#TrueCrimeRecaps #BrendanBanfield #JulianaMagalhaes
On the morning of February 24, 2023, police are called to a quiet home in Fairfax County, Virginia. Inside, they find 37-year-old Christine Banfield dying from multiple stab wounds. A man named Joseph Ryan is already dead on the bedroom floor, shot by Christine’s husband, IRS special agent Brendan Banfield. Brendan claims he walked in on a stranger attacking his wife and fired in self-defense. At first glance, the scene appears tragic, but straightforward.
Investigators soon uncover a disturbing backstory. Brendan had been having a secret affair with the family’s live-in Brazilian au pair, Juliana Peres Magalhaes. According to prosecutors, the two spent months planning Christine’s murder, using a fake BDSM account created with Christine’s photo to lure Joseph Ryan, an unsuspecting stranger, into the house under the guise of consensual role play. Joseph was instructed to bring restraints and a knife, follow strict rules, and ignore screams for help. Prosecutors say Brendan intended to kill both Joseph and Christine, leaving the dead man framed as the sole attacker.
As the evidence piles up: phone records, online messages, gun purchases, soundproofed windows, and Juliana’s testimony and the self-defense story begins to collapse. Juliana ultimately accepts a plea deal and agrees to testify against Brendan.
In January 2026, Brendan takes the stand in his own defense, denying the plot and blaming Juliana. But on February 2, 2026, a jury finds him guilty of aggravated murder, firearm charges, and child endangerment. The man who once investigated crimes for a living now faces life in prison for orchestrating one of the most chilling murder schemes in recent memory.
#TrueCrimeRecaps #BrendanBanfield #JulianaMagalhaes #JosephRyan #AuPairMurders
On the morning of February 24, 2023, police are called to a quiet home in Fairfax County, Virginia. Inside, they find 37-year-old Christine Banfield dying from multiple stab wounds. A man named Joseph Ryan is already dead on the bedroom floor, shot by Christine’s husband, IRS special agent Brendan Banfield. Brendan claims he walked in on a stranger attacking his wife and fired in self-defense. At first glance, the scene appears tragic, but straightforward.
Investigators soon uncover a disturbing backstory. Brendan had been having a secret affair with the family’s live-in Brazilian au pair, Juliana Peres Magalhaes. According to prosecutors, the two spent months planning Christine’s murder, using a fake BDSM account created with Christine’s photo to lure Joseph Ryan, an unsuspecting stranger, into the house under the guise of consensual role play. Joseph was instructed to bring restraints and a knife, follow strict rules, and ignore screams for help. Prosecutors say Brendan intended to kill both Joseph and Christine, leaving the dead man framed as the sole attacker.
As the evidence piles up: phone records, online messages, gun purchases, soundproofed windows, and Juliana’s testimony and the self-defense story begins to collapse. Juliana ultimately accepts a plea deal and agrees to testify against Brendan.
In January 2026, Brendan takes the stand in his own defense, denying the plot and blaming Juliana. But on February 2, 2026, a jury finds him guilty of aggravated murder, firearm charges, and child endangerment. The man who once investigated crimes for a living now faces life in prison for orchestrating one of the most chilling murder schemes in recent memory.
#TrueCrimeRecaps #BrendanBanfield #JulianaMagalhaes #JosephRyan #AuPairMurders
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NewsTranscript
00:00This IRS agent doesn't want to be married anymore.
00:03He wants to be with the Brazilian nanny instead, but divorce isn't an option.
00:07He wants his wife out of the picture permanently,
00:10but he really doesn't want to go to prison for it.
00:12So his solution is to catfish a stranger using an extreme sex fantasy,
00:17lure him into the house, kill his wife and the stranger,
00:21and leave the patsy holding the blame, which is a lot.
00:25Now here's how it all went down in the Banfield house. I'm Chris.
00:29Let's recap.
00:35It's Friday morning, February 24th, 2023.
00:39We're in Fairfax County, Virginia, about 20 miles outside Washington, D.C.
00:44The day starts out completely normal.
00:4638 year old Brendan Banfield leaves for work around 7 a.m.
00:49A few minutes later, the family's 23 year old Brazilian au pair,
00:53Juliana Perez Magalice loads up his four year old daughter and heads out too.
00:58They're spending the day at the national zoo.
01:00But almost immediately after pulling away,
01:02Juliana realizes she forgot their lunches in the fridge.
01:05So she turns around and heads back to the house.
01:08And before she can even get out of the car,
01:10she sees a strange man walking inside carrying a backpack.
01:14Juliana calls Christine.
01:16She's still inside the house, but Christine doesn't answer.
01:19Next, she calls Brendan.
01:21Normally he'd already be at work by now, but when Juliana dials at 7 37 a.m.,
01:26he's still nearby sitting in a McDonald's parking lot.
01:29He's back at the house within minutes.
01:31When Brendan pulls up, he, Juliana, and his young daughter all go inside.
01:36Juliana takes the child down to the basement.
01:38At 7 47 a.m., Fairfax County dispatch gets the first 911 call from the Banfield house.
01:45The dispatcher hears a low moan.
01:47Then the call abruptly cuts off.
01:50Roughly 10 minutes later, Juliana is on the line, frantic, asking for help,
01:55but she can't get the address out.
01:57Then another voice takes over.
01:59It's Brendan.
01:59He tells the dispatcher he just shot a man because that man stabbed his wife.
02:04Police arrive at the Banfield house minutes later.
02:07Inside, they find Christine Banfield bleeding out from multiple stab wounds to her neck.
02:13The alleged attacker, a man named Joseph Ryan, is already dead, lying on the bedroom floor.
02:18He was shot by Brendan, with Juliana also firing her weapon.
02:22On its face, it looks like self-defense, but appearances can be deceiving.
02:27This story actually starts in October 2021,
02:30when Juliana is hired by the Banfields as a live-in au pair to help care for their four-year-old daughter.
02:36Along with room and board, they pay her $200 a week.
02:39On paper, the Banfields look like the picture of an all-American family.
02:43Christine is a nurse.
02:45Brendan works for the IRS as a special agent.
02:48They live in a large home in a nice neighborhood.
02:51Christine and Brendan have been together for nearly 20 years, ever since they met in college.
02:55But less than a year after Juliana moves in, Brendan starts sleeping with the nanny.
03:01Juliana later says she thought it was casual at first, but the relationship escalates quickly.
03:07During a secret trip to New York in October 2022, barely two months into the affair,
03:12Juliana says Brendan begins talking about getting rid of his wife.
03:17Divorce, according to Juliana, is never on the table.
03:20She says Brendan doesn't want to pay for one, and he doesn't want to share custody of their daughter.
03:25So, he decides to kill Christine instead.
03:28According to Juliana, Brendan comes up with a scheme to murder his wife
03:32and make it look like the work of a complete stranger.
03:35Here's how he does it.
03:36Step one, create a profile on a BDSM fetish website
03:40using a photo of a younger Christine in a bathing suit.
03:44The username is Anastasia9.
03:46From that account, he posts an ad looking for a man willing to come to the Banfield house
03:51to act out a stranger rape fantasy.
03:55Brendan and Juliana then start scrolling through profiles together, pretending to be Christine.
04:00They message potential matches, describing in detail how much she wants to act out the fantasy.
04:06According to Juliana, all of these conversations happen on Christine's laptop.
04:11And Brendan is careful about timing.
04:13They only log in when Christine's home to make sure it looks like she's the one behind the account.
04:18They take turns leaving the house so their cell phones will ping off towers miles away
04:24while the other stays home chatting online.
04:26All part of what Juliana describes as an attempt to build a digital alibi and confuse investigators later.
04:33The account gets responses from plenty of men interested in the role play,
04:37but Brendan isn't just looking for anyone.
04:40According to Juliana, he cuts off contact with anyone who wants to meet beforehand
04:44or anyone who suggests a hotel or any location other than the Banfield house.
04:49Eventually, they land on someone they believe will make the perfect patsy.
04:54His name is Joseph Ryan.
04:56He's 39 years old.
04:58Joseph lives in Springfield, Virginia, about 25 miles from the Banfield house
05:02with his grandmother and his dog.
05:04By all accounts, he's a normal, soft-spoken guy who loves animals, especially dogs.
05:10He's also into live-action role play.
05:12Most of the time, that means traditional LARPing.
05:15Dressing up, heading into the woods, playing characters, staging battles.
05:20Other times, it means consensual, non-violent BDSM role play.
05:25The same kind of fantasy the Anastasia9 account is advertising.
05:29For about a month, Brendan and Juliana catfished Joseph, slowly building trust.
05:34At one point, Juliana even calls him pretending to be Christine.
05:38But for the plan to work, Joseph has to agree to a very specific set of rules.
05:44He's told exactly when to arrive and how to come into the house,
05:47through an unlocked door at a set time.
05:50He's instructed to go straight to the bedroom.
05:52Brendan, still pretending to be Christine,
05:55sends him a photo of the things she wants him to bring with him.
05:58The list includes a chain and lock, rope, and a kitchen knife.
06:02Joseph is also given clear instructions about how to respond once he's inside.
06:07He's told that no matter how much she screams or begs for help, he can't stop.
06:12It's all part of the role play.
06:14Joseph agrees.
06:15According to investigators, he thinks the items are just props in an elaborate consensual fantasy.
06:21While this is happening, Brendan's preparing in other ways.
06:24Over the previous weeks, he's been scouting the neighborhood,
06:28identifying security cameras that could record activity he doesn't want seen.
06:32He also installs soundproof windows in the house,
06:35a step prosecutors say is meant to keep neighbors from calling 911 before the scene is staged.
06:41And that brings us to the morning.
06:43Everything's supposed to go according to plan.
06:45On Friday, February 24th, 2023,
06:48Brendan takes Christine's phone and opens the home's smart security app,
06:53making sure the front door will stay unlocked.
06:56He then turns her ringer off and hides her phone in a kitchen drawer.
06:59After that, he leaves the house at his usual time, just like any other workday.
07:04But instead of going to the office, he drives to a nearby McDonald's and waits.
07:08Meanwhile, Juliana tells Christine she's taking her daughter to the zoo.
07:12She buckles the child into the car, hands her an iPad to watch a movie,
07:16and pulls away from the house, leaving Christine alone inside.
07:20And then, a little way down the road,
07:22Juliana waits for Joseph Ryan to arrive exactly as planned.
07:26When Joseph shows up, Juliana puts the plan into motion.
07:30First, she calls Christine.
07:32There's no answer like she knew there wouldn't be.
07:34Next, she calls Brendan.
07:35He comes straight back to the house.
07:38When he arrives, Brendan, Juliana, and the four-year-old all go inside through the back door.
07:43Juliana and Brendan tell the child to stay in the basement.
07:47Then, they quietly head upstairs to the bedroom.
07:49According to Juliana, they stop outside the door and listen,
07:53waiting to hear sounds of a struggle to confirm Joseph's doing exactly what he was instructed to do.
07:59When they finally open the bedroom door, Joseph is on top of Christine.
08:03Brendan shouts, police.
08:05Christine starts screaming, Brendan, he has a knife.
08:07Brendan then shoots Joseph in the head.
08:10According to Juliana, Christine's completely confused.
08:13She screams, what did you do?
08:15And tells Juliana to call 911.
08:17Juliana does, but Brendan immediately gestures for her to hang up.
08:21That brief call is the first one 911 gets from the house.
08:25The call that cuts off abruptly.
08:27That's when Juliana says Brendan tells her to go get a towel.
08:31While Juliana's out of the room, Brendan picks up the knife Joseph brought to the house
08:35and begins stabbing Christine.
08:37Juliana later says she moves to the other side of the bed, crouches down, and covers her eyes and ears,
08:43trying not to see or hear what's happening as Brendan stabs his wife to death.
08:47In the middle of all this, Juliana realizes Joseph is still alive.
08:51She tells Brendan.
08:52He doesn't respond.
08:53Using a gun Brendan has given her, Juliana shoots Joseph again, this time in the chest.
08:59After that, Brendan uses the towel to transfer Christine's blood onto Joseph's body,
09:04reinforcing the idea that he stabbed her.
09:07Once the scene is set, the remaining calls to 911 are made.
09:12Police arrive and the investigation begins.
09:15As detectives try to untangle what happened inside the Banfield house, Juliana moves her
09:20belongings into Christine's closet and starts sleeping in the marital bed.
09:24They even replace all the couple's pictures with photos of her and Brendan.
09:28Once police start noticing what's going on inside the house, their tone shifts fast.
09:33This no longer looks like a clean cut case of self-defense against an intruder.
09:38For one thing, there's no evidence Christine was ever interested in extreme role-play fantasies at all.
09:45No private messages, no journals, no alternate accounts, nothing.
09:50There's just the single fetish website profile, Anastasia9, and investigators can see that Christine
09:57never met up with anyone before. Joseph is the first and only person ever invited to the house.
10:03Detectives also start digging into Brendan and Juliana's activity in the months leading up to the murders.
10:09They learn the two of them were having an affair. They find out they'd been going to a shooting range together,
10:15practicing target shooting. Eventually, Brendan bought a gun there, the same gun Juliana later uses to shoot Joseph.
10:22Piece by piece, the story they're telling stops lining up with the evidence. And eventually, investigators
10:28stop looking at this as a tragic mistake and start treating it like a long, carefully planned crime.
10:35Eight months later, in October 2023, police arrest Juliana at a school bus stop. She's charged with
10:42second-degree murder. While she sits in jail, investigators keep digging into Brendan.
10:47For the next 11 months between Juliana's arrest and his, detectives monitor the phone calls between the two of them.
10:54Despite everything, they stay in contact and in some ways stay together. But the calls make one thing clear.
11:01The trust is gone. In one recorded conversation, Juliana asks Brendan,
11:06I hope you're not just staying with me because you're afraid I'm going to turn against you.
11:10In September 2024, Brendan Banfield is arrested.
11:13He's charged with aggravated murder, along with felony child cruelty and child abuse, because he
11:20involved his four-year-old daughter in the plan and left her alone in the basement while the murders
11:24unfolded upstairs. One month after that, Juliana takes a plea deal. She agrees to plead guilty to
11:31manslaughter in exchange for a reduced sentence and her testimony against Brendan. The trial begins in
11:37January 2026. Brendan pleads not guilty. His defense maintains Joseph Ryan stabbed Christine and Brendan
11:45walked in on the attack and shot him to stop the attack. They reject the prosecution's theory of a
11:50coordinated double murder. Brendan's attorney calls those allegations crazy and argue that Juliana was
11:57coached into telling a story that conveniently mirrors the prosecution's version of events.
12:02They tell the jury Juliana's testimony has been bought and paid for with the payment being a lighter sentence
12:08and the chance to eventually profit by selling her story as a Netflix true crime documentary. Brendan takes the
12:14stand in his own defense. He says he tried early on to cool things off with Juliana and claims she was the one who
12:21pushed the relationship forward. According to him, Juliana would cozy up to him anytime Christine was out of the
12:27house. She'd show him men she was matching with on dating apps. All of them, he says, named Brendan or some
12:33variation of it. When she described her ideal man, Brendan testifies that she was essentially describing him.
12:40Eventually, the two began sleeping together. Brendan admits he had affairs before, but insists this was never a
12:47relationship he planned to leave his wife for, much less kill her over. As far as he's concerned, the events of that
12:53mourning are exactly what they look like. In the end, the jury has to decide who's telling the truth. On February 2nd,
13:002026, they come back with their verdict. Guilty. Brendan Banfield is convicted on two counts of aggravated
13:07murder, one count of using a firearm in the commission of a felony, and one count of child endangerment. He now
13:13faces life in prison. As for Juliana, she could be looking at time served.
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