Nearly eight months after Brendan Banfield’s wife and a stranger were killed in the Banfields’ Virginia home in February 2023, police returned to the scene of the murders.
They entered the house and went to the bedroom where Christine Banfield was fatally stabbed. There, on the nightstand, investigators found a framed photo of Brendan smiling with another woman — the family’s au pair, according to court records.
Brendan Banfield now faces a double murder trial, with jury selection scheduled for Monday, as prosecutors allege he plotted with the au pair to kill his wife and another man. Prosecutors say the man was lured to the house to frame him for Christine’s death – and to make his own murder appear as an act of self-defense.
Banfield — a former IRS agent, according to CNN affiliate WUSA — has pleaded not guilty to aggravated murder and gun charges for the fatal shooting of his wife and the fatal shooting of Joseph Ryan.
Prosecutors say Brendan Banfield and the family’s Brazilian au pair, Juliana Peres Magalhães, were having an extramarital affair and carried out the plan together. The salacious plot includes allegations of BDSM sexual role-playing, visits to the shooting range and false 911 calls, all with the goal of killing Banfield’s wife and framing Ryan, prosecutors say.
Peres Magalhães was initially charged with murder and has since pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter for fatally shooting Ryan.
She agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in exchange for a recommendation that she be sentenced to prison, according to the plea agreement. She will likely be the star witness in Banfield’s murder trial.
The trial should last approximately four weeks.
Banfield has been held without bail since his arrest, according to police. He faces life in prison for murder.
The case began with 911 calls from the Banfields’ home in Herndon, Virginia, on February 24, 2023. In one call, Banfield told dispatchers he had shot a man who had stabbed his wife, according to police. There was no break-in to the house.
In an upstairs bedroom, police found Christine Banfield, 37, with a stab wound and Ryan, 39, dead from gunshot wounds nearby. She was taken to a hospital and later pronounced dead, according to Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis.
Fathers Magalhães, 25 years old, was arrested and charged with second degree murder and a firearm offense in October 2023 and has been in custody since her arrest.
When police searched the house, they found a framed photo of Banfield and Peres Magalhães smiling together on his bedside table.
A year later, in October 2024, court records show Peres Magalhães pleaded guilty to manslaughter. At a plea hearing, prosecutors read aloud a statement setting out the main allegations of the case.
As they alleged, Peres Magalhães began working as an au pair for the couple in late 2021, and in August 2022, she and Brendan Banfield began an extramarital relationship.
“In the fall of 2022, Brendan Banfield expressed to Peres Magalhães his desire to get rid of his wife and shortly thereafter began planning the murder of his wife as well as, ultimately, Joseph Ryan, the victim in this case,” prosecutors said.
Banfield opened an account on Fetlife.com, a sexual fetish site, began communicating with Ryan and lured him to Banfield’s home, prosecutors said. Ryan “probably believed” he was meeting Christine Banfield for consensual sex involving “violent sexual role play” with a knife, prosecutors said.
Banfield ordered Peres Magalhães to speak with Ryan in a phone call to confirm the details, according to prosecutors. She expressed hesitation about the plan several times, prosecutors said, but “he insisted it was too late for her to back out.”
Banfield taught the au pair how to shoot a gun at a local gun range in the fall and winter of 2022, prosecutors said.
As part of their plan, when Ryan arrived home, Peres Magalhães called Banfield to report that a strange man was in the house and that Banfield was waiting at a nearby McDonald’s so he could quickly return to the house, prosecutors said.
He and Peres Magalhães put his child in the basement, then went up to the Banfields’ bedroom, with Brendan Banfield holding his service weapon and the au pair holding a gun he had purchased a month earlier, according to prosecutors.
“The two men entered the bedroom and Joseph Ryan was holding Christine Banfield on the floor,” prosecutors said. “Brendan Banfield yelled ‘Police,’ then shot Joseph Ryan in the head, and Ryan walked away from Christine Banfield.”
Peres Magalhães called 911 but ended the call at Banfield’s direction, prosecutors said.
Banfield stabbed his wife, prosecutors say. Peres Magalhães saw Ryan still moving and shot him, prosecutors said.
The au pair then called 911 again and they reported the killings as if Ryan was an intruder who had stabbed Banfield’s wife, according to prosecutors.
Banfield was charged with murder in September 2024. The indictment alleges that he “willfully, deliberately, and premeditatedly” killed his wife and Ryan.
“I knew, I suspected, I had a feeling there was a lot more to see that morning,” Chief Davis said. “And certainly, 570 days later, we are finally able to announce that two people are being charged and held accountable and brought before our criminal justice system for these two murders.”
A few weeks later, Peres Magalhães pleaded guilty a lesser charge for shooting and killing Ryan, according to prosecutors.
“Today’s agreement marks a significant step forward in this case, and it is an important development in our pursuit of justice for the victims and their families,” Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano said of the au pair’s guilty plea.
Additionally, Banfield was charged with child abuse and neglect and child cruelty related to the December 2024 killings. His daughter, who was 4 at the time, was present at the scene, according to prosecutors.
