Bianca Devins was allegedly murdered by Brandon Clark, a man she met online. Photo / Instagram
Bianca Devins was allegedly murdered by Brandon Clark, a man she met online. Photo / Instagram
A man has been arrested after he allegedly murdered a teenage girl he met online and posted pictures of her dead body to social media.
The body of Bianca Devins, 17, was found by police in the upstate New York town of Utica on Sunday morning local time, target="_blank">news.com.au reported.
Brandon Andrew Clark allegedly posted graphic pictures of the 17-year-old's dead sitting in a car across a number of social media sites.
Buzzfeed News reported Clark, 21, had captioned a bloody picture of the teenager's body with, "I am sorry Bianca".
The gruesome pictures of Devins went viral on social media and were spread across Instagram, 4Chan and gaming website Discord.
"Sorry f***ers, you're gonna have to find someone else to orbit," Clark allegedly captioned the picture.
To "orbit" someone is to hover over their social media, watching and liking all their posts, despite them not being a part of your life.
In the gaming world, men often "orbit" Instagram girls with the purpose of trying to have sex with them.
Police rushed to Devins' Utica home on Sunday to find the 17-year-old dead outside a vehicle.
The teenager had thousands of followers on Instagram. Photo / Instagram
The pair had attended a concert in Queens, New York the night before but had left arguing, police said.
A number of disturbed 4chan and Discord users had called police early Sunday morning after seeing the pictures of Ms Devins' body.
Police said Clark had also called them.
Clark continued to post to his Instagram story even as police arrived at the home and held him at gunpoint early Sunday morning, police said.
Utica Police Lieutenant Bryan Coromato told AP police were investigating the case as a murder and attempted suicide.
Lt Coromato said police found a number of sharp objects at the scene, including a knife and a razor, and Clark was in hospital in a critical condition.
In a statement, Utica Police said the first responding officer who arrived at the home found Clark lying on the ground next to the car, and when he spotted police, he began to stab himself.
Clark then moved to a green tarp, also near the car, and laid across it.
Officers saw brown hair sticking out from underneath the tarp, and when they questioned Clark, he allegedly admitted it was Devins.
An injured Clark then pulled out his phone and started taking selfies of himself across the body.
Before posting the horrific pictures, Clark had changed his Instagram bio to read, "10/06/1997 — 7/14/19".
"Just know that I feel no pain now," his bio read.
Devins' death sparked a wave of attention and disgust online. Some online have urged others to stop circulating the images.
Bianca Devins (right) and her sister Liv (left). Photo / Instagram
Devins' sister Liv posted a tribute to the teenager on Instagram.
"I hate that I have to write this. I hate knowing you're not going to ever come back home," she wrote.
"You were the best sister anyone could've ever asked for. Thank you for always being there for me. Thank you for being the best sister I could ever imagine. Thank you for always protecting me and sticking up for me. I am going to do this for you. Every day I'm going to do my best and I'm going to get through this thing called life and do it all for you. Rest easy, I love you so much forever and always."
n a statement, Instagram said it disabled Clark's account.
"We removed this image, and subsequently the account, for violating our policies," Instagram said.
"To stop the content from spreading, we have technology that allows us to proactively find other attempts to upload the image in question and automatically remove these posts before anyone sees them.
"We are also reviewing hashtags and accounts claiming to share this content and taking action in line with our policies."
