The Online Life & Death of Bianca Devins | Full Episode | Forensic Files

[Music] on July 14th 2019 I woke up picked up my phone and noticed that my group chat was
buzzing about something and I looked at it and it it was a photo of my friend and it looked like she was
dead so I was reading all the messages and they're saying guys like in the Discord someone posted that Bianca is
like dead or something and I was like what some people on the Discord actually had to call the police you the police uh
good morning I uh believe someone may have been murdered okay where okay so I'm on an online group and somebody
posted a picture of uh uh someone getting murder and I believe it to be a Miss Bianca Michelle
s before I knew it the photo was being circulated around my community and then beyond
it so tell me what did you see that day I was on Twitter uh as I usually do just
to gauge what stories are trending that day and I saw that Bianca's name was trending I didn't know very much at that
point just that images had been posted and were going viral on social media and I just knew that I wanted to find out
more I think we were all just very confused someone saw something on the Internet where they thought you know
Bianca may have been hurt I am Kim devans and I'm Bianca's mother yanaa is a talented artist aspiring model I knew
she had an online presence but I found that uh granddaughters do not share their online presence with their
grandfathers so uh I I wasn't aware of the depth of it social media was a huge part of Bianca's life and online she
could be whoever she wanted to be she was definitely a social media chameleon she had multiple Instagram accounts
which is not uncommon for kids her age but you one of them was you clearly reserved for her online friends you know
was fairly edgy she was obviously very you know popular on Discord it was common for some people in
the community to try and Escape or maybe to get attention to fake their yes as this photo is circulating on
Discord and then to other social media platforms the authenticity of the photo is being debated a lot of people are
unsure whether or not it's [Music] real people were making memes out of the images they were turning them into
jokes they were sent to me they were sent to um various family members so this is a collection of different uh
Communications received by Bianca's mom and obviously every one of them meant to
be incredibly cruel incredibly hurtful this is a form of psychological terrorism I just don't understand the
cruelty and The Emptiness in someone's heart where they would get some kind of a thrill out of sending these pictures
to a family I remember just standing up and saying no it's not her I stamped up my stairs saying it's not her it can't
be it's not her it's not my baby [Music] [Music] July 14th 2019 uh it was a a beautiful day in UDA
uh was our boiler maker Road Race which is a a well-known 15K Road Race uh where
participants from across the world um come to run as the first Runners crossed the
Finish Line Udo police detectives Brian corado and Michael Curley heard alarming
reports of a possible murder certainly nothing prepared us for a homicide on that day the horrific photo spreading on
the social media platform Discord at prompted calls from around the country okay what's what's the female's
name Michelle devans you know I'm hoping the girl is just bleeding badly and maybe
still alive people didn't know if it was real or not we needed to find her to make sure to see if she was all
right police body cameras were rolling as officers arrived at 17-year-old Bianca Devon's home to perform a Ware
check when did you first learn that your daughter was missing there was an back at our
door is there a Bianca Devin that lives here yeah why my daughter Olivia answered the door she came up to me and
said Mom the police are here there's something going on with Bianca the police didn't show Bianca's mother Kim
the photo but said they feared her daughter might be in danger can you try to get a hold of your
daughter and what were you thinking at that moment I was so confused I didn't know
where biano was they W ra a waste now Kim told police she last Saw Bianca the day before as she headed with friends to
this concert in New York City how was her mood when she left I remember Bianca being so excited I left
her alone for most of the night um just giving her her space and this was her first real adult concert Bianca texted
her mother after the concert to say she was heading home Bianca was enjoying her Newfound Freedom
Kim says after graduating high school two weeks [Music] earlier but her journey to get there
hadn't been easy at what point did you realize she needed help BCA first saw a therapist at 9 years old she was having
some separation anxiety didn't want to go to school just wanted to stay home with me
and then around 13 Bianca started showing signs of depression as Bianca isolated herself from others she started
to spend more time on social media she really could just Escape her own mental struggles what was going on
in her head and Escape Into You Know A Different World online hi it's like 6:00 in the morning and I'm
currently editing this but I just wanted to let you know that I'm so funny how prevalent was Bianca on social
media she was extremely prevalent on social media she had a large presence on many platforms reporter EJ Dixon covered
Bianca's story for Rolling Stone magazine and says the internet has a name for the type of character Bianca
portrayed online what's an e- girl an eirl is it's basically a term used to describe a
certain type of aesthetic is it's like a very edgy dark aesthetic different colored
hair but Bianca's Behavior was growing increasingly erratic at age 16 she was diagnosed with borderline personality
disorder an illness which Kim believes led to Bianca's varying mood swings and affected her
self-image Bianca was very smart she was very intuitive and self-aware so she always knew something
was wrong and she knew she needed help and there she is with B right on the couch in the living room
Bianca sought treatment says her grandfather Frank and eventually returned to her role as a devoted big
sister to Olivia and Maddie we all said that uh Bianca's back that's our girl and and there was this
glow in her eyes that when she talked about going to college and what she was going to do with her
life Bianca immersed herself in her art was even getting noticed as a promising young model she would you know
get lots of compliments from model and agents and she really felt good about herself when she was modeling though she
had turned a corner Bianca maintained her edgy online Persona and by age 17 had created multiple identities she also
had an active presence on forchan um which is sort of on the darker side of the web I go on the record saying
forchan is a dangerous place and it's also just an incredibly incredibly misogynistic space as Bianca's
popularity grew online so did the number of some of her male followers called orbiters says online friend Elizabeth
the reason why they're called orbiters is because they will follow like a girl they think is attractive online and you
know just like orbit them never become close to them Bianca was exceptionally patient and accessible to
her orbiters um to a fault at times one Orbiter who captured Bianca's attention was a 21-year-old lift driver named
Brandon Clark whom she met on Instagram in May of 2019 what was he like honestly
nothing notable he was just kind of like a normal one of these weird people you know one of these weird guys in the
community after communicating on social media they eventually took their relationship offline and briefly dated
but were never exclusive Bianca had made it clear to Brandon that she was not interested in a committed monogamous
relationship at this point and brandan had seemed to accept that when Brandon came around and he came around pretty
often um he just looked like a goofy nerdy boy next door Kim says there were no glaring red flags about Clark so when
Bianca told her mother he was taking her to that concert in New York City Kim thought nothing of it I took a little
comfort in knowing that she would be with Brandon cuz I trusted [Music] him W stay here
47 called as the search continued 47 47 Bianca's friends suspected the photo circulating on
Discord might be a hoax after learning it was Clark who posted the image we all just assumed that he was making a joke
or trying to scare us or something on Discord it's fairly common for people to post Gore um and disturbing images just
to sort of get a rise out of people so it was certainly with within the realm of possibility that this could have been
faked thisp the all unit but things turned very real very fast we have him on the line now when it was Clark who
called 911 uh my name is Brandon um the victim is Bianca Michelle devans [Laughter]
[Music] it was like an outof body experience but I was shaking I just kept thinking no no
she's fine we're we just have to find her and we're going to get her help she's going to be okay as Bianca's
family awaited news of her safety police dispatch received a call 911 what is youry uh my name is Brandon um the
victim is Bianca sh devans I'm going to kill myself the officers at the Devin home
could hear what was unfolding on their radios he was going to kill himself Brandon is that her ex or boyfriend or
apparently he's suicidal he's made statements saying that he hurt your daughter it didn't make sense to me I
remember just being very confused that they were saying that Brandon may have hurt
her it just didn't make sense that he would have hurt her investigators turned their attention
to Brandon Clark who by then had posted more disturbing pictures of Bianca including one with this message I'm
sorry Bianca we were fighting against time some we needed to find her and we needed to find her
fast and he's not telling us where he is they're basically pinging his phone the
dispatcher tried to keep Clark talking until police could pinpoint his location it's just stay Aline with me okay no I'm
not going to stand Aline with you I'm going to be dead on the ground but before hanging up Clark told
them exactly where to find him a dead end Road not far from Bianca's home describe for me where was Brandon and
what was he doing Brandon's vehicle was parked up ahead of here an officer pulled up and he observes Brandon hi
what are you doing man Brandon's armed with a knife he has his gun pointed at him yeah he engages him Put The Knife
Down man Put The Knife Down there's a conversation back and forth where's the girl where is she as the officer moved
into position Clark slashed himself with a knife he then took a selfie and posted
it to social media with the caption ashes to ashes ultimately backup arrives they engage him in front of his vehicle
after a brief struggle Clark was disarmed and placed under arrest when I arrived on scene Brandon was actually
just being wheeled out um to the ambulance as paramedics raced to save Clark's life investigators made a grim
Discovery the body of a young woman hidden beneath a tarp detective corado knew they had found Bianca
[Music] the news has got this so you better send somebody to the mom's house to give her
heads off before but before police could make that call Kim says she had already
learned the painful truth and Olivia was in the kitchen with her friend and we heard the
most excruciating scream that you have ever heard come out of a teenager someone had texted
Bianca's family the horrific photo I just kept screaming it's not her it's not her it's not my
baby I knew it was her and I said to myself I'm going to be strong get my family through this
this wasn't who done it we know who did it we had to work backwards to figure out why this happened investigators
started at the crime scene as we were learning about Brandon every single thing he did at the crime scene meant
something to him prosecutors Sarah deiler and Michael Nolan would lead the investigation for the Onida County
District Attorney's office and began with a cryptic message Clark spray painted at the scene as this case was
going one of the things we saw was that may you never forget me the first thing we did and I think everybody does now as
a prosecutor something you don't know you Google it investigators learned that message was taken from a series of
Japanese comic books called punp pun that Clark and Bianca had often read together the books are dark they're
violent and it's almost a Japanese dark version of of Romeo and Juliet does he have some very skewed picture that his
relationship with Bianca is a starcross lover scenario and there was something else
investigators found unusual about the scene the other thing that I think we found particularly Eerie was the music
at the crime [Music] scene using a Bluetooth speaker Clark had programmed his cell phone to play a
particular song on repeat and that song was we later learned test drive by Joi about a person
who um is more invested in the relationship than somebody else to understand exactly what was happening
between Bianca and Clark that night investigators began reviewing their social media accounts and soon learned
the two weren't alone at the concert it wasn't just Bianca and Brandon in fact they were accompanied by another person
um another guy direct messages from Bianca's Discord account reveal she had invited a new friend named Alex and was
concerned Brandon might get jealous prosecutors tracked him down he was very helpful in explaining the last moments
that he spent with Bianca that Brandon really seemed to not want Alex there investigators learned that after Brandon
and Bianca left the concert she texted Alex to say I think he saw me kiss you when we do learn that there is a kiss at
the concert we need to explore was it a crime of of passion if you will was it a
snap Just Before Dawn as they headed back to udica Clark made this ominous post on social media Brandon has posted
a photograph of what appears to be the New York State throughway and in that post he says here comes hell it's
Redemption right super even as investigators questioned what had happened after that and where nothing
could have prepared them for what they would soon uncover and we found out that there was a video of the
murder this is a horror film playing out in real [Music] life it's early in the morning when I go
into the office and we get a call from the police department they tell us you know there's
something that you have to see here the day after the murder of Bianca devans prosecutor Sarah deiler and Michael
Nolan went down to the Udo Police Department overnight investigators had conducted a forensic analysis of Brandon
Clark's cell phone and found something terrifying they set us up with a computer some speakers and some
headphones and push play and that's when we see that there is a video made by Brandon of him killing
Bianca I think it wasn't until that very moment that we realized this was probably the most horrible terrible
thing that either of us have ever seen in our life and as a prosecutor many of the details are too
gruesome to describe Bianca appears to be sleeping and uh the back seat is folded out so that it's
flat he then takes his camera and he Clips it to almost uh one of those vents that would be on the the
front dash what we see from there is the beginning of the homicide where Brandon
reaches into the back he collects from the back seat a knife indicating to us that something he came prepar with um
and he hides it at the right hand side of uh of the car we see that he he wakes Bianca up
and he goes about having a conversation with her then demilia says Brandon asked
Bianca about that kiss she had with Alex the other young man at the concert the night before he tells her you know you
know I saw you kiss him right and she says yeah and I'm sorry and he says well I'm sorry he's not good
enough it's just not good enough for him deiler says it's then that banca reminded Clark they were not
exclusive and she basically says are you ready to take me home yet and at this point with Brandon realizing this might
be the end of the time that the two of them are going to spend together we see him grab the
knife she does not see it coming demilia says Clark then killed Bianca and then he blames her he screams
dramatically into the camera you know Bianca why did you make me do this like it's her fault and it's not it was after
he finished filming the video that Clark took those graphic photos of Bianca and
posted them on social media and I know that if she had gotten out of that car she would have called me Bianca's mother
and grandfather father have never seen the video but heard of its contents early on in the
investigation I was 10 minutes away she had just been able to get out of that car but he caught her completely
off guard does that haunt you today it does I was so close and she fought him she fought back
that impressed me most was she fought for her life but the sickening murder video wasn't the only important piece of
evidence investigators found on Clark's cell phone they learned that he was intent on killing banca long before the
events of that night we learn that Brandon is meticulous in his categorization itemization of things
that he wants to do two days before killing Bianca Clark utilized the notes app on his smartphone and typed a
Sinister checklist I would just describe this list as the to-do list the things that
he needs to do to carry out his his plan and to Stage his crime scene setup speaker and last song question
[Music] mark and that's not all Clark did multiple internet searches some the day
before the murder researching ways to kill researched how to choke someone out uh how to hit the crowded artery to kill
someone more evidence investigators say that this was not a crime of passion Brandon had this planned he had the
video staged he had the phone staged he knew exactly what he was doing we believe that when this
relationship came to an end was when he was going to kill her Brandon wanted to be with her she did not want to be with
him and he wasn't going to let anybody else have her so no matter what she said she was
going to wind up dead that night two week weeks after the murder Bianca's family and friends packed the courtroom
wearing pink her favorite color as they waited for Brandon Clark to make his first public
appearance Brandon walked into the courtroom today wearing an orange jumpsuit and a black protective vet I
was uh in court when they brought him in and I said he just looks pathetic Clark was officially charged
with second degree murder and pleaded not guilty the defense was considering an extreme
emotional disturbance defense but authorities and Bianca's family were not buying it investigators and the
prosecutors describe him as just an evil person that wanted to murder someone and
that's who Brandon is he is a murderer he is evil and as prosecutors prepared to go to trial they had only one goal in
mind we need Justice for Bianca we need to make sure Brandon can never hurt anybody else again that's what our job
is but there was nothing they could do to stop what was going on online the horrific images of Bianca's murder that
Clark had posted continued to spread on the internet and a vile campaign of hate
was brewing on social media Bianca's family members were also being targeted as a result of Bianca's death um it was
just non-stop harassment this is a form of psychological terrorism in the days following Bianca's
murder downtown udica was lit up in pink in her honor and a candlelight vigil was
held to celebrate her life Magic supporters gathered to sing Puff the Magic Dragon a song her grandfather
Frank sang to Bianca as a [Music] child a tradition she continued with her baby sister Maddie Puff the Magic
[Music] Dragon that's the special song but as Bianca's family grieved the images of
her dead body had spilled from the fringes of the internet into mainstream social
media I just can't understand why people would want to see it this is real Frank
believes those who shared the photos didn't see Bianca as a loving daughter or a cherished granddaughter they didn't
see her as a person at all these pictures aren't fictitious pictures taken from a movie
they of a lovely beautiful girl whose life was taken from her in a cruel way Bean's death photos spread on the social
media platforms Facebook Instagram and Twitter when you found out that your daughter's images were on Twitter it's
heartbreaking it's so exploitive of my daughter I just thought of how embarrassed she would be how
heartbroken she would be Kim pleaded with social media companies to remove the images but it took time
they stayed on Instagram and Facebook for at least a couple of weeks every time the photo was removed another one
would appear in its place says reporter EJ Dixon unfortunately extremely violent
and disturbing images can circulate wildly on social media and a lot of social media platforms don't have the in
infrastructure in place to prevent that from happening in response some social media users led a Grassroots effort to
replace the death photos with messages of hope so Bianca's supporters tried to combat people trolling the hashtag by
posting beautiful images of clouds bunnies ribbons um or fan art of Bianca like we
see here to what end they did it to push the death photos down in the search results but amid the battle to preserve
Bianca's memory Kim says her family became Vic of vicious online trolls who relentlessly sent them the horrific
photos they were sent to me they were sent to um various family members that were close to Bianca Olivia's had to
take a break from social media because there's always the risk of having to see her sister's death photo along with the
photos were hateful messages blaming Bianca for what happened to her many of which are too graphic to show it's
horrifying it's traumatizing um to see people saying that your daughter your you know this is
my baby that she deserved such a cruel end to her life they in you know direct messaging
and text messages to the family a very Twisted need is being met by continuing to share these and trying to get these
to Bianca's family it actually furthers the physical crime behavioral scientist Steven crando
believes the individuals most likely responsible for the attacks on Bianca's family belong to a community of online
men called incels incel is short for involuntary celibate incels or individuals men 21 or older who have
gone 6 months or longer without any sort of sexual activity not by their own volition incels see themselves as
victims says Commando in a never-ending struggle to win the affection of attractive women whom they refer to as
Stacy incels believe that they don't have any chance with Stacy at all was Bianca
considered a Stacy Bianca would be considered a Stacy though Clark did not identify as an incel he was celebrated
by this dark Community for what he did to Bianca the incel feels bad ly cheated to
the point where it becomes just an obsessive thought that I need to strike back for the
unfairness in fact this violent rhetoric has led to murder in 2014 a 22-year-old
self-identified incel went on a deadly Rampage in IA Vista California killing six people since then the intelligence
Community believes there have been more than a dozen mass killings in North America resulting in 50 deaths
attributed to incel ideology and as there's been more incel killings has become more clear to us
that there is on the spectrum of incels those at the extreme end who are certainly capable of murder and because
of that it's recognized now as a terrorist threat we all knew that we were in the line of
fire and I was honestly afraid to like leave my house the response to Bianca's Murder By
the incel community served as a wakeup call for friends like Elizabeth and other young women in their online world
who realize they too could be targets you know those same Insel communities that were praising Brandon's actions um
were saying oh I wonder who's going to be next I can't wait for the next victim or you know or the next girl to be
killed as Clark's case headed to trial emotions ran high for Bianca's family who feared her murder video would be
played in court my last memory of Bianca is her full of life so excited so to have to see her in her last
moments how she was brutally murdered is absolutely traumatizing and something no
one should ever see but shortly before his trial began in February 2020 Clark pleaded guilty to Bianca's murder I know
that Sorry's not enough I know that I won't take back what I did he said he wanted to spare us
from having to see the details of Bianca's murder did you believe him I don't believe him Kim may have been
right to be suspicious before sentencing Clark changed his mind yet again and wanted to go to trial we know that he
he's playing a game with [Music] [Music] everybody just 5 months after pleading guilty to murdering Bianca devans
Brandon Clark was back in court to try and change change his plea back to not guilty this request infuriated the Devin
family who had already been through so much don't play games take your punishment give this family some peace
Bianca's mom said she knew why Clark now wanted to go to trial he found out that
there were media and production companies interested in Bianca's story and he wanted to be able to tell his
side Clark wouldn't admit to that months later he took the stand to plead his case do you soundly swear the testimony
you're about to give is a truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help
die he blamed his former attorney Luke nebus a well-respected local public defender for not visiting him enough in
prison and pressuring him into pleading guilty oh he knew that was a first time offender and had no knowledge of the
legal system knowledge about court proceedings can you state your name lbsh on the stand nbsh said Clark's
claims were not true I went to the United County Jail 15 times prior to his plea I there were moments where I spent
four or five hours with him there are moments where I spent two maybe an average of three he said in fact he was
the one who encouraged his former client to plead not guilty and go to trial but
it was Clark who refused again whose idea was was it to plead guilty to these charges is Mr
cler's and it was your intention to take this matter to trial yes and during cross-examination prosecutor Mike Nolan
demolished Clark's argument about his supposed legal knowledge you're making claims that Mr Nish didn't do his job
but you don't know that correct with the resources I was provided it looks like he did not do his job and again what law
school did you go to Mr Clark I did not go to law school right so you don't know
that correct correct thank you the judge denied Brandon Clark's request to withdraw his guilty plea and on March
16th 2021 nearly 2 years after Bianca was murdered he was finally brought into be
sentenced are there any family members that would like to address the court yes your honor Bianca's mother and
grandfather had been waiting a long time to face Bianca's killer with the death of your child comes the most UN ible
Indescribable pain a pain that time cannot heal and only seems to worsen but 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 Clark gave a
statement I hate myself for what I did I'm 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 and just apologize and apologize and just take it back
but did you all believe his apology did you think it was sincere at all no not sincere that's part of his story is to
play Old poor me it's not about what he did to Bianca it's all about him the judge also appeared unmoved by Clark's
apology and gave him the maximum sentence for murdering Bianca 25 years to life our deepest thoughts now are with
Bianca our Angel who has given so much love to this family but despite their belief Bianca's
family knows their fight may not be over after Clark serves 25 years in prison he
could be eligible for parole he will be in his late 40s did Bianca receive Justice no justice would be Bianca being
alive but the justice for Bianca now takes a different form Bianca's family is trying to turn
their grief into action they have worked with local politicians like then Congressman Anthony brendisi to try and
get Bianca's law passed and today we are putting social media companies on notice
we are taking substantive action on the federal level to bring the devans family
peace and ensure this never happens to another family again Bianca's law is a bill that would hold social media
companies accountable for violent and graphic content that they allow on their platforms so we look at that as a start
for a series of laws and policies that would prevent death photos like Biancas from being put up on social
media they also have established a scholarship in Bianca's name and that will go to a student who was going to
follow Bianca's Ambitions of helping helping atesson with mental health struggles like Bianca
had how do you want Bianca to be remembered I want Bianca to be remembered for her smile for her bright
spirit for her huge Caring Heart Bianca always wanted to help someone even in her worst struggles when
she couldn't help herself she helped others and she will never ever be [Music] [Music]
forgotten 48 Hours don't miss an episode [Music]

How did images of a 17-year-old girl's murder go viral? "48 Hours" contributor Jericka Duncan reports. Watch more full episodes of "48 Hours" on Pluto TV.

True crime. Real justice. "48 Hours" investigates the most intriguing crime and justice cases that touch on all areas of the human experience including greed and passion. "48 Hours," which premiered in 1988, has developed a rich history of original reporting and impact journalism that has helped exonerate wrongly convicted people, caused cold cases to be reopened and solved, and along the way changed lives.

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Brief Summary

Bianca Devins' murder by Brandon Clark highlights online harassment and the need for social media accountability.

Key points

The Day Bianca Went Missing. On July 14, 2019, a shocking photo circulated online, leading to confusion and fear.
The Police Are Called. As rumors spread, police were called to investigate the alarming situation surrounding Bianca.
Brandon's Disturbing Actions. Brandon Clark's behavior escalated as he posted graphic images online, leading to police involvement.
The Horrific Discovery. Investigators found Bianca's body hidden beneath a tarp, confirming their worst fears.
Brandon's Court Appearance. Brandon Clark faced charges in court, with Bianca's family present to witness the proceedings.
The Spread of Horror. Bianca's murder images spread online, leading to harassment of her family.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This is a form of psychological terrorism.

A reflection on the cruelty of the online community's actions.

3:09WatchSep 9, 2025

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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