On the morning of February 24th, 2023, police in Fairfax County, Virginia responded to a home in Herndon after receiving a call about a stabbing and a shooting. When officers arrived at the residence, they stumbled upon a horrific scene in the master bedroom. Joseph Ryan (pictured top right) was found deceased from multiple gunshots in the corner of the room. Christine Banfield (pictured top left) was in bed, suffering from multiple stab wounds.
Joseph was pronounced dead on the scene, while Christine was transferred to a nearby hospital. Unfortunately, she succumbed to her injuries shortly thereafter. Detectives were subsequently tasked with investigating what could have led to such a violent scene in this quiet Herndon neighborhood.
It was soon learned that the home where this event took place belonged to Christine Banfield and her husband, Brendan Banfield (pictured bottom left). The couple lived there with their daughter, who was four years old at the time, and their au pair, Juliana Peres Magalhães (pictured bottom right).
Per the initial narrative provided by Brendan and Juliana, the morning of February 24th was supposed to be a normal day. Juliana had plans to take the Banfield's daughter to the zoo in Washington, DC. Christine, who worked as a nurse, had the day off and planned to sleep in. Juliana told police that, shortly after leaving the house with the Banfield's daughter, she realized she forgot their lunches and turned around to go back and retrieve them.
Upon their return to the house, Juliana noticed a "strange vehicle" in the driveway. She called Brendan, who was picking up breakfast at a nearby McDonald's. Brendan raced home and instructed Juliana to bring his daughter into the home's basement. Juliana complied, then both she and Brendan ran upstairs into the master bedroom.
Both Brendan and Juliana said that they saw a man, later identified as Joseph Ryan, standing over Christine with a knife. Brendan reportedly drew a gun and ordered Joseph to drop the knife. According to Brendan and Juliana, Joseph did not comply and instead began stabbing Christine. Brendan then shot Joseph, causing him to collapse in the corner of the bedroom.
Brendan then said he began to provide aid to his wife while also calling 911. A short time later, Brendan noticed that Joseph was still alive. He said that he was afraid Joseph would get up and continue attacking, so he ordered Juliana to shoot Joseph again. Juliana followed Brendan's orders and delivered the final shots that ended Joseph's life.
The story that Brendan and Juliana told made it appear as if they were forced to act in self-defense after encountering a home intruder who had attacked Christine with a knife. However, as detectives continued to investigate, they learned that Brendan and Juliana were far from innocent victims who happened to stumble upon a violent scene.
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More about Brendan and Christine.
Brendan Banfield and Christine Benson met while they were both students at Quinnipiac University in New York. The couple married a few years after graduating and settled into a home in Shirley, NY. In 2018, Christine gave birth to their daughter, Valerie.
The Banfield family moved to Herndon, Virginia in 2019 after Brendan accepted a job as an IRS investigator. Christine began working at a local hospital as a pediatric ICU nurse. Since both of them worked full time, they decided to hire an au pair to help them care for their daughter.
The au pair program.
Brendan and Christine opted to use an au pair program called "Cultural Care Au Pair" to find care of Valerie. The first au pair they hired was a young woman from South America named Amanda.
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| Amanda, Valerie, and Christine. (Source: Instagram) |
The relationship between Amanda and the Banfield family blossomed very quickly. Amanda and Valerie grew a very tight bond. Amanda and Christine developed a close friendship. The family remained in touch with Amanda after her contract ended. In fact, both Christine and Valerie attended Amanda's wedding - Valerie participated as the flower girl.
The Banfield's experience with Amanda and the Cultural Care Au Pair program was a success. As such, they used the same program to find their next au pair. Juliana Peres Magalhães began working for the family in October 2021. Originally from Brazil, Juliana moved to Herndon, Virginia to live at the Banfield home and care for the couple's daughter.
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| Juliana Peres Magalhães. |
The affair.
During the summer of 2022, a sexual relationship began between Brendan Banfield and Juliana. The relationship soon grew beyond just sexual; the two eventually began a full-blown affair. Juliana began taking trips with Brendan and Valerie without Christine. Juliana documented parts of their relationship on her Instagram page.
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| Brendan and Juliana together in 2022. |
This was not Brendan's first time cheating on Christine. He reportedly had other affairs throughout the marriage. Some reports indicate that Christine was aware of at least one of the previous affairs. However, it appears she was left completely in the dark about Brendan's affair with their au pair.
Although Juliana and Brendan hid the affair from Christine, Juliana did not hide the relationship from her social media. She shared pictures of her with Brendan on Instagram. Friends of Juliana were well aware of her relationship with the married man.
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| Juliana and Brendan together in December 2022. |
According to Juliana, Brendan eventually began expressing that he wanted Christine out of the picture. He reportedly claimed that Christine was lazy, inattentive, and not a good mother to Valerie. Brendan also claimed that divorce was not an option; citing financial reasons as his justification to not split up from Christine. From there, Brendan and Juliana began conducting a plan to remove Christine from their lives.
January 2023: The FetLife account & a trip to a gun range.
During January 2023, Brendan and Juliana created an account on the fetish dating website called FetLife. They made the account under Christine's name and began communicating with users while pretending to be Christine. It was on FetLife that the two began communicating with a user later identified as Joseph Ryan.
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| Joseph Ryan. |
Joseph Ryan was a resident of Woodbridge, Virginia. He enjoyed live action roleplaying and spending time with his family members. Joseph also was a seasoned user of the FetLife site. Brendan and Juliana connected with Joseph on the website while pretending to be Christine. During their conversations, they arranged for Joseph to come to the Banfield home to engage in "knife play" and a "rape fantasy".
Joseph reportedly asked "Christine" if they could meet up in person in a casual setting before this sexual tryst. Knowing this would blow their cover, Brendan and Juliana (while pretending to be Christine) insisted that their first meeting be an encounter in which Joseph enters the Banfield home with a knife. "Christine" said she would pretend to be scared and fight back, but asked Joseph to ignore her cries for help.
Unbeknownst to Joseph, he was not communicating with Christine, or with anyone who wished to engage in these sexual activities. Joseph was unfortunately just a pawn in Brendan and Juliana's plan. Their plan was to make it appear as if Christine was killed by Joseph, and that one of them ended up killing Joseph in an attempt to stop the attack and/or self-defense.
As an IRS officer, Brendan already had experience with handling/using a firearm. Juliana, on the other hand, was not experienced with guns. Brendan and Juliana subsequently visited a shooting range in late January 2023 so Juliana could learn to use a gun. Juliana documented this outing on her Instagram account.
February 24th, 2023: the day of the murders.
On February 24th, 2023, the plan concocted by Brendan and Juliana was put into motion. As noted above, Christine had the day off from work that day and planned to sleep in while Juliana took the Banfield's daughter to the zoo. Juliana would later tell authorities that, shortly after leaving the home, she realized she forgot a packed lunch for both her and Valerie. She turned around to go retrieve the lunches and when she got back to the house, she noticed a "strange vehicle" - later identified as Joseph Ryan's vehicle - in the Banfield driveway.
Per Juliana's account, she called Brendan, who was at a nearby McDonald's, to tell him that an unknown car was parked at his house. Brendan then rushed home from McDonald's. He asked Juliana to bring Valerie into the home's basement. As previously stated, Juliana complied with his request and left the little girl in the basement before venturing up to the master bedroom.
It was initially reported that Brendan had stumbled upon Joseph Ryan stabbing his wife, and that Brendan subsequently shot Joseph in an attempt to stop the attack. While rendering aid to Christine, Brendan noticed that Joseph was still alive, so he asked Juliana to shoot him again. Juliana complied and fired the shots that ultimately ended up killing Joseph.
Both Brendan and Juliana told police that it was already too late for Christine - the stab wounds had been fatal, and she ended up dying at the hospital shortly after the attack. Body cameras worn by police on the scene captured Juliana relaying this narrative to the officers outside the Banfield home.
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| Juliana on bodycam footage. (Source: YouTube) |
Loved ones of both Christine Banfield and Joseph Ryan were both devastated and baffled by this event. Christine's friends and family members thought that it was completely uncharacteristic for her to be unfaithful to her husband; let alone with a person she met on a fetish website. No one in Christine's circle believed she would use a website such as FetLife either.
Joseph Ryan did not have any criminal record or any known history of violent behaviors. The investigation revealed that he had met several people from the FetLife website, but none of those encounters resulted in one being seriously injured or killed.
Meanwhile, both Brendan and Juliana seemed to quickly move on from this tragic event. Juliana eventually moved into the master bedroom at the Banfield's house. Christine's clothes and belongings were soon replaced by Juliana's clothes and belongings. A picture of Brendan and Juliana was placed on the bedside table. Juliana told Christine's daughter, Valerie, that she could call Juliana "mommy".
The investigation and arrests.
Investigators were suspicious of the story told by Brendan and Juliana from the onset of the case. Those suspicions were further deepened when investigators learned that Brendan and Juliana were in a relationship that began before Christine's death. In the months that followed this event, detectives continued to investigate both Brendan and Juliana.
On October 19, 2023, Juliana was arrested and charged with second-degree murder and use of a firearm in commission of a felony. She was taken into custody, where she remained while her charges were pending. Brendan's mother hired a lawyer for Juliana. Juliana remained in contact with Brendan for several months while behind bars.
Brendan remained a free man for nearly a year after Juliana's arrest. Then, on September 19th, 2024, he was finally taken into custody and charged with four counts of aggravated murder and one count of use of a firearm in commission of a felony for the deaths of both Christine Banfield and Joseph Ryan.
Juliana pleads guilty.
After denying the charges for about a year, Juliana decided to cooperate with the investigation. On October 29th, 2024 - approximately a month and a half after Brendan's arrest - Juliana accepted a plea deal and agreed to plead guilty to manslaughter for shooting and killing Joseph Ryan. As part of her plea deal, Juliana agreed to disclose what actually happened on the day of the murders. She also agreed to testify against Brendan at his trial.
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| Juliana's interrogation/confession. (Source: YouTube) |
At this time, Juliana confessed to investigators that both she and Brendan created the FetLife account and communicated with Joseph Ryan while pretending to be Christine. She admitted that she and Brendan set this event up in hopes of covering up their real plan to get Christine out of the picture.
During this confession, Juliana shared the most chilling detail of all: Joseph Ryan had not stabbed Christine. In fact, Joseph had already been shot when Brendan took Joseph's knife and stabbed his wife to death. Juliana admitted that she watched these events unfold - and this version events had been their plan all along.
Meanwhile, Brendan denied this version of events and continued to maintain his innocence. He pleaded not guilty, and his case went to trial.
January-February 2026: Brendan Banfield's trial.
Brendan Banfield's trial began in January 2026. As arranged in her plea deal, Juliana testified for the prosecution at the trial. While on the stand, she confirmed that she was having an affair with Brendan while serving as the Banfield's au pair.
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| Juliana Peres Magalhães on the stand. |
Juliana testified about Brendan's desire to rid Christine from his life. She admitted that she and Brendan used Christine's computer to create the FetLife account, and that Christine herself never actually communicated with anyone on the website. Juliana continued to explain how their murder plot came to fruition, resulting in the deaths of both Joseph Ryan and Christine Banfield.
Brendan himself eventually testified in his own defense. While on the stand, he continued to deny that he killed Christine. He admitted that both he and Juliana shot Joseph Ryan but maintained that they did so in self-defense. Brendan also admitted to being in an affair with Juliana at the time, but he downplayed the seriousness of their relationship and denied that he wanted his wife out of the picture.
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| Brendan Banfield on the stand. |
It appears that the jury ultimately did not buy the version of events presented by Brendan on the stand. Deliberations went on for two days before the jury found Brendan Banfield guilty of all counts on February 2nd, 2026.
Juliana is sentenced.
As part of Juliana's plea deal, she could receive a minimum of time served and a maximum of 10 years in prison. The judge in the case made the final decision. On February 13th, 2026, the judge gave Juliana the maximum sentence of 10 years, with two of those years suspended.
The judge spoke to Juliana directly at the sentencing, citing ten reasons for handing down the maximum sentence:
"1. Until today, you have shown no empathy for the victim in this case.
2. You were more involved in the plan than you testified to. First off, there were numerous postings on social media platforms and text platforms, looking for a target, texting and speaking directly with Joseph Ryan, encouraging him to bring the knife, and ultimately through the phone conversation, getting his consent, knowing all along you were bringing him to his death. Lying to Christine, and setting up the plan for the zoo, using her devices and hiding her phone, using a child as a pawn in your plan, waiting outside for Joseph to show up, calling Mr. Banfield to bring him to the scene. And at any point, for at least a month prior to that day, you could have stopped this. The plan did not work without your full involvement.
3. Having the loaded firearm in your pocket.
4. Bringing a child into the basement, knowing two people were about to be murdered, to include the child's mother.
5. Christine asking you to call 911, which you did, and then immediately hung up.
6. Seeing Joseph Ryan, who was shot in the head at the time, and still moving and walking up to him as he lay moaning on the floor and shooting him point blank in the heart.
7. Watching as Mr. Banfield stabbed Christine over and over again.
8. Waiting 15 minutes before recalling 911 again.
9. Telling a fabricated story for over a year and a half, a story that depicted Joseph Ryan wrongly as a rapist and murderer. An innocent man.
10. Telling the child it was okay for her to call you "mommy" hours after the murder."
Following her sentence, Juliana will be deported back to Brazil.
Brendan Banfield's fate.
Brendan Banfield's sentencing will take place during June 2026. Updates will be provided at that time.
