Dateline NBC 2026 04 03 Temptation

ZenithFunWorld

4 hours ago

Transcript

00:00:02Tonight on Dateline.

00:00:04She was like Christine's dad.

00:00:06I was speechless.

00:00:08Complete shock.

00:00:10She was a truly good human.

00:00:12Loving mother.

00:00:13A nurse's nurse.

00:00:15Where's the guy at?

00:00:16The officers, they're met by Juliana, the au pair.

00:00:19They come upon a scene that's sheer chaos.

00:00:21Absolutely.

00:00:22There is somebody shot and a woman that's been stabbed.

00:00:25What's bothering you right now?

00:00:27Did you skip the anus?

00:00:30The scene.

00:00:30You can see Brennan Banfield.

00:00:32He's kneeling over his wife.

00:00:34The deceased male we later identify as Joe Ryan.

00:00:37They find this fetish website where Christine's profile is communicating with Joseph Ryan's profile.

00:00:44They're having in-depth correspondence regarding this violent sexual fantasy.

00:00:49I was like, what if the fantasy was a setup?

00:00:53We start to get these juicy details about this so-called catfish theory.

00:00:58The whole plot is just wild.

00:01:02Very few people see that kind of evil.

00:01:06Man, it shakes you.

00:01:08A double murder as elaborate as it was brutal.

00:01:11Inside the case that riveted the country.

00:01:14I'm Lester Holt.

00:01:16And this is Dateline.

00:01:25Here's Blaine Alexander with Temptation.

00:01:36What a perfect day it was supposed to be.

00:01:40For the four-year-old little girl, anyway.

00:01:43She was going on an adventure with her live-in nanny.

00:01:46They had bought tickets a few days prior.

00:01:48She's making packed lunches.

00:01:49They're going to go to the zoo as a type of play date with other au pairs in the neighborhood.

00:01:54They're also bringing the kids that they watched.

00:01:56Very typical.

00:01:57Very typical.

00:01:59But instead of visiting the lions, tigers, and bears that Friday, February 24, 2023,

00:02:06the little girl found herself in her family's basement in Northern Virginia, alone.

00:02:11It's difficult to watch the body camera footage.

00:02:14You just know that when you see the images of that little girl,

00:02:18that her life is never going to be the same.

00:02:20It's never going to be the same.

00:02:22And she was inside the house while whatever horrific thing went on upstairs.

00:02:28She was right there.

00:02:30Yeah.

00:02:36We're in our shop now in one.

00:02:38Where's our emergency?

00:02:39My name is Brennan Banfield.

00:02:40I'm a federal agent.

00:02:43This is my house.

00:02:43There's somebody, there's somebody here.

00:02:45It was just after 8 a.m.

00:02:47The girl's father, Brennan Banfield, told a 911 operator he'd shot a stranger in his home.

00:02:53So the person that you shot, where is he?

00:02:56I don't know.

00:02:57I don't know him.

00:02:58Okay, where is he though?

00:03:01He's here.

00:03:01He's on the ground.

00:03:03Brennan said he fired because the man was stabbing his wife, Christine.

00:03:08Can you tell me how her breathing is?

00:03:09She's still, she's heart still beating.

00:03:11She's still breathing.

00:03:12Okay.

00:03:13Within minutes, first responders were at the house, guns drawn.

00:03:17Well, I got voices inside.

00:03:19Let's do some quick.

00:03:19County police, call out.

00:03:21Where's the gun at?

00:03:22Where's the gun?

00:03:24They meet a woman and this woman starts telling the officers, upstairs, come upstairs to the

00:03:31master bedroom.

00:03:31Is there anyone else in the house who need kids in the house?

00:03:34Fairfax County homicide detective Thomas Goodell.

00:03:37You can see Brennan Banfield and he's kneeling over his wife and she's not moving.

00:03:43And he has one arm outstretched and touching the area of her neck on the side of her neck and

00:03:52he has blood on his hands.

00:03:54He's touching her.

00:03:55Is he trying to perform life-saving measures?

00:03:57What does that look like?

00:03:59So he was kneeling, she was laying on her side, on one of her sides and he had the hand,

00:04:05one of his hands on her neck.

00:04:08Christine had been stabbed multiple times.

00:04:11Behind where they're situated, deeper in the corner of the bedroom, laying on top of a dog bed, is another

00:04:20man, fully clothed, and his face is covered with blood.

00:04:28And he's not moving.

00:04:29It was the man Brennan shot.

00:04:32You have these two victims there.

00:04:37Now you have medics on the scene.

00:04:38Patrick Roosh, now retired, was a police captain at the time.

00:04:43You see two people that are critically injured, a firearm in plain view, a man covered in blood, a woman

00:04:49that's let you in the house, and what we later find out, a four-year-old girl in the basement.

00:04:54Wow. That's quite a scene. That's a lot.

00:04:57It was soon clear there was nothing first responders could do for the man who'd been shot.

00:05:02He was deceased.

00:05:03Yes, he was deceased at the scene.

00:05:04But Christine, despite repeated stabs to her neck, was miraculously still alive and was rushed to the ER.

00:05:13Officers then coaxed the Banfield's four-year-old daughter from the basement.

00:05:17Do you want to go outside with us?

00:05:19You need to go outside, okay?

00:05:20Officers guided both out of the house, the child and the woman with her.

00:05:25And that would be who we later identify as Juliana, the au pair.

00:05:28That left Brandon, his hands still covered in Christine's blood.

00:05:33Can you check him out?

00:05:34Yeah, I got more units here. We'll check him out.

00:05:36What's his demeanor at this time?

00:05:39It's sort of consistent with someone who's experienced a critical incident.

00:05:43Levels of shock, not really saying too much, you know, making some utterances, but very small.

00:05:49And that's part of the challenge for the responding officers, is they're trying to elicit more information.

00:05:54But this is somebody who has shot a stranger in his bedroom.

00:05:59Sounds like a home invasion.

00:06:00For all intents and purposes, that's what you would have to initially classify it as.

00:06:07Yet, even in those early hours, investigators wondered, what an odd time of day for a home invasion, early on

00:06:14a Friday morning,

00:06:15when neighbors, potential witnesses, were bustling to school, to work, and almost sure to see something.

00:06:22Was there something else going on here?

00:06:25Well, yes, there was a lot more.

00:06:31There was just something about it all that compelled me to couch my words at that on-scene press conference.

00:06:39He had sent a photograph in advance.

00:06:42These are the things that I'm going to bring.

00:06:44Zip ties and chains and whips and, you know, rubber belts.

00:06:49You hear about this fetish website.

00:06:51Did that sound like anything that was even remotely possible?

00:06:54No, absolutely not.

00:06:54No.

00:06:55Absolutely not.

00:06:56God, no.

00:06:56It's these details that take the public interest from here through the roof.

00:07:02Because you're, what he, he was doing what?

00:07:20If there is such a thing as a perfect place to raise a family, the Banfields community was probably it.

00:07:26This is a really nice place to live.

00:07:29Herndon, Virginia, all of Fairfax County is fairly suburban.

00:07:33Drew Wilder covers the area for NBC4 Washington.

00:07:36Great schools, great place to live, beautiful, quiet neighborhoods.

00:07:41But on Friday, February 24th, 2023, this neighborhood was chaos.

00:07:47Patrick Bruch was a member of police senior command.

00:07:51So you get here, I mean, what is this street like when you first get to the scene?

00:07:54So from here, as far as your eye can see, it's fire apparatus, it's police cars, it's lights.

00:08:01There is a clear path to the residents, and that's just so any one of the ambulances.

00:08:06We're talking about a huge response, just flashing lights up and down that street.

00:08:09Absolutely, as far as you can see.

00:08:10I get notified right away.

00:08:12Kevin Davis is chief of the Fairfax County Police Department.

00:08:16We know what our 911 caller, the husband, told us.

00:08:19I spent a lot of time as a local reporter.

00:08:21When we would go to crime scenes, if the chief came out and spoke to reporters,

00:08:26we're automatically thinking, OK, this is a big deal.

00:08:28People were out of their homes.

00:08:30They were curious.

00:08:31And I knew, based on the geography of this crime, based on the nature of this crime,

00:08:36that this was going to garner a lot of attention.

00:08:39They quickly learned the man on the 911 call was Brendan Banfield,

00:08:43a 38-year-old special agent for the IRS in its Criminal Investigation Division.

00:08:47He is a sworn officer.

00:08:49He does carry a firearm, and he basically enforces federal crimes as they pertain to, you know, IRS and tax

00:08:56issues.

00:08:56So he has a lot of the powers of a law enforcement official.

00:09:00Sure thing, yes.

00:09:01He, Christine, and their 4-year-old daughter were fairly new to the area.

00:09:06They'd moved here from their native Long Island in 2019 after the IRS promoted Brendan to special agent.

00:09:12When they were looking at houses, we all went out and grabbed dinner together.

00:09:15Brian and Jared already knew Brendan through online gaming.

00:09:18They often teamed up.

00:09:20We just seemed to vibe right away, both competitive, both good at what we did.

00:09:25And we were having a lot of success together and, like, constantly winning and enjoying yourself.

00:09:30You know, just think, like, OK, this is fun.

00:09:33Let's keep going, see where this goes.

00:09:37Brian says Brendan and Christine were a fun couple who loved to work out and compete in mud races.

00:09:43He and Brendan became close friends.

00:09:46We did a Tough Mudder together.

00:09:48Sometimes we'd go on hikes or we'd go to concerts together or, you know, sometimes just, like, watch, like, a

00:09:54football game or something like that.

00:09:56We'd also talk about, just, like, individual investing, but he always said his goal was to create generational wealth for

00:10:04his daughter.

00:10:05From everything I'd heard, they accumulated a lot and were extremely well off, had a very nice house.

00:10:13Christine was an accomplished nurse who took on the tough jobs, like working with victims of sexual assault.

00:10:19Her specialty, though, was pediatric intensive care.

00:10:23She's like, I'm kind of like the unit mother hen.

00:10:25Like, I take in all the new grads.

00:10:28Nurses Katie Janice and Marissa Moncayo worked alongside her in the ICU.

00:10:32So you already take a very busy environment, which can be very, very stressful.

00:10:37And then you add on trying to educate a new person and a new nurse coming on.

00:10:42So I think it takes a special breed of person to be able to do that.

00:10:46They'll never forget how Christine volunteered to work the adult ICU ward during those terrifying first days of COVID.

00:10:54I mean, that was a very scary time, especially to be in the health care field.

00:10:57Yeah, I think being in the health care world at that time was hard because in the beginning, we didn't

00:11:01know what COVID was, what it looked like.

00:11:04And I think initially as health care workers, we were all super, super scared, like, am I going to get

00:11:10this?

00:11:10It was like running into a building that's on fire.

00:11:15And she was like, OK, there's people in that burning building.

00:11:19I need to go save them.

00:11:20That's exactly what she did.

00:11:22Katie and Marissa say the only thing Christine prized more than her work was her family, especially their young daughter.

00:11:30Super, super proud, super beaming, like, all she did was talk about her daughter.

00:11:35Constantly pulling out her phone.

00:11:36Constantly.

00:11:37Showing pictures.

00:11:38Yes.

00:11:38And as a working mom, child care was always top of mind.

00:11:43Especially if you're working difficult hours, how are you going to make it all work?

00:11:47Yeah, because I think all of us had different schedules on the unit.

00:11:51It was one of the reasons Christine turned to the au pair program, hosting young live-in nannies from abroad.

00:11:58For busy parents, the au pair program can be a godsend.

00:12:02Yeah.

00:12:02I've done it.

00:12:03It's been amazing.

00:12:05Did it seem like Christine had kind of found the perfect child care solution?

00:12:09Yeah.

00:12:10I think she talked about it that way.

00:12:11And it wasn't just like, I have an au pair and this fits my family's lifestyle.

00:12:14It was like, I have an au pair and I'm helping somebody come to our country and I'm giving them

00:12:19a chance to live here and see what our country is like.

00:12:22Like, she really promoted the role.

00:12:24Yeah.

00:12:25They say Christine became close with her first au pair.

00:12:28When that woman left, Christine found a replacement in Juliana Perez Magalhães from Brazil.

00:12:34I think that the reason that she had liked her is because the new au pair had mentioned that she

00:12:39had worked in health care.

00:12:40Oh, wow.

00:12:40So, I think that they had like that common bond and that's why she was like, oh, this would be

00:12:45a great fit.

00:12:47Now, more than a year later, Christine was fighting for her life as officers led the traumatized au pair out

00:12:54of the house.

00:12:55It's okay.

00:12:56Just breathe, okay?

00:12:57As they're escorting her out of the house by the driveway, they stop for a period of time.

00:13:03And as they're doing that, she starts making statements.

00:13:06Barely audible at first, but officers got the gist.

00:13:10The breathless woman from Brazil wanted to share what she'd witnessed in that upstairs bedroom.

00:13:16Every heart-pounding moment of it.

00:13:18And then he said, no, police, don't drop the knife.

00:13:22And he was there, I'm going to kill her, I'm going to kill her.

00:13:38It was a horrifying scene.

00:13:40Way too much for 22-year-old au pair, Juliana Perez Magalliahis, to handle.

00:13:46Take a minute, okay?

00:13:48We need some water.

00:13:51The officers are trying to walk her through deep breaths to try and calm her down,

00:13:56while at the same time trying to get the preliminary information of what happened inside this residence.

00:14:02Okay.

00:14:04She's so upset, she can't even really speak.

00:14:08She's making more utterances, more phrases.

00:14:10I don't know what happened. Everything happened too fast.

00:14:13In fits and starts, a story started to take shape.

00:14:17I'm sorry.

00:14:18I'm sorry, English is on my first name.

00:14:19Oh, you're fine.

00:14:22I was going out.

00:14:23Juliana said she was headed to the National Zoo for that outing with the Banfield's four-year-old daughter.

00:14:29She was with the little girl in a car across the street when...

00:14:33She sees an unfamiliar car, an SUV, and it pulls right into the Banfield's driveway.

00:14:41Where the car is here? I don't know who it is.

00:14:45And a man gets out of the car and goes directly in the front door.

00:14:49She then called Brendan.

00:14:52Brendan had stopped for breakfast at a nearby McDonald's on his way to work.

00:14:56I got him. I see a strange car, but I don't know who he's at.

00:15:00Can I please come here? I'm scared.

00:15:02And then he came here and then we went inside.

00:15:08They actually brought the little girl with them, the four-year-old girl.

00:15:11Inside the house.

00:15:12Inside the house.

00:15:13She had secured the little girl in the basement.

00:15:16Juliana set up a tablet for the girl to watch, then followed Brendan upstairs.

00:15:20And what she hears is, it sounds consistent with sex noises or slapping.

00:15:25Dude, it's pain to her. I don't know.

00:15:28You hear what?

00:15:29It's pain to her.

00:15:31When they entered the bedroom, she said Christine was on the floor, a man with a knife above her.

00:15:37Brendan identifies himself as a police officer. There's some sort of verbal exchange.

00:15:41And Brendan said, no, police, don't drop the knife.

00:15:45And he was like, I'm going to kill her, I'm going to kill her.

00:15:47And I don't know if he stabbed me. He started stabbing her. Brendan, I think Brendan shot him.

00:15:54As Juliana tried to compose herself, officers escorted Brendan out of the house,

00:15:59took him to an ambulance, and headed to the hospital.

00:16:01An officer asked about two guns they found in the bedroom.

00:16:05Sir, was yours the clock 19 with the TLR?

00:16:07Mine has the light.

00:16:08Yeah.

00:16:09My other gun is my personal weapon.

00:16:11Oh, that's the 43X?

00:16:12Yeah.

00:16:12So both those are yours?

00:16:13Both of them are mine.

00:16:15Brendan had some questions of his own.

00:16:16First, about his wife, who had already been rushed to the hospital.

00:16:20Can I be with her?

00:16:22They're going to work on her when they get there.

00:16:24You wouldn't be able to see her immediately anyway.

00:16:27I want to be with her.

00:16:28Okay.

00:16:29He also wanted to know about his daughter.

00:16:31She's there with the other officers that are still on scene.

00:16:36Are they going to tell her?

00:16:38I mean, as of right now, I don't think they're going to tell her anything.

00:16:42It's kind of a delicate matter, and I don't think anybody wants to upset her currently.

00:16:48Yes, sir.

00:16:49I understand that.

00:16:53Just moments after arriving at the hospital, a doctor approached him with the worst possible news.

00:16:59Hi, sir.

00:17:00My name is Dean.

00:17:01I'm one of the doctors here.

00:17:02Your wife has died.

00:17:14Christine Banfield was just 37 years old.

00:17:17A hospital chaplain asked if she could do anything for Brendan.

00:17:21Let me sit over there.

00:17:22My wife.

00:17:22There, in the hospital room, they recited the Lord's Prayer.

00:17:26Lead us not into temptation.

00:17:29I want to live a restaurant.

00:17:32Back at the house, forensic techs collected evidence to send to the crime lab for DNA testing

00:17:37and blood pattern analysis.

00:17:40The Banfield's daughter was shepherded down the block, away from the chaos, where she was reunited with Juliana.

00:17:47It's difficult to watch the body camera footage, and you just know that when you see the images of that

00:17:53little girl,

00:17:53that her life is never going to be the same.

00:17:55And she was inside the house while whatever horrific thing went on upstairs.

00:18:01She was right there.

00:18:03Yeah.

00:18:04Hours later, at police headquarters, Juliana was still unsettled, pacing back and forth nonstop.

00:18:11What's bothering you right now?

00:18:12What's going on?

00:18:13I just kept seeing the scene.

00:18:18She told them she had a good professional relationship with the Banfields.

00:18:23They're like a traditional family.

00:18:25You can tell, like, you know, dad, mom, daughter, dog, and super nice.

00:18:31She also gave a more detailed version of the moment Brendan confronted the stranger in the bedroom.

00:18:37And Brendan said, drop the knife.

00:18:41Please drop the knife.

00:18:42That's what I heard.

00:18:44And that strange guy was saying, drop the gun, drop the gun.

00:18:49They were yelling at each other.

00:18:51I covered my ears.

00:18:55And I closed my eyes.

00:18:57I didn't want to see or hear anything because they were getting serious, I guess.

00:19:03Brendan shot him.

00:19:09And I was even more scared.

00:19:12She said after he shot the stranger, Brendan went to help Christine, who was bleeding badly.

00:19:18And the other man was still moving.

00:19:21He was reacting, so he was going to do something with Brendan also.

00:19:26And then I shot him also.

00:19:29I did.

00:19:30That's notable.

00:19:32That's significant.

00:19:33Juliana met with detectives for almost nine hours.

00:19:37Brendan declined to give a statement.

00:19:39And an officer involved shooting, and whether or not he was in an official capacity or not,

00:19:43he was involved in the shooting.

00:19:45And so oftentimes officers are coached to talk to an attorney first before making a statement.

00:19:52It had been a tragic and bewildering day, with so much loss to absorb.

00:19:57Some random guy had pretty much just come off the street and broken into their home and killed Christine.

00:20:03How does something like this happen?

00:20:05Katie, how did you find out that she died?

00:20:07I was at home.

00:20:09Marissa texted me, and she was like, Christine Banfield was killed in her home this morning.

00:20:14And I was like, speechless.

00:20:18And Marissa, how did you find out?

00:20:21So somebody had texted me, and then they told me, and I was just in complete shock.

00:20:26In those early hours, it was a complicated scene for detectives, with so many unanswered questions.

00:20:34At the top of their list, who was the man killed in the Banfield's house?

00:20:38And what was he doing in Christine's bedroom?

00:20:42Joseph Ryan had accounts on an adult fetish dating site.

00:20:48So kind of like a Tinder meets BDSM.

00:20:51Yes.

00:21:06It was a flash of violence that left two people dead.

00:21:10Christine Banfield attacked in her own bedroom, and a stranger shot dead just feet away.

00:21:17This was a very convoluted crime scene.

00:21:20We maintained custody of that crime scene for days.

00:21:22That's how thorough these crime scene detectives are.

00:21:27They don't let any stone go unturned, and they process the entire house and collect anything

00:21:32that they think might be pertinent to the investigation, even if it isn't overwhelming at the time.

00:21:37Their search included the stranger's car.

00:21:39We had the car that was parked in the driveway that he came in, which gave us our first lead

00:21:46to his identity.

00:21:47But we also confirmed that a couple other ways.

00:21:50Joseph Ryan is his name.

00:21:52Yes, his name is Joseph Ryan.

00:21:54Joseph Ryan, Joe to his friends and family, was 39 years old and lived with his grandmother

00:21:59about 20 miles from the banfields.

00:22:02We learned a lot about Joseph Ryan and his background, where he lived, who his friends

00:22:07were, what his hobbies and his activities were.

00:22:09We learned that he was into things like live-action role-playing or LARPing.

00:22:14Explain this.

00:22:15I've never heard LARPing before.

00:22:16People will dress up in costumes and things like that, and they will engage in non-sexual

00:22:24fantasy role-play, like Dungeons and Dragons type of things.

00:22:29So like theater?

00:22:32Kind of.

00:22:33Oftentimes I think it's centered more around like pugilistic combat with foam swords and

00:22:38things like that.

00:22:40So play fighting in costumes?

00:22:42Yes.

00:22:44Cell phones collected from his car revealed a more private side of Joe Ryan.

00:22:49We learned that Joseph Ryan also had accounts on a website known as FetLife.

00:22:56What kind of a website is that?

00:22:58It is a place where people who have very specific fetishes or sexual proclivities will connect

00:23:05with each other on a consensual basis.

00:23:09So kind of like a Tinder meets BDSM?

00:23:12Yes.

00:23:12We learned that Joseph Ryan had several encounters with people on that website.

00:23:18Joe's most recent conversation on the site was with someone with the profile name Anastasia

00:23:24Nine.

00:23:25They're having very in-depth correspondence regarding this violent sexual fantasy, which

00:23:31Anastasia is indicating she wished to explore.

00:23:35What is the sexual fantasy?

00:23:37Sexual fantasy is essentially a rape fantasy, where a stranger comes into the residence

00:23:42and violently attacks Anastasia.

00:23:46The plan took shape on a secure messaging app.

00:23:49This is what Anastasia wrote to Joe.

00:23:51I'm looking for someone aggressive, dominant, and experienced.

00:23:55There were specific things about clothing being cut off.

00:23:59There was discussions about certain sexual acts and positions that were violent in nature.

00:24:07The script was planned to a T.

00:24:09He, Anastasia, would be asleep at home and leave the front door unlocked.

00:24:14Joe would go to her bedroom and carry out the plan, even if she resisted.

00:24:19You have this trove of information about Joseph Ryan and his activity on this website.

00:24:27What did you find when you looked at Christine Banfield's devices?

00:24:30So when we looked at Christine's devices, we found that they were connected to the Anastasia

00:24:369 account that had been communicating with Joe Ryan's FetLife account.

00:24:41I mean, that had to have been a huge moment.

00:24:43It was.

00:24:44A huge moment that helped explain so much, like a strange piece of evidence discovered in Christine's bedroom.

00:24:51There was a backpack that was filled with items that would be consistent with things used in BDSM-style sexual

00:25:01encounters.

00:25:02Oh, gosh.

00:25:03The very items Joe said he would bring to the house.

00:25:07The items that were in that backpack were actually sent in a photograph to Christine's devices.

00:25:14So he took pictures and sent them to Anastasia 9?

00:25:16Yes.

00:25:17Are you starting to get a picture in your mind of what possibly happened here?

00:25:20Yes.

00:25:21That instead of this being a random home break-in, you're now looking at this and saying this is something

00:25:26that appears to be planned.

00:25:28Yes.

00:25:30Now, it looked like Joe Ryan was no burglar.

00:25:33He had been invited into the house.

00:25:35The idea that this was a home break-in gone wrong did not appear to be a viable lead anymore.

00:25:43The evidence suggested Christine Banfield, a devoted mother, wife, and nurse, was living a secret life.

00:25:50But if that meeting was consensual, why did they both end up dead?

00:25:55If it looks like a duck, it talks like a duck, walks like a duck, it's a duck.

00:26:00And that's what this was.

00:26:02It was a catfish.

00:26:16On its face, the online conversation between Joe Ryan and Christine Banfield unlocked the mystery of what was happening in

00:26:24her bedroom before things went tragically wrong.

00:26:27But there were still so many questions.

00:26:31As an investigator, everything is possible until it's not.

00:26:34So you all are looking at everything?

00:26:35At everything.

00:26:36We're looking at Joseph Ryan.

00:26:38We're looking at Christine's background.

00:26:40The texts setting up their rendezvous were written in the days before Christine was killed.

00:26:46Detectives followed up with a more comprehensive search, looking at years of activity on her devices.

00:26:51Are you seeing a history of her communicating with sexual partners or engaging on these fetish websites?

00:26:59None at all.

00:27:00No indication of being on any sort of fetish website, sexual website, no footprint of adulterous behavior, promiscuous behavior, or

00:27:08any engagement in sexual fetish fantasies.

00:27:13Now, and Christine, you hear about this fetish website.

00:27:17Did that sound like anything that was even remotely possible?

00:27:19No, absolutely not.

00:27:20Why?

00:27:21Because she was...

00:27:22Just who she was as a person.

00:27:24She was a sexual assault nurse examiner who advocated for rape victims.

00:27:30Like, there's no way that she would be working as an advocate for that, but then, on the side, engaging

00:27:37in that kind of...

00:27:39Fantasy.

00:27:39Yeah, correct.

00:27:40Would be the furthest thing from something she would do.

00:27:42Correct.

00:27:42Joe Ryan did have a history of meeting women he found on the fetish website.

00:27:47Detectives spoke with them and learned something.

00:27:50We learned that there are parameters and consent is a very large part of what goes on, and great care

00:27:59is taken to ensure that consent is there.

00:28:04He was kind of described as an easygoing individual, respected people's boundaries.

00:28:08And they all say, hey, he never crossed the line.

00:28:10He never got violent.

00:28:11Never.

00:28:13Joe had even texted about respecting limits.

00:28:16We need to set boundaries and make sure we will do the right things.

00:28:21And again, it goes back to who was Joe Ryan and what was his pattern of life.

00:28:24And this was just completely out of the ordinary.

00:28:34It just didn't add up.

00:28:36Christine simply wasn't the kind of person to engage in that kind of fetish.

00:28:40And by all accounts, Joe was not a violent person.

00:28:43Captain Bruch concluded it had to be the work of someone else posing as Christine online, luring Joe to the

00:28:50house.

00:28:51This was a catfish.

00:28:53The fact that this was not Christine Banfield was apparently obvious to several of us.

00:28:58But it wasn't obvious to everyone working the case.

00:29:02There were serious disagreements about the catfish theory.

00:29:05You had forensic detectives who were professionals at analyzing computers and cell phones.

00:29:13And they came to a very different conclusion.

00:29:16We don't see a catfish.

00:29:18We see Christine probably using these devices.

00:29:23Yeah.

00:29:24So immediately, we see that there is a substantial problem surrounding the catfish theory.

00:29:30Captain Bruch held firm.

00:29:32He believed the circumstantial evidence and common sense supported only one theory.

00:29:37If it looks like a duck, it talks like a duck, walks like a duck, it's a duck.

00:29:43And that's what this was.

00:29:44It was a catfish.

00:29:45Christine Banfield was set up.

00:29:47Forensic experts spent months analyzing their devices but could not find evidence of a catfishing scheme.

00:29:54But there was other evidence from the crime scene that demanded a closer look.

00:29:58Like the way first responders found Joe Ryan after he'd been shot.

00:30:03His arms were in what we kind of call, it looked like a funeral pose, like a body posed in

00:30:10a casket.

00:30:10One hand was over top of the other.

00:30:12It's like cross over his chest?

00:30:14One hand crossed over the other hand.

00:30:16Oh gosh.

00:30:17If Joe was right next to Christine when he was shot, how did he end up on his back, hands

00:30:23neatly crossed, several feet away?

00:30:25It was a very odd body positioning.

00:30:28I mean, you sort of work backwards from that.

00:30:31Eric Klingin was a Fairfax County prosecutor at the time.

00:30:34He says that positioning alone was enough to suggest the crime scene had been manipulated.

00:30:40We have a staged scene here.

00:30:42Now the question becomes, how did it get staged?

00:30:45Who staged it?

00:30:46And we had Juliana's initial statement.

00:30:49Let's look at Juliana's story.

00:30:51Were there holes in her initial story that she was telling police?

00:30:53Yeah.

00:31:05This claim that Brendan says drop the knife and Joe says drop the gun, that makes no logical sense.

00:31:12Because if you're Joe, you still have a knife and he has a gun.

00:31:16You don't win.

00:31:17You're not going to win.

00:31:19So we knew that that conversation could not have taken place that way.

00:31:23Klingin also zeroed in on the 911 calls made that morning.

00:31:28Juliana actually called twice.

00:31:30There's no explanation that was satisfactory as far as why there were multiple calls to 911 with a 13-minute,

00:31:39I think it was 13-minute gap between them.

00:31:41And on the initial call, we have clearly a person moaning in the background.

00:31:49Hello, 5-1-1-1.

00:31:51Klingin says it was a male voice and must have been Joe Ryan moaning on that first 911 call, which

00:31:58lasted only a few seconds before Juliana hung up.

00:32:01So clearly a person was in an injured state and yet it still took 13 or more minutes for the

00:32:10second call to come in.

00:32:12It made no sense.

00:32:14And that was a big flag immediately.

00:32:15That was a big flag.

00:32:17Klingin was convinced Juliana's story was riddled with lies.

00:32:21But one thing did ring true.

00:32:24What we had was a man was prone on the ground, not a threat to anybody in that room.

00:32:29And Juliana confessed to shooting him.

00:32:31And then I shot him also.

00:32:34I did.

00:32:36Detectives were about to discover another big flag, and this one would give them a possible motive for the crime.

00:32:43She has basically moved into this bedroom.

00:32:46Christine's old bedroom.

00:32:47I would say that she replaced Christine in that bedroom.

00:32:51It was like she was erased.

00:33:08In the months after the killings, Brendan continued to live in the house that had once been a crime scene.

00:33:13He ultimately made the decision to gut his bedroom, like completely ripped everything out.

00:33:19And it seemed like he was almost using that whole project as a way to occupy himself and get over

00:33:24it.

00:33:25Brian says his friend, now a single father, was struggling to cope.

00:33:29He really had this whole situation weighing on him heavily.

00:33:34And he would even ask me, you know, like, what's the best way to deal with this?

00:33:38Also still living in the home, Juliana.

00:33:42She had told police her relationship with Brendan was purely professional.

00:33:46A check of his work and personal phones seemed to back that up.

00:33:50But by this point, detectives already suspected Juliana had lied to them.

00:33:54There's this thing called Instagram, and Juliana posted pictures on Instagram a lot.

00:34:01Pictures of her with a man whose identity was concealed in a rather unusual way.

00:34:07Emojis?

00:34:07Emojis.

00:34:08Like the way you would protect a child's face?

00:34:10Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

00:34:11She's posting pictures of them out dancing together, out drinking together, going to dinner.

00:34:18Detectives believe that man could be Brendan.

00:34:20But prosecutor Klingin faced a new, more pressing development.

00:34:24There was some concern over her status here in the U.S.

00:34:28Yes. So her visa was going to expire, had expired at the end of September.

00:34:33And so Brazil is a non-extraditable country.

00:34:36And the concern that the police had is that if she were to go back to Brazil,

00:34:42we're never going to get her, and we're never going to find out what happened in that room.

00:34:46It was a risk the prosecutor wasn't prepared to take, particularly since Juliana had already confessed to shooting Joe Ryan.

00:34:55We had all the elements we needed to prosecute her based on just that.

00:35:01In October 2023, nearly eight months into the investigation, police swooped in on the now 23-year-old au pair

00:35:09and arrested her for Joe Ryan's murder.

00:35:12What is that for?

00:35:14What are you doing to me?

00:35:16She was going to come back with us to headquarters, okay?

00:35:19That same day, detectives executed a warrant for a second search of the home.

00:35:25What do officers find when they get there and go inside that house?

00:35:28The first thing that I noticed, and I think every detective and every investigator noticed,

00:35:33was we didn't see any pictures of Christine.

00:35:36They were gone.

00:35:37They used to be there. Now it appeared that they had been taken down.

00:35:41Yes, we didn't see any.

00:35:42But the real surprise came upstairs in the bedroom.

00:35:47On the nightstand, on another countertop, there's pictures of Juliana and Brendan together in romantic kind of embrace.

00:35:58Like a couple?

00:35:59Absolutely like a couple.

00:36:01And that wasn't all.

00:36:03Juliana's clothing was now in the shared walk-in closet off the master bathroom with Brendan's clothing.

00:36:11And her lingerie and other items like that were in the bedroom.

00:36:17So she has basically moved into this bedroom.

00:36:21Christine's old bedroom.

00:36:22I would say that she replaced Christine in that bedroom.

00:36:26It was like she was erased.

00:36:28It was a here-we-go moment.

00:36:30This investigation has taken a turn.

00:36:32This was a major shift.

00:36:34Absolutely.

00:36:34It became obvious to us that our suspicions about their relationship were absolutely on point.

00:36:44To Chief Davis and investigators, the bedroom photos confirmed an affair.

00:36:49And from the timestamps on Juliana's Instagram posts, it was clear she and Brendan began that affair months before the

00:36:56murders.

00:36:57All while Christine was still alive?

00:36:59Absolutely.

00:37:00Without her even knowing?

00:37:01Yeah.

00:37:02She's working shifts at the hospital.

00:37:04And these shifts, you know, are sometimes night shifts, sometimes day shifts.

00:37:08Sometimes she's subbing in for somebody.

00:37:10You come home, you're just looking to breathe.

00:37:12I don't think that Christine had any idea that this was going on in her house.

00:37:17And having this...

00:37:18Yeah.

00:37:18...is a motive?

00:37:19Yes.

00:37:20Showing this relationship between the two?

00:37:21Absolutely.

00:37:22Yeah.

00:37:23Juliana pleaded not guilty and was denied bail.

00:37:26The prosecutor was sure she would try to cut a deal.

00:37:29How long did you give her?

00:37:30How long did you think she would last before flipping?

00:37:32Oh, I thought she would flip the day that we arrested her.

00:37:35But Juliana wasn't talking.

00:37:38She said nothing.

00:37:39She wasn't interested in having a conversation with us.

00:37:41Wow.

00:37:41Yeah.

00:37:42As you're seeing all of that, what did you think?

00:37:45Finally.

00:37:45For me, it's like, why did it take so long?

00:37:48Brendan's friends didn't know what to think.

00:37:50He'd always seem like someone very trustworthy and of high integrity.

00:37:55But if this is something that he would have been, like, hiding, what was he actually capable of then?

00:38:01And how well did I really know him?

00:38:04And in the months ahead, investigators, too, would wonder just what Brendan Banfield was capable of.

00:38:11That had to have just been shocking for you to just listen to.

00:38:14Yeah.

00:38:14My wife will tell you, I didn't sleep that weekend.

00:38:17That was a crucial piece of evidence for you.

00:38:18That was a massive piece of evidence in this case.

00:38:21He was involved.

00:38:22We couldn't say 100% in how he was involved.

00:38:24But it was just so off from day one.

00:38:27You've got to wonder, what's going through somebody's head to come up with a scheme like that?

00:38:46She'd come to America from Brazil, an au pair excited to explore a new country, a new culture.

00:38:52Now, Juliana sat in a Virginia jail, awaiting trial for the murder of Joe Ryan.

00:39:00Prosecutor Klingin figured she'd talk.

00:39:02But when almost another year passed?

00:39:05We couldn't understand it.

00:39:06If she's thinking clearly she wants to get back to Brazil, let's find a way to get her to tell

00:39:12us what happened.

00:39:13Klingin believed that whatever happened in that bedroom also involved Brendan Banfield.

00:39:19You have an arrest for the death of Joseph Ryan, but still there's no arrests, no charges in the death

00:39:25of this woman, this wife, this mother, who was brutally stabbed to death in her own bedroom.

00:39:30Is there a sense of pressure at this point?

00:39:33Yeah, definitely.

00:39:35So you were just waiting for her to tell the truth?

00:39:37Yes.

00:39:38And you knew that that truth would very likely implicate Brendan.

00:39:42With the way the evidence was pointing us.

00:39:45In fact, Detective Goodell suspected it wasn't Juliana, but Brendan, who was the mastermind behind the scheme.

00:39:52Brendan, in the course of his law enforcement training, knows how investigations work.

00:39:57And in addition to that, he knows about computers.

00:40:01So in a sense, this staging of the crime, the digital footprint, knowing how an investigation works, all of that

00:40:08was within his area of expertise.

00:40:10Yes.

00:40:11But they had a problem.

00:40:13How to prove it was not Christine on her devices talking to Joe Ryan.

00:40:17As we started digging into who's home at the time that these messages are sent, we can never say that

00:40:23it wasn't her.

00:40:25We can look at this data and this information and it gives the appearance that it's Christine.

00:40:32Though Brendan and Juliana were not talking to police, investigators would eventually learn they were talking and writing to each

00:40:40other.

00:40:41At one point, Brendan writes her this 14-page letter.

00:40:44It seemed almost as though he was trying to convince her, hey, I'm here with you.

00:40:49Nobody else matters.

00:40:50I'm here on your side.

00:40:52Yeah.

00:40:52Almost love bombing.

00:40:54It looked like he was trying to hold on to her.

00:40:58Brendan wrote, you are my family.

00:40:59You are my dream girl.

00:41:01You are everything.

00:41:02I don't think anyone will love each other like we do.

00:41:05You are unique, wonderful, beautiful, loving, and everything I need.

00:41:10His love bombing seemed to be working.

00:41:13I can take the blame, Juliana wrote to Brendan.

00:41:16I would never do anything to hurt you or against you.

00:41:20What are you all thinking as you're watching this, as you're monitoring this?

00:41:23During this time frame, we discovered that Brendan's mother was paying for everything for Juliana.

00:41:31Juliana would frequently ask, I need more money on my account to make these phone calls.

00:41:35I need commissary money.

00:41:38And we also learned that Brendan's mother was paying for Juliana's attorney.

00:41:43Wow.

00:41:43So I think there was a lot of loyalty purchased through those actions.

00:41:49Then, in the summer of 2024, the long-delayed forensic report on the blood patterns from the crime scene was

00:41:55ready.

00:41:56And it was big.

00:41:57You can tell by where blood is and the shape of it as a stain, how it got there.

00:42:05The expert said certain stains on Brendan were telltale signs that he had attacked Christine.

00:42:12So in the way that someone who was wielding a knife would typically get blood on them?

00:42:17Yes.

00:42:18The blood spatter was consistent with Brendan being the person that was wielding a knife attacking Christine and not Joseph

00:42:27Ryan.

00:42:27So that was a crucial piece of evidence for you?

00:42:29That was a massive piece of evidence in this case.

00:42:32Once you had an accurate picture of the crime scene, you could then say, it's time to arrest Brendan Banfield.

00:42:37That's exactly what happened.

00:42:38We are today announcing aggravated murder charges against Brendan Banfield for the murder of his wife, Christine Banfield, and Joseph

00:42:47Ryan.

00:42:48In September of 2024, almost 18 months after the brutal killings, police arrested Brendan, marching him right in front of

00:42:56news cameras.

00:42:58That was my idea, because I think the community deserved that.

00:43:01It's something we don't typically do.

00:43:03You wanted people to see him?

00:43:04I wanted people to see him.

00:43:05I wanted people to see that we never gave up on the case.

00:43:08To me, that was an exclamation point moment that we got our guy.

00:43:15Yes.

00:43:17Yes.

00:43:19You're thinking, finally.

00:43:20Finally.

00:43:21He was involved.

00:43:22We couldn't say 100% in how he was involved, but it was just so off from day one.

00:43:28Actually, seeing him arrested, it was like, all of a sudden made everything seem and feel a lot more real.

00:43:34Okay, like, they legitimately, like, have something here.

00:43:39Brendan pleaded not guilty to the murders and was denied bail.

00:43:43You're there waiting for him.

00:43:45Has he changed?

00:43:46Is he talking now?

00:43:47Is he ready to answer questions?

00:43:49No.

00:43:50He exercised his right to remain silent, which is his right to do.

00:43:55Brendan Banfield is not talking.

00:43:57But not too long after that, somebody else is talking.

00:44:01Yes.

00:44:01That's the biggest moment of it all.

00:44:03He said he needed to find the right person to do what he wanted the person to do.

00:44:26Brendan Banfield was now in the same jail as Juliana Perez Magalaya's, charged with the murders of his wife, Christine,

00:44:33and Joe Ryan.

00:44:34Then, about a month after he's arrested, you get a phone call from Juliana's attorney.

00:44:40Yeah.

00:44:40What does he say?

00:44:41Um, well, that was the best part.

00:44:43He says Juliana wants to have a conversation.

00:44:46She now wants to cooperate with the investigation and give us a proffer of what actually happened on that day.

00:44:53She's ready to tell the truth.

00:44:54She's ready to tell the truth.

00:44:56Detective Goodell was there on a Friday afternoon in October 2024 when Juliana sat down with her lawyer, Prosecutor Klingin,

00:45:04and other investigators.

00:45:06Ms. Juliana Perez, how do I correctly pronounce your last name?

00:45:10Magalaya's.

00:45:11Over the course of a four-hour statement, the au pair would describe in chilling detail the plan to get

00:45:17rid of Christine and frame Joe Ryan for her murder.

00:45:20She said the seeds were planted when she and Brendan started their affair in August 2022, about six months before

00:45:27the murders.

00:45:28It was just basically hooking up, like, sexual relationship.

00:45:33Then we used to go out together and date in public places.

00:45:39It was never, like, real secret.

00:45:41It was almost, like, fun all the time.

00:45:44Well, not all the time.

00:45:46He kind of complained that every time we went out, he was the one paying for our dates and stuff.

00:45:54And then I was telling him, well, I get 200 bucks a week.

00:45:59What am I supposed to do?

00:46:01Juliana confirmed that Christine seemed completely unaware of the affair.

00:46:06She never asked me any questions whether or not, like, oh, what are you guys doing?

00:46:10Like, why, you know, you guys are always out at the same time?

00:46:14A couple of months later, things took a dark turn during a romantic getaway to New York.

00:46:20He said, I don't want Christine in our lives.

00:46:24I said, what do you mean?

00:46:26And then he said, she's not a good mother.

00:46:29She's being lazy.

00:46:30She's not doing this, not doing that.

00:46:33And as a wife, she's not a good eater.

00:46:35It was clear to Juliana what Brendan meant.

00:46:38He wanted to kill Christine.

00:46:40More than a month before the murder, she said he laid out his plan.

00:46:44It was carefully orchestrated and cruel.

00:46:47He was like, oh, I know.

00:46:49I heard a website.

00:46:51It's called FetLife.

00:46:53They worked in concert to create this account to try to lure somebody to the house for this violent encounter

00:46:59in which they would not only kill Christine Banfield, but the male subject that came to the residence.

00:47:04So in the course of giving this proffer, she is confirming your catfish theory.

00:47:08Everything to a T.

00:47:10The scheme took shape with Brendan gaining access to Christine's devices, which Juliana said was easy to do.

00:47:16Normally, once you get home from work, she just, like, threw her backpack by the door.

00:47:22And then in her backpack was her work stuff and her laptop.

00:47:27They would go and they'd get the laptop, they'd go down to the bedroom in the basement, and they would

00:47:32open up the chat board.

00:47:34Posing as Anastasia Nye, their next step was to find their fall guy.

00:47:39He said he needed to find a person who likes to play, like, blood, play with a knife and stuff

00:47:45like that, play violent.

00:47:47It didn't take long for Brendan to reel in Joe Ryan.

00:47:52Joe was saying all those things, like, dirty stuff that he likes to play with blood stuff and do this

00:47:58and that.

00:47:59Joe agreed to bring restraints, rope and a knife to act out what he thought was a consensual encounter.

00:48:06One of the things in this investigation that gets forgotten is Joe Ryan.

00:48:10Joe Ryan was baited and hunted.

00:48:13Yeah.

00:48:13Complete disregard for human life.

00:48:15But even at this late stage of the plan, Juliana said she doubted Brendan would actually go through with it.

00:48:22I still thought, no, he might just, like, step back the day before.

00:48:27He might just, you know, say, never mind, I'm going to just divorce her, whatever.

00:48:32Juliana said it was Brendan who picked the date for the murders.

00:48:35February 24th, 2023.

00:48:38He knew Christine would have that day off and would be home.

00:48:42Brendan would leave for work as usual.

00:48:45Juliana was to follow soon after, leaving the front door unlocked for Joe.

00:48:50She would take the Banfields' little girl, but instead of going to the zoo,

00:48:54they would stay in Juliana's car parked on the street, waiting for Joe to arrive.

00:48:58When I had instructed me before, as soon as I'd see Joe's car, for me to call him, like, right

00:49:05away.

00:49:05Brendan would be waiting at a nearby McDonald's.

00:49:08He just said a few days before he would start going to McDonald's before work.

00:49:14So then on that day, you're going to be weird that it just happened.

00:49:18He went to McDonald's instead of straight to work.

00:49:22After the call from Juliana, Brendan was to drive back to the house.

00:49:26By then, Joe would be inside, upstairs in the bedroom,

00:49:30beginning what he believed was role-playing with a willing Anastasia Nine.

00:49:36But Christine, of course, would have no idea what was happening,

00:49:40why a stranger was suddenly in her bedroom.

00:49:44Who is this person?

00:49:45Absolutely. I mean, it's horrific.

00:49:46Unbeknownst to her that this was going on,

00:49:48he actually thinks it's furthering the whole scenario.

00:49:53Brendan and Juliana were to enter the house through the basement door

00:49:56with his daughter, who would stay in the basement.

00:49:59We'd go upstairs or in the master bedroom floor.

00:50:03And then that's when he would start, like, kind of the argument with Joe

00:50:09because he knew Joe had a knife.

00:50:12But then he would be like, oh, police officer dropped a knife, blah, blah, blah.

00:50:16And then he would just, like, shoot Joe.

00:50:19Then Brendan was to use Joe's own knife to murder Christine.

00:50:24Tell me the words that he used in terms of how he intended on killing her.

00:50:29Like stabbing her.

00:50:30Did he say where he intended on stabbing her,

00:50:33or how he intended on stabbing her?

00:50:35Yeah, he was playing stabbing her in the neck.

00:50:38That had to have just been shocking for you to just listen to.

00:50:41Yeah, my wife will tell you, I didn't sleep that weekend.

00:50:44Very few people go through their life and see that kind of evil.

00:50:48The diabolical evil.

00:50:51It really shakes you.

00:50:54Juliana agreed to plead guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter and the death of Joe Ryan

00:50:59and testify against Brendan at his trial.

00:51:02In exchange, the prosecutor would recommend the judge sentence her to time served.

00:51:07I think that's the biggest thing for me.

00:51:09This is somebody who was an active participant in a very cold, brutal, double murder,

00:51:16and who shot a guy dead.

00:51:18Right.

00:51:19This just seems far too lenient.

00:51:22Yeah, so part of what we do as trial lawyers is Monday morning quarterback.

00:51:26No matter whether she served one year or ten years, she's getting deported,

00:51:31and she gives us Brendan Banfield.

00:51:33Months later, news outlets would learn about Juliana's disturbing statement.

00:51:37The bulk of these details become public when we got a copy of Juliana's proffer.

00:51:44We were the first to report what she told police, and now this story is a bombshell.

00:51:51Juliana had an incredible story to tell.

00:51:54But after so many lies before, would a jury believe her now?

00:52:15January 2026, nearly three years after the murders of Christine Banfield and Joe Ryan,

00:52:21Brendan Banfield's trial began.

00:52:23Let's go ahead and bring the jury in.

00:52:25Christine's friends watched the live stream.

00:52:27What are you thinking just going into this trial?

00:52:30Going into it wasn't necessarily sure what to expect.

00:52:33There's always like a little bit of like nervousness because what if things don't get presented correctly

00:52:39and somehow he gets off?

00:52:42Steve Descano was the Fairfax County Commonwealth's attorney.

00:52:45The evidence that we were able to gather told a pretty clear story and pretty much matched what Juliana had

00:52:52told us.

00:52:52Including the blood patterns at the scene, the positioning of Joe's body, and the catfishing scheme.

00:52:58Descano's chief deputy, Jenna Sands, led the prosecution, outlining Brendan's plan in her opening statement.

00:53:04He would show up, kill the guy, kill his wife, pretending that it had been that guy.

00:53:11That was the plan.

00:53:13They put it into action.

00:53:15To prove her case, she put on a blood spatter expert who testified about the drops of blood on Brendan.

00:53:21I observed what appears to be small blood droplets on his arm.

00:53:27According to the prosecution, that meant those blood droplets had fallen from the knife as Brendan stabbed Christine.

00:53:35And the blood puts Brendan Banfield standing over Christine, stabbing her in the neck until she died.

00:53:43So the blood is really what told the story of this crime scene.

00:53:46Absolutely.

00:53:47But the full story of that morning would come from the prosecutor's star witness, Juliana.

00:53:53She was able to put us in the room.

00:53:55She was able to tell us what happened.

00:53:58She was able to give us the reasons why.

00:54:01As Juliana entered court, reporter Drew Wilder noticed Brendan's reaction.

00:54:06He just watches her glide across the courtroom floor all the way to the witness stand.

00:54:12He could not take his eyes off of her.

00:54:16Juliana told the jury how her relationship with Brendan turned sexual and how he talked about ending his marriage to

00:54:23Christine.

00:54:24He used to say that he, um, she didn't seem to care about where he was, what he was doing.

00:54:33She didn't seem to care about him at all.

00:54:35Did he ever talk about getting a divorce with her?

00:54:38No, he basically said divorce was not an option.

00:54:42What did he say?

00:54:45He mentioned his plan to get rid of her.

00:54:48And Brendan decided Juliana was going to help.

00:54:51According to prosecutors, he bought her a gun and taught her how to shoot it.

00:54:55At the end of October of 2022, did you visit a shooting range?

00:55:02Yes.

00:55:04Prosecutors showed the jury this photo Brendan took of Juliana in action.

00:55:08There are any number of experiences that a host dad may have with an au pair.

00:55:12Going to a gun range is not necessarily one of them.

00:55:15No, he had never been to the range with his wife.

00:55:19He himself hadn't been to the range for months.

00:55:22So this was not a regular occurrence that he thought, oh, hey, I'll bring my new friend along to help

00:55:26me with.

00:55:27What unfolded on that February day, Juliana said, went exactly according to plan.

00:55:33Christine was in bed while Brendan got up early.

00:55:35He turned off Christine's phone and hid it in a drawer so she couldn't call for help.

00:55:40Then he drove to McDonald's.

00:55:42So as Brendan waited in the bathroom of McDonald's, he waited for Juliana to make a call.

00:55:47When Juliana was in the driveway with the Banfield's child, ostensibly going to go to the zoo that day.

00:55:55But in reality, she was just waiting for Joe Ryan to show up.

00:55:58Once Juliana called Brendan, he returned to the house.

00:56:01Then he took his daughter into the basement and headed upstairs with Juliana to find Christine and Joe.

00:56:07When I got up to the bedroom, Brendan said, he yelled, police officer.

00:56:16Then she yelled back at Brendan, saying, Brendan, he has a knife.

00:56:20That's when Brendan first shot Joe.

00:56:24Juliana said Christine screamed and turned to her with a command.

00:56:28She said my name.

00:56:30She told me, Juliana, call 911.

00:56:33That's when Juliana made that first brief call to 911.

00:56:37But that wasn't part of Brendan's plan.

00:56:39So he motioned to her to hang up and asked her to grab a towel from the bathroom.

00:56:45When I was bringing him the towel, he got on top of her.

00:56:50And that's when I first saw him stabbing her with a knife.

00:56:58Where in her body was he stabbing her?

00:57:01Her neck.

00:57:03Amidst the chaotic, bloody scene, Juliana said she noticed something.

00:57:08I'm telling Brendan that Joe is moving.

00:57:14He's behind you.

00:57:16And that's when I fired the shot, too.

00:57:21Who did it?

00:57:22Joe.

00:57:24Joe Ryan was dead.

00:57:26Juliana said Brendan kept stabbing Christine.

00:57:30He was still stabbing Christine.

00:57:35And he got her blood, a handful of blood.

00:57:44And he starts dripping on Joe's body.

00:57:53After he stabbed Christine seven times, Brendan staged the scene to make it look like Joe had done it,

00:57:59moving Joe's body into that strange funeral pose with his arms folded.

00:58:03He then asked Juliana to call 911 the second time.

00:58:07The au pair had told a harrowing tale.

00:58:11Still, Juliana wasn't done.

00:58:13In fact, the fireworks were just about to begin.

00:58:16I was nervous for her about cross-examination.

00:58:20You were charged with murder because you shot someone.

00:58:22Am I wrong?

00:58:38Brendan Banfield's au pair and lover had told the jury a chilling story of what happened in his bedroom that

00:58:44morning.

00:58:45But she wasn't off the stand just yet.

00:58:48Juliana was the linchpin of the prosecution's case.

00:58:52Kristen Gibbons-Fedden is an attorney and legal analyst for NBC News.

00:58:57But the defense was really effective in trying to kind of poke holes in her

00:59:01and really try to neutralize Juliana as a witness.

00:59:04All right, cross-examination.

00:59:06Brendan's defense attorney, John Carroll, zeroed in on that plea agreement.

00:59:10The so-called sweetheart deal meant she might walk free once the trial was over.

00:59:15They came to her, they went through her attorney, and they offered that deal that she now stands to have

00:59:25taken.

00:59:26The defense argued that Juliana only changed her story after a year to save her skin and avoid her own

00:59:33murder trial.

00:59:33Are you asking the ladies and gentlemen of the jury to believe that you came out during that time frame

00:59:40because you wanted the truth to be known versus any time the year before that?

00:59:49Well, the fact that I took a year to accept my plea, it does not mean that I didn't have

00:59:54any attention to the truth before.

00:59:56It does not mean that.

00:59:58The defense attorney peppered her with questions about specific moments in her story,

01:00:02like when those chats on the fetish website happened and who typed them.

01:00:06Was it Juliana or Brendan?

01:00:08I do not remember.

01:00:09Again, I do not remember that.

01:00:11In fact, on more than 40 occasions, her memory seemed to fail her.

01:00:16Well, I do not remember.

01:00:17I said I don't remember.

01:00:19How can I tell you?

01:00:21I do not remember the date.

01:00:24I mean, with all due respect, you don't remember a lot of details.

01:00:29Yeah.

01:00:29So her selective memory was something that the defense effectively capitalized on in order to neutralize Juliana to show the

01:00:37jury that she just cannot be believed.

01:00:39But the defense landed its biggest blow with this.

01:00:43Juliana was looking to profit from her story.

01:00:46Streaming outlets thought the tale was made for TV.

01:00:49One even offered to pay her for an interview.

01:00:52The attorney had Juliana read emails she'd written to her mother in Brazil.

01:00:56Can you read the highlighted portion to the ladies and gentlemen on the jury?

01:01:01Yes, it says, I had a video call with the producer, and they want to make a movie, a documentary

01:01:08about my case.

01:01:09So I'm thinking about $10,000, which would be around $55,000 in our money.

01:01:17Helps and it's good.

01:01:18But I want to negotiate.

01:01:19Well, I have to think I know I can make even more than $25,000.

01:01:23So now, not only does she reap the benefits of the plea agreement if she gets up here and tells

01:01:29whatever story that she's telling,

01:01:31she's also got some money waiting for her on the back end when she gets out of here.

01:01:35That has to tell the jury that this witness, the star witness of the prosecution, is a little tainted.

01:01:43How was this playing in the courtroom?

01:01:45It didn't look good.

01:01:47Juliana ended that letter to her mom with these words,

01:01:50we do deserve something.

01:01:53And what is it you deserve something for?

01:01:56I don't know what I'll be through.

01:01:58You were charged with murder because you shot someone.

01:02:04Am I wrong?

01:02:06No, I am.

01:02:08And so why would you deserve something because of that?

01:02:12He was able to automatically switch the script on her and turn Juliana, the prosecution's witness,

01:02:20into a cold-blooded killer.

01:02:23What did you think of Juliana's testimony?

01:02:25I think she came off callous.

01:02:27Yeah.

01:02:28Did she seem to give off any feelings of,

01:02:30I'm scared, I hate that I did this, I'm remorseful, I got caught up in this?

01:02:34No, not at all.

01:02:35Can't believe I was so stupid.

01:02:37Mm-mm.

01:02:38I don't think I saw any ounce of remorse.

01:02:41Once Juliana stepped down,

01:02:43Brendan's defense attorney attacked the core theory of the prosecution's case, catfishing.

01:02:49Catfishing is a theory that requires a conclusion that Christine Banfield gave up her devices.

01:02:59Carroll called Brendan Miller,

01:03:01the detective who originally examined Christine's laptop and phone.

01:03:05I was the digital forensics examiner for this case.

01:03:09The defense showed the jury the detective's report,

01:03:11where he noted he found no evidence of catfishing in the case.

01:03:15What were your conclusions in your executive summary that you wrote?

01:03:19That based on the digital evidence I had at the time and the facts known at the time,

01:03:24it indicated that the device owner was responsible for the activity on the device.

01:03:30And that device owner?

01:03:33Christine Banfield.

01:03:35The detective said Christine's laptop and phone were often active at the same time,

01:03:40one used to access the fetish site,

01:03:43the other to shop for things Christine had an interest in.

01:03:46This was a pivotal point because essentially what this means is that there was no mastermind homicide

01:03:51and that, in fact, Joseph Ryan did come there and murdered Christine Banfield.

01:03:55But the detective's report didn't sit well with leadership in the police department,

01:04:00according to Brendan's attorney.

01:04:02He called former commander Patrick Bruch.

01:04:04What was it like being on the stand? I mean, having to testify?

01:04:07I'd say it's highly unusual for the defense to call a deputy chief,

01:04:11particularly one that didn't have direct interaction in any sort of interview or collect any evidence in a case such

01:04:18as this.

01:04:19Bruch testified that he reviewed Detective Miller's report on the forensics.

01:04:36Bruch asked that Detective Miller be removed from the case, and he wasn't the only one.

01:04:41Carroll said other detectives were taken off the case, too.

01:04:45Important ones that were removed, in part because they didn't agree with the people that peddled the catfish theory.

01:04:53John Carroll's saying that inside Fairfax County Police, if you weren't behind the catfish theory, we're getting you out of

01:05:00the way.

01:05:01He's painting a pretty bad picture of this department.

01:05:03It looks messy. It looks really messy.

01:05:06John Carroll's theme was very clear. This case is about confirmation bias.

01:05:11And by confirmation bias, what he means is that the prosecutors had in mind the story that they wanted to

01:05:17tell.

01:05:18And the story that they wanted to tell was that Brendan Banfield was the mastermind behind these double homicides.

01:05:24The defense attorney had tried to knock down two pillars of the case against Brendan, Juliana's testimony and that catfishing

01:05:31theory.

01:05:32But he had another witness up his sleeve.

01:05:35The attorney called Brendan Banfield.

01:05:52Mr. Banfield, do you want to go ahead and take the stand?

01:05:55Was that a surprise?

01:05:57We had a feeling Brendan was going to take the stand, but it's always a surprise when a defendant takes

01:06:01the stand in their own defense.

01:06:03Brendan's attorney started by asking him about Christine and their life together.

01:06:07Brendan said they'd met in college when they were both 18 and had been together ever since.

01:06:12For the most part, we were pretty inseparable.

01:06:15We didn't break up at any point.

01:06:19Did you love your wife?

01:06:20Very much.

01:06:22Did you want to continue your marriage with your wife?

01:06:25Yes.

01:06:26He was able to testify about his love for Christine Banfield, which I think was very effective.

01:06:34Still, Brendan admitted he was no perfect husband.

01:06:38He confessed to sleeping with other women during their marriage, but said Christine had been unfaithful as well.

01:06:44Were you aware of her affairs?

01:06:47Yes, I was also aware that she had affairs.

01:06:51Brendan said his affair with Juliana began in August 2022 when Christine was out of town.

01:06:58Juliana and Brendan were in the kitchen, he said, and she started telling him about her time on the dating

01:07:03apps.

01:07:04During this time, when she was talking about different people, she described people that she was interested in, people that

01:07:17were taller, people that were older.

01:07:20And it appeared to me that she was, along with the photos, the screenshots that she had shown me of

01:07:26people that she had matched with, that she was basically describing me.

01:07:34Also, I guess, when we were having this conversation, we were sitting at the island in the kitchen, and she

01:07:46scooted her seat closer to mine a couple times.

01:07:53And so what did you do at that point?

01:07:55I did not stop her advances. She came with me into my bedroom.

01:08:05He effectively painted to the jury that Juliana was someone who was overly, overtly, and intentionally obsessed with him.

01:08:17He essentially painted her as the aggressor in this relationship.

01:08:21He admitted their sexual relationship continued for months after that, but he said it was just a fling, nothing more.

01:08:28Did you ever create any sort of a plan with Juliana?

01:08:33No, there was no plan. That is absolutely crazy.

01:08:40What's more, he said he'd never heard of Joe Ryan or the FetLife website until after the murders.

01:08:46And he insisted he was never into rough sex, but Christine was.

01:08:52I know that Christine had an affair where she was involved in a BDSM relationship for a month or two.

01:09:05And how did you know to talk to her about that?

01:09:09I observed her with bruises, several of them on her body that I was unaware that she had previously.

01:09:21Brendan then gave his account of what happened on that February morning in 2023.

01:09:26He said at that point, his affair with Juliana was the last thing on his mind.

01:09:30He was more focused on work, headed to a big meeting with his boss at the IRS.

01:09:35That meeting was scheduled for 9.30 that day.

01:09:39This was a particularly important meeting for me.

01:09:43He said everything changed when he was at McDonald's, and Juliana called him, saying there was a strange car in

01:09:50the driveway.

01:09:50So he drove back home, secured his daughter in the basement, and headed upstairs to the bedroom.

01:09:56Then he heard noises.

01:09:57I was emotional at that point.

01:10:02While Christine and I had had affairs, we had never seen each other with anyone.

01:10:11Hearing what I thought was sex was upsetting.

01:10:18But he said as he opened the door, he saw something much more frightening.

01:10:22Joe Ryan was behind her, looking directly at me as I opened the door.

01:10:32Brendan said that's when he took action and yelled, police.

01:10:36Christine said, Brendan, he has a knife.

01:10:41Brendan testified he then told Joe to drop the knife.

01:10:45And what was his response?

01:10:47He told me to drop my gun.

01:10:49What were you thinking in terms of Joe Ryan with a knife to Christine's neck?

01:10:57I was extremely terrified.

01:11:04I don't know that I've ever been more panicked in my life.

01:11:08And so what were you thinking that you needed to do?

01:11:11I was hoping to de-escalate the situation.

01:11:14I did not want to shoot him.

01:11:16Christine began moaning, he said.

01:11:19And that's when he realized Joe had stabbed her twice.

01:11:23It appeared that he did a very forceful stab towards Christine.

01:11:31And Christine kind of spun away from him.

01:11:38And this kind of had Joe now, like, on his knees, kind of facing Christine, of which I saw him

01:11:50do a downward stabbing stroke.

01:11:54And that's when I fired at him.

01:11:58After he shot Joe, Brendan said he then placed his hands on Christine's neck to try and stop the bleeding.

01:12:05Christine told me that she was bleeding out and that, um, that she was sorry and that she loved me.

01:12:20And what did you tell her?

01:12:24Uh, it was at this point that there was another shot.

01:12:30Um, and I looked up and I saw that Juliana had my other firearm.

01:12:41And I was stunned that Juliana had shot.

01:12:48With Joe dead and Christine fighting for her life, he told Juliana to call 911.

01:12:54It was a situation I was never, I was never expecting, never expected to be in.

01:13:03I would never want anyone to be in.

01:13:05With that, it was time for cross-examination, and prosecutors were ready.

01:13:10It was fantastic.

01:13:12We knew that he was lying.

01:13:14It was really quite a gift.

01:13:15Would it be enough to swing the jury?

01:13:33Christine's friends couldn't believe what they heard coming out of Brendan's mouth at trial.

01:13:37When Brendan took the stand, he was, like, on a smear campaign, I feel like, of Christine.

01:13:43Yeah.

01:13:44And that was, his testimony was the most difficult.

01:13:47I had to mute it sometimes.

01:13:49I was annoyed.

01:13:50To listen to.

01:13:50I was very annoyed.

01:13:52He said that Christine had had prior affairs.

01:13:55He said that Christine had been involved in BDSM lifestyle.

01:14:00Investigators say that they found no evidence that either of those things were true.

01:14:04What do you think he was trying to do there?

01:14:06Well, he wanted to make it more plausible that Christine had solicited Joseph Ryan to come to the home for

01:14:12a fake rape scenario.

01:14:13On cross-examination, the prosecutor turned the focus back to Brendan's affairs.

01:14:18One of those affairs was with a woman named Danielle, who you met on a fetish site, searching for sugar

01:14:26babies.

01:14:26Is that correct?

01:14:29I would not call it a fetish site.

01:14:32Okay.

01:14:33What would you call it?

01:14:37An arranged relationship.

01:14:40What did that tell you about him?

01:14:42Well, first and foremost, that he was familiar with using the internet to find relationships, which we did not have

01:14:48any evidence of his wife having done.

01:14:50It showed that he has a habit of going on to some sites like these.

01:14:54He was at least familiar with it.

01:14:56The prosecutor also showed the jury all those love letters Brendan had written to Juliana after she'd been arrested.

01:15:03In this one, you're discussing baby names for your future children with her.

01:15:07That is something that you wanted to talk about?

01:15:09What I wanted to prove through those letters was that he loved Juliana and that he loved her enough to

01:15:15kill for her.

01:15:16So you're making it clear, this is not just another random fling.

01:15:19Exactly.

01:15:20Jenna Sands also pointed out a big problem with Brendan's account of that morning.

01:15:24The medical examiner identified seven stab wounds on Christine, but Brendan said he only saw Joe stab her twice.

01:15:32I'm only positive of the two.

01:15:34Okay, so you've got two.

01:15:36So there's five more.

01:15:38When did he stab her those other five times?

01:15:42The knife is inside of her hair.

01:15:44I can't tell the movement.

01:15:46I can't tell how that is looking at that time.

01:15:51Of course, prosecutors were convinced it was Brendan who stabbed his wife all seven times.

01:15:57After an hour of questions, Sands concluded her cross-examination.

01:16:00Nothing further touched.

01:16:01But she had one more witness waiting in the wings, someone who could refute a key part of Brendan's story.

01:16:08That big work meeting he said he had the morning of the murders.

01:16:12On the morning after Mr. Banfield had testified, I received a phone call from the office letting me know that

01:16:20there was an IRS agent who was not subpoenaed in the office to see me.

01:16:24And I spoke with him and he said, hi, I'm Mr. Smith and I am Mr. Banfield's supervisor.

01:16:29And I'd just like you to know that there was no meeting.

01:16:31This is like a gift.

01:16:32Oh my gosh, it was crazy.

01:16:34Did you have any plans for the morning of February 24th, 2023?

01:16:39I did.

01:16:40I was in Baltimore on unrelated undercover operation on that morning.

01:16:45Were you scheduled to meet with Mr. Banfield?

01:16:47I was not.

01:16:48That had to have been quite a moment for you to be able to put him on the stand and

01:16:52say he was lying.

01:16:53It was fantastic.

01:16:54We knew that he was lying.

01:16:56We didn't have any way to prove it.

01:16:58We had spoken to a number of people at the IRS who had given us similar information.

01:17:02We didn't know that Banfield was going to come out with the I had a meeting that I was rushing

01:17:08to story.

01:17:09So when Mr. Smith showed up, it was really quite a gift.

01:17:14Now the jury would decide Brendan's fate.

01:17:18How did you feel when the jury got the case?

01:17:20It was difficult.

01:17:21Like, you're just literally waiting like on pins and needles.

01:17:26After nine hours of deliberations.

01:17:29I understand we have a verdict.

01:17:31Brendan stood stoically as the clerk read the verdict.

01:17:34We, the jury on the issue, join in the case of the Commonwealth of Virginia versus Brendan Robert Banfield, defendant.

01:17:40Find the defendant guilty of aggravated murder of Joseph Ryan and Christine Banfield as part of the same.

01:17:48So, jury comes back guilty on all counts.

01:17:51It was very gratifying, but it just is a reflection of how good of a job the detectives and the

01:17:58trial team did getting the evidence in, getting it ready to go.

01:18:02Chief Davis was also proud of his department's work.

01:18:05He says internal disagreements over the case were overblown by the defense.

01:18:10I think the defense counsel represented it as unhealthy and dysfunctional because he had a very guilty client.

01:18:17And he was in the fourth quarter, two minute drill of his defense.

01:18:20And he started to throw Hail Marys.

01:18:22Even the detective who originally doubted the catfish theory changed his opinion after he heard Juliana's story.

01:18:30For Christine's friends, Katie and Marissa, the jury's decision brought a sigh of relief.

01:18:35I'm glad they finally saw what all the rest of us had seen, thought, heard for the past three years.

01:18:41Marissa, how about you?

01:18:42It was surreal.

01:18:44It was surreal.

01:18:45It felt, it felt like a finality, but then again, not.

01:18:49What I've told people is that at the end of the day, Christine's still going to be gone.

01:18:57Her daughter's going to miss all of these memories with her.

01:19:00It's not true justice.

01:19:02It's just justice in the sense of the legal word.

01:19:04And that's it.

01:19:06Christine's daughter is now eight years old, living with extended family.

01:19:10A few days after Brendan's conviction, Juliana faced her own sentencing.

01:19:14Juliana had pleaded guilty to manslaughter for shooting Joe Ryan.

01:19:18Joseph Ryan was a true victim.

01:19:22Joseph Ryan thought that he was walking into a consensual role play,

01:19:31and he didn't realize he was actually walking into his own death.

01:19:35He was an unwitting pawn in all of this.

01:19:37They played him.

01:19:39That deal Juliana struck with prosecutors meant she might be released to head home to Brazil right after court.

01:19:46Joe's mother, Deirdre Fisher, addressed the court via Zoom and pleaded for that to not happen.

01:19:52Do I think or dare hope that there will be justice for Joe's death?

01:19:59For my loss as his mother?

01:20:03I don't believe that's possible.

01:20:06Then the judge spoke.

01:20:07The plan did not work without your full involvement.

01:20:11Your actions were deliberate, self-serving, and demonstrated a profound disregard for human life.

01:20:16That is the most serious manslaughter scenario that the court has ever seen.

01:20:19Therefore, I do sentence you to 10 years in the penitentiary.

01:20:2310 years, the maximum sentence for a manslaughter conviction in Virginia.

01:20:27As for Brendan, he'll get a mandatory life sentence in May for murdering both Joe and Christine.

01:20:34I mean, it's horrific.

01:20:35It's absolutely horrific to think about what she could have possibly been thinking while that was going on,

01:20:41when a stranger had come into her room.

01:20:42Given your months of research, given everything that you know about him, who was, who is Brendan Banfield?

01:20:49You know, I still don't know.

01:20:51The first thing that came out when the trial started in the comments was that eyes were wide open in

01:20:58disbelief.

01:20:59This guy?

01:21:00This is, this is the guy?

01:21:02This is who masterminded this plot?

01:21:06This is who this young woman fell for?

01:21:08If it wasn't for Brendan's monstrous crime, he would be remarkably unremarkable.

01:21:13I feel like the way Brendan approached everything with Christine, it seems like this picture that's been painted of who

01:21:24he is and who he's been, is the ultimate betrayal.

01:21:28Part of me thinks that Brendan did this because she was so much better than him as a person.

01:21:36Like, I think that his own insecurities made him feel inept next to her.

01:21:42And because he's such a narcissist, there could be nobody better than him.

01:21:47And she was, in every way.

01:21:49What do you think Christine's legacy will be?

01:21:52Loving mother, adoring mother, a nurse's nurse, an advocate, an educator, a friend.

01:22:06That's all for this edition of Dateline.

01:22:09And don't forget to check out our Talking Dateline podcast, which will go behind the scenes of tonight's episode.

01:22:16Available Wednesday in the Dateline feed, wherever you get your podcasts.

01:22:20We'll see you again next Friday at 9, 8 central.

01:22:24I'm Lester Holt.

01:22:26For all of us at NBC News, good night.

01:22:28I'm Lester Holt.

Dateline NBC 2026 04 03 Temptation

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