her photos, and hecontinued to contact her via email and
all the social media accounts she had, much to her annoyance. Their relationship

(02:20):
was certainly pretty complicated. Brandon obviouslywanted more from his relationship with Bianca,
but she seemed to keep him atarm's length. While he sometimes referred to
himself as her boyfriend, she wouldcorrect him that they were just friends.
While Bianca never reported any abuse intheir relationship. There is some evidence to
believe that Brandon pressured her sexually sometimeswhile they were doing drugs together. It's

(02:45):
unclear as to whether or not theywere intimate, or whether or not she
really considered him her boyfriend. Thisangst and anger in trying and failing to
pursue a deeper relationship frustrated Brandon.He was a member of several online communities
dedicated to being a quote in cell, which is short for involuntary celibate.

(03:07):
Now in cells are a relatively newInternet phenomenon, and on its surface,
it seems harmless enough, right Theseare just men who want girlfriends but can't
get them. But if you diga little deeper into these communities, you'll
see that they are often overrun withmisogyny, anger, resentment, and endorsements
of violence. In cells are toobig of a topic to dive too deep

(03:28):
within this episode of this podcast.They're probably actually a big enough topic to
do a full other episode of InternetFreak Show on, really, but for
the purposes of this podcast, allyou really need to know is that they
are an extremist group in the USwhose writing and online communities have been described
as a domestic terror threat. Involuntarycelibate is really too friendly a term for

(03:50):
these guys. These are not niceguys just trying to find a girlfriend,
as the name would imply. Biancaherself had been a victim of in cells
online antics for a couple of yearsbefore her ultimate murder. But back to
Bianca, like Brandon, she hada complicated past. She suffered from several
mental health disorders like anxiety, depression, borderline personality disorder, and more.

(04:15):
She had graduated high school and waspursuing psychology at a local community college at
the time of her death. Shewas trying to turn her trauma and her
understanding of mental health issues into somethinggood for her community. On July fourteenth,
twenty nineteen, Brandon and Bianca madethe trip from Utica to New York
City to see a concert. Theydid the things that young people do at
concerts. They met some friends,they enjoyed a little weed. They overall

(04:40):
had a pretty good time at theshow. Bianca met a friend there,
a guy named Alex, and theystarted kissing. Brandon saw this take place
and was not happy about it.After the show, Brandon and Bianca got
back into their car and made theirway home. Bianca fell asleep in the
backseat, and Brandon pulled off theroad into a deserted, dead end street.

(05:01):
He went into the back seat andwoke Bianca up, confronting her about
the kiss. Bianca reiterated that notonly were she and Brandon not monogamous,
they weren't really a couple at all. This got Brandon very angry. He
grabbed a large knife that he'd hittenin the back seat and killed her violently
and ruthlessly. After killing her,he started calling all of Bianca's friends and

(05:25):
family in a manner similar to asuicide note, confessing what he had done.
He then started taking pictures of Bianca'sdead body and spreading these pictures through
a chat platform called a discord.After posting the photos, many people,
including Bradon himself, called law enforcementabout the crime. By the time the
police showed up, Bianca was deadand nearly decapitated. Brandon had spray painted

(05:51):
a suicide note. As the policeshowed up after the scene, Brandon took
the knife and shoved it into hisown neck. This attempt at suicide failed.
However, the images that Brandon postedon Discord took on a life of
their own. On the Internet.The users of that service started spreading them
around to more mainstream services like Instagramand Facebook. The users even quite cruelly

(06:15):
sent the images to Bianca's family totheir credit discord. Facebook and Instagram acted
quickly to censor the images, removethe offending accounts and servers, and added
the images to a digital fingerprint libraryto prevent their further spread. Unfortunately,
other services did not act so responsibly. Four chans celebrated the pictures, excited

(06:36):
for yet another four chan murder tobe made public. In cell message boards
also cheered on Brandon's actions. Peopleused the murder and the photos to further
their own influencer ambitions, offering toshare the photos for likes or follows.
Some users even started fundraisers where thephotos would be released at certain thresholds.

(06:58):
So that is a dark and disturbingphase of this story, I understand,
and while I stand by the pointthat the Internet can be used for good
purposes and for good people, it'shard to make that argument in the wake
of Bianca's death. This showed theworst side of the Internet. Social media
used to bully the family of agirl who was just brutally murdered. Using

(07:18):
painful images of death to make moneyor gain Internet followers, spreading lies about
Bianca posing nude for drug money,and more. It was very sad and
very disturbing, but let's not endthis Internet freak show on a note like
this. While the Internet communities thatBrandon and Bianca frequented did not act responsibly

(07:39):
in the wake of her death,in the year that followed, I think
the Internet has worked to resolve this. The hashtag rip Bianca had previously been
used to spread lies and the photosof her death, but it was hijacked
by much kinder Internet users who insteaduse the hashtag to spread their condolences,
positive stories, and artwork inspired byher Instagram photos. As new hashtags popped

(08:03):
up to spread the photos taken ofher death, Internet users fought back to
flood those hashtags with positive images andmessages instead, as the social media companies
worked to quickly remove the photos andthe posts. The Internet was also used
to set up a scholarship in Bianca'sname. It was used to set up
and attend candlelight vigils for her,and more. Brandon had emergency surgery for

(08:24):
his self inflicted knife when to hisneck and he was promptly taken into custody.
He initially pled not guilty to seconddegree murder, then he confessed,
and then he tried to retract hisconfession and his guilty plea. The whole
case is long and involved, andreally dependent on whether or not people considered
this crime premeditated or a crime ofpassion. He had brought along the knife,

(08:48):
some rope, and other elements thatlead people to believe that he'd planned
to do this, but his mothersays that he brought those along for his
own suicide, not to kill anybodyelse. I'll let the courts figure out
how true that is. And actuallythe reason that this episode is late as
I was waiting for brandon sentencing hearing, which was scheduled for November tenth.

(09:09):
However, that was delayed, soI'm still not sure what a sentence will
ultimately be. But for the timebeing, the Internet and the real life
community is safe from Brandon's influence.However, the communities that encouraged and celebrated
the murders are still around. I'vebrought this up on other episodes of Internet
Freak Show, but I think itis pretty telling of our current place on

(09:31):
the Internet. When terrible crimes arecommitted for Internet points, likes, follows,
up votes, or whatever your socialmedia terminology uses. They become important
currency. For some users, thesefake Internet points become more important than money,
time, other hobbies and interests,and for some the fake points are

(09:52):
more important than their own lives orthe lives of others. Social media companies
struggle to allow people fe item ofexpression without censorship, but users exploit this
with these cat and mouse games,trying to cash in before the large companies
can properly suppress harmful content. Someuse social media to spread good, some

(10:13):
use it to encourage and exploit death. Social media companies develop algorithms to discover
your interests get you to join groupsof like minded individuals, but without regard
to the fact that some of thesegroups are toxic and harmful to the public.
Maybe without social media and these algorithms, Bianca would still be alive and
in cells would have one fewer victim. Thank you for listening to this episode

(10:37):
of Internet Freak Show. After usingthis entire episode to talk about the dangers
and the dark sides of social media, I'd like to plug Internet Freak Shows
Internet presence on Instagram, at Internetfreak Show. I post photos there from
these stories that I tell, includinga picture of Bianca recently if you want
to see what she looks like.Also check out the website which has photos

(10:58):
and text transcripts of all of ourepisodes at Internet freakshow dot com. Thanks
again for listening. Please leave areview on whatever service that you're using to
listen to podcasts. Thanks and we'llsee you next time. Until next time,

(11:35):
stay free, Get glergery.