Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - HUBBY-FROM-HELL: IRS REP KILLS WIFE VIA FETISH WEBSITE, "HOT NANNY" LOVE TRIANGLE

Episode Date: January 16, 2026

Brendan Banfield is now on trial for the murder of his wife, Christine, and the prosecution's star witness is Banfield's lover, the family's former nanny. Juliana Peres Magalhaes, who was also charged, has agreed to testify as part of a plea deal. In exchange for her testimony, she will plead to the lesser charge of manslaughter, then walk free for time served. She will then be deported back to Brazil. The murder plot unfolded as Christine Banfield planned a fun day for her 4-year-old daughter, with a trip to the National Zoo with her Brazilian au pair, Magalhaes. The adult and child leave for the day, but turn around when Peres Magalhaes realizes she forgot their bagged lunches. Arriving at the house, the au pair sees a car she doesn't recognize, and a man she doesn't know entering the house. Confused, she calls her employer, Brendan Banfield, who tells her to stay in the car, and that he will be right home. Banfield is at the house in minutes, and they enter the house together. The au pair takes the 4-year-old girl to the basement while Brendan Banfield goes upstairs to the master suite. Brendan Banfield finds his wife, Christine, nude, with a man he doesn't know, holding a knife to her throat. Banfield tells cops he tells the man to put the knife down, but he starts stabbing the 37-year-old mother. Brendan Banfield carries a gun as an IRS Special Agent, and he draws his service revolver and shoots the man in the head. The intruder is wounded and down on the ground. Banfield calls for Peres Magalhaes and tells the au pair to get his personal gun, a Glock, out of the bathroom safe. Giving her the code, the au pair retrieves the Glock and, at Banfield's direction, shoots Joseph Ryan through the heart as he is lying on the ground. Investigators say, however, they believe the story told by Brendan Banfield and the nanny is a ruse. Someone created the profile on the Adult Fetish website, pretending to be Christine Banfield, as part of an elaborate plan to kill Christine Banfield so her husband, Brendan, and their Brazilian live-in Au Pair could be together. Investigators found pictures of Banfield and the au pair together in the Banfield bedroom, and Peres Magalhaes' clothes were found hanging in Banfield's closet. Joining Nancy Grace today: Paul Batista - Prominent Criminal Defense Lawyer in NYC and Best-selling Novelist. Author of the textbook, "Civil RICO, Fourth Edition"  Dr. John Delatorre -  Licensed Psychologist and Mediator (specializing in forensic psychology); Psychological Consultant to Project Absentis: a nonprofit organization that searches for missing persons; X, IG, and TikTok - @drjohndelatorre Dr. Kendall Crowns - Chief Medical Examiner Tarrant County (Ft Worth), Host of Podcast, "Mayhem in the Morgue," and Lecturer: Burnett School of Medicine at TCU (Texas Christian University) Gigi McKelvey - Journalist, Host of the podcast “Pretty Lies and Alibis” prettyliesandalibis.org, Facebook, IG, TikTok: @PrettyLiesAndAlibis, Twitter: @PrettiesLiesAlibi  Sydney Sumner  - Investigative Reporter, ‘Crime Stories’  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A husband from hell. An IRS agent allegedly murders his wife through a fetish website because of a hot nanny love triangle. Their words not mime. A hot nanny love triangle? I'm Nancy Grace.

This is crime stories. I want to thank you. Thank you for being with us. Did a glamorous opair scheme an elaborate murder plot where her boss turned lovers, wife is found stabbed dead? Husband has said I have shot somebody because they were stabbing my wife. This is not just a homicide. This is a double homicide.

Sir, hello. Ma'am, can you hear me? Oh, who let me? Okay. Are you the one that was injured? She's not responding. She's one in one. He's breathing.

Okay. Can you tell me how her breathing is? I just how her breathing is. She's still, she's still breathing. Okay. Just keep applying pressure to where she's bleeding from and just put her on her side, okay? On your side? Yeah, on her side.

You said she's breathing normally, she's just not responding to you? She's got a very big hole in her neck. She's got it. Okay. Just keep up the high pressure, okay? Just keep adding more problems that's already there. Wait a minute. Before I go out to our investigative reporter Gigi McElvey,

let me start with veteran trial lawyer defense attorney Paul Batista, prominent criminal defense attorney in New York, bestselling author of Sibyl Rico 4th. Rico fourth edition. Paul Batista, that was the husband? He didn't sound very upset. He's just like, oh, yeah, she's got a big hole in her neck.

Well, he didn't sound good old. If I came home and found my husband with a hole in his neck, I'd be screaming at the top of my lungs. I may have to play that again. The big affect of his voice makes no difference whatsoever. He's a calling to report a crime. There are very different voices, very different tones of voice. I don't think that indicates anything, Nancy.

You know what? Let me see, Batista. Batista, you can only get just so far on charm and good looks. But you do have that going for you. So you say, this doesn't mean anything. I'm going to hear that again. And listen for this. Now, you got the hot nanny.

Their words, not mine. I did not call this a hot nanny love triangle. Oh, and look at that mouth full of red lipstick. That's a showstopper. Oh, and in every quote, candid picture. But wait for it. I want you to hear them. Do you think they're going like, instead of saying she's breathing, she's breathing, translation, oh, my story, she's still breathing.

Why won't she die? Okay, listen. Sir, hello. Ma'am, can you hear me? That's all right. Oh, hello. Okay. Are you the one who was injured?

She's not responding. She's not one in one. Okay. Can you tell me how her breathing is? I just how her breathing. She's still, she's still breathing. Okay. Just keep applying pressure to where she's bleeding from and just put her on her side, okay? On your side?

Yeah, on her side. You said she's breathing normally, she's just not responding to you? She's got a very big hole in her neck. Okay. Just keep applying pressure, okay? Just keep adding more problems that's already there. Okay, I have to act this out. I hope Dr. Delatory that you can see this. They're like, um, she's not responding. She's still breathing. I ask a pretty big hole in her neck. That's what it sounds like to me, Delotory. It does. It sounds very stilted. Yeah, it sounds stilted. It sounds rehearsed. It sounds like this was always meant to be kind of a teleplay that they were always meant to say when as soon as they got on the computer

as soon as they got on the phone. I think that the expectation is that if you really did stumble upon this scene and everything unfolded accurately, you'd be way more emotional than just kind of the robotic nature in which you're describing what you're seeing. I mean, you know, you heard Paul Batista and I guess he's going to argue that to a jury with a straight face and he's won a lot of cases it apparently works. Let's listen to more of the 911 call. Okay. So who's the person, where's the person that's bleeding? Are they? Where are they in the house? Well, they're upstairs. Okay. And where is the person that was shot? Are they also in the house downstairs? Yes.

Yeah, and the bedroom in the bedroom, too. Okay. Yeah, they're on the way. They're coming to you now, lights and sirens, okay? And any weapon is secured, correct? Any weapon is secured? I have the weapon. Okay. Can you just leave it where it is? Yeah. Okay.

And you say you don't know the individual that was shot. No, I don't know. I'm not buying it. Okay. We're showing you interspersed shots of the hot nanny, my gleece. And we're showing you the wife. The debt. There's.

There's the wife. I think she's so cute. Oh my goodness, those lips. What is that? They just take over the whole picture. This is the nanny that without doubt, no question, is having an affair with the IRS agent. That certainly hurts the IRS credibility. She is having an affair with the husband, the IRS agent. That's been proven. And Dr. Delo Tori, before I go back to my observations of the 911, Oh, there you go. I'm glad you got that cleavage in. Can I see that shot again?

Because I don't want to miss that. Oh, yeah. Okay. That is perfectly positioned. Okay. Not judging. Don't care. All I care about are the two dead bodies.

But to Dr. Deletori. Deletory. You know what? I'm going to let G.G. McElvey tell you this. Joining me, G.G. McElvey, investigative journalist, host a podcast, Pretty Lies and Alibis.

Gigi, could you tell Delotory and Batista? Batista, listen, about the photos that were found as soon as the wife is dead, when police go back, the hot nanny has already moved photos of her and her and the husband. Yeah, they went back for... On the side of the bed into the master bedroom and her clothes are hanging in there. Including lingerie that they just showed. you know, to the jury. Yeah, I mean, there were loved up photos of them, several of them placed in the master bedrooms where these murders occurred. Initially, they started out staying in her bedroom after the

murders, but moved into what was Christine and Brendan's room and not only slept in the same bed where she was killed, put their photos everywhere. It's just, it blows my mind, Nancy. How could you lay your head down in that room knowing what you did in there. Okay, did you just say she moves in the loved up photos, puts them aside the bed, moves in her lingerie, which has been shown to the jury, I couldn't be happier. But wait a minute, sleeping in the same bed. Question, Paul Batista, were the sheets still warm from the dead wife? Were the sheets still warm at what point? There's no issue here. He was having an affair with his au pair. That does not constantly evidence that he murdered.

It's not his o' pair. She's not changing his diapers. It's the baby's opair. Maybe she is changing his diapers. They did manage to commit the murder through a fetish website. So I don't know who's wearing diapers and who's dressed up like a cat and a dog.

But I do know that these two, hey, listen to this, Batista, to you, Dr. Delo-Lotory. And that second portion of the 911 call we just played, you know what, let's hear that again. I want to see if the same thing jumps out at you. Let's hear it. Okay. So who's the person?

Where is the person that's bleeding? Are they? Where are they in the house? They're upstairs. Okay. In the bedroom. Okay. And where is the person that was shot?

Are they also in the house downstairs? Yes. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Okay. But then help me. Yeah.

They're on the way. They're coming to you now, lights and sirens, okay? And any weapon is secured, correct? Any weapon is secured? I have the weapon. Okay, can you just leave it where it is? Yeah. Okay.

And you say you don't know the individual that was shot? No, I don't know. Whenever things are, the person. Crime stories with Nancy Grace. Where is the person that's bleeding? Are they? Where are they in the house? Well, they're upstairs. Okay.

In the bedroom. Okay, and where is the person that was shot? Are they also in the house downstairs? Yes. Yeah, and the bedroom in the bedroom, too. Okay. With them help me? Yeah, they're on the way.

They're coming to you now, lights and sirens, okay? And any weapon is secured, correct? Okay. Any weapon is secured? I have the weapon. Okay. Can you just leave it where it is? Yeah.

Okay. Okay. And you say you don't know the individual that was shot. was shy. No. I don't know. Whenever things are, you know, how many times I would play this in front of the jury.

I'd have this thing on loop. Dr. Deloey, I'll kick it off. One thing that strikes me, number one, I would be screaming. My husband has a hole in his neck. Hurry! I'm not hearing that. In fact, what I notice is the husband refers to his wife as they. They're upstairs. It makes me wonder, are he and the nanny, the so-called hot

nanny, downstairs, and they've left the wife upstairs with a complete stranger that they lured to the home off a fetish website, according to the state? They, they, it's like, oh, yeah, they're upstairs. And then they go, have you secured the weapon? He doesn't say, yes, my gun. is like, yeah, I've secured the weapon. And then they go, do you know the individual shot? And they say, no, it's his wife. Yeah, listen, again, it sounds like this was all something that they had been working on previously. This sounds like statements where they were rehearsing.

And I think that goes to premeditation. These people weren't, there wasn't something that just happened on a whim. This didn't happen because of crime of passion or whatever it is. we want to say. These two individuals have been plotting for a very long time and had already created this scenario in their minds and how it was going to be played out. The reason why they could move into the bedroom and have the lingerie and everything and all the pictures, the reason why that could happen was because the wife in their mind was already a non-human obstacle, right? The person that was going to come in who thought he was there for a specific reason

and then ends up getting shot. That person was a non-human obstacle that they needed to get in the way to get to this call to set up their alibi. I'm looking at the transcript of this. And I want to be clear because it's not really clear. Sydney Sunner joining me, crime stories, investigative reporter, it's not really clear what they're telling the 911 operator. But one victim, the stranger that, according to police, they, the nanny and the IRS agent husband, they lured him to the home through a fetish website. There he is. He thinks he's just going for some

gratuitous sex off a fetish website and he ends up dead. Okay. He's shot. The wife is stabbed. The wife is stabbed. It's not really clear on the 911 call, Sydney. Right. So Christine is stabbed and they claim on this 911 call that the stranger that was shot, who is actually Joseph Ryan, is the one who stabbed Christine. She says they came into this room and Joseph Ryan is on top of Christine. She sees Brendan, screams for help and Brendan shoots Joseph Ryan, who then falls off of Christine. And she thinks she's been saved. This is an unimaginable situation. You your house has been broken into, someone is attacking you,

they're wielding a knife. You're terrified, and you think no one's home. And it's this miracle that your husband comes home and is managing to save you. But as Joseph Ryan falls off of Christine Banfield,

Brendan climbs on top of her, uses the knife that he was holding and stabs her. It's so far-fetched the story that she's telling, but the grain of truth is that they collude together to kill the wife so they could be together.

I don't get why they just didn't get a divorce. He remains innocent until proven guilty in the court of law. Listen to more of the 911 call. And, sir, where are you? Are you taking care of the person upstairs? It's fine. Okay. Okay, I have officers that are pulling up outside, okay?

So just make sure the weapon is put police where it is and it's secure and just keep applying pressure. And make sure your door is unlocked. Can we make sure that's done? All right, all right. Okay. I'm not the door. Okay. I'm going to lock the door.

Okay. No, that's your case. Okay. Okay. So make sure your weapon is down, sir. And now you're coming to the door. Okay. with your hands up so the officers can see you.

Okay. I'm a... I love you. So Gigi McKelby joining us, investigative journalist and start our pretty lies and alibis. We hear the nanny state. Yeah, I'm trying to help, but it's just, quote, so long. What is so long, Gigi?

I think she's referring to the response time by first responders is all I can figure out with that. you know, it's a good thing they didn't go into acting because they both stunk trying to convince this 911 operator. This was a true emergency. But she did say a couple of times in that 911 call, what's taking so long or where are they or something to that effect, you know, probably just to give the impression that she is scared and really wants help there. You know, I took it a completely different way. I thought she meant that the knife wound to the neck was so low. long, but I think, G, G, you're probably right. So I need to understand her story, okay? And of course,

isn't this the way, Paul Batista? They're like two wet cats in a barrel. They both are under suspicion and they're both now doing that. Pointing the finger at each other. We see it at trial all the time. That's why I like to try people together. The only way to do that is, of course, don't use interlocking statements against the other, right? There are ways to try them together constitutionally. That did not happen here, and I'm sure they have a reason why. But Paul Batista, this is just SOP standard operating procedure. Blame the other one.

So much for true love, Paul. Nancy, this is one of the most preposterous stories of a cooperating witness I have ever heard in 40 years of doing this. It's intricate, it's bizarre, and it sounds like the concoction of a lady, meaning the opair, who's been sitting in jail for a year, living a delusional life, and suddenly she wants to cooperate with the prosecutors, and she conveys this utterly, bizarrely, intricate story. Not a credible witness. You stated that she's been sitting in jail for a year.

Oh, my stars. What a difference 12 months can make. You've got to see the before. There's the before shot. There's the before. Take a look at her now. What about it, Patista? You know, the prosecutors obviously dressed up this lady

for her testimony to look like a household servant. The picture of her entering the courtroom and speaking to the jury, of course, is entirely different from the sex pot picture, taken God knows when. But before she went to jail, they're dressing her up to sound convincing, calm, remorseful. She's a puppet. She's making up a story. Paul Batista, you said that the state dressed her up. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. she hasn't been sentenced. Her own lawyers dressed her up like that for maximum dowdy effect. And I want to show you this trick.

Let's see Jody Arias before and after. Before she went to trial and her on the stand. Yeah. There you go. Okay. So to you, Dr. John Deloori, you see with Jody area, she's a blonde bombshell before she sees the jury. And then when she goes in front of the jury,

she looks like Grandma Spinster. What message are these women trying to convey? Well, actually, they're defense lawyers. Well, I think that change is exactly what you're trying to describe, which is to either mitigate their overall culpability and whatever it is that they have alleged to have done, or it's about making them seem like someone who is not capable of engaging in a problematic behavior.

The more homely you look, the more matronly you look, the less likely a jury. is to say that you engage in murder, no matter what it is that you've been accused of doing. But the prior, right, those are all the things that you do as your own freewheeling spirit, as the person that is trying to attract attention. But in the court photos, you're trying to look like someone who wouldn't be drawing that kind of attention or engaging in those kinds of behaviors. In fact's county police officers responded to a 911 call from within the home.

In an upstairs bedroom, we found Joseph Ryan to see. ceased as a result of gunshot wounds and found Christine Banfield suffering from stab wounds. Christine was transported to a local hospital and pronounced dead. We recovered, rather, two firearms and a knife. This morning at 7.49 a.m., we received a cell phone 911 call that was an open line hangup. That call was captured and noted, and 13 minutes later at 8.2, 2 a.m. we received a cell phone 911 call from the very same cell phone and two persons communicated with our 911 call taker. At that 802 911 cell phone call, the husband and the

Opaire communicate with the 911 call taker. The husband tells the 911 call taker that he just shot a man inside of his home. And the husband tells the 911 call taker that the man who he had just shot had stabbed his wife. How did this loving, faithful wife end up stabbed dead in the family home and then a complete stranger who happens to be a bondage and disciplined fetishist? What's he doing in the home? And he's dead. The first 911 call came from the, what we now know, to be the opair cell phone. That 911 call was an open mic. Nothing discernible on that call. It was a quick hangup. We noted that call 13 minutes later from the same 911, from the same cell phone, a 911 call was made. And on the phone was first the O'Pair communicating with us.

And then she apparently handed the phone to the husband. The husband communicated with us, and that's when the husband told us that he shot and killed a man inside of his home. And that's when the husband told us that the man who he shot and killed was stabbing his wife. Gigi McKelvey joining us, investigative journalist and star, pretty lies and alibis, Gigi, in a nutshell, because this is very convoluted. What happened? Because I've got a hard time believing that a stranger comes over for fetish sex and murders the wife. He may have come over for sex, but I don't think he came over to commit a murder.

He didn't. He was catfished. They used Christine's computer to set up an account on this fat life website where like-minded people meet up and do these kind of things. They only did it when Christine was home. Wait a minute. Look around. Look around. Are you in a monastery?

No. You're not. You're on crime stories. When you say people go to this website to do these kind of things, what kind of things? Bondage. That's what we're talking about. People like to tie each other up and torture each other when they have sex. They like it.

Or people that dress it like dogs and cats or other animals. They're called furries. You're not in a confessional. You're not in a monastery. Just tell it like it is. What happened? Brendan and Juliana set up a fake profile on FetLife, which is a website where people go who are into bondage,

being tied up, more violent acts that are consensual, and pretended to be Christine looking for somebody who was, willing to come to her house to do this. What's interesting is they only worked on this website when Christine was home as part of the alibi to say she was here, she was the one doing it. And eventually they found Joe Ryan. Hold on. Gigi. Gigi. That's really significant what you just said. Well, everything that you've said is A, correct and B significant. But do you remember, let me think of a good example. Okay, Totman. That's always an example for so many things. remember when taught mom Casey Anthony's mother,

Cindy Anthony, takes a stand, goes under oath, and I believe perjured herself out of mother's love to try and save that no good daughter, taught mom Casey Anthony. And she got up on the stand and she said that she is the one that performed those damning computer searches about how to make homemade chloroform and it's believed that little Kelly was chloroformed with homemade chloroform and passed out and that somehow she OD'd on something and died in top mom's trunk.

Cindy Anthony gets up there and says, it spellchecked me. I was writing about chlorophyll because we had bamboo growing up in our backyard. And I'm like, that doesn't even make sense. She was willing to risk perjury charges to try and save her daughter. That is a mother's love right there. But the point is, they were creating this creepy fetish website while Christine, the murder victim, the mom, was home. So it could be argued she was home. This is her computer.

We didn't do it while she was out at work or out playing or out shopping. Is that what you're telling me? Yes. And actually fooled some of the investigators who thought it was, Christine and they were reassigned to different units because they disagreed with the theories of the other investigators that Joe Ryan was catfished by Juliana and Brendan. Was he coming over, Gigi, to tie her up and have sex or to come over and brandish a weapon? What was the communication on that fetish website? The communication was that he was going to come over and bring ropes and a knife and chains and it would be consensual.

and there may be some resistance from Christine, but it's all part of the act and to keep going. Okay, Dr. John Deloeyori, you are the licensed psychologist, specializing in forensic psychology. You can be found on TikTok at Dr. John Deletory. Explain what's happening here. Exactly, and I think that's a key element here because when individuals are engaging in this non-consensual consensual sex act,

you're not going to really involve weapons because that's too far of a kink to do on a very first time. There's a level of trust that has to go into the two partners that are participating in this. So it's not like you're just going to show up out of nowhere. So he had to be convinced. Ryan needed to be convinced that this was an element of the act that Christine absolutely wanted to never have met with him before. And that's a pretty, that's not something that is fairly consistent within the Kink community. So there must have been more communications going on than what we really know that Christine would have been involved in had she just been doing this by herself. Other people had to be participated. You know, Paul Batista, a different

defense attorney, I find it really hard to believe that this young mom who is exhausted from raising a child and keeping all the plates in the air has time and energy to go on a fetish website and arrange for someone to come tie her up on the one morning she can sleep in. Well, you may find that hard to believe, Nancy, but that doesn't do anything to prove the guilt of the defendant. People, she may, she may well have desired this, she may well have arranged it. After

all, put him back up. I got to see his face. She let his stranger into her bedroom. Okay, let me ask you a couple of lightning around questions. Paul Batista, have you ever given birth? Have I ever been what? Given birth. Had a baby come out of your stomach through your vagina and the,

then raise it. That's giving birth. No. I have not. Okay. It's exhausting. Exhausting. So this mom has one day she can sleep in and she plans a fun day for her daughter, her baby girl, to go to the zoo with the nanny. And she goes to sleep and what do you know? Here comes Ryan with a rope. Okay, Gigi McElvey, take it from right there. What do police? believe happens right there. Well, Brendan had, Brendan and Juliana had given Joe Ryan the instruction that the door would be unlocked and for him to let himself in. He goes up to the bedroom, follows the instructions that were given by Brendan and Juliana one time through a voice call with Juliana, actually. And then when Juliana is placed in the cul-de-sac, sees Joe Ryan come in, Brendan comes home.

When he goes upstairs, he sees Joe Ryan going according to plan. And Christine looks at her husband and says he has a knife. Then Brendan shoots Joe Ryan. Christina tells the O'Pair, Juliana, to call 911. And this is when Brendan begins stabbing his wife. Sydney Sumner, crime stories. Is that your understanding of what police are alleging? let me get this straight.

So the hot nanny, Margolice, leaves with the baby to go to the zoo. Then Ryan shows up with all his accoutrema for fetish sex. Next thing you know, the hot nanny Margolis forgets the sandwich lunches she made, comes back to the house and goes, Oh, there's a strange car.

And instead of just walking in, why would that, she calls the husband, her lover? Right there. Why not just walk in just because you see an odd car in the driveway? The two of them, he quickly shows up. The two of them come in. The wife, now dead, Christine, screams. He's got a knife. They, the hot nanny and the IRS agent husband, shoot Ryan dead.

Then they go upstairs and then she is stabbed in the neck. Who else could have done it? Ryan was already shot dead. Is that the sequence of events that you understand, Sydney? Does Gigi have it right? Well, Nancy, this all happened in just a matter of moment. So yes, she sees this car and Banfield never went into work that day. He was waiting nearby to be able to come to the house and catch this man in the act, right?

And so this all happens in just a matter of moments and all in that master bedroom. So Christine is already under what she believes to be an attack while Joseph Ryan believes he's acting out a rape role play in a consensual manner. And her fighting him is all part of this role play situation. So Ryan is literally on top of Christine when Banfield and Juliana bust into the master bedroom. And she cries out for help. She's looking to her husband and this nanny, Paul 911, he has a night. And Banfield shoots Joseph Ryan, who believes her husband just walked in on this affair. And then Christine thinks she's been saved.

She thinks by some miracle, her husband came home and saved her from this attacker. And then he climbs on top of her, Brendan Banfield, and stabs her to death. moments after she thought he had just saved her life. Christine Banfield plans a fun day for her four-year-old daughter with a trip to the National Zoo with her Brazilian O'Pair, Giuliana Perez-Mogales. They leave their Fairfax County, Virginia, home, but turn around when Perez-Moggales realizes she forgot their bagged lunches.

Arriving at the house, the au-pair sees a car she doesn't recognize and a man she doesn't know entering the house. Confused, she calls her employer Brendan Banfield, who tells her to stay in the car, he will get there right away. Bannfield is at the house in minutes, and they enter the house together. The au pair takes the four-year-old girl to the basement, while Brendan Bainfield goes upstairs to the master suite. What am I hearing? How did an innocent day at the National Zoo with a Brazilian opair end up with a double homicide?

Why does she have to have a mouth full of red lipstick to take care of a baby? Yes, the mom should have just sent her straight back to her room to wipe that mouth off. What is that? That said, that's the first red flag when the nanny, the au pair, is taking cleavage shots in the bathroom and wearing skimpy lingerie at home. As a matter of fact, let's take a look at the lingerie. Paul Batista, this was found not just in her room, but it's in the master bedroom. She has moved all of her bustiers, her corsets, her thongs.

aka anal floss, into his bedroom. I can't wait to hear you explain that way. Have you looked at this picture? Yeah, I have. No, no. So what? Are you married? Am I married?

Yes, Nancy, I am. Okay. So she's still there. What if the maid, the babysitter, the girl Friday, moved all of her anal floss into your closet. What do you think your wife would say? Or should I just go hand or the gun right now? Look, there is no issue here.

Brendan was having an affair with the au pair. No issue about that. Are these normal people? Probably not. And it is not normal for the au pair to then move into the same bedroom where the husband's wife. has been murdered. That's not normal, but that is not an indication of the guilt of Mr. Banfield.

Do you just ever get exhausted with making these claims? Just because they're having an affair, no, that's not evidence of guilt. But, as you know, evidence from before, during, and after the incident may be brought in front of the jury. The sheets were still warm where mommy had been sleeping when the hot nanny moves her anal floss into mommy's closet and prompts up a picture of the nanny with her husband beside the bed. Okay, just imagine all that scintillating talk they had, that pillow talk about his IRS investigations. No offense, IRS. That said, to me, that's evidence after the fact. They had no remorse.

They couldn't wait. And the baby girl, this is happening, down the hallway from her nursery. Oh, there's a babysitter going to sleep with Daddy. Okay. She's going to remember that. Okay, I want to get back to the facts. To Gigi McKelvey joining us, Star of Pretty Lies and Alibis, what exactly were the injuries to the bodies?

Joseph Ryan was shot in the head and the chest because the last shot actually came from Juliana when they realized Joe Ryan was still making noises. So she had a gun in her possession that was given by Brendan and she fired the fatal shot to Joe Ryan. For Christine, she had mostly stab injuries to her neck. Some of them went as deep as two and a half inches and caused a defect at the base of her skull.

So very violent injuries and rapidly fatal for both. I need a translation in medical jargon. And joining me to do that is a renowned medical examiner, the chief medical examiner, Tarrant County, that's Fort Worth, star of a hit podcast, Mayhem in the Morg. And he is the esteemed lecturer at the Burnett School of Medicine at TCU.

Dr. Kendall Crowns joining us. What did she just say? So basically a knife was shoved into the neck, a knife, shoved into the neck at such an angle that it struck the base of the skull. And with that striking the base of the skull, the force of that can cause cracking the bone, etc., depending on how hard it. When you do that, you're hitting all the vascular and musculature in this area.

It's the crotted, the judge. vein, you're going to get massive hemorrhaging from that kind of spurting out all over the place. So stab wounds to the neck usually are very vascular, very hemorrhagic, and depending on how they're angled, if they come more to midline, they can also involve your trachea or your windpipe where the air comes through, and then you're basically now breathing through that new hole in your windpipe and the blood is flooding in there, so you're gagging on your blood as you're bleeding out. It's pretty bad to be stabbed in the neck. Crime stories with

Nancy Grace. Gigi, you stated that the stab wound was so violent. Did it do something to the back of her neck? This is reminding me of Nicole Brown Simpson who was sliced so violently across her neck that she was

practically decapitated. Her head, held onto her body through a thin slice of flesh in the back. That's all that held her head onto her body. What did you say about the wound to Christine? It went deep enough that it caused a defect at the very base of her skull or a little notch where that knife struck bone and that was visible during autopsy. So a lot of force used when he was stabbing her in the neck at least with that stab wound that was one of the ones that was two and a half inches deep. Dr. Kendall Crowns, what does that mean that there is actually a nick on her, on the bone, her neck bone, all the way back here.

So it means that the knife was driven in quite deeply, probably almost all the way up to the hilt of the knife, and that striking the base of the bone and breaking it means there's a lot of force being put into it as they're stabbing the individual in the neck. So it isn't a, it's a forceful stab wound fracturing the base of the skull. And what you were talking about earlier or fracturing the cervical bone. And what you were talking about earlier, if you go more centrally, you can decapitate someone easily

cutting through the bone and soft tissue. The neck isn't all that structurally hard, so you can take someone's head off, stabbing through their neck. This young mom did not want to leave her daughter, her four-year-old little girl. She wanted to live to hay with the sex affair.

She wanted to live to see her daughter grow up. And as a matter of fact, with all of these wounds, she was still alive. Did you hear the 911 call where the nanny and the husband were saying she's still alive? Listen. Fairfax County police officers responded to a 911 call from within the home. In an upstairs bedroom,

we found Joseph Ryan deceased as a result. result of gunshot wounds and found Christine Bannfield suffering from stab wounds. Christine was transported to a local hospital and pronounced dead. This is so crazy. So the O'Pere comes back. She finds this scene. Where did Hovey come from? The wife, the mother of a then four-year-old little girl, multiple stab wounds. She suffered. This case has a lot of twists and turns. Very confusing and complicated. Sydney Sumner joining us, Crime Stories Investigative Reporter. We are learning through the hot nanny that the two had been target practicing just before the killings.

What do we know? Well, we know that BANfield purchased an extra gun on January 23rd, so just a month before the murders. And, yeah, they actually went to a shooting range to practice. shooting so that when Joseph Ryan was in the house attacking Christine, they could come in and save the day. And what about buying new phones as well? So they believe for some reason that buying a new phone just before the murders would prevent investigators from finding their previous communications wasn't the most well thought out plan. And then also, apparently the nanny's mother injects her herself into this scenario. And Sydney Sumner, police described in some of the documents,

the nanny, Megalise, as the husbands, quote, live in lover. Does that mean the affair was happening right under Christine's nose? Absolutely. It was going on for months without Christine Banfield having any idea that her husband was sleeping with their nanny. To Gigi McElvey, joining us to our pretty lies and alibis, I understand that, Marguerese, the so-called hot nanny, has been whining from behind bars, quote, I'm tired of this? Wham? Wham?

She's tired of being in jail? Christine is dead. Yeah, she's tired of being in jail. She said she was sad and depressed and she has trauma. You know, a lot of poor me. And as we saw on the stand zero remorse, so I wouldn't expect her describing jail life to be anything but, you know, all about her. Yeah, so she went on some antidepressants, didn't like the way they made her feel, and so she went off of them. And we heard all of this when she was on the stand.

It was all poor me, no remorse shown for Joe Ryan or Christine Banfield. Paul Batista, defense attorney and novelist, listen to this. This is a direct quote from the nanny, aka a co-defendant and a murder case, a double murder case. Quote, I'm unhappy. Nothing makes me happy, mommy. I'm miserable. I just want to get out of here and come back home and be with you guys. I'm tired of this place.

Paul, really? She's tired of jail? I wonder if Christine is tired of that casket she's in. Of course she's unhappy. She's in jail. She's still writing love letters to ban She doesn't know what she's doing. She is a perfect candidate for the creation of a story that will give her the sweetest deal imaginable.

She will not go to jail any longer. She'll leave the country and she's home free. She's a perfect... Dr. Delo-Torre, I need a shrink. Everything he is saying right there anyway is valid. The jury may not believe her because she's getting a sweetheart deal to rat him out. But that said, I think the evidence is going to be so strong is going to support what she's saying, whether they believe her credibility or not.

Dr. Deletory, why is she whining about being in jail? Christine and Ryan are dead. He's shot in the chest and the head. Remember on the 911? They said he's making noises. He's like gurgling. trying to live. Why is she whining about jail?

Well, I think we have to remember is that in their mind, they think that once all of this unfolds, they're going to live a happy life with this four-year-old, but when reality's set and the realities of being in custody, being detained, that messes with your head, that gets under your skin. You don't realize how small the walls are until you're actually put in them.

So whatever it was that they thought that they were going to be doing as a couple post this murder, she didn't realize the reality of you're not going to get away with this. And so now she's put in a place where the reality is setting in. And she did not think that all of this was actually going to be unfolding for someone like her. And Dr. Deloey, do you hear yourself, do I need to do a playback, an instant playback? because you just said, you know, you don't realize how small the cell is. I bet it's a lot bigger than that casket Christine's in. Absolutely. And it's not like Juliana cares.

She is apparently writing love letters. Is it true? Gigi. She says that the IRS agent husband, Christine's husband, told her he wanted to marry her and have children. That is true. And not only was she sending messages to Brendan. She was also sending messages to Brendan's mother who was putting money on her commissary and funding her defense up until she flipped on Brendan. But yeah, she would say that she would take the blame for both of them.

She loved him more than anything. It was a lot of back and forth with this lovey-dovey stuff until they gave her the sweetheart deal. So her future mother-in-law is sending her money to the commissary. As long as she says, I'll take all the blame and I'll clear him. But as soon as she flips, no more Doritos, no more nacho chips, no more candy bars, no more special soaps and lotions from the commissary, it's over. That's exactly right. They were funding her and making her life as cushy as they could while she was in jail

because she wasn't talking. But that all changed when she started talking to the Commonwealth and made that deal. We wait as justice unfolds. It's not too late. I put up many a newly discovered witness on the stand. If you know or think you know anything about this case, please dial 703-246-7-800 repeat. 703-246-7-800. You know who we haven't heard about? little girl, the four-year-old little girl whose mother was stabbed dead. And now she knows the nanny moved right down the hall and hopped in the bed with daddy. That's the legacy.

Nancy Grace signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed human.