‘She May Be Gone But Her Heart Will Remain Beautiful’: Family, Friends Say Final Goodbye To Bianca Devins

Bianca Devins, the 17-year-old budding social media influencer who was brutally killed in a very public way in upstate New York a week ago, was remembered for her generosity, talent and her love of the color pink.

Devins’ grandfather Frank Williams delivered a eulogy for his slain granddaughter at her funeral Friday, held at the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes in Utica, according to the Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester, New York. He called Devins by her nickname “Beanpot,” a name given to her as a child.

He talked about Devins’ love of the color pink and how she dyed her hair that color from time to time, "much to the chagrin of her conservative-dressing grandfather."

Devins was even buried in a casket covered in pink and white flowers, with the pallbearers wearing pink ties to honor her. It was a closed casket funeral.

“Bianca’s favorite color was pink. She put it in her drawings, she wore it on her clothes — she wore it everywhere,” Williams said, according to the New York Post. “I had to paint one of the rooms in my house hot pink.”

She lived with him for several years.

He added that “a beacon of life that came through that beautiful heart and shone out of those beautiful eyes ... is being passed to us. …We must take up that torch and use it in all of our thoughts, words and actions.”

Devins had her throat slit during the early morning hours of July 14, allegedly by 21-year-old Brandon Clark. Clark then uploaded images of her dead body to various social media apps, police say. The images prompted social media users to make frantic phone calls to police leading investigators to find Clark near Devins' body, which had been covered with a tarp on a dead end street in Utica. Authorities say Clark started stabbing himself as they approached.

He has been charged with second-degree murder and was transferred to jail on Thursday after being released from the hospital. He is expected to face a grand jury next.

"Love, not violence,” the Rev. Joseph Salerno chanted at the funeral, with the crowd of about 300 joining him.

"When one so young is snatched from us, we are left in shock [and] unable to make sense of so much,” he said, while also expressing gratitude for what Devins gave to the world.

“Thanks for 17 years that was filled with talent and goodness and generosity for others," he said.

Devins had plans to attend Mohawk Valley Community College and to pursue a career in psychology.

She wanted to help “adolescents who struggle with mental illness,” her obituary stated. 

“My sister was a beautiful girl with a beautiful heart and she lit up every room she walked into,” her sister Olivia Devins said before tears ran down her cheeks, according to the New York Post. “She may be gone but her heart will remain beautiful.”