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When the average person finds that they are no longer in love with their spouse, they typically cut their losses & file for divorce. Although divorce can be an exhaustive, emotional process, a rational person realizes that it’s a far better option than murder.
However, there are still some who find themselves planning, executing & covering a murder, believing they will get away with it, free to walk away without any repercussions. The root of such evil tends to stem from financial gain or a new life with another person.
According to Virginia IRS agent, 39-year-old Brendon Banfield, although he wanted to leave his wife & run off with their Brazilian au pair turned lover, divorce simply was not an option because not only would his wife end up with more money than him, but he also wanted custody of their 4-year-old daughter.
Christine Benson met Brendon Banfield in 2002 when she was a freshman at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. They married eight years later in June 2010 & spent time living on Long Island before relocating to Virginia right around 2018 when their daughter was born.
Before Christine accepted a position as a pediatric intensive care nurse at Inova Fairfax Hospital in 2019, she had worked as a sexual assault nurse/forensic examiner at the Family Violence & Rape Crisis Center on Long Island since 2015.
According to her obituary, her colleagues described her as a dedicated nurse who was a strong patient advocate & someone who went above & beyond during the pandemic. She mentored new nurses, connected with families & took on every challenge presented to her. She was an incredibly kind, genuine & giving person & an amazing mother to her young daughter.
Based on Christine’s Instagram page, she was very passionate about the au pair program as in September 2021, about a year & a half before her death, she was a bridesmaid in her former au pair’s wedding. Under a photo of her daughter & her former au pair, she wrote the caption, A lot of people don’t understand the au pair program, but this is it right here. It is opening your home & your heart up to someone with big dreams of changing their life when in America & in the process, they changed your life more than you could measure.
However, only one month later, Christine & Brendan hired their new au pair from the outskirts of São Paulo, Brazil & this would eventually change everything.
Although nannies & au pairs both help with childcare, an au pair is integrated into the family, having room in the home, living & eating meals with the family. They’re normally between 18-30-years-old & come from another country as part of a cultural exchange, sometimes on a special au pair visa & receive pocket money from the host family while they’re provided a place to live.
Juliana Peres Magalhães was only 21-years-old when she found a post through the Culture Care Au Pair agency & began working as a live-in au pair for Brendan & Christine Banfield in October 2021. Only ten months later, she & Brendan began a sexual relationship & it wasn’t long before he told her that he wanted to marry her & have children with her. However, before they could do such a thing, he would have to get rid of his wife.
On the morning of Friday, February 24, 2023, police officers responded to the Banfield’s large home that was situated in an affluent area on a cul-de-sac on Stable Brook Way in Herndon, Virginia in response to a 911 call. The first call came through just before 8 am, but within minutes, the caller hung up at least twice. When a third call was placed 13 minutes later, Juliana as well as Brendan were on the line. Juliana first told the dispatcher that her friend was hurt & Brendan went on to explain that he had shot an unknown man who allegedly barged into their home & stabbed his wife.
When first responders arrived, they were met with a horrifically bloody scene when they found 37-year-old Christine in an upstairs bedroom with stab wounds to her upper body while a man, who was soon identified as 39-year-old Joseph Ryan, was lying nearby with multiple gunshot wounds to his upper body. While Joe was pronounced dead at the scene, Christine was transferred to an area hospital where she was pronounced dead a short time later.
The scene was highly confusing as officers were initially unsure if Joe had been the person who stabbed Christine to death. They also didn’t know who he was in relation to the family & why he had been in their home. But because both Joe & Christine were deceased, they had only Brendan & Juliana’s versions of events to go on.
Officers found no sign of forced entry into the Banfield’s home & their 4-year-old daughter was found unharmed in the basement & taken from the scene by officers who also confiscated two guns & one knife.
Detectives immediately began conducting interviews while the police chief indicated that at the time Brendan was refusing to speak with Fairfax County Police while Juliana was cooperative. She indicated that when they entered the bedroom, Joe Ryan was about to stab Christine & they shot him because they were trying to protect her.
According to Juliana, she & the couple’s daughter left the house sometime after 7 am to go to the zoo, but because she forgot their lunch, she came back. By this time Brendan had also left for work, leaving Christine at home alone. As Juliana pulled up to the house, she noticed an unfamiliar car parked outside so she called Brendan & when he arrived, they went inside together.
After she took the child down to the basement, she began hearing a commotion & when she went upstairs to investigate, she could hear Brendan yelling, Drop the knife!
Brendan, who worked as a criminal investigator for the Internal Revenue Service, had told the 911 dispatcher that he fired his service weapon at a man who was stabbing his wife. He shouted out to Juliana, telling her to get a second gun from a bathroom while he gave her the code to the safe.
After she got the gun, she fired at Joe, indicating that she was acting in self-defense in order to protect the family. She was also following orders from her employer.
According to a medical examiner, Joseph Ryan, who lived in Springfield, Virginia, was shot twice, once in the head & once in the chest. It was Juliana’s shot to his chest that had been the fatal blow.
Prosecutors would later reveal that Joe had exchanged messages with a profile that depicted a photo of Christine on the website, FetLife. According to their website, FetLife is the most popular social network for the BDSM (bondage, discipline/domination, sadism & masochism), fetish & kink community where there are nearly 13 million members. It’s said to be a community for everyone to help people feel comfortable with who they are sexually.
According to a later plea agreement, prosecutors indicated that it was Brendan who created this profile under his wife’s name & image in order to lure Joe Ryan to their home. When Joe made arrangements to come to the Banfield home, he had been under the impression it was for rough sex so he arrived with a knife & restraints. According to his friends, he was very open about his activity on FetLife.
Those that knew Christine indicated that the messages discussing her potential rendezvous with Joe did not sound like her & there was no evidence that she had been into knife play, binding or other similar sexual activities. Her co-workers were adamant that under no circumstances would she have arranged such a meeting let alone so early in the morning only just after her husband & daughter left the house.
Not only that, but some of the sentences were oddly phrased which suggested that it was either a typo or a sign that English hadn’t been the person’s first language. For example, there was the question, How has been your experience on this site?
In October 2023, eight months after Christine & Joe’s murders, when police came back to the Banfield home with a warrant to arrest Juliana for second-degree murder in Joe’s death, they realized that she had moved into the primary bedroom with Brendan, the same room where both victims had died. Sitting on the bedside table was a framed photo of herself with Brendan while her clothing hung in the closet & lingerie was strewn across the bed. All photos of Christine had been removed from the home.
Prosecutors revealed that she & Brendan had practiced shooting at a gun range two months before the murders & Brendan returned to the range to purchase the Glock that had been used to shoot Joe. Shortly before the murders, they each replaced their cellphones & on the morning of the killings when Juliana said she called Brendan to alert him about a stranger in his home, rather than driving to work, Brendan had been waiting outside a nearby McDonald’s.
Brendan was arrested during a traffic stop in September 2024, nearly a year after Juliana’s arrest & over a year & a half after his wife’s murder. He was charged with aggravated murder after forensic experts found evidence that supported the prosecutors’ theory that the victims had been moved after they were fatally injured. Forensic analysis also proved that Joe’s arms had been moved & smeared with Christine’s blood. Prosecutors also submitted evidence to the court of Brendan’s romantic relationship with Juliana.
According to authorities, Juliana & Brendan had been scheming Christine’s death after starting a romantic relationship in August 2022. In the six months before the murders, they traveled to New York City together, taking romantic photos together during their visit. Other women also came forward to inform detectives that he’d participated in multiple affairs throughout his marriage.
One woman in particular indicated that over the course of their year-long affair a few years previously, Brendan would constantly promise to leave his wife & make comments that it would be so much easier if she wasn’t around. They met in 2013 on a sugar baby website & after seven meetings, a relationship formed. They even met up at Brendan’s house during times when Christine was away. Afterwards, he would deep clean the house because she had a different hair color than Christine & the woman could sense that he got off on the thrill of getting away with their affair.
Although Juliana was initially charged with second-degree murder for Joe’’s death, on October 28, 2024, she signed a plea deal to plead guilty to a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter. With this agreement, she was to cooperate with prosecutors in the case against Brendan in exchange for a recommended sentence of time served. Her sentencing was set to happen at the conclusion of Brendan’s trial.
In earlier letters that Juliana wrote after her arrest in October 2023 to Brendan’s mom, who was paying for her attorney, she planned to take the blame for both of them. However, as time went on, her attitude shifted & her letters to Brendan indicated that she did not want to spend her life in prison for something she didn’t do. She expressed that she was upset with him for not visiting her enough.
Brendan Banfield pleaded not guilty to aggravated murder for the deaths of Christine & Joe & the trial began with jury selection on Monday, January 12, 2026. Opening statements in the Fairfax County, Virginia court began the following day. Because his daughter had been home on the morning of the murders, he was also charged with child abuse & felony child cruelty.
Prosecutor Jenna Sands accused Brendan of orchestrating a scheme of luring Joseph Ryan to his home under the guise of meeting Christine for a rape fantasy in order to kill him & frame him for his wife’s murder. The whole scheme was arranged because Brendan wanted to pursue a life together with his lover. Jurors were told that he was responsible for both murders & urged them to find him guilty.
Defense attorney John Carroll accused prosecutors of pressuring Juliana to lie against her ex so a conviction could be secured against him. This was done when she was in a vulnerable position thousands of miles from home & in prison. He said that she had maintained her innocence for a year, but eventually changed her story in exchange for a sweetheart of a deal. Carroll also said that he would present digital forensics that would prove that it was Christine who had directly engaged with Joe on FetLife.
Juliana testified that Brendan confided in her as early as October 2022 that he wanted to get rid of his wife so they could be together. He indicated that due to the finances & custody of their child, divorce wasn’t an option.
In January 2023 a fake profile for his wife was created on FetLife in order to lure a man to their home. They each participated in writing the posts using similar language, but it was Brendan who had created the profile under the username Anastasia9.
They were careful to only post when Christine was at home because Brendan knew that for investigative purposes, it would have to line up with her schedule. They would take turns leaving the house so their cell phones would ping off of towers while the other was at home chatting online to establish a digital alibi. Christine, who worked as a pediatric ICU nurse, often left her backpack that held her laptop by the door so they were easily able to access it.
Although several fetish users showed interest in Anastasia9’s rape fantasy, she & Brendan would stop chatting with anyone who wanted to meet in person beforehand or at a location other than their home. When they found Joe Ryan, they knew he would be the perfect victim since he was not only enticed by the fantasy, but was placated by a phone call where Juliana posed as Christine.
While posting as Christine, Brendan communicated with Joe over the course of a month, arranging an elaborate scenario in which Joe would act out an arranged rape fantasy. He was instructed to enter the house through an unlocked door, sneak up to the bedroom & tie Christine up before cutting her clothes off & raping her. He was told not to stop even if she begged or called out for help.
Posting as Anastasia9, the agreement was for Joe to come by the Banfield house at 7:30 am that Friday as Brendan knew that not only would his wife be home alone, but she would still be sleeping. Joe said he would bring supplies with him to engage in their sex play, including zip ties, a knife, chains & lube. Police photos captured these items in his backpack as well as a Walmart receipt for lube in Joe’s wallet.
As they got prepared, Juliana & Brendan traded in their phones in order to hide evidence. Brendan also upgraded his home’s windows for improved soundproofing. He also scoped out his neighbor’s homes to see who had doorbell cameras.
The duo selected Friday, February 24, 2023 as the day they would go through with their murder plot since they concocted ruses to leave the house that morning, ensuring that Chrisine would be home alone. Juliana told Christine that the other au pairs were taking their kids to the zoo so Christine bought them tickets. While she left under the guise of going to the zoo with the child, Brendan also left the house to wait for her phone call at a nearby McDonalds. Before he left, he turned Christine’s phone off, left it in a kitchen drawer so she would be unable to call for help & unlocked the front door.
Rather than driving to the zoo, Juliana parked the car down the street & waited for Joe’s arrival. A call log from Brendan’s phone proves that she called Brendan at 7:37 & 7:38 am, only minutes after Joe indicated he would be arriving.
When she saw him pull up, she called both Christine & Brendan’s phones as directed. They took the child down to the basement & when they got upstairs, they found Joe on top of Christine, who was lying on the floor. According to Juliana, when she reached the bedroom, Brendan yelled, police officer!
Meanwhile Christine, who was utterly terrified & confused, having just been woken up by a stranger on top of her, yelled back saying, Brendan! He has a knife! This was when Brendan shot Joe in the head with his service-issued gun while Christine screamed out to Juliana to call 911.
After she dialed 911, Juliana hung up when Brendan motioned for her to do so. She went to the bathroom for towels & when she came back, she saw Brendan stabbing Christine repeatedly in the neck. While this was happening, Juliana said she was pacing around, squatting down & covering her eyes.
When Juliana noticed that Joe was still moving, she shot him in the chest, a shot that ultimately killed him, with a gun that Brendan had given her that morning. After that, she called 911 again when Brendan gave her the okay to do so. This testimony varied from what she was heard saying on bodycam footage on the morning of the murders, that Brendan told her to shoot Joe.
According to Joe’s mom, Deirdre Fisher, her son had spoken to her about consensual role play, but he was not a violent person. She remembers every horrible detail about the moment she learned of her son’s death. When she got the phone call from the detective, she could hear someone screaming only to realize it was her own voice. She felt as if she was standing outside her body hearing that he had been killed.
While Brendan went to the hospital with Christine, Juliana took their daughter with her to police headquarters.
When the medical examiner testified, he indicated that the wounds that both Christine & Joe suffered were rapid fatalities that would have resulted in their deaths within seconds to minutes. Dr. Meghan Kessler testified about the numerous bruises & abrasions to Christine’s legs & arms, most of which did not appear to be more than 48 hours old. It was unclear if they’d been sustained at or close to the time of her death.
Christine’s father testified that his daughter suffered from a life-long blood disorder that made her prone to bruising & excessive bleeding. His testimony suggested that because of her condition, she would not have participated in knife play as the user Anastasia9 requested of Joe during their chats.
Defense attorney John Carroll accused prosecutors of developing tunnel vision in terms of blaming Brendan for orchestrating the entire plot while pressuring Juliana to lie.
When Brendan took the stand in his own defense, he admitted to an affair, but denied that he & Juliana ever concocted a murderous plot. He claimed that the very idea was absolutely crazy. According to his version of events, when he went back into his house that morning, he came upon a man who was raping & stabbing his wife so he shot him.
After a little more than eight hours of deliberation, the jury found Brendan Banfield guilty on all counts on February 2. As the verdict was read, Christine’s family wept in the front row of the courtroom gallery. In a later statement, they described her as an honest, faithful, caring, compassionate, helpful person who was dedicated to her family, friends & patients.
Eleven days later, Juliana was given the maximum sentence for manslaughter of ten years in prison on Friday, February 13. After hearing her tearful apology, Joe’s family gave their own mournful statements while the judge called the case the most serious manslaughter scenario the court has ever seen.
She’ll receive credit for time already served & under Virginia law, she’ll likely serve about 67% of her sentence, meaning she could be released in about 4 years & 2 months with a potential release date of around April 2030. Upon the completion of her sentence, she’ll be placed on probation & deported back to her home country of Brazil.
Meanwhile, Brendan’s sentencing is currently set for May 8. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole as the death penalty was abolished in Virginia in 2021.
Joe Ryan was a beloved son, nephew & grandson who had been a perfect stranger to Juliana & Brendan & was tragically roped into their plot.
Those that love Christine want to remember her & keep her memory alive, especially for her daughter, by talking about her, sharing stories & remembering her fantastic laugh.
Both Joe & Christine were so much more than just headlines attached to a salacious case. They were two human beings who were loved, had families, plans & futures that should still be playing out today. Their lives were lost in a sudden, brutal, senseless attack that left a 4-year-old little girl to grow up without either of her parents. Although affairs will no doubt leave broken trust, hearts & families, they should never end with the loss of lives.
References:
- FetLife
- AP: Blood-spatter analysis helped investigation into husband charged with killing wife & another man
- The New York Times: Double-murder case involving an au pair goes to trial: What to know
- Court TV: VA v. Brendan Banfield: Au pair affair murder trial
- NBC News: Au pair’s jailhouse letters before plea deal questioned in ex-lover’s BDSM double-murder trial
- NBC News: Au pair takes stand in trial of Virginia man accused of plotting double murder to avoid divorce
- CBS News: Husband plotted double murder to “get rid of” his wife after affair, au pair testifies
- ABC 13 News: Alleged affair to murder trial: A timeline of events in Virginia’s Brendan Banfield case
- Fox 5: Au pair charged with murder in Herndon double homicide: police
- New York Post: How deranged IRS agent allegedly plotted wife’s murder – with twisted rape fantasy & plan to run off with au pair
- Falls Church News Press: Nurse joins INOVA staff & receives warm farewell
- New York Post: Virginia mom allegedly murdered by cheating husband in twisted rape-frame plot was sex assault nurse & doting parent
- Moloney Family Funeral Homes, Inc: Christine Ann Banfield
- NBC 4 Washington: In video, au pair tells prosecutors how affair partner developed fetish sex murder plot
- ABC News: How a plot involving a fetish website & an au pair affair led to murder
- CNN: Au pair who plotted elaborate double murder with Brendan Banfield sentenced to maximum 10 years in prison
- Au Pair World: Au pair vs. nanny: What are the differences?
