Crime, Conspiracy, Cults and Murder - Ep. 104 | The Plot Twist Murders That Shocked The Country | Banfield Ryan Murders

Episode Date: April 1, 2026

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Herndon, Virginia, the kind of neighborhood that people move to specifically because nothing noteworthy happens. Where the worst part of your week is a dog barking through the night or a landscaping crew working at 6 a.m. Just five minutes before your alarm goes off. One of the most seemingly unlikely places for tragedy to strike, but it happened. Nobody here was ready for what would happen on the morning of February 24th, 2003. This is the BANfield case. Crime, conspiracy, cults, serial killers, and murder. All things that I love to consume and I know you do too, you're sick, twisted, beautiful, intellectually minded. And for those of you viewing me right now, you're probably like, where the hell are you? Uh, I moved. I moved. And right now,

I'm only showing about 5% of my room because the rest is just blank white, white, walls. So a new background is pending. It's going to be even cozier and nicer than it was before. So just know that the background isn't always going to be this. This is as like cozy and nice as I could make it feel. Being this close is very weird for me. You could see my pores. So get used to that for the next few weeks. But the new background is pending. So that that's coming soon. But let me know what you guys want to see in the background also. Maybe we could maybe we could do a little collaborative. You will, so let me know it down to the comments below. But today, we are talking about a wild plot twist type case.

I was very unfamiliar with it until I read about it, and I'm assuming you are too. So without further ado, let's unbuckle our seatbelts, go mock back on the highway, slam on the brakes, and bustle this windshield into this plot. With a case. All right, so you listen to my show, a show about crime, conspiracy, serial killers, cults, and murder. So you already know your personal data. online is nobody's business but your own. And that's exactly what Surfshark does. Because it's a VPN that encrypts everything you do online. It's extremely important. So your passwords, messages, and browsing history stay completely private. No logs kept ever. And it goes beyond just a basic VPN.

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call me chris for four extra months of Surfshark VPN. Thank you so much to Surfshark for sponsoring the video and supporting the channel, and let's get back to it. Christine Ann Banfield grew up on Long Island, New York, and she was the kind of person who knew exactly what she wanted to do with her life, and then did it. She earned her nursing degree from Kwynopec University in Connecticut, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 2007. And afterwards, she got right to work, starting in the pediatric ICU at Stony Brook Medicine on Long Island, working with sick children and critical cases. So high pressure, high stakes. And she also worked as a pediatric registered nurse at Catholic Health Services. And eventually, Christine became the Seffault County Clinical Supervisor

for the SA Nurse Examiner Program at the V-IBS Family Violence and Rape Crisis Center. And that role put her face-to-face with survivors of sexual violence at the most vulnerable moments of their lives. And she provided emergency medical care with sensitivity to trauma, collected forensic evidence, and took the stand in courtrooms even, and testified about what she had documented. And she earned two additional certifications from the International Association of Forensic Nurses, one focused on adult and adolescent patients, and the other on children. But both required extensive coursework and demanding exams. So this was a woman who chose over and over and a woman. and over again to walk into rooms full of suffering

and do something about it. And in 2019, Christine accepted a position at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, Virginia, where she continued her work in the pediatric intensive care unit and kept her role as an SA nurse examiner. And though it was a new state, she still had the same mission. One of her patients in Virginia

was a man named Rodrigo Vilderama, who contracted COVID and spent weeks in a coma. And when he finally opened his eyes, Christine was the first person he saw, calling her an angel. And he remembered the things she did for him that had meaning to him, like shaving his face and helping him set up a Zoom call

so he could actually see his family for the first time since he'd been admitted. These kinds of details stayed with people who knew Christine. And at home, she was just as present. And she was active in her neighborhood and Facebook group posting about looking for a backyard landscape or asking about a doll hospital to fix her daughter's toy and finding a border facility for the family Husky.

And our Instagram bio reads, quote, My Journey to Health, Strength, and Balance, unquote. So she's a loving mother, a woman who gives time to her patience, her energy to her family, and her attention to the small things. And the man she shared life with had been beside her almost from the very beginning. And that man was Brendan Banfield, who also grew up in New York. And he met Christine when they were both 18 years old, and just freshmen at Quinepeake University.

And they started spending nonstop time together almost immediately. And in Brendan's own words, quote, for the most part, we were pretty inseparable. We were always planning for the future, unquote. And they loved each other dearly. And Brennan studied accounting, and after college, he opened a children's math tutoring center called Mathanasium of Moriques, which he ran for a while.

And in January of 2019, he shifted careers entirely. And he became a criminal investment. actually with the Internal Revenue Services Criminal Division, which made him a special agent and a federal law enforcement officer. And the move to Virginia came that same year. Verstein had taken the nursing position at Inova Fairfax, and their daughter, Valerie, had recently been born. So they sold their property on Long Island,

and in March of 2019, purchased a home at 13230 Stable Brookway in Burndon, Virginia. And it was located in the Hattentown neighborhood, described as an idyllic suburb just outside Washington, D.C. So they had a house and they had their careers and they had a daughter they both adored. And in 2021, they brought on an au pair to help for their toddler while they both worked their very demanding jobs.

So it was a very full and busy life with everything exactly where it should be. And Volderama, the patient Christine had cared for, struck up a friendship with her after his recovery. And he got to know Brendan, too, and invited the family to a gathering at a park near D.C. And when Christine told him she was planning to hire an au pair from South America, Volder Emma, born in Columbia, helped her find restaurants in the area, saying, quote, that was her personality, unquote.

And quote, she wanted the au pair to feel at home, unquote. But even though they were going to get an opair, the Banfields were happily married and doted on their daughter. They both adored. Just a picture-perfect family. But there was something else, something that doesn't quite fit the picture, and that's a profile on FetLife, a dating website built around BDSM, Kink, and Fetish communities. And the profile belonged to Christine.

And the account was created under the name Anastasia 9. The profile photo was a selfie of Christine from the gym, and the content of the profile was explicit, and it described a fantasy, a stranger. your rape fantasy. A man would come to the BANfield home while Christine was asleep, and he would walk in, go straight upstairs to the bedroom, and act out a violent sexual scenario. So a sexual assault nurse examiner who had spent years caring for survivors was now searching for someone to carry out that experience with her. And there were conversations, messages with multiple partners expressing the desire to meet. And finally, when the right man,

was found a date was said and someone was invited to the Banfield home and the man on the other end of those messages was Joseph Nathan Ryan 39 years old from Springfield Virginia a complete stranger to Christine and unbeknownst to her he was supposedly a kind man his mom even called him her best friend and from Ryan's perspective he had stumbled into an exciting and straightforward situation A woman on a fetish website was interested in him, and she was new to the community, attractive, and wanted to explore a consensual fantasy with a stranger, and he connected with Anastasia 9 on February 19, 23, five days before their meeting. The conversation moved to telegram, and details were laid out clearly. He was to arrive at a home in Herndon, Virginia, in the morning of February 24th,

and the front door would be unlocked. And he would go straight upstairs to the master bedroom. And he was told to bring zip ties, chains, and a knife. And he was told not to stop no matter what. And he was instructed to leave his phone in his car. The night before, February 23rd, Anastasia 9 wrote, quote, I'll message you in the morning when you can come in. Aim for 720.

Oh, I forgot to tell you, I do have a dog. She is very nice. but she will be in the basement, unquote. And early the next morning, Ryan sent his reply, quote, leaving in 10-ish, won't show up until 7.20, 7.30, unquote. And a few minutes later, he wrote, quote, leaving now 7.30 ETA traffic, unquote. And the last message from Anastasia 9 came at 6.48 a.m. saying,

okay, I'll be waiting for you, unquote. So Ryan got in his car that morning carrying, everything he was told to bring and drove to meet his new soon-to-be lover. Now, Christine had the day off from work, and she was sound asleep in her bed, and Brendan left the house that morning headed to work, and the au pair left around the same time with four-year-old Valerie. At approximately 7.40 a.m., Ryan pulled into the driveway, the front door was unlocked just as the message had promised, and he walked inside and went upstairs to the master bedroom, carrying his knife and restraints.

And Christine was still asleep. And at 747 a.m., a 911 call was placed from the Opaire's phone lasting eight second, and the dispatcher picked up. And then, call disconnected. And two minutes later, at 749 a.m., the dispatcher tried calling back, but no one answered. And a voicemail was left. And then, silence. And about 15 minutes passed. And at 8 a.m., a second 911 call came through, again from the Opaire's phone. This time, two people were on the line, and the Opaire spoke first, stuttering, basically gasping. Go ahead. 911, where's our emergency?

I need help. There is, my friends, she just was in the mic, now she's playing a lot. I don't know what to do And then Brendan took the phone, identified himself by name and as a federal agent. And his voice was shaking. My name is Brendan Bantfield. I'm a federal agent. This is my house. There's somebody here. I shot him.

He stabbed her. She's bleeding. She's got several marks on her neck. What do I do? Fairfax County police officers arrived at the home shortly afterward. And what they walked into was described as, quote, an unappealing scene, unquote. Because Christine lay unclothed on the floor with seven stab wounds to her neck,

and her torn pajamas lay on the floor beside blood-soaked carpet and blankets. And nearby, Ryan was dead, Christine's supposed new lover, with gunshot wounds to the head and chest, and he was still fully clothed, and a bloody knife was found underneath a blanket near his body, and a bag nearby was filled with spicy accessories and, and restraints. So Christine was rushed to the hospital, but she would be pronounced dead a short time later. And Ryan was pronounced dead at the scene.

And in the basement, officers found Valerie unharmed. The story was horrified. A stranger had entered the home to complete some sort of sexual situation, which ultimately ended with violence. Christine was attacked the knife. Brendan came home, found the attacker on top of his wife and shot him.

And at Brendan's account to the scene matched exactly what the police had found at the scene. He had left work that morning and was nearby when the O'Pere called to alert him that she'd seen a strange man enter the house. He rushed home, but he was too late. Her scene was already dying. And police confirmed that all parties involved had been accounted for. And at this point, there was no ongoing threat to the community and no active search for a suspect because the suspect was dead. So when police arrived at the Banfield home that morning, they found Brendan kneeling on the bedroom floor beside his wife, and he was pressing his hands against the wounds on her neck

trying to stop bleeding. And he rode with Christine in the ambulance to the hospital. And a police officer followed body camera reporting. So you're not hurt anywhere. Is that not your blood, correct? I think it's... All right. You want to slip this jacket off for me so we can evaluate you real quick. And at the hospital, a doctor pulled Brendan aside to tell him how serious Christine's injuries were. I mean, those were enormous wound. and you know, it's not... There was so many. It's not a survival injury.

And he would ask about his daughter and he would wash his hands and he asked to see the hospital chaplain requesting to say a prayer for his wife. And then the doctor came back and Christine was dead. And Brendan just broke down. And the body camera footage captured him sobbing,

his voice cracking as he repeated the same thing over and over. I was starting to apply. Pressure me. As of saying it again, change something just absolute heartbreak. And in the days that followed, the story reached the public, and the headlines were themselves. A woman stabbed to death inside her home in an affluent Washington, D.C. suburb, a husband who told 911 dispatchers he had shot the man responsible, a federal agent

who did what anyone in his position would have done. And Christine's online obituary filled up with tributes from fellow nurses, relatives, and friends. And everyone said the same kind of things. What a dedicated mother she was, how much she gave to her patience, how unfair all of this was. And Brendan was the grieving husband, just heartbroken and left to raise his daughter alone, a single father, a man who had done everything he could, but still lost the woman he loved. And then there was the au pair, Julianne Perez Magallion. And she was 22 years old, a young woman from Brazil who had come to the United States on a work. visa as part of an Opaire exchange program. She arrived at the Banfield home in October of 2021.

A friend from Brazil described how excited Juliana had been about the opportunity. Quote, Juliana wanted to travel and learn English. She was excited because she just graduated from nursing classes and was coming to live with a nurse so they had so much in common." And Christine herself had been thrilled about the arrangement and in an Instagram post from September of 2021 about the family's previous appare she had written about what the program meant to her and she called that opair her daughter's quote unquote best friend her sister her third parent for everything and a lot of people don't understand the opair program but this is it right here it is opening your home and your heart up to someone with big dreams of changing their life well in america and in the

process they changed your life more than you could measure and that was the spirit Christine brought to the program, just open arms and an open home. She wanted these young women to feel like family. And Juliana's mother, Marina, said her daughter, quote, wouldn't hurt a fly, unquote. And on the morning of the murder's body camera footage from the scene showed Juliana outside the home on her knees in the driveway, hyperventilating, unable to catch a breath. But I noticed you've seen it before, like, she was a young and now, dramatized nanny who had witnessed something terrible in the home of the family she lived with. So from the very first day, Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis didn't seem wholly convinced

that the story had actually played out as it was currently presented, saying, quote, I think the person or persons responsible for this are already known to us, unquote. He would tell a reporter. And he would continue, quote, we just have to sort out who was responsible for what, and we have to sort out the exact nature of Mr. Ryan's presence in the home, and we're sorting through all of that right now. We are characterizing the husband and the au pair for now as present and involved,

we're working to determine exactly what that means, unquote. Because at this point, the police did not know about the account that Christine used to get Mr. Ryan there, but the red flags were starting to pop up around this time. And the first one was obvious. There was no forced entry at the, the Bancfield home. The front door had been unlocked, and Ryan, as we know, walked right in.

So if this was a random home invasion, how did he know the door would open? And the chief would make this known publicly that this was not a home invasion. And then there was Brendan's silence. Because in the days that followed the murder, Fairfax County detectives gave Brendan the opportunity to sit down and talk, but he would decline. A man whose wife had just been murdered in their own bedroom and who claimed to have walked in on the attack and shot the killer himself, did not want to answer any more questions. And obviously, he was grieving. His wife had just been murdered.

But he was also a federal law enforcement officer. So he knew how these investigations worked and what cooperation looked like. But he chose not to do those interviews. And then investigators turn their attention to the Fedlight profile. And the Anastasia 9 account had appeared out of nowhere to, just five weeks before the murders. The one detectives pulled Christine Bannfield's complete digital history,

even going all the way back to the mid-2000s, they came up with nothing. In nearly 20 years of internet activity, Christine had never once visited a pornography website and never used a dating app and never searched for fetish content and never communicated with any other men online besides this one time. But another detail that nagged at investigators

was that on two separate, occasions in the weeks before the murders, both Brendan and Juliana had been away from the house for 36 to 48 hours at a time. And during both of those windows, there was zero activity on the FetLife account, the associated Gmail or the telegram messages. So if Christine was the one running those accounts, why did all the activities stop the moment they left? Wouldn't that be prime time to use them? So the digital forensic investigation became complicated. And the lead digital forensic, examiners on the case, Brendan Miller, ran his analysis and reached a conclusion. The FetLife and Telegram activity had originated from Christine's cell phone and laptop.

And in his assessment, there was no evidence that Christine had lost control of her devices. His findings were sent to the University of Alabama for peer review, where they confirmed his conclusions. But Miller's supervisors strongly disagreed, and they argued he had made a critical error in his logic, that tracing activity to Christine's devices was not the same thing as proving Christine was the person using those devices. Because anyone in the household with access to her laptop

would have created and operated those accounts. Miller was eventually pulled off the case and transferred out of the division. And he said he never requested the move and called it retaliation for his conclusions. And his supervisors interned described it as a, quote, performance management decision. The deputy chief Patrick Bruch acknowledged

making statements that he never wanted Miller handling digital evidence investigations again. And then there was the body camera. So when officers had first arrived at the home that morning, they found Brendan on the bedroom floor with his hands pressed against Christine's neck. Blood was visible on both sides of his hands as he was applying pressure to her wounds in an attempt to stop the bleeding. And if you recall, at the hospital, the footage showed him washing his hands there. And this was before investigators had the chance to test. fully. But again, he is a grieving husband who has his wife's blood on his hands. I feel like any

normal person would have the instinct to just wash that off. So still, no charges were filed. And the case would go quiet publicly, leaving online communities following the story restless. But behind the scenes, Fairfax County detectives were pulling apart every single thread, and the investigation focus was shifting in a way that the public couldn't quite see yet. So as the investigation deepened, one piece of evidence began to rise above everything else, and that was the blood. Bloodstained pattern analysis became the centerpiece of this case. And what forensic analysts found on Ryan's body didn't seem to match the story Brendan told,

because blood behaves differently depending on how it arrives on a surface. A drop that falls from a height leaves a different mark than one that sprays through the air during a struggle. And blood that transfers through direct contact, like a hand pressing against skin or a finger dragging across fabric, looks nothing like blood that splatters during a violent attack. And those distinctions matter a lot. That's why they based a whole show off of Dexter. I mean, I know he was a serial killer, but he was a blood analyst, and all that stuff is extremely interesting and extremely important in these types of cases. And it's because they can tell you whether blood ended up where it was found naturally or whether someone put it there. on purpose. As Brian had stabbed pristine Banfield seven times in the neck, as Brendan described,

his body should have been covered in blood as it comes from wielding a knife in a frantic violent attack, an airborne spray, impact splatter, the chaotic patterns that an active struggle leaves behind. That evidence wasn't there. And what forensic analysts found instead were transfer stains. Blood that had been pressed onto Ryan's skin by a surface or hand that was already, wet with it, not the mark of a man in the middle of an attack. It was the mark of something placed. And on Ryan's forearm, analysts identified droplets that had fallen from above, and they landed on skin that was completely still and flat.

And that drip pattern ran from his wrist toward his elbow, meaning his arm was lying motionless when the blood hit it. And blood on his face had flowed in multiple directions. And that told analysts his body had been repositioned. while the blood was still wet, and that he had been moved after he was already down. And on his hand, forensic examiners found a blood stain with gaps between the fingers, spaces where the fingers had been slightly apart when the blood was pressed onto the palm. And that does it match the hand of a man who gripped a bloody knife?

It matches a hand that had been still while someone placed blood onto it. And on his right leg, the analysts revealed transfer marks that were finger-like in shape. side by side parallel. Patterns consistent with someone, again, pressing bloody fingers against his skin deliberately. And additionally, finger-shaped transferring stains carrying Christine Banfield's DNA were found on Ryan's genes. So taken together, the blood told a story that contradicted

basically everything Brendan had said on the 911 call. This wasn't a home invasion gone wrong. This was a crime scene that had been staged. that 15-minute gap between the 911 calls now had a possible explanation. Let's take a quick pause to talk about something extremely important, and that is you and your health. And something that is absolutely delicious and can help with that is Brotto. Thank you to Brato for sponsoring this video.

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Basically everything stress destroys. So try it for yourself and head to brotto.com slash ccccm for 20% off your first subscription order and use code cccm for an additional $10 off. Once again, that's brotto.com slash cccm for 20% off your first subscription order and the additional $10 off if you use my promo code CCCM. I love Browdo. Brasau's broth, and thank you so much to Brotto for sponsoring this video and supporting the channel, and let's get back to it. So every examined thread pointed in the same direction, and that's when the relationship came into focus. Brendan and Juliana had been sleeping together, and investigators determined the affair had begun in August of 2022, roughly 10 months after

she first moved into the home and around six months before Christine was killed. And the evidence wasn't subtle either. His detectives uncovered photographs Juliana had posted on social media, the two of them in what appeared to be a hot tub, and his hand resting on her leg at what looked like a restaurant, and another image of them together in a casual setting. Yet in every single photo, Brendan's face was hidden. He knew what he was doing, and police chief Davis confirmed the story for the public, saying, quote, We know Brendan Manfield and Juliana were involved in a romantic. relationship at the time of the murders." And on October 13, 23, nearly eight months after Christine's death,

investigators returned to the Banfield home with a search warrant. And the master bedroom that once belonged to Christine had completely transformed. Juliana had moved in. Her clothes were hanging in the closet. Her lingerie was scattered around the room. And on the nightstand sat a framed photograph of Brendan and Juliana together. and a second framed photo of the couple was found on a dresser. This is the same woman that had been on her knees in the driveway, hyperventilating,

gasping to officers that there was a lot of blood. And now she was living as Brendan's girlfriend in the room where his wife had been murdered. And six days later, on October 19th, Fairfax County Police arrested Juliana, and the charge was second-degree murder in the death of Joseph. of Ryan. And the reasoning was that Ryan had been shot twice by two different firearms. Brendan's shot had struck Ryan in the head, but she had fired the second bullet from a different gun, and that shot hit Ryan in the chest and tore through his heart.

And the medical examiner confirmed it was the second shot that killed him. Ryan had already been incapacitated, so there was no justifiable reason for her to pull the trigger. And that purpose of the second bullet was put in blunt terms. The gun was used, used to, quote unquote, eliminate the only living witness. And at her bond hearing, a judge denied bail, and Juliana had obtained a new passport after police had seized her original one, but she wasn't going anywhere.

And for a year after her arrest, she said nothing. But behind jail walls, things were unraveling. She wrote letters to family complaining about her lawyer, and she wrote to friends about her complicated relationship with Brendan, who she claimed still wanted to move to Brazil with her. and authorities were monitoring her calls. And in one reported conversation, Brendan's mother, Teresa, who was paying for Juliana's legal defense,

by the way, which is fucked up, discussed what happened to snitches in jail. And in another call, Juliana said to Brendan directly, quote, I hope you are not just staying with me because you are afraid I'm going to turn against you, unquote. And Brendan told her to keep her mouth shut. Because remember, he's a federal agent, and he knows exactly what to say. But she wouldn't. And after a 10-day hospital stay in October of 2024,

something inside her broke. And on October 25th, she sat down with investigators and gave a detailed record interview. And she told them everything. And when asked why she finally decided to cooperate, she simply said, quote, the thought of being the right thing to do, I guess. The world deserved to know what really happened,

and I just couldn't hold it. I just couldn't keep it to myself. The feeling of shame and guilt and sadness and all those feelings underfoot. And what she told, investigators changed everything. His Brendan did not rush home to save his wife, as we know, and he did not stumble upon a stranger attacking Christine in their bedroom.

He was not a hero, he was the architect of the entire thing. It was all Brendan's design. But as we know, the truth was out. The affair between Brendan and Juliana indeed began in August of 2022. She had been living in the Banfield home for 10 months at that point. caring for Valerie and sharing the same roof

as Brendan and Christine every day. But what started simply as a professional arrangement turned into something else. It moved fast. And according to Juliana, within weeks of the relationship becoming sexual, Brendan began talking about a future together, but there was a problem.

Divorce would cost money, and it would mean splitting custody of Valerie. And Brendan didn't want either of those things. He wanted Christine gone. And according to Juliana's account, in account, Brendan first proposed the idea of hiring, a hitman, but decided it was too risky. Too many variables, so he designed something else entirely.

The plan was this. Create a fake profile of a fetish website using Christine's identity. Lure a stranger to the house under the pretense of consensual sexual encounter, have that stranger walk into the bedroom carrying weapons, then killed a stranger and Christine both. Afterwards, staging the scene, so it looked like a home invasion gone wrong. And the stranger would take the blame for Christine's death. And Brendan would be the grieving husband who arrived too late to save her,

but just in time to shoot the intruder. But two murders with zero suspects. And the preparation was methodical in the work of a man who understood how criminal investigations operate and what they look for on a professional level. Except for the bloodstains, you fucking idiot monster. So Brendan took Juliana to the Silver Eagle Group shooting range in Ashburn, Virginia. where he taught her how to handle a firearm. Range records confirmed they visited together twice in the months leading up to the murders.

And on January 28, 23, Brendan went back to the Silver Eagle alone. And he purchased a Glock pistol for $558. And the serial number on the receipt matched the firearm recovered from the crime scene that Juliana used to fire the fatal shot. And in the days before, February 24th, Brendan had all the windows in the house replaced with soundproof glass. You know, he's supposed to be like this really smart federal officer.

Like, the amount of just like, I absolutely murdered my wife or like prepped to murder my wife. Evidence is insane. Like, I could have solved this just looking at, oh, they did, you know, you removed them with soundproof windows. And you went to the gun range with Juliana,

which you haven't ever done. before and you bought a gun? Like, I don't know. I think he is the dumbest, idiot, just piece of shit husband. I just, it's just insane how obviously disgusting these people are, but just how stupid they are as well, which, thank God, you know, thank God. But this case just periods me. But to continue, then he would test those windows by standing in the master bedroom and screaming while Juliana went outside to listen. Yeah. And he walked the neighborhood on foot, checking whether any of his neighbors had surveillance cameras that could capture activity at the house. And four days before the murder, Brendan and Juliana traded in their cell phones for new ones and created fresh

Apple ID accounts wiping their communication trail clean. The evidence is screaming at us, you know? Like, what did they think was they just weren't going to look? Oh, I guess they just assumed that the police would be like, open, open and close case. It looks like he's a, this is a crazy sexual violence guy and she made an account and that's it. Like that's, you murder. She was murdered. They're going to look a little deeper. Anyway, but he would completely change his morning routine leading up to that day as well, establishing a new pattern. He wanted to make sure his movements on the morning of the murders would look normal to anyone reviewing them later. And at various points during the planning, Juliana told Brendan she didn't want to go through with it.

She said she wanted out, but he told her it was too late to back out. And on January 9th, 2023, using Christine's own laptop while she was home, they created a Gmail account. And on January 17th, they used that account to build the Anastasia 9 FetLife profile. And they uploaded one of Christine's gym selfies as the profile photo, which Christine had sent to Brendan over Facebook Messenger that same day. These evil, evil people. Like, his beautiful, caring, just angel of a wife is just out there saving lives, making everybody else's lives better, and taking the time to send photos to her husband that she adores. And they just do this.

That's just divorce is an option. But he would download and edit that photo before posting. And they used Christine's devices deliberately so that everything would trace back to her laptop, her phone's location, and her digital footprints. If investigators ever came looking, the trail would lead straight to the dead woman. And through the profile, they communicated with multiple men through the site, shopping for a very specific kind of person, someone willing to play out an aggressive scenario and bring weapons to the house, and Joseph Ryan, unfortunately, get the role. And he connected with Anastasia 9 on February 19th. Brendan directed Juliana to handle the

telegram conversations with Ryan in the following days to finalize details. She said that Ryan, quote, made Brendan feel confident enough that he would be the person to play the role that he needed a person to play, which means being aggressive and hold her down and come over to the house and bring stuff. Ryan had no clue who he was actually talking to. And no clue of the horrors in store for him. Everything moved on schedule that morning. And Brendan and Juliana woke early using Christine's laptop to send the final message with Ryan. Brendan unlocked the front door and he checked,

scene's phone and then powered it off and tucked it inside a drawer in a kitchen bar cart and he handed juliana the clock and she put it in her pocket and brendon kept his irs issued service weapon on him and juliana left the house with valerie and drove to a nearby cul-de-sac where she parked and waited and brendon drove to a mcdonalds down the road and surveillance footage captured him ordering food at the drive-thru at 718 a m this guy had the fudacity to get a mcm before murdering his wife. And then he parked, walked inside, and entered the bathroom at 7.29 a.m. And Christine was still asleep upstairs.

And at about 7.40 a.m., Ryan pulled into the driveway, and Juliana saw his car arrive. So she set the cover story in motion. And she called Christine's phone first, and it went straight to voicemail, exactly as planned. And then she called Brendan. And on paper, both calls would look like a panicked au pair trying to alert the family that a strange man had just walked into their home. And at 7.37 a.m., Brendan walked out of the McDonald's bathroom with his phone pressed to his ear. Call logs confirm it was Juliana on the line, and he walked to his car and drug away. Back at the house, Brendan arrived and entered through

the basement door, and Juliana followed him inside. And they left Valerie in the basement. Then they went upstairs. They left their baby daughter in the basement to murder. her mother. The level of evil and just the level, I just, it makes me sick to my stomach. But in the bedroom, Ryan was with Christine, and he was fully clothed and she was unclothed. And he had a knife and restraints that he had been told to bring for a consensual that he thought encounter with a willing woman. And Brendan burst through the door yelling police officer. And Christine screamed, saying quote unquote, Brendan, he has a knife. but she had no idea.

He was the reason a stranger was standing in her bedroom with a blade. And Ryan looked up, shocked and confused. But Brendan fired. And the shot struck Ryan in the head, and he went down immediately. And then Brendan asked Juliana to get him a towel. And when she came back, she saw him on top of Christine stabbing her in the neck with the knife that Ryan had carried into the house. Quote, when I was bringing him the towel, he got on top of her, and that's when I first saw him stab her with a knife. And she described, crouching on the other side of the bed, covering her ears and covering her eyes.

Oh, isn't that convenient for you, Juliana? You get to just cover your eyes and your ears while an innocent woman is being murdered. I just, again, rotting in hell. I hope these people rot. and burn in hell. Quote, a few times I looked and I was able to see him stabbing her. And then Brendan told Juliana to shoot Ryan. So she pulled the Glock from her pocket and fired into Ryan's chest.

With both of them down, the staging began. And Brendan moved Ryan's body and he took Christine's blood and transferred it onto Ryan, dripping it onto his forearms, pressing it onto his hands and smearing it onto his jeans, making it look like Ryan had been the one wielding the knife. And then came the finishing crutches. The final 911 call. And at 7.47 a.m., the first call went out from Juliana's phone lasting eight seconds. And only groans were heard on the line.

And then a disconnect. And at 749, the dispatcher called back. No answer. And at 8 a.m., the second call, Juliana stuttering and gasping. Brendan taking the phone and identifying himself as a federal agent. My name is Brennan Bantfield. I'm a federal agent. This is my house. There's somebody here. I shot him. He stabbed her. She's bleeding. She's got several marks on her neck. What do I do? What do I do? And the almost 15 minutes between those two calls were what it took to build this lie.

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So for 570 days after the murders, Brendan was a free man. And he continued living in the same house where his wife had been stabbed dead. And he was no longer employed by the IRS, as confirmed by the agency, but he had not been charged with anything. And the case appeared stalled. Weeks turned into months and months turned into a year and then longer.

But prosecutors were waiting for something specific. Fairfax County Commonwealth's attorney Steve DeSano would later explain, quote, We did not authorize charges against Brendan Banfield until after we got the blood analysis done. That is what we were waiting for." The blood analysis was the drip patterns, the transfer marks and stage placement of Christine's blood onto Ryan's body. Without it, they had suspicion, digital inconsistencies, and a circumstantial frail. But with it, they had physical evidence that the crime scene had been manufactured.

And on September 17th, 2014, Fairfax County Police arrived at Brandon's home and arrested him. And he was indicted on multiple counts of aggravated murder and the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony. And officials described new evidence uncovered during the investigation as, quote-unquote, instrumental in securing charges. And police chief Davis stood in front of cameras and reflected on the road that brought them here, saying, quote, I knew, I suspected, I had a feeling that there was a lot more to what met the eye that morning. And certainly it has taken a road. 570 days later, where we are finally in a position to announce that two persons are being charged and held responsible and introduced to our criminal justice system for these two murders.

And he had also made clear they weren't done, saying, quote, this isn't over, we're not spiking the football or not celebrating. Weeks after Brendan's arrest, Juliana formalized her plea deal, and on October 29, 2024, she pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter, which... This was planned. This is first-degree murder. She was in on the plan, so that's... I hate that that's an option.

Like, I understand it because we want Brendan in jail, but I hate that plea deals are a thing. So, because she helped plan this murder, and she should be in jail until she's dead, but I digress. Prosecutors would recommend time served in exchange for her full testimony against Brandon. And then in December of 2024, a grand jury returned additional indictments against him,

and one count of felony, child abuse, and neglect. And one count of felony, child cruelty. And the charges stemmed from the fact that Brendan had deliberately placed his own young daughter in the basement of the home while he went upstairs to murder her mother. And his full charge sheet now read, four counts of aggravated murder, one count of using a firearm in the commission of a felony, two counts of child abuse with disregard for life, one count of child cruelty, and he pleaded not guilty to all of them.

The road to trial was not a smooth one. The eternal conflict within the Fairfax County Police Department over the digital evidence caused some trouble. Detective Brendan Miller's transfer off of the case and the disagreements between investigators over who was really behind the Fetlight profile remained a source of attention. And homicide detective Leah Smith revealed that within the first one, week of the investigation, a supervisor had called a meeting and told the squad, quote, there were two theories and they needed to get behind the right one, quote. And Smith pushed back

and said, quote, at this point in time, nobody should have a theory in this case, that we are still at the very beginning and we should still be investigating and gathering facts and information, unquote. An investigators had also conducted a 30-minute forensic interview with the Banfield's daughter after the murders. But a judge blocked her statements from being used as evidence. Nearly three years after Christine and Joseph Ryan were killed, the case was finally headed to court. In Commonwealth attorney, DeSano reflected on the long wait, saying, quote, My hope is, with this, is that he realizes he didn't get away with it. And I know that sounds cliche, but I think through the evidence,

you can see a lot of things that he set up trying to get away with it, thinking that he was going to beat the system, unquote. So on January 12, 2026, the trial of Brendan Banfield began in Fairfax. County Circuit Court. And Judge Penny Ascarate presided. And the same judge who had overseen the famous Depp v. Her defamation trial. From a pool of 80 potential jurors, nine men and seven women were selected, 12 jurors and four alternates. But at that point, the case had drawn so much attention in the area that during jury selection, jurors were warned to avoid all media coverage. And the trial was expected to last four weeks. And the prosecution called approximately 20 witnesses

over four days plus two additional rebuttal witnesses. The defense brought their own, including law enforcement officers, a digital forensic analyst, and a bloodstained expert. But in the end, the trial came down to two people, Juliana and Brendan himself. Juliana took the stand as the prosecution star witness. She told the jury, the affair, the planning, the months of preparation, the morning choreography,

and then all the gruesome details of the murders in the bedroom. The defense did everything it could to tear her apart. An attorney John Carroll spent hours on cross-examination, and his most effective weapon was Julianna's own words that she had written from inside the Fairfax County Jail. In letters to Brendan after her October 2023 arrest, she had promised she would never cooperate. She wrote to Brendan's mother, Teresa,

describing the separation from Brendan as torture. And she wrote that she would rather die than live like this and cannot bear living without him. And then Carol produced the Netflix letter. In a letter to her family in Brazil, she had claimed that Netflix offered her $10,000 for exclusive rights to her story. And she wrote, quote, I want a higher amount, especially since my whole life will be exposed to everyone, right?

And they're going to be making a lot of money off of it. We deserve something, unquote. Carol went straight at her saying, quote, You were charged with murder because you shot someone, am I wrong? And Giuliana would say, no, you're not. And the defender said back, and so why would you deserve something because of that? And Giuliana would say, not because of that, I didn't say I deserved something because of what I did, unquote. Again, Juliana is a literal, disgusting monster, along with Brandon, but to just like the Netflix deal and all this, it's just it.

Again, it makes me sick to my stomach. But Carol hammered her memory as well, and she had admitted on the stand that she'd blocked out some of the details of the plot and the murders, saying, quote, the brain has a way of protecting you, unquote, she told the jury. And Carol sharply responded, saying, quote, so your brain blocked out the details of this plan that essentially your future depends upon, unquote. But there was another detail that surfaced during the defense's case that painted a devastating picture. A victim's services worker testified that during a forensic interview after the murders,

Valerie had asked Juliana a question and said, quote unquote, can I call you mommy now? Like, you just have to assume that she was groomed to know that her mom would be around anymore. But then, Valerie asked if the two of them would get married. And Juliana answered, I wish. And though it was a seemingly small moment, anything involving the pain and struggle that child has and will have to endure going forward is heart wrenching. And the critical blood evidence was presented to the jury through expert testimony. And the prosecution's forensic analyst, Iris Daly Graff, spent nearly an entire day walking the jury through her findings. And when crime scene photographs of Joseph Ryan's body were shown for the first time,

a woman in the victim's family's seating area dropped her head and closed her eyes. And Daly Graff laid out what the blood told her. They were transfer stains on Ryan's body, not splatter from an active attack. And droplets on his forearm that had fallen from above onto his skin that was flat still. and blood on his face that had flown in multiple directions, indicating his body had been repositioned. The blood stain on his hand with gaps between his fingers, signaling blood that was pressed onto a motionless palm

and finger-like transfer marks on his right leg. And Christine's DNA on transfer stains found on Ryan's genes. And her conclusion was that Joseph Ryan's body had been moved after death, and Christine's blood had been deliberately placed onto his hands, clothing, and skin. The defense countered with their own expert, Leanne Singley, who disagreed with some of Daly Graf's classifications, particularly four stains on Ryan's forearm. But under cross-examination, Singley conceded she could not definitively

rule out the opposing expert's conclusions. And then the prosecution destroyed Brendan's alibi. And he had claimed on the stand that the reason he left home on the morning of February 24th was because of an important meeting with the IRS managers that potentially could have led to a promotion. The prosecution called his IRS supervisor, and no such meeting happened. This guy is the dumbest human being I've ever heard of, for real. But there was no meetings on the books. In fact, every manager who would have attended was out of the state that day, and one was even out of the country. So this was incredibly damaging to Brendan's alibi.

Because if Brendan had made up his reason for leaving the house that morning, what else could he have lied about? And that's when Brendan made a risky move. And he would take the stand himself. And I feel like we see this would just quintessential, narcissistic, psychopathic people that go on the stand or represent themselves like a Ted Bundy or something. It's like they think they can outsmart the justice system, but they are actually stupid.

But it was by far the most dramatic moment of the trial. And he would come out swinging. And he called the prosecution's theory absolutely crazy and absurd. And he told the jury he loved his wife very much, and that they were pretty inseparable. Be inseparable. Why wouldn't you just say inseparable? Weird, and he acknowledged the affair with Juliana,

but waved it off as just an affair. And he said he had others before, and this one would never have changed marriage. And he claimed he and Juliana broke up at different points and worked together on the day of the killings. But then he went even further, and he told the jury that Christine had never. about his last two previous affairs, and even claimed that Christine herself had affairs,

including one that involved the BDSM relationship. Even in her grave, he is defiling her. And he testified that his wife, who had spent years as a sexual assault nurse examiner, had a specific interest in sexual violence and had brought home case documents containing graphic images. And he did everything he could to show the FetLife profile was Christine. not his. And when it came to the bedroom scene, Brendan gave his version as he had to the police. He entered with his service weapon drawn,

and he found Ryan over his naked wife, and he announced himself as law enforcement, and Christine screamed, and he watched Ryan stab Christine and he fired, but he also added another detail now. He claimed that after Ryan was down, Christine spoke to him and said, quote, Christine told me that she was bleeding out and that she was sorry, And she loved her.

Oh, isn't that a nice little cherry on top? But on cross-examination, prosecutor Jenna Sands went after the map. Steen had been stabbed seven times in the neck with an eight-cutting wound. If Brendan had shot Ryan the moment the stabbing began, when did the other wounds happen? Quote, the knife is inside of her hair, unquote. Brendan answered, quote, I can't tell the movement, unquote. Sands would describe his time on the stand as dishonest and cold, saying,

quote, he showed absolutely no human emotion that we'd expect to see of someone in that position, unquote. And in closing arguments, she laid everything out one final time, saying, quote, he executed his plan to murder his wife and an innocent stranger. He was in love with Juliana. He can pretend this was a fling and affair. He had them before, no big deal. He was in love with Juliana. He was afraid of losing her.

he needed to get rid of his wife so that they could be together, unquote. And she reminded the jury that Brendan had given, quote unquote, zero explanation for why Christine's blood was smudged on Ryan's hand with gaps between the fingers. And she asked why a woman who struggled with a blood-clotting disorder, her whole life would seek out sexual knife play with a stranger. And she pointed to Valerie saying, quote, he left her in the basement knowing that Joe Ryan was upstairs. He left her in the basement while he shot and killed Joe Ryan." And defense attorney John Carroll made his final case to the jury built around one question. Reasonable doubt. Quote, is it reasonable after a six to eight week affair that someone is going to try to get rid of the companion of 19 years,

her wife of 12 years? Is that reasonable? Of course it is. With the evidence. But he pointed to the digital forensic experts confirming the Fet Life Act. could only be traced to Christine's devices. And he reminded the jury of the tension in fighting within the police department. And he attacked Giuliana as a liar who had been handed a sweetheart deal in exchange

for saying exactly what prosecutors wanted to say. So the jury received the case at 1233 p.m. on Friday, January 30th, 2026. And they deliberated for the rest of the afternoon. With no verdict reached, they were sent home for the weekend. And on Monday, February 2nd, they returned at 10 in the morning. and picked up where they left off. And the deliberation stretched through most of the day, nearly nine hours of total discussion across the two days.

And then the final verdict came. Guilty, two counts of aggravated murder, one count of using a firearm in the commission of a felony, and one count of child endangerment. And Brandon Manfield showed almost nothing as the verdict was read aloud. No tears, no collapse, no reaction at all. He simply looked at the jury as they proclaimed his guilt. The same man who had sobbed at the hospital when a doctor told him Christine was dead.

The same man who had shaken his head and shed tears while body camera footage played back in the courtroom. The man stood motionless as a jury told him its freedom was over and the judge scheduled sentencing for May 8th, 2026. And since we are now only in March, Brendan faces life in prison without the possibility of parole plus an additional 13 years. and prosecutors confirmed that victim impact statements are planned to be read at the sentencing hearing. And after the verdict, Commonwealth's attorney DeSano called Brendan's actions what they were. Quote, monstrous. I hope he thinks about his wife in jail and about what a heinous thing he did. Because that's something he's rightfully going to have to live with for the rest of his life.

The details of this case attracted national attention because it involved an affair, a fetish website, and a premeditated plot. But beyond the spectacle, we are here today because of the tragic deaths of two of our community members, Christine Banfield and Joseph Ryan. And when he was asked whether the outcome might have been different without Julianna's cooperation, Sano said, quote, the case was about the blood. The case was always going to be about the blood. We knew that before we even charged this case. And Juliana was scheduled to be sentenced on February 13, 26. Under the terms of her plea deal, she faced up to 10 years in prison for her manslaughter conviction, though prosecutors recommended time served.

And if the court agreed, she would be released and likely deported to her home country as a Brazilian national. And in the courtroom throughout the trial, Christine's parents sat on one side. And her father, Gary Benson, who testified about Christine's lifelong blood clotting disorder, watched every day of proceedings. And on the other side of the aisle sat Brendan's mother. and she had paid for Juliana's defense up until she turned against her son. And Ryan's mother, Deirdre Fisher, had spoken publicly long before the trial reached its conclusion. And she remembered every detail of the moment she learned her son was dead, saying, quote,

I remember when I got the call from the detective, I could hear my own voice screaming, quote. And when Brendan was arrested in September of 2024, Fisher had said, quote, I was grateful they arrested my son's murderer. and her position never wavered from supporting her son. Quote, Joe never, at 39, had ever struck a woman or been violent with a woman, unquote. She told reporters, quote, you don't just all of the sudden wake up and decide you're going to be a killer, unquote. He was a stranger who walked through an unlocked door believing he was meeting a willing woman. He was executed as part of someone else's plan. And then there's Valerie, six years old now with a custody decision that still needs to be made.

and she'll never know her mother outside of extremely early memories. And she'll only know her father from the other side of a jail cell. Police Chief Davis said, quote, we're taking care of the child, we're working with other family members to make sure that child is cared for, we're going to do what's right by that child. The truest victim of all is that four-year-old, unquote. The case came terrifyingly close to working.

Brendan used his expertise as a trained federal agent who understood how criminal investigations operate to meticulously stage a crime scene. If the blood hadn't told a different story, if detectives hadn't noticed that the FetLife activity stopped every time Brendan left town, and if Juliana hadn't eventually decided to turn against him, then Brendan Banfield might still be living in that house on Stable Brookway,

with his daughter and with a new light, with no one ever knowing what really happened in that bedroom. But the blood did tell the story. And in the end, so did the person who was, supposed to keep her mouth shut. So thank God police did their due diligence. I mean, the investigation work is extremely detailed and I'm so grateful that they handled this case how they did. And my heart goes out to Valerie Banfield and the rest of the family and Ryan's family as well. It's just absolutely devastating. But I'm so happy that the justice system worked in this case.

And I'm praying that he gets the right sentencing and that he never sees the outside of a prison cell for the rest of his life. But that is the end of this case. If you have any other cases you want me to look into, please let me know down below. I always read the comments and until then I will see beautiful face. Stay safe out there.