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Dateline NBC - Season 35 - Episode 08: Temptation
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00:00:02Tonight on Dateline.
00:00:04She was like Christine's dead.
00:00:06I was speechless.
00:00:08Complete shock.
00:00:09She was a truly good human.
00:00:12Loving mother.
00:00:13A nurse's nurse.
00:00:15What'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?
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.
00:00:59The 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 inside the case that riveted the country.
00:01:14I'm Lester Holt, and 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
00:01:54that are also bringing the kids that they watch.
00:01:56Very typical.
00:01:56Very typical.
00:01:59But instead of visiting the lions, tigers, and bears that Friday, February 24th, 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, that her life is never going to
00:02:19be the same.
00:02:20It's never going to be the same.
00:02:21And she was inside the house while whatever horrific thing went on upstairs.
00:02:28She was right there.
00:02:30Yeah.
00:02:45It was just after 8 a.m.
00:02:47The girl's father, Brendan 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.
00:02:56I don't know him.
00:02:58Okay.
00:02:58Where is he, though?
00:03:01He's here.
00:03:01He's on the ground.
00:03:03Brendan said he fired because the man was stabbing his wife, Christine.
00:03:07Can you tell me how her breathing is?
00:03:09She's still breathing.
00:03:11She's still breathing.
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 master 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 Brendan 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.
00:03:52And he 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.
00:04:00She was laying on her side, on one of her sides.
00:04:04And he had the hand, one 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.
00:04:22And his face is covered with blood.
00:04:28And he's not moving.
00:04:29It was the man Brendan shot.
00:04:31Anybody have a block?
00:04:33She's real.
00:04:35You have these two victims there.
00:04:37Now you have medics on the scene.
00:04:39Patrick Bruch, 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 a basement.
00:04:54Wow.
00:04:54That's quite a scene.
00:04:56That'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.
00:05:05But 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's 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.
00:05:35We'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 somewhat, 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.
00:06:27There was a lot more.
00:06:31There was just something about it all that compelled me to, to couch my words at that on-scene press
00:06:38conference.
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?
00:06:54Absolutely not.
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.
00:07:27This is a really nice place to live.
00:07:29Herndon, Virginia.
00:07:30All of Fairfax County is fairly suburban.
00:07:32Drew 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.
00:07:50So 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 can get out
00:08:06of the neighborhood.
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, we're automatically thinking, okay,
00:08:28this 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, that this was
00:08:36going to garner a lot of attention.
00:08:39They quickly learned the man on the 911 call was Brendan Banfield, a 38-year-old special agent for the
00:08:45IRS in its Criminal Investigation Division.
00:08:48He 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.
00:09:05They'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 Jarrett already knew Brendan through online gaming.
00:09:18They often teamed up.
00:09:19We 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.
00:09:45We 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.
00:09:59But he always said his goal was to create generational wealth for his 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.
00:10:53I 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.
00:11:08Like, am I going to get this?
00:11:10It was like running into a building that's on fire.
00:11:14And 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, showing pictures.
00:11:38And as a working mom, child care was always top of mind, especially if you're working difficult hours.
00:11:45How 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.
00:12:04Did it seem like Christine had kind of found the perfect child care solution?
00:12:09Yeah.
00:12:09I 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.
00:12:18And I'm giving them a 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.
00:13:38It was a horrifying scene.
00:13:41Way too much for 22-year-old au pair Juliana Perez Magalhães 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.
00:14:07She's making more utterances, more phrases.
00:14:10I don't know what happened.
00:14:11Everything happened too fast.
00:14:13In fits and starts, a story started to take shape.
00:14:17I'm sorry.
00:14:17I put English 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 Banfields' four-year-old daughter.
00:14:29She was with a little girl in a car across the street when...
00:14:33She sees an unfamiliar car, an SUV, and it pulls right into the Banfields' driveway.
00:14:41Where the car is here?
00:14:44I 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 see a strange car, but I don't know who he's at.
00:15:00Can I please come here?
00:15:01I'm scared.
00:15:02And then he came here and then we went inside.
00:15:07They 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.
00:15:15Juliana set up a tablet for the girl to watch, then followed Brendan upstairs.
00:15:20And what she hears is sounds consistent with sex noises or slapping.
00:15:25Dude, it's cranking her.
00:15:27I don't know.
00:15:29It's cranking her.
00:15:31When they entered the bedroom, she said Christine was on the floor, a man with a knife above her.
00:15:38Brendan identifies himself as a police officer.
00:15:40There'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.
00:15:46I'm going to kill her.
00:15:47And I don't know if he stabbed her.
00:15:50He started stabbing her.
00:15:52Brendan, I think Brendan shot him.
00:15:54As Juliana tried to compose herself, officers escorted Brendan out of the house,
00:15:58took 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 Taylor?
00:16:07Mine has the light, yeah.
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.
00:16:17First, 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, okay.
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.
00:16:47She's only four.
00:16:48Yes, sir, I 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.
00:17:13Christine Banfield was just 37 years old.
00:17:17A hospital chaplain asked if she could do anything for Brendan.
00:17:22There, in the hospital room, they recited the Lord's Prayer.
00:17:26Lead us not into temptation.
00:17:29Let the river rest not.
00:17:32Back at the house, forensic techs collected evidence to send to the crime lab for DNA testing and blood pattern
00:17:38analysis.
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, that 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.
00:18:03Yeah.
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'm just kidding.
00:18:18She told them she had a good professional relationship with the Banfields.
00:18:23They're like a traditional family.
00:18:25I 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.
00:18:40Please drop the knife.
00:18:42That's what I heard.
00:18:44And that strange guy was saying, drop the gun, drop the gun.
00:18:49And they were yelling at each other.
00:18:51I covered my ears.
00:18:55I 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.
00:19:12She 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.
00:19:23So 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, he was involved
00:19:44in 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 and what was he doing
00:20:40in 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 that they think might
00:21:33be 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
00:21:45to 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 about 20 miles
00:22:01from the Banfields.
00:22:02We learned a lot about Joseph Ryan and his background, where he lived, who his friends were, what his hobbies
00:22:08and 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 fantasy role play,
00:22:25like Dungeons and Dragons type of things.
00:22:28So like theater?
00:22:32Kind of.
00:22:33Oftentimes I think it's centered more around like pugilistic combat with foam swords and things like that.
00:22:40So play fighting in costumes?
00:22:42Yes.
00:22:43Cell 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 with each other on
00:23:07a consensual basis.
00:23:08So kind of like a Tinder meets BDSM?
00:23:11Yes.
00:23:13We 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 Nine.
00:23:25They're having very in-depth correspondence regarding this violent sexual fantasy, which Anastasia is indicating she wished to explore.
00:23:35What is the sexual fantasy?
00:23:36Sexual fantasy is essentially a rape fantasy where a stranger comes into the residence and 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.
00:24:10Anastasia 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 Nine account that had
00:24:37been 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 Nine.
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.
00:25:29Now, it looked like Joe Ryan was no burglar.
00:25:33He had been invited into the house.
00:25:36The 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.
00:26:01It 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.
00:26:30As 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...
00:27:38Fantasy.
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.
00:27:58And great care is 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.
00:28:25And not a violent individual.
00:28:27And it goes back to who was Christine Banfield and what was her pattern of life.
00:28:31And 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.
00:28:44Captain Bruch concluded it had to be the work of someone else posing as Christine online,
00:28:49luring Joe to the house.
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.
00:29:01There 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.
00:29:15We don't see a catfish.
00:29:18We see Christine probably using these devices.
00:29:23So immediately, we see that there is a substantial problem surrounding the catfish theory.
00:29:29Captain 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.
00:29:42And 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.
00:29:53But there was other evidence from the crime scene that demanded a closer look, like the way first responders found
00:30:00Joe 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.
00:30:30Eric 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.
00:30:39We 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.
00:30:50Were there holes in her initial story that she was telling police?
00:30:53Yeah.
00:30:54Brendan said, drop the knife.
00:30:57Police drop the knife.
00:30:59That's what I heard.
00:31:01And that strange guy was saying, drop the gun, drop the gun.
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, 5-6-9-1-1.
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 more minutes for
00:32:10the second call to come in.
00:32:12It made no sense.
00:32:14And that was a big flag immediately.
00:32:16That was a big flag.
00:32:16Klingin was convinced Juliana's story was riddled with lies.
00:32:21But one thing did ring true.
00:32:23What we had was a man was prone on the ground, not a threat to anybody in that room, and
00:32:29Juliana confessed to shooting him.
00:32:32And 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.
00:32:42She 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.
00:33:30He really had this whole situation weighing on him heavily.
00:33:33And 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.
00:33:49But by this point, detectives already suspected Juliana had lied to them.
00:33:55There's a thing called Instagram.
00:33:56And Juliana posted pictures on Instagram a lot.
00:34:01Pictures of her with a man whose identity was concealed in a rather unusual way.
00:34:06Emojis?
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.
00:34:32And 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, we're never
00:34:43going to get her and we're never going to find out what happened in that room.
00:34:47It was a risk the prosecutor wasn't prepared to take, particularly since Juliana had already
00:34:53confessed to shooting Joe Ryan.
00:34:54We had all the elements we needed to prosecute her based on just that.
00:35:01In October 2023, nearly eight months into the investigation,
00:35:06police swooped in on the now 23-year-old au pair and arrested her for Joe Ryan's murder.
00:35:12What is that for?
00:35:14What are you doing to me?
00:35:16She's 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?
00:35:27The first thing that I noticed, and I think every detective and every investigator noticed,
00:35:32was we didn't see any pictures of Christine.
00:35:36They were gone.
00:35:37They used to be there.
00:35:38Now it appeared that they had been taken down.
00:35:40Yes, we didn't see any.
00:35:42But the real surprise came upstairs in the bedroom.
00:35:46On 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.
00:36:35It 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,
00:36:52it was clear she and Brendan began that affair months before the murders.
00:36:57All while Christine was still alive.
00:36:59Absolutely.
00:36:59Without her even knowing.
00:37:01Yeah.
00:37:02She's working shifts at the hospital.
00:37:04And these shifts, you know, 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.
00:37:22Yep.
00:37:23Juliana pleaded not guilty and was denied bail.
00:37:25The 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.
00:37:42As 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.
00:37:51He'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
00:38:00of 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
00:38:09capable 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.
00:38:19That 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, but 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
00:38:31that.
00:38:46She'd come to America from Brazil, an au pair excited to explore a new country, a
00:38:52new culture.
00:38:53Now, 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, we 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
00:39:11to tell us 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 arrest, no charges
00:39:23in the death of this woman, this wife, this mother, who was brutally stabbed to death in
00:39:28her 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.
00:39:44In fact, Detective Goodell suspected it wasn't Juliana, but Brendan, who was the mastermind
00:39:50behind 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, the staging of the crime, the digital footprint, knowing how an investigation
00:40:06works, all of that was within his area of expertise.
00:40:10Yes.
00:40:11But they had a problem, how to prove it was not Christine on her devices talking to Joe
00:40:16Ryan.
00:40:17As we started digging into who's home at the time that these messages are sent, we can
00:40:23never say that it 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
00:40:37they were talking and writing to each other.
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.
00:40:57Brendan 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.
00:41:19What are you all thinking as you're watching this, as you're monitoring this?
00:41:22During 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.
00:41:36I 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.
00:41:48Then, 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 experts 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.
00:42:47In 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.
00:43:25But 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.
00:44:00Yes.
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?
00:44:41Well, 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 Klingen,
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
00:45:16rid 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?
00:46:00Juliana 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.
00:46:34It 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.
00:46:48He was like, oh, I know, I heard of 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.
00:47:17Normally, when she got 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.
00:47:29They'd go down to the bedroom in the basement and they would open 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.
00:47:46Play violent.
00:47:47It didn't take long for Brendan to reel in Joe Ryan.
00:47:51Joe saying all those things, like, dirty stuff that he likes to play with, blood stuff and do this and
00:47:58that.
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.
00:48:29I'm going to just divorce her, whatever.
00:48:32Juliana said it was Brendan who picked the date for the murders, February 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.
00:48:49She would take the Banfields' little girl, but instead of going to the zoo, they would stay in Juliana's car
00:48:55parked on the street, waiting for Joe to arrive.
00:48:58Brendan had instructed me before, as soon as he'd see Joe's car, for me to call him, like, right away.
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.
00:49:15So then on that day, it would be weird that it just happened he went to McDonald's instead of straight
00:49:20to 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, beginning what he believed was role-playing with a willing
00:49:34Anastasia 9.
00:49:36But Christine, of course, would have no idea what was happening, why a stranger was suddenly in her bedroom.
00:49:43Who is this person?
00:49:44Absolutely. I mean, it's horrific.
00:49:46Like, unbeknownst to her that this was going on, he actually thinks it's furthering the whole scenario.
00:49:53Brendan and Juliana were to enter the house through the basement door with his daughter, who would stay in the
00:49:59basement.
00:50:00We would go upstairs or in the master bedroom floor.
00:50:04And then that's when he would start, like, kind of the argument with Joe, because he knew Joe had a
00:50:11knife.
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, how he intended on stabbing her?
00:50:34Yeah, he was going to stab her in the knife.
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 and testify against
00:51:00Brendan 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 and who shot a guy
00:51:18dead.
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 and she gives us Brendan Banfield.
00:51:33Months later, news outlets would learn about Juliana's disturbing statement.
00:51:38The 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?
00:52:14January 2026.
00:52:16Nearly 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 and somehow he
00:52:41gets off?
00:52:41Steve Discano 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.
00:52:57Descano'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.
00:53:54She 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.
00:54:12And he 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
00:54:22Christine.
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, so this was not a regular occurrence that he thought,
00:55:24oh, hey, I'll bring my new friend along to help me 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.
00:56:44When 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.
00:57:15And 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.
00:57:29He was still stabbing Christine and he got her blood, a handful of blood.
00:57:43And he starts dripping on Joe's body.
00:57:52After 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.
00:58:10Still, 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.
00:58:19You 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 and really try to neutralize
00:59:02Juliana 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
00:59:32murder 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 of 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
00:59:54anything to tell the truth before.
00:59:55It does not mean that.
00:59:57The defense attorney peppered her with questions about specific moments in her story, like when those chats on the Fetish
01:00:04website happened and who typed them.
01:00:06Was it Juliana or Brendan?
01:00:08I do not remember. Again, 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. I said I don't remember. How 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.
01:00:28Yeah.
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.
01:00:42Juliana 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.
01:00:51The 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 of the jury?
01:01:01Yes. It says,
01:01:02I had a video call with a producer and they wanted to make a movie, a documentary about my case.
01:01:10So I was thinking about $10,000, which would be around $55,000 in our money.
01:01:16It helps 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.
01:01:24So 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,
01:01:30she'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,
01:02:11He was able to automatically switch the script on her and turn Juliana,
01:02:18the prosecution's witness, into 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.
01:02:35I can't believe I was so stupid.
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.
01:03:08The 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,
01:03:23and 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.
01:03:56But the detective's report didn't sit well with leadership in the police department.
01:04:00According to Brendan's attorney, he called former commander Patrick Bruch.
01:04:04What was it like being on the stand?
01:04:06I 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
01:04:15or collect any evidence in a case such as this.
01:04:19Bruch testified that he reviewed Detective Miller's report on the forensics.
01:04:23And so his conclusions were not agreeable to you?
01:04:28I wouldn't word that that way.
01:04:30How would you word it?
01:04:31I would word that his analysis was incorrect.
01:04:36Bruch asked that Detective Miller be removed from the case,
01:04:39and 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,
01:04:48in 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,
01:04:56if you weren't behind the catfish theory, we're getting you out of the way.
01:05:01He's painting a pretty bad picture of this department.
01:05:03It looks messy.
01:05:04It looks really messy.
01:05:06John Carroll's theme was very clear.
01:05:08This case is about confirmation bias.
01:05:11And by confirmation bias, what he means is that
01:05:13the prosecutors had in mind the story that they wanted to tell.
01:05:18And the story that they wanted to tell was that Brendan Banfield was the mastermind
01:05:21behind these double homicides.
01:05:24The defense attorney had tried to knock down two pillars of the case against Brendan,
01:05:29Giuliana's testimony and that catfishing theory.
01:05:32But he had another witness up his sleeve.
01:05:35The attorney called Brendan Banfield.
01:05:52Mr. Banfield, if 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,
01:05:59but it's always a surprise when a defendant takes the 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,
01:06:33which I think was very effective.
01:06:35Still, Brendan admitted he was no perfect husband.
01:06:38He confessed to sleeping with other women during their marriage,
01:06:41but 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 Giuliana began in August 2022 when Christine was out of town.
01:06:58Giuliana and Brendan were in the kitchen, he said,
01:07:00and she started telling him about her time on the dating apps.
01:07:04During this time, she, when she was talking about different people,
01:07:12she was described people that she was interested in,
01:07:17people that were taller, people that were older,
01:07:20and it appeared to me that she was, along with the photos,
01:07:25the screenshots that she had shown me of people that she had matched with,
01:07:28that she was basically describing me.
01:07:34Also, I guess, when we were having this conversation,
01:07:37we were sitting at the island in the kitchen,
01:07:45and she scooted her seat closer to mine a couple times.
01:07:52And so what did you do at that point?
01:07:56I did not stop her advances.
01:08:00She came with me into my bedroom.
01:08:05He effectively painted to the jury that Giuliana was someone who was
01:08:11overly, 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,
01:08:25but he said it was just a fling, nothing more.
01:08:28Did you ever create any sort of a plan with Giuliana?
01:08:33No, there was no plan.
01:08:36That is absolutely crazy.
01:08:40What's more, he said he'd never heard of Joe Ryan or the FetLife website
01:08:45until after the murders,
01:08:46and he insisted he was never into rough sex,
01:08:50but Christine was.
01:08:52I know that Christine had an affair
01:08:55where she was involved in a BDSM relationship
01:09:00for a month or two.
01:09:04And how did you know to talk to her about that?
01:09:09I observed her with bruises,
01:09:13several 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 Giuliana was the last thing on his mind.
01:09:30He was more focused on work,
01:09:32headed 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,
01:09:46and Giuliana called him, saying there was a strange car in the driveway.
01:09:50So he drove back home, secured his daughter in the basement,
01:09:54and 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,
01:10:06we 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,
01:10:20he 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?
01:10:46He 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,
01:11:48of which I saw him do 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
01:12:03to try and stop the bleeding.
01:12:05Christine told me that she was bleeding out and that she was sorry
01:12:17and that she loved me.
01:12:20And what did you tell her?
01:12:25It was at this point that there was another shot.
01:12:33And 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,
01:12:51he told Juliana to call 911.
01:12:54It was a situation I was never expecting,
01:13:01never expected to be in.
01:13:03I would never want anyone to be in.
01:13:05With that, it was time for cross-examination.
01:13:08And 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.
01:13:43And 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 you.
01:13:50I was very annoyed.
01:13:51He 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
01:14:10to come to the home for a 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,
01:14:22who you met on a fetish site searching for sugar babies.
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?
01:14:38An 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,
01:14:47which we did not have any 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
01:14:59Brendan 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
01:15:14and that he loved her enough to kill 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,
01:15:28but 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.
01:16:05Someone 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.
01:16:11On the morning after Mr. Banfield had testified, I received a phone call from the office letting
01:16:19me know that there 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.
01:16:33Did 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
01:16:52he 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
01:17:08was rushing to 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.
01:17:17How 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.
01:17:30Brendan 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
01:17:38Robert Banfield, defendant.
01:17:40Find the defendant guilty of aggravated murder of Joseph Ryan and Christine Banfield as part
01:17:45of the same act.
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
01:18:15a very guilty client and he was in the fourth quarter, two minute drill of his defense and
01:18:21he started to throw Hail Marys.
01:18:22Even the detective who originally doubted the catfish theory changed his opinion after
01:18:27he 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
01:18:40three years.
01:18:41Marissa, how about you?
01:18:42It was surreal.
01:18:44It was surreal.
01:18:45It felt like a finality, but then again, not.
01:18:49Why?
01:18:50What I've told people is that at the end of the day, Christine's still going to be gone.
01:18:56Her daughter's going to miss all of these memories with her.
01:18:59However, it's not true justice, it's just justice in the sense of the legal word, and
01:19:05that's it.
01:19:05Christine'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, and he didn't realize
01:19:33he 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
01:19:44right 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
01:20:15life.
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
01:20:40that was going on, when 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
01:20:48Banfield?
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
01:20:57open in disbelief.
01:20:59This guy?
01:21:00This is, this is the guy?
01:21:02This is who masterminded this plot?
01:21:05This 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
01:21:23been painted of who he is and who he's been, is the ultimate betrayal.
01:21:27Part 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.
01:22:05That's all for this edition of Dateline.
01:22:09And don't forget to check out our Talking Dateline podcast,
01:22:12which will go behind the scenes of tonight's episode.
01:22:15Available 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.
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