The Au Pair Murders

Brendan and Christine Banfield had been together for nineteen years. They dated for many years, got married, and had a daughter named Valerie. The family was living in Herndon, Virginia, and because of their busy schedules they decided to hire a nanny. Join Mike and Morf as they discuss what has been called "The Au Pair Murders" by the press. On the morning of February 24th, 2023, Juliana Magalhaes, the au pair, and Brendan Banfield called 911. They claimed they found Brendan's wife, Christine, and that she had been attacked by an intruder who turned out to be a man named Joseph Ryan. Both Joseph and Christine were dead, but the authorities thought that the story told by Brendan and Juliana sounded suspicious. You can help support the show through Patreon. We'd love to connect with listeners on social media. We are available on the following platforms: Facebook - Facebook Discussion group - Instagram - Threads - X Formerly Twitter - Blue Sky - Twitch - Tik Tok Criminology is an Emash Digital production hosted by Mike Ferguson and Mike Morford.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Criminology is a true crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics. Listener discretion is advised.

• 0:37Speaker 01

  Hello, everyone, and welcome to episode 402 of the Criminology Podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson.

• 0:43Speaker 02

  And this is Mike Morford.

• 0:45Speaker 01

  Mr. Morford, how you doing this week, buddy?

• 0:47Speaker 02

  I'm doing pretty good. How you doing?

• 0:49Speaker 01

  I'm doing great. I am ready for March Madness. It's it's one of my favorite times of year.

• 0:55Speaker 02

  Yeah, I know that's a time when, you know, when you've got extra time, you're watching some basketball. So I was thinking about that when we got on this morning.

• 1:03Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, I didn't watch as much college basketball as I normally do this year, but for some reason, I just love the tournament. You know, I love the upsets, the small schools versus the big schools. And it's just fun to sit and watch and sometimes, you know, go with your friends and go to like a Buffalo Wild Wings or whatever it is and just sit and watch a bunch of games one after another.

• 1:28Speaker 02

  Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do to to relax and rewind a little bit.

• 1:32Speaker 01

  Absolutely. Well, we didn't have any new Patreon support, so no new shout outs to give, but, you know, like we always said, we really appreciate those who support us on Patreon.

• 1:43Speaker 02

  Yeah, that really helps us out. And for all those that do support the show, thank you so much. For anyone else that wants to, you can get started by going over to patreon.com/criminology.

• 1:54Speaker 01

  All right. So let's dive right into this week's episode. You know, over the past two episodes, we did a deep dive on the 1970s Oakland County child killer case. And we saw how that case was hindered in part due to a lack of technology at the time, you know, not having social media, cell phones, that kind of stuff. But in this case, we're talking about it was an abundance of technology that helped solve the mystery that was dubbed the au pair murders and which two people Christine Banfield and Joseph Ryan lost their lives.

• 2:31Speaker 02

  Brendan and Christine Banfield had been together for 19 years. They dated for many years, got married and had a daughter named Valerie. The family was living in Herndon, Virginia, about a half hours drive from Fairfax. Kristen was working as a pediatric intensive care nurse and Brendan was an officer with the Internal Revenue Service. They both had pretty busy schedules. Brendan traveled a lot for work and Christine worked 12 hour shifts and often worked overnight, but they still wanted to make sure their daughter got plenty of one-on-one attention. Because Christine didn't work a regular schedule, normal daycare hours wouldn't be very helpful for them. So they decided to hire a live-in nanny. They went a step further and joined a cultural exchange program where they would

• 3:15Speaker 02

  host an au pair from another country.

• 3:17Speaker 01

  And my youngest morph is is in college, but that's exactly what she wants to be, a pediatric intensive care nurse. And, you know, it's, I think, an exciting job, but also a tough one. You think about just intensive care itself being hectic. And then you add in the fact that, okay, you're talking about small children and the stakes are high, no doubt about it.

• 3:46Speaker 02

  And that's not a nine to five type of job. I wouldn't think so. You know, having that kind of schedule, it makes sense that they would want to bring in this au pair.

• 3:56Speaker 01

  Yeah, definitely not nine to five. And I know she's been doing clinicals and a lot of the times it's, it is 12 hour shifts, maybe four days a week. But it could be overnight, it could be odd hours. In October of 2021, the Banfields began hosting a new au pair. Juliana Paris Magalhães, a 21-year-old woman from Brazil. It didn't take long for Juliana and Brendan to become romantically involved. By August of 2022, they were having a full-fledged, secret affair. This affair was happening underneath Christine's notes. And it became hot and heavy.

• 4:38Speaker 01

  Seemed like Brendan was beginning to think Christine was in the way. In fact, he told Juliana that he wanted to marry her and start a family with her. Juliana would later testify that Brendan was thinking of harming Christine in October of 2022. And he talked about it with her. On the stand, Juliana said, "At first, I thought he was joking."

• 5:02Speaker 02

  On the morning of February 24, 2023, Brendan left early for work. He claimed to have an important meeting with his manager, and he wanted to make sure he was there on time. Juliana was supposed to take Valerie to the zoo in Washington DC. Christine, who worked the night shift, was still asleep. The initial story was that Juliana was still parked outside of the home because she forgot the lunches that she had packed for the day. When she noticed a car she had never seen before. A man who she didn't recognize got out of the car and walked toward the Banfield home. So she called Christine to try to warn her, but she didn't get an answer. Juliana then called Brendan to tell him, since this was strange. Luckily, Brendan had stopped at nearby McDonald's on his way to work,

• 5:45Speaker 02

  and he had popped in to use the bathroom, so he wasn't too far from home. Brendan was still in the bathroom when Juliana called him. He was in the bathroom for seven minutes, even though he had just left home. Investigators believe he actually waited for her call in the bathroom, where there were no cameras.

• 6:01Speaker 01

  Brendan rushed back to the house to check out the situation, but decided not to use the front door to enter because of an electronic keypad that made noise when the buttons were pressed. The explanation he gave for this was that he didn't think it was an emergency at the time. In fact, Brendan's story was that he thought that the man could just be one of Christine's affair partners. According to him, both he and his wife Christine were each aware of multiple affairs the other had in the past. He figured the man was there to see Christine behind his back and didn't want either of them to know he was there yet. According to Brendan, he entered through the basement door instead.

• 6:44Speaker 01

  As he did, Juliana, who was holding Valerie, followed. The family dog Lily was in the basement, acting anxious. Her dog bowl had been moved from the dining room to the basement and the food had spilled on the floor. Brendan quickly searched the room before moving on to other areas of the home because he didn't know where the man went, even though he thought he might be there to see Christine. They left Valerie in the basement and went upstairs to the main floor of the home.

• 7:14Speaker 02

  In court testimony, Brendan claimed that as he approached the stairs to the second story, he could hear the sounds of what he thought were his wife and the man having sex. Sounds like moaning. He believed this confirmed that Christine was having an affair. This was much more real to him than the previous affairs because this time he was actually catching her in the act in their home. According to Brendan's story, halfway up the stairs, he got upset and froze and he thought about just leaving or what he would say if he burst in. But suddenly, the noises that he had been hearing changed and he felt that Christine was being hurt. He said the impact sound sounded forceful and that her moaning sounded painful.

• 7:56Speaker 01

  So we are, you know, we're telling the story here from Brendan and Juliana's perspective. It's, a lot of this part is based off of their court testimony, right? But in my mind, I mean, I'm picturing a strange scene. So you have the, the two of them going through the basement with Valerie. They decide to leave Valerie in the basement as they travel upstairs. And according to Brendan, he's hearing these, these sounds, which he believe are, are two people having sex. He believes one is his wife, obviously it's their home. And he's thinking about, okay, what's he gonna do?

• 8:40Speaker 01

  Is he gonna burst in? What's he gonna say if he bursts in? I don't know. For me, the story just, it's not that it's not plausible. It just seems strange because he's with the, the nanny or the au pair with whom he's having an affair.

• 8:58Speaker 02

  Yeah, this sounds like a very, at, at the least, an awkward situation is about to happen. You hear he's talking about confronting his wife who he thinks is having an affair. And maybe some people have asked themselves that question, what would I do if I was in that situation? Maybe you don't know until you're in that situation. But it sounds like he was having second thoughts, at least according to the story. But that's when the sounds he was hearing grew more concerning. And according to him, he was now worried about his wife's safety.

• 9:33Speaker 01

  Brendan unholstered his service weapon, a Glock 19, and continued up the stairs. When he walked into the bedroom, he saw Christine on the floor, on her hands and knees. She was naked and the man was behind her, fully clothed. He and the man made direct eye contact. Brendan shouted that he was police and pointed his gun at the man to try to take command of the scene. According to Brendan, Christine yelled out, Brendan, he has a knife. He ordered the man to drop the knife. He wouldn't. The man at first told Brendan to leave, but then asked if he himself could leave. But Brendan told him he was under arrest. The man looked right at Brendan and said, she gave herself to me.

• 10:18Speaker 02

  After that, Brendan couldn't see exactly what was happening because one of the man's hands was holding Christine by the hair and the tip of the knife was, as Brendan described it, in Christine's hair, but it looked like he was hurting her. So Brendan fired one shot, which hit the man in the head. While he was helping Christine, trying to put pressure on the wounds in her neck, Juliana had apparently run into the closet where Brendan kept his personal weapon, a Glock 43X, locked up in a safe. Brendan told Juliana to call 911, but unexpectedly, using Brendan's gun, Juliana shot the man a second time in his chest. Just before the shot, or at the same time, Brendan wasn't sure because everything happened so

• 11:00Speaker 02

  fast, Brendan felt the man hit him in the back. Juliana then put the gun on the bed and called 911, but she was too shaken to speak clearly, so Brendan took over. According to a Washington Post breakdown of the 911 call, Brendan said, "There's someone here." He tried to explain the situation. "I shot him. He stabbed her. She's bleeding out. There's several marks on her neck." Brendan told the dispatcher all of this before asking, "What do I do?"

• 11:28Speaker 01

  So we talked about this scene of Brendan and Juliana going up the stairs, Brendan thinking about confronting his wife and whoever she's with, this man. But now the scene has exploded into chaos, right? They're not having sex. This man is fully clothed, but he's hurting his wife. He has a knife. He slashed her. And so according to Brendan, he takes out his gun and he shoots him. But then Juliana grabs his personal weapon and also shoots

• 12:08Speaker 01

  the man. So there was one thing that jumped out at me about that. You know, obviously, Brendan had his service weapon with him, right, in a holster. So that was easy to get to. But the smaller Glock, his personal weapon, was in the closet. So that means Juliana had to know exactly where it was. It's in a safe where it should be. They have a small child. I mean, that means to me that she not only knew where it was,

• 12:42Speaker 01

  Juliana, she also knew exactly how to get into the safe. And I get it, she's the au pair, she's there a lot, but that seems strange.

• 12:53Speaker 02

  Yeah, you can see how this story is starting to be a little bit odd. Because the au pair knows where the gun is and she's running and they're grabbing it. And shooting this man a second time after he's already been shot in the head. So, you know, I think as we go more along the story, that stuff's going to sound a little bit strange.

• 13:17Speaker 01

  Well, and you just made a good point, right? She shoots him in the chest after Brendan shoots this guy in the head. Why? Why is there a need for her to shoot him if this guy's already been shot in the head? Christine had been stabbed in the neck seven times. Unfortunately, she lost too much blood too quickly. She had a disorder that affected the way her blood clobbered, making her bleed uncontrollably. She was rushed to the hospital, but died shortly after arriving. An autopsy would reveal that Christine fought for her life. She had multiple bruises and scrapes on her arms and legs. Her jugular vein, carotid artery, and her trachea were all damaged by the knife.

• 14:01Speaker 01

  The man identified as Joseph Ryan had been shot twice, once in the head and then again in the heart. He was dead by the time authorities made it to the house. Four-year-old Valerie had been in the basement alone the entire time.

• 14:17Speaker 02

  The scene was chaotic. Authorities arrived to find multiple victims, multiple weapons, multiple shooters, and stories that just didn't quite add up. There were several things that just felt off. Investigators found Christine's cell phone downstairs in a drawer in the kitchen. It had been turned off. Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis told ABC 7 News, "I knew, I suspected, I had a feeling that there was a lot more to what met the eye that morning." Even though investigators felt that there was something strange about the crime scene and what supposedly happened, there was no way to prove that Juliana and Brendan were lying. Initially, the evidence backed up their claims.

• 14:58Speaker 02

  Joseph Ryan had brought the knife and neither of them denied their role in shooting him.

• 15:04Speaker 01

  So I think the, the police chief is, is saying it, right? Early on. They just thought something was strange about this whole thing, the scene, the story that was coming out from these people. But the evidence at the scene was kind of backing their story up. So what could they really do? I did want to touch on Christine's cell phone. I don't know how many people turn their cell phone completely off, put it in a drawer. I get it. She's working third shift, which means she's sleeping during the day. I would think most people would just put it on silent mode or airport mode or whatever it is.

• 15:44Speaker 01

  I don't know how many people would actually turn the phone off and stick it in a drawer downstairs when they, before they go up to sleep.

• 15:53Speaker 02

  Yeah, it kind of defeats the purpose. If you need your phone, you think most people like to keep it close to them someplace so they can turn it back on when they need it or get it easily enough. But you know, to put it downstairs in a drawer turned off, it doesn't seem like something most people do.

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• 17:31Speaker 01

  One important question was, why was Joseph Ryan there in the first place? No one in the family knew him. He had no connection to the neighborhood or the house. It turns out that Joseph Ryan thought he had been invited to the home. He met a woman going by the username Anastasia on the website FetLife, which bills itself as the world's largest BDSM kink and fetish community, and talked about meeting up with her. The profile picture for Anastasia was a photo of Christine Banfield. Anastasia was the one that requested that he bring a knife to the home to role play a home intruder sexual assault fantasy.

• 18:15Speaker 01

  Ryan was told to show up at the home at 7:20 a.m., just as he did. He was told that the door would be unlocked. It was. Christine's phone had been used to unlock the front door using their smart home security app. He was instructed to surprise Christine, the woman he thought he was talking to, who would be asleep. So he did. The knife was to be used to cut off her clothing, and he was supposed to hold her down and tie her up, no matter how hard she fought against him, no matter how scared she seemed, or how loud she yelled, and not to stop, no matter what she said to him.

• 18:57Speaker 02

  It seemed clear that Joseph Ryan had done as instructed by a woman he believed was a willing participant in all of this. But investigators didn't believe that it was Christine, who had set up that profile, were sent any of those messages, even though they were sent from an email bearing her name and had been sent using her personal laptop. They felt that somehow Brendan and Juliana had set the whole thing up. They just had no way to prove it at the time. As the investigation went on, it must have seemed like they were going to get away with it, that they had pulled it off perfectly. They quickly moved on with their lives together as a couple, no longer hiding the fact that they were together. But police continued to work behind the scenes to prove their theory.

• 19:38Speaker 01

  And to me, Morf, this seems like the plot, you know, straight out of some kind of... Murder, mystery, thriller movie. And we said it, right? Police were suspicious of the story right from the beginning. Now they start to find all of this out. And they just don't believe that Christine had set this profile up, that, you know, she had messaged this guy, Joseph Ryan. As much as I hate to say it, it is kind of an ingenious plan to a degree.

• 20:13Speaker 02

  Everything sounds convenient. The, the way this supposedly played out, that this guy would come in, he'd have a weapon, he'd basically go through these motions of this staged sexual assault. And depending on how you look at it, if you're looking at it from Brendan's view, if he doesn't know anything about this and he walks in on the scene, you could almost say, okay, he was justified. He saw his wife being attacked and was trying to defend her. But on the other side of the coin, if he'd set this up as police thought, it seems like a pretty ingenious way to try and get away with that.

• 20:56Speaker 01

  Well, because if you're the police, you have to be thinking, right? Who's the target? And for Brendan, that would be Christine. Joseph Ryan, in this scenario, would just be a, a patsy, right? An unfortunate person who was set up.

• 21:14Speaker 02

  If you're Joseph Ryan, walking into this house, doing as you were instructed, you have to be pretty confident that this is all in the up and up. Because you're really walking into a situation where, you know, if somebody's pranking you, or if somebody's got something more nefarious in mind and is setting you up, you could be in danger. And, you know, ultimately, he lost his life walking into this house under these circumstances.

• 21:40Speaker 01

  And it did seem, right? As Brendan and Juliana were getting away with it. Police didn't have enough evidence to.

• 21:50Speaker 01

  Charged them with anything. They were going on about their life. But then eight months later, their new life came crashing down. Juliana was arrested in October of 2023 and charged with the second degree murder of Joseph Ryan and using a firearm during the commission of a felony. At the time, it was unclear to the public why there were no charges related to Christine's murder specifically. It seemed like the investigators believed the self-defense story, but felt that since Joseph Ryan had already been shot in the head, the second shot constituted murder. We now know that this isn't true, but at the time of her arrest,

• 22:32Speaker 01

  it was still such a confusing and convoluted case.

• 22:36Speaker 02

  When investigators returned to the Banfield home to take Juliana into custody, things were very different. The carpet in the bedroom where Joseph and Christine were killed had been removed and the furniture had been replaced. And that might make perfect sense after such a bloody crime scene unfolded there. But that wasn't all that had changed. Juliana's belongings weren't in her room anymore. All the clothes that had been photographed by police in Juliana's closet the day the murders were now on the bottom racks of the walk-in closet in the primary bedroom. On the bottom racks where Christine's clothes once were. On the bedside table, feet from where Joseph Ryan and Christine Banfield both died, there was a framed photo. It was of Juliana and Brendan together.

• 23:20Speaker 02

  Another framed photo of the two was on top of the dresser.

• 23:23Speaker 01

  Juliana was denied bail due to not only being from Brazil, but also because she filed for and received a new passport after her original was seized by authorities. As news mentioned her arrest, this case became known as the O'Per murder. Brendan wasn't arrested until September of 2024, more than a year and a half after the murders. He was charged with both murders and denied bail because the judge felt he could be both a flight risk and a danger to his young daughter. Adding to the confusion of trying to follow this case, Brendan was charged with four counts of aggravated murder, even though he was only being accused of killing two people.

• 24:07Speaker 01

  Fairfax County Commonwealth Attorney Steve Descano told WUSA 9, "We wanted to cover all our bases and make sure the jury had every option that they could want when looking at the evidence."

• 24:21Speaker 02

  While Brendan claimed on the stand that Christine had been on the floor with Joseph behind her, the prosecutors believe that when he and Juliana entered the bedroom, Joseph was holding Christine down on the floor, and that after he was shot, he fell away from Christine. Photos from the scene show that Joseph was lying perpendicular to the bed, near the top of it, with his feet underneath the bed frame. Investigators believe that Brendan moved Joseph's body after he'd been shot in an attempt to stage the scene. According to the state's blood spatter expert, Brendan's pants were stained with Christine's blood that showed a cast-off pattern from stabbing her, while Joseph's pants had her blood smeared and dripped on them.

• 25:02Speaker 02

  On the day Christine died, after being told Christine didn't make it, Brendan began to cry. The officer with him felt bad trying to watch him wipe his face with blood on his hands and asked him if he wanted to wash them off, and he did. This muddied any analysis for DNA or gunshot residue that could have been helpful to the investigation.

• 25:22Speaker 01

  And I talked about it earlier, Morf, right? As much as I hate to say it, that something like a murder plot or something like that sounds ingenious, there were some elements to this one that did sound like, you know, there was thought, there was planning put into this thing. But to me, there's always something that the killers don't think about. You know, let's say in this case, it is... The cast off patterns, you know, what an expert is going to make of the blood spatter. It's going to tell a story which may not align with the story that you're telling.

• 26:07Speaker 01

  But one thing I want to touch on is this officer allowing Brendan to wash his hands. I mean, I get it. The guy felt bad for him, but it seems like such a mistake.

• 26:22Speaker 02

  You think they would want to preserve evidence, keep his hands, his clothing, everything in the exact condition as it was when they arrived. And here the officer is letting him wash his hands and, you know, that could come back to haunt this case once it goes to trial and the evidence is in question. And it's those kinds of things that can maybe make or break a case like this.

• 26:47Speaker 01

  But it is a real fine line though, right? I mean, you're walking that line of being empathetic to someone who might be the victim, but could also possibly be the perpetrator. You just don't know at that point. In October of 2024, a year after her arrest and just days before she was set to stand trial for killing Joseph Ryan, Juliana finally agreed to cooperate with the investigation. She admitted what really happened and entered a guilty plea to a reduced charge of manslaughter. For her cooperation, prosecutors would agree to recommend a sentence of time served,

• 27:31Speaker 01

  provided she went back to Brazil when she was released. Most importantly, perhaps she had to testify truthfully against Brendan in order for the agreement to stand. Only after she completed her testimony could she be sentenced at all. On the stand, Juliana explained that Brendan didn't want to divorce Christine. In fact, he actually told her that divorce was not an option because he said she would have more money than he would. He also wanted full custody of their daughter. According to the prosecution, Brendan didn't think Christine was a good mother, though it's unclear why. Even Juliana didn't have anything bad to say about Christine.

• 28:15Speaker 01

  She described her as very friendly, very welcoming, and very fair. In contrast to Brendan, Juliana's face lit up on the stand. When she was asked to describe the Banfield's daughter Valerie, you could also see her wiping away tears after being asked how old Valerie was when she met her.

• 28:36Speaker 02

  Juliana admitted that the Anastasia profile was really set up by her and Brendan. He had created a new Gmail account to use to make an account on FetLife and to use on Telegram. Brendan created the Telegram account on Christine's laptop as well. The photo that was used as a profile picture on FetLife was a picture that Christine took of herself in the mirror of a gym bathroom. She had sent it to Brendan to show him her new bathing suit. She had been looking up vacation spots and resorts and had likely purchased the bathing suit for the trip she was dreaming of taking with her family.

• 29:10Speaker 01

  Looking through the private messages from FetLife, Anastasia had a very specific encounter in mind. Anyone who suggested meeting in person, like going out for drinks or to grab coffee, anywhere in public before their hookup was rejected. Some of them didn't even get a reply. Anyone who wanted to have their encounter somewhere neutral, like a hotel, was rejected. If they wanted more pictures of Christine, who was supposed to be Anastasia, they were rejected. If they wanted to have multiple encounters before agreeing to use restraints, they were rejected. There was a clear set of criteria that the person had to meet.

• 29:53Speaker 01

  And that criteria was pretty much to come directly to Anastasia's home alone on the first meetup. One person who was messaging Anastasia about meeting up actually expressed concern about exactly what ended up happening. The user wrote, "The concept is very hot. Yeah, but the way you explain it does not look great on my side if anything were to go wrong." Had that person not followed their gut and gone there, we might be talking about their murder. And I know I've said it a couple of times, Morph, but you know, there, there is a real devious side to this whole plan.

• 30:36Speaker 01

  And the thought of setting up an account.

• 30:41Speaker 01

  Posing as your wife, using her real picture. I mean, there was a lot of thought that went into this.

• 30:49Speaker 02

  Yeah, it wasn't lightly thought out. It seems like it was well planned. And I'm thinking of what this person that messaged the account said, you know, is spot on because they were thinking, hey, if I show up to this stranger's house where I've never been before, I walk in there with a weapon. Am I being set up? What's going to happen here? Is this really going to go down the way this person is leading me to believe it is? Or am I going to find myself in a bad situation? And in this instance, it was good that they, they sort of didn't go through with it because they might have been the victim here.

• 31:29Speaker 01

  But the other thing that I'm thinking of is, as much as this was planned out, how did Brendan and Juliana not think that this digital trail was going to ultimately kind of lead back to them? I get it. They created the account as Christine. They used her laptop. All of that, like I said, pretty well thought out. Maybe they just thought there would be no way to prove it.

• 32:00Speaker 02

  And I think we see it in a lot of cases. Some aspects of a plan sound well put together, but then there's glaring holes that police often find that cracks the case. And it's a good thing for, for investigators that people that do these devious things make mistakes.

• 32:22Speaker 01

  But think about it this way. I'll ask you the question. Without Juliana's testimony, would they have enough to prove Brendan's guilt? And I'm, at least from my perspective, I don't know that they would have.

• 32:39Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's not overwhelmingly.

• 32:42Speaker 02

  Clear that this account was created by Brendan and all this stuff was carried out by Brendan. You know, who's to say that she somehow didn't set up this account? How do you prove that? You know, it's her laptop that was used and email in her name. I think Juliana was key here in, in giving more information that helped provide answers. Juliana also told the jury that Brendan gave her his personal firearm the morning of the murders. She had no need to run to the closet and use the code to the safe because she had the gun the entire time. An archived story from Juliana's Instagram account in late 2022 showed her firing a gun at a shooting range. It was Brendan who took the photo.

• 33:27Speaker 02

  He had also purchased the gun a few weeks after that photo was taken. Together, this helped show that there was a plan and that it had been in motion for at least two months. It also explains how Juliana was able to hit Joseph Ryan in the heart. She had been practicing shooting.

• 33:43Speaker 01

  All of the windows in the Banfield home had been replaced before the murders. This is a long process and Christine knew about it. So it isn't directly related to the murders, but Brendan's choice to upgrade from double pane windows as originally planned to triple pane windows couldn't have hurt the plan at all. Not only are triple pane windows better at insulating from heat and cold, they dampen sound more too. According to Juliana, Brendan asked her to go into the primary bedroom and scream. So he could see whether or not it could be heard outside. She refused, but did stand in the driveway while he screamed from inside the main bedroom.

• 34:28Speaker 02

  The location of Christine's phone stashed away in a kitchen drawer was a chilling detail. It seems clear that someone wanted to make it impossible for Christine to get any help. Even if she was able to get away from Joseph and made it downstairs, how was she supposed to guess where her phone was? And if she did, she would have to wait for it to turn on before she could dial 911, which we know now was supposed to happen after everything else was done. Christine's phone was turned off at 6:46 a.m. And it turns out that there was an earlier 911 call made by Juliana, but she hung up. And this call was made less than an hour before Christine's phone was turned off.

• 35:08Speaker 01

  And Juliana had an explanation for that first 911 call. At that point, only Joseph had been shot. Christine hadn't been stabbed yet. She was incredibly shaken because in her mind, not only had a stranger just broken into her home while she was asleep, he had started to attack her. Even just a robbery would have been terrifying. But here, there was a man on top of her with a knife. The intruder had been shot. The danger was gone. Now, as a nurse, her instincts kicked in. Someone had been hurt. They needed help immediately. She told Juliana to call 911, so she did. But she hung up because Brendan told her to.

• 35:53Speaker 01

  Almost 15 minutes later, Joseph was dead. Christine had been stabbed and was rapidly bleeding out. Juliana called 911 again, but she didn't know what she was supposed to say. This is why Brendan had to take over that call.

• 36:09Speaker 02

  Brendan wanted to commit the perfect crime and thought about all of the things police might turn to. Cell phone data, internet, social media. And according to Juliana, he tried to account for digital forensic evidence. He didn't just impersonate Christine so that it looked like she had sent messages to her killer. He actually made sure that anytime he did, he did pretend to be his wife or do anything related to one of the secret accounts. He did it while she was home. He knew that if investigators saw that there was activity on the FettLife account while Christine was at work or was out somewhere like at the bank or a gas station where there were timestamps and surveillance cameras, that could prove she wasn't home. And the elaborate ruse he set up would have completely fallen apart.

• 36:54Speaker 02

  He made sure that even if someone looked closely at the data, it would look like it was Christine who had been using her devices to create and use those accounts in her free time. Brendan and Juliana even traded in their cell phones because Brendan was worried that a factory reset wouldn't be enough to hide evidence of their affair, like pictures that Juliana took of the two of them together and their messages to each other. He also told her to get a new Apple ID so that there was nothing in the cloud that could be found.

• 37:21Speaker 01

  And you know me, Morf, I hate to give killers credit for anything. But I do think, you know, you have to really hone in and point out that Brendan went all out. He really tried to think about what the police would look at afterwards. It shows you the level of premeditation here and the level was high.

• 37:48Speaker 02

  Yeah, he thought about all the things that might be looked at by police and he thought of ways to try and overcome them. So he was certainly trying to cover his tracks.

• 37:58Speaker 01

  Brendan's defense attorney had an uphill battle and tried to focus on supposed missteps in the investigation and tension behind the scenes. One detective involved in the case, Brendan Miller, a digital forensic examiner, did believe that the digital forensics indicated that it was Christine, who had been speaking with Joseph Ryan online. Reportedly, the higher ups working the case were upset with Miller coming to that conclusion. And he was eventually moved to a different department. And Major Crimes Deputy Chief Patrick Brush said that as long as he was in charge, Miller would never be doing another digital forensics case. According to homicide detective Leah Smith,

• 38:43Speaker 01

  there was pressure to come to a certain conclusion. She said in court, "We had a briefing within the first week of the incident, where we were discussing everything everybody had done and the information that was collected. Our supervisor at the time told us that there were two theories in the case and we needed to get behind the right one." Basically, the defense argued that Brendan Banfield was being targeted by investigators, who didn't even agree with fellow investigators about what happened in this case.

• 39:16Speaker 02

  There was no evidence produced at the trial by either side that Christine was actually into anything that you would create a FetLife account for, that she ever watched anything sexual at all, like pornography, violent or not, or was interested in having any affairs. She also had no history of using dating apps. She had been with Brendan since she was 18 years old and there was no evidence of affairs she was involved in. When Brendan testified in his own defense, the state was able to ask him about previous affairs he had with women, including one woman who he met on a website for sugar babies. The prosecutor called it a fetish site and Brendan didn't deny the affair or meeting the woman online, but he did deny that it was a fetish site.

• 39:59Speaker 02

  And according to the prosecution, Brendan had talked about getting rid of Christine to other affair partners, not just to Juliana. This is just a reminder of why defense attorneys don't usually want their clients on the stand.

• 40:11Speaker 01

  Yeah, I would say more if it very rarely turns out well, you know, when a defendant testifies. I mean, there is a reason, like you just said, for that old adage that defense attorneys don't want their clients to take the stand. I mean, basically what it does, it opens up to allow the prosecution to ask them all kinds of questions and bring up things that, you know, otherwise probably couldn't be introduced.

• 40:41Speaker 02

  Now, the prosecution can point out that not only was Christine not having affairs or involved in any of this stuff, but Brendan was. So now he looks even more shady to the, to the jury. So you have to wonder what the discussion was behind closed doors between him and his defense team.

• 41:03Speaker 01

  And not only the affairs, but that he had talked about getting rid of Christine to more people than just Juliana. I think that is pretty damning. I do want to go back for just a second and kind of talk about the defense's strategy. I mean, they, they did bring up some good things here that we talked about. You know, it does seem to me as though there was some tunnel vision in this case. Now, it might've been justified. It might have been focused on the right person, but you could see how maybe a jury would take some of this stuff.

• 41:43Speaker 01

  Them saying, hey, you've got to get behind this theory, basically targeting Brendan. You never know, right? How is a jury going to take some of that stuff? Cause it was corroborated by. Some investigators.

• 42:00Speaker 02

  I think if you're the defense team, it's sort of a distraction. It's like, hey, don't look over at Brendan, look over here at what's going on in the investigation because the more the jury looks at Brendan, the more stuff they probably find that they don't like, and it makes him look shady or guilty. So, you know, I, I think the defense attorney tried his best to get the jury focused on something else.

• 42:23Speaker 01

  But the lack of digital data was a clue as well. Brendan and Juliana took a trip to New York together with Valerie. During this time, there was no activity on any of the accounts related to the crime. No emails, nothing on FetLife, no messages on Telegram. This is one of the biggest signs that Christine was not the one using those accounts. She had a completely empty house and didn't invite anyone over for a hookup. She didn't use the time alone to take sexy pictures for her profile or even message anyone.

• 43:00Speaker 02

  According to Juliana, Brendan considered hiring a hitman to kill Christine, but he was concerned about leaving a trial of evidence that would lead right back to him. The communication with the person, the payment, that kind of stuff. The hitman themselves would be a liability because they would be able to reveal who hired them for the job. Too much could go wrong.

• 43:21Speaker 01

  Brendan described the affair with Juliana as not serious, and it seemed somewhat rocky. They broke up multiple times because Juliana wasn't happy. She was only 22 years old. She didn't need to wait around for some married older guy with a child to realize that she deserved a real relationship. Brendan claimed that he and Juliana were in an off again part of their relationship at the time of the murders, but was adamant that this had nothing to do with what happened. In court, Brendan's defense attorney asked the jury, is it reasonable after a six to eight week affair that someone is going to try to get rid of their companion of 19

• 44:05Speaker 01

  years, wife of 12 years, is that reasonable? Although Brendan called the relationship with Juliana nothing serious, the two had discussed baby names and even possibly moving to Brazil together. The defense also tried to cast doubt on Juliana's testimony, but she maintains that she only told the truth on the stand and that she wasn't just trying to save herself. She said, I just couldn't keep it to myself, the feeling of shame and guilt and sadness.

• 44:37Speaker 02

  After Brendan testified on the stand, his work supervisor at the time came forward and asked if he could testify because Brendan had lied on the stand. According to the supervisor, Brendan didn't have any kind of meeting that morning. This was just one more thing that damaged his credibility on the stand. On February 2nd, 2026, Brendan Banfield was found guilty of aggravated murder, child endangerment, and using a firearm while committing or attempting to commit murder.

• 45:06Speaker 01

  Investigators had been proven correct that this case was not as it appeared on the surface and that Christine was the target and Joseph was unfortunately collateral damage. There was no home invasion. Brendan is scheduled to be sentenced on May 8th. He could face life in prison without the possibility of parole. Now, what, one thing that I thought was interesting is that, and we said it, right? The prosecution agreed to recommend a sentence of time served, but ultimately it was up to the judge on Juliana's sentence. And she ultimately was sentenced to 10 years in prison, which to me is a good thing.

• 45:50Speaker 01

  I thought that whole time served thing was way too lenient. Now, I get it, this thing is kind of dragged on, so, I mean, she has already served, I don't know how much time, but. I still thought time served was was too lenient for her.

• 46:11Speaker 02

  Yeah, I think when you conspire to carry out a murder like this for your lover, even if she's not as culpable as he is, you know, it's that sentence just seemed incredibly light. So I'm glad that it was a little bit tougher sentence than they originally were going to give her. So this is a sad case on multiple levels. First, because Christine Banfield, a loving wife and mother, was dead at the hands of her husband and her au pair, someone she trusted to come into her family's life. But also that her husband, who she'd voted so much of her life to, tried to paint his wife in a negative light and sully her reputation, all in an effort to cover up the crime. And let's not forget, poor Joseph

• 46:55Speaker 02

  Ryan. He had never even met the Banfields. He simply showed up at the home expecting some fun between him and another consenting adult, and he lost his life. He was randomly targeted to die in this terrible scheme that Brendan concocted, which shows just how cold-blooded this man is. Let's hope he's sentenced appropriately.

• 47:15Speaker 01

  Yeah, we're less than two months away, right, from when he's supposed to be sentenced. So we'll have to keep an eye on that. But I have to believe that he's going to get life in prison. I mean, obviously, we're talking about murder here. But my assumption is the judge is also going to look at all of the planning, all of the premeditation that went into this thing, and that's going to factor in as well. And and it's not going to be in his favor. Right? This guy was so devious in the way that he schemed this whole thing.

• 47:56Speaker 02

  Yeah, it was very cold and calculated and there's plenty of evidence, it seems like, of how cunning this guy was. You know, we had Juliana sort of spilling the beans about some of the stuff he was doing and that helped lead to a guilty verdict. So, you know, the judge will take that all in consideration and hopefully comes back with a nice stiff sentence for this guy and he has time to think about what he's done.

• 48:23Speaker 01

  And I know I said it before, but I, I really do think without Juliana's testimony, I think this would have been a tougher case. I'm not saying they couldn't have, you know, gotten a conviction, but I, I think it would have been more of a, a struggle. You know, her agreeing to the plea deal, part of which required her to testify truthfully and lay out exactly what the two of them did, I think is ultimately what sunk Brendan. If not, it's, it's possible he could have gotten away with this.

• 49:02Speaker 02

  Yeah, and it's awful what happened to both of these victims, but there's one more victim here that we haven't probably talked about enough and that's Valerie, the, the Vanfield's daughter. She's now lost her mom and her dad because he's going to prison. So what's the rest of her life going to be like?

• 49:24Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's a great point. You know, in, in these cases, so many of them, it's such a, a spider web. You know, one person's decisions, one person's actions affect so many other people, friends, family, coworkers. And for what? I mean, when you really boil it down, what was it all for? Because Brendan wanted out of this relationship. He wanted to be with someone else, but he didn't want to give up money? He didn't want to split custody?

• 50:02Speaker 01

  It's just so amazing to me that people can think along these lines and a lot of people do. They want it all and they are willing to take another person's life to get it.

• 50:18Speaker 02

  Yeah, I think that's what's so mind boggling about these cases. We talk about it a lot, how they go through these great lengths instead of, you know, what we would think would be a reasonable reaction or a conclusion. If you don't want to be with someone, if you want to be with a different person or just out of the relationship altogether, just get divorced, start over. But it seemed like in this case, he wanted the easy way out. He wanted whatever money there was. He wanted custody of their daughter and he just wanted her out of the picture and luckily he didn't get away with it.

• 50:53Speaker 01

  Yeah, absolutely. But that's it for our episode on the Au Pair murders. As always, if you love the show but haven't done so yet, take a minute, go out, leave us a rating, leave a review. Also, keep telling your friends. Word of mouth about the podcast really helps us out.

• 51:11Speaker 02

  If you want to find us on social media, we're on every major platform. Just search for Criminology Podcast on your favorites. You can also check our website, criminologypodcast.com for more information and old episodes. And if you want to join a discussion about the cases we discuss or the show, head over to Facebook and search for Criminology Podcast Discussion and Fans.

• 51:31Speaker 01

  So that's it for another episode of Criminology, but Morph and I will be back with all of you next Saturday night with a brand new episode. So until then, from Mike

• 51:40Speaker 02

  And Morph.

• 51:41Speaker 01

  We'll talk to you next week.

• 51:42Speaker 02

  Take care, everyone.