Murder With My Husband - 341. The Catfish Double Homicide - The Murder of Christine Banfield and Joseph Ryan

Episode Date: October 5, 2026

On this episode, Garrett and Payton dive into the case of Christine Banfield and Joseph Ryan, a twisted double murder involving a secret affair, a catfishing scheme, and a deadly plot that was far more complicated than anyone realized. Links: Netflix Video Every Monday @11am PST, 12pm MST, 2pm EST 1pm CST https://www.netflix.com/murderwithmyhusband Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/murderwithmyhusband NEW MERCH LINK: https://mwmhshop.com Discount Codes: https://mailchi.mp/c6f48670aeac/oh-no-media-discount-codes Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/themwmh Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/murderwithmyhusband/ Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@murderwithmyhusband Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/into-the-dark/id1662304327 Listen on spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/36SDVKB2MEWpFGVs9kRgQ7?si=f5224c9fd99542a7 Case Sources: People.com - https://people.com/where-is-brendan-banfield-now-11993182 CBSNews.com - https://www.cbsnews.com/news/brendan-banfield-trial-killing-wife-au-pair-testifies-virginia/ ABCNews.com - https://abcnews.com/US/plot-involving-fetish-website-au-pair-affair-led/story?id=129895465 NYPost.com - https://nypost.com/2026/01/20/us-news/how-brandon-banfield-allegedly-plotted-wifes-murder-with-twisted-rape-fantasy/ KSat.com - https://www.ksat.com/news/2026/02/13/brazilian-au-pair-gets-10-year-sentence-for-killing-joseph-ryan-in-murder-plot-against-lovers-wife/ WJLA.com - https://wjla.com/news/local/judge-to-determine-sentence-for-au-pair-juliana-peres-magalhaes-trial-brendan-banfield-double-murder-fairfax-county-virginia-christine-banfield-joe-ryan-commonwealth-courts CNN.com - https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/05/us/brendan-banfield-murders-sentencing-virginia WUSA9.com - https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/crime/true-crime/brendan-banfield-murder-trial/christine-banfield-remembered-as-a-role-model-ahead-of-brendan-banfield-sentencing/65-91acd8fd-a743-448f-ab67-19ac70314c9b Biography.com - https://www.biography.com/crime/a71507550/brendan-banfield-au-pair-murder-plot NBCNews.com - https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/au-pair-murders-brendan-banfield-juliana-peres-magalhaes-rcna266291 FairfaxCounty.gov - https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/commonwealthattorney/sites/commonwealthattorney/files/Assets/press%20releases%20master/10.29.24%20Peres%20Magalhaes%20plea.pdf NBCWashington.com - https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/northern-virginia/live-updates-brendan-banfield-to-be-sentenced-in-au-pair-affair-murder-case/4112692/ Dateline NBC - https://www.peacocktv.com/watch/playback/vod/_/c46c99f1-c6e2-31e6-9132-0cdb63b91da2 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to an Ono Media podcast. Hey, everybody, welcome back to the podcast. This is Murder with my husband. I'm Peyton Morland. And I'm Garrett Morland. And he's the husband. And I'm still pregnant. Still pregnant.

No baby yet. Another week. Another episode. Another pregnant belly. Well, same one. Same one. True. Good morning.

We're recording in the morning again. Kind of nice. Sure. Yeah. Don't you like recording in the morning rather than the day? I don't know. Sometimes I get worried about my voice in the morning. Oh, really? Like giving out or something. Yeah, I feel like mine's a little more like raspy or in the morning.

Oh. Or like deeper, you know? Yeah. We want me to talk like this. That's funny. Yeah. That's what we got. Hope everything is going well. We're just honestly, we've been waiting. We're waiting for this baby. We're setting up. Getting ready for the baby. We're nesting. Yeah, we got basically everything.

Mm-hmm. done so we just need to keep recording just keep going it's Halloween month it's October oh dang we got to put our Skelly in oh yeah I should get up yeah I forget we put Mr. Skelly up get him let me grab him all right we got Mr. Skelly up ready for Halloween ready for October ready to be parents yeah that's all I don't have a ton for 10 seconds because honestly, you've just been living, getting ready for baby life. All right. On that note, I think we're just going to hop into today's case.

Daisy's chewing her bone. So if you are watching on video, you'll see here just going away. If you're not, then now you know. Let's hop into this week's case. Our sources for this episode are people.com, CBSNews.com, ABCNews.com, New Yorkpost.com, KSAT.com, WJLA.LA. CNN, WS89.com, biography.com, NBC News, Fairfax County.gov, NBCWashington.com, and Dateline.

They say when someone shows you who they are, you should believe them. Most of the time we use that phrase as a warning, a way to spot someone's intentions before it's too late, but I think it works both ways. If someone spends their life dedicated to helping others, to showing kindness, is consistent in their words and actions, then we need to believe that too. Because when something terrible happens and that person is no longer able to advocate for themselves, sometimes their actions, their history

is really all we have to work off of. And when a person's life tells a different story than the one told in death, maybe that means we need to be looking closer because sometimes the truth is the easiest thing to ignore. Today, I want to take you to Herndon, Virginia, to a quiet, affluent neighborhood. We're in 2003, so not that long ago. A beautiful two-story brick house sits at the end of a cul-de-sac.

37-year-old Christine and her 41-year-old husband, Brendan Banfield, just bought this house about four years earlier. They moved down south from Long Island, New York back in 2019 when Brendan was reassigned for his job. So Brendan in 2023 works for the IRS. He was promoted to special agent in their criminal division, which investigates any potential violations of tax law and financial crimes. He and Christine at that point had been married for about 11 years, and they had a four-year-old. daughter who was the light of their life, especially Christine's. Friends said there wasn't a conversation with Christine where she wasn't mentioning her daughter or pulling out pictures to show a

crowd, but Christine was always a nurturing and caring person even before becoming a mother, even in her profession. Christine was a nurse who worked in the pediatric intensive care unit. This is a job that can't be easy for anyone, but Christine put her own emotions aside and dedicated herself and her work to helping children. She had also had a history of working with sexual assault victims during their recovery as well. One of Christine's friends described her as, quote, one of the kindest people I have ever been in contact with. And even though she hadn't worked too many years in the hospital down in Fairfax County, Virginia, since they had recently just moved. Her coworkers described her as the, quote, backbone of the department.

The person many of the other nurses looked up to both in her career and her personal life as a wife and a mother. Because it actually wasn't easy for Christine and Brendan when it came to maintaining their marriage. They worked pretty opposite schedules, but Christine and Brendan found little ways to maintain their bond as time went on. They loved to go on hikes or concerts together. One of their favorite things to do was compete in a tough mudder competition. It's like the mud races. Dang, I feel like now the equivalent of that is like high rocks. Yeah.

Uh-huh. Yeah. Even just watching a weekend football. ball game was considered good quality time spent together for them. They made it work as much as they could. Plus, their hard work had recently been paying off. They had been investing and had generated quite a bit of money for their daughter's future. Brendan always told his friends that he wanted his daughter to have, quote, generational wealth and they'll just live comfortably. But then things got a little more difficult during COVID. Suddenly, Christine was working even longer hours at the hospital

than ever before. She volunteered for more shifts in the adult ICU just to lend a hand. In fact, her friend said she was actually one of the first to do so. It was like Christine saw a fire and ran into a burning building to save whoever she could. That's just the kind of person Christine was. But the brutal hours were definitely making things harder at home. So they decide to come up with a solution around this time. They decide, let's hire a nanny to just kind of help out around the house. Christine found someone she loved. But eventually, the nanny moved on to other things and Christine and Brendan had to search for someone else around October of 2021. That was when Christine decided, maybe we'd be nice to give this opportunity to someone who could build a better life from it. She wanted to

actually bring in an old pair, someone from another country who could live and work with them as they kind of established their own life in the United States. And that is how she came across a 21-year-old Brazilian woman named Juliana Perez Maga Yales. So Juliana moved into their home as planned and she was paid $200 a week with the bonus of being rent-free because she was a live-in opair. And it seemed to work out well. For the next year and a half, Juliana continued to live and work with the couple and their daughter.

So this is until about February of 2003. Again, we are in Virginia. That was when the unthinkable happened in that beautiful brick home at the end of the cul-de-sac. On the morning of February 23rd, Juliana packed the Banfield's four-year-old daughter a lunch with plans for basically an afternoon adventure. They were headed to the zoo that day with a few other local nannies and kids that they were watching. But as Juliana started to leave the neighborhood, around 7 a.m., she noticed somebody pulling up to the house. It was a strange SUV that she didn't

recognize. So immediately she calls Brendan, the father, who was on his way to work at this point at 7 a.m. And she told him, hey, like, there's a strange SUV. I'm feeling uneasy about it. Like, you're on your way to work. Maybe you should turn around and head back to the house just to check out who this was that pulled up in this SUV. And then about an hour later, a call is placed to 911. And it is Brendan. Manfield himself. On this phone call, he says he's a federal agent, there is a stranger in his home, and he actually just shot him.

He also says that stranger attacked his wife Christine with a knife, and she's barely hanging on. Okay. Now, within minutes, officers show up to the house with their weapons drawn because they don't know what they're facing. Is this an attack in progress? And when they get there, Juliana, the nanny, directs the police upstairs to the bedroom. And there, they find a very disturbing scene. Brendan has his wife in his arms and is trying to stop the bleeding from her neck because Christine has multiple stab wounds. Oh gosh. Okay. And in the the corner of the bedroom is a man lying on their dog's bed. And he's also covered in blood

from a gunshot wound to his head. Okay. So it's clear to first responders that there was definitely no saving this guy, this supposed intruder. But Christine is still breathing. So they rush her off to the hospital as well as Brendan, who's covered in his wife's blood and was just attempting, like was just holding her in his arms to try and stop the bleeding. And meanwhile, their four-year-old daughter is inside the house because Nanny had come home and she heard everything. Oh my gosh. So it turns out, you know, Juliana who saw this suspicious SUV and called Brendan, instead

of going to the zoo, she actually rushed back home with the four-year-old daughter when she figured out that this person was most likely an intruder because they weren't expecting anyone. And she goes back into the house and she puts the four-year-old in the basement with an iPad. And she kind of just stays there with her trying to figure out who this random guy is that is pulled up to the house. She said eventually she crept upstairs to see what was going on. And that was when she heard what sounded like, quote, spanking coming from inside the house. It was around this time that Brendan came home and sees Juliana meets the nanny, and together they go upstairs towards what she had described as this spankingstown.

And that was when they saw the stranger standing over Christine, the mom, with a knife, and he was stabbing her to death. So according to Juliana and Brendan, he grabs his work gun. he tells the stranger who is attacking the wife to drop his knife, and when he didn't, Brendan shot him. Juliana tells police, thank goodness Brendan was only at the McDonald's grabbing breakfast nearby when it happened if he had gotten any further to work. Chances were Christine would have been dead before the paramedics even arrived, and who knows what the intruder might have done next

because Juliana had turned around and brought the kid back home, so maybe they would have been next. Okay. I don't know. This whole thing seems like a complete mess right now. Strange mess. Like, why are you bringing the daughter back home? Yeah. I don't understand.

Typically, when we have, you know, first stories like this, they don't always make sense. Yes. Now, meanwhile, officers question Brendan, as he's on his way to the hospital in a separate ambulance. and he keeps asking when he'll be able to see his wife and daughter. But shortly after arriving at the hospital, a doctor comes in to deliver him some news.

Hi, sir. My name is Dean. I'm one of the doctors here. Your wife has died. Christine, his wife, had not survived her stabbing injuries. She was declared dead almost immediately upon arrival. And now police have a double homicide on their hands because they have the supposed intruder who was shot dead and Christine who was supposedly stabbed to death by him.

The question is who is responsible for what? What actually happened in that house? What is this story? Well, once Juliana the nanny is down at the station for further questioning, officers start to get a clear picture of this family. and just their dynamics in general. Juliana tells them that they were just a traditional all-American family.

They were super nice and professional, seemingly no secrets to hide. And she also tells them a little more about the chaos that had unfolded that morning. She said, Brendan tried to coax the intruder to drop the knife and the guy was arguing back with him to drop the gun. And shortly after all the yelling escalator,

Brendan fired his shot. But here's where things get interesting. Again, this is according to Giuliana talking to police now at the police station officially. Brendan ran over to help Christine just as Juliana noticed something. The intruder was still moving. So she then says she grabbed the gun. actually fired one more shot now ending the intruder's life. It's so interesting how, I mean, there's obviously something suspicious going on.

Duh. But you think if you're going to kill someone or you're going to do something insane, you would have a plan in your head of exactly what you're going to say and how everything is going to go, like when the police come, you know? But people never do. Never. And the story always changes. like 30 times.

I don't know. It's just, yeah. And it's one of those things that, like, makes you wonder, how do you just kill someone in the heat of the moment? If something is pre-planned, how does it still end up so messy? Yes. I think that's what I'm trying to say is there's times where it is premeditated or pre-planned and it is still just an absolute mess.

And I think it just goes to show that, like, even something as intense as murder, not every single person is Dexter. You know what I mean? I mean, no one is basically. Yeah. I think you have your exceptions with a couple of serial killers out there. Yeah. But other than that.

Yeah. Yeah. It actually reminds me of the case that we currently this week, I was just watching the trial of the Caleb Flynn case. he was accused and then charged and then convicted of murdering his wife. Oh, I tell you watching that, yes. And, you know, according to most people, the evidence they had was the fact that for years leading up, he had talked about wanting to hurt his wife, wanting to get rid of his wife,

wanting, you know, not just to divorce her, but like for her to be gone. And then the evidence from the actual night in question is so messy. and obvious. Yeah. And it's like if you've been thinking about this for over a year, if you've been even talking about this, how do you then just create such a trail? And that's kind of what feels like going on in our case right now. Like, why is this story so messy?

You both touched the gun? And I'm not saying this is pre-planned. But again, when you come in with a story and it's just this messy, it is hard to know what to believe, what's true, what's not. So basically Juliana is now telling police like, yeah, I shot him as well.

I was actually the one that ended his life. Now, all told, Juliana's statements actually take nine hours at the station for investigators to collect. And Brendan, on the other hand, back at the hospital, just learning his wife has died,

declines to speak with police again. And so now the detectives are left piece together this situation start to finish including the biggest question who is this intruder and what did he want now on its face it does kind of feel like maybe a classic home invasion right this guy showed up to rob the home turns out christina's home while he's attacking her juliana had noticed his arrival showed back up was in the house waiting for brendan to come home and then they both just go up and happen to find him attacking the wife But there seems to be a sexual component I haven't told you about yet because the intruder had left behind a backpack with a chain and padlocks, electrical tape, a gag, some lubricant.

And on top of that, there are also things that feel weird to them. That's like a not a normal thing to bring to a random home invasion. And also the time of day. Why would someone try to break in and assault a woman early in the morning when neighbors are literally all out leaving for work? I mean, the nanny herself spotted him. Someone could have easily heard or spotted something on their own way out of their home. But thankfully, there is one really big clue, and it's parked right outside the Banfield's house, and that is the intruder's car, the SUV. Between running his plates and a few other methods, they find out this.

man's identity. And they discover him as 39-year-old Joseph Ryan. Okay. 39-year-old Joseph Ryan is a man with no rap sheet who lived 20 miles away with his elderly grandmother. So when police figure this out, they're like, who the heck is this guy? detectives start chatting to some of Joseph's family and friends who don't know his connection to the bandfields. Instead of just like immediately arresting him, they want to kind of get an idea of what they're working with.

And a few of his friends and family do hint at something interesting. Joseph was apparently into live action role playing. So to determine more, investigators actually get a hold of his cell phone records. live action role playing and that is when things come into focus keep in mind this is before they've even closed in on Joseph Ryan they are just like we're going to figure out who he is before

we even confront him Joseph had a profile nothing wrong with it you do you doesn't bother me for live action role play yeah for LARPing oh I thought you meant like sexually oh we're about to get there

but to his friends and family it was just LARPing ah I see okay When police get into his cell phone records, they discover Joseph had a profile on a website called FetLife. We've actually talked about this website before on the show. But FetLife was basically for people to find other people that shared their specific fetishes. And when they look at his usage on this website, they discover that in the months before his death, Joseph had been talking with another user on FetLife named Anastasia 9. Okay.

The profile picture showed a woman in a bathing suit. The police notice looks a lot like Christine Banfield, the victim. Interesting. And it's because it was. So when police are digging into Joseph Ryan. Oh, no. It appeared Christine and Joseph had been chatting a lot on Fat Life about one shared fantasy. And that fantasy was a violent sexual assault.

She basically had a fantasy of a man breaking into her home and having his way with her. That's what these messages are talking about on Fed Life. According to the messages. Okay. I don't know. I don't know how I feel about that yet. So give me a second to think about it. They communicate via FetLife and they put together an elaborate plan on exactly how this type of role playing would happen.

They decided on a date and she said she would make sure the front door to the house was unlocked for him to come in. she'd be waiting for him up in her bedroom, asleep. And so when police discovered this, they're like, okay, maybe this story we've been told is true. Like maybe nanny and dad did just come in and stumble upon this secret life and it was a sexual fantasy gone wrong. So they still had to confirm one thing, though. was it really Christine behind the Anastasia profile?

That's actually, I wouldn't have, I would not have thought of that. They're like, that's a good question. They're using her picture, but is it Christine that he was communicating with? So this is when they start digging into her devices a little bit more. And they find messages were sent from her cell phone to his, his account in the days and weeks before both of their deaths. But what's strange is this? There's nothing else like it on her devices, just the messages. There is no other visits to fetish sites. There is no indication she had been cheating, no sign of even promiscuous behavior,

or really internet searches at all. And when her friends and family are asked about this, did you know, does Christine have a secret life, maybe like a fetish life, something sexual? They're all like, no, this doesn't even, this doesn't make sense. They all say, it doesn't sound like something Christine would be interested in. Yeah, I feel like the biggest red flag,

isn't that her friends and family don't know anything? It's that there's no search history, there's no messages, like there's absolutely. nothing. Typically when someone has a secret life, there's some sort of trail. Yeah. And I will say most people do keep their fetishes to themselves like Garrett just said. It's, it's lives somewhere. It's apparent somewhere. Yeah, it's got to be somewhere. But the only thing they can find are the messages in between the two. And honestly, police are like, we kind of think the, this violent sexual assault fantasy, if this is what you're saying she was discussing on fet life, this.

This specific fetish itself of violent sexual assault also seems very unlikely in a bridge too far because, as we know, Christine had worked with and been an advocate for people who actually had been sexually assaulted in their past. And so they're like, okay, say she was on Fat Life and you guys found her, the specific fetish she's talking about doesn't line up. Like it seems even more improbable. That's not who Christine was. And the more detectives looked into it, the more they realized, it didn't really sound like Joseph Ryan either, the supposed intruder. Yes, he was someone who met up with women. He talked to on fetish websites. But when detectives tracked some of these other women down and spoke to them, they said, no, he was always very considerate on how he went about it. There was always very clear boundaries. Like this was definitely two adults having a consenting experience. They said he never once stepped out of line or did anything that made any of them feel uncomfortable.

It was always just what they had agreed upon. So it's these little things that detectives feel aren't making sense, including some of the messages and the ways they were worded. For example, they found things that were oddly phrased. Like in one of the messages, Christine is asking Joseph, quote, how has been your experience on this site? Now, this could just be a typo, but police know what investigation they're working on, and they think it also kind of sounds like someone who might not know

English as their first language. So investigators are now, they're just keeping everything, they're keeping everything on the table, and they are now questioning. some parts of not just Juliana, but Brendan's story as well. It's actually interesting because that is a very common mistake to make. When English isn't.

Yes, when learning another language, like the way that was typed or said is very, very common. Yes, 100%. And I know at the beginning, let's see this episode, you were like, the moments before this attack don't make any sense. Same with police, okay? On top of learning all of this, they've known from the very, beginning that the moments surrounding the attack at the house didn't make much sense. According to the survivors, Brendan had told Joe Ryan to drop the knife several times and when he didn't, he shot him with the gun. But as the old saying goes, you don't bring a knife to a gun fight. So why wouldn't Joe

have dropped the knife when he saw a gun literally pointed at him? And this was just one detail that maybe didn't make much sense. There was also a discrepancy with the 911 calls that were placed from the house that day because I told you there was one from the husband, but there wasn't just one. There was actually two 911 calls that morning. One of them was placed 13 minutes before Brendan called 911 and told them about the intruder he'd just shot in his home. And during that first 911 call, operators said no one spoke, which, which is why I didn't bring it up because are we sure it's tied to the case? But they could hear a man moaning in the background of this 911 call like he was in pain.

And then after a few seconds, the person hung up. They discover later on that this 911 call was made from Juliana's phone. So if someone was injured at that point, someone's moaning, why didn't she say so on the 911 call? and why did it then take another 13 minutes for the husband to call 911 and ask for first responders if someone was already in pain 13 minutes earlier? What was happening during that 13 minute period of time between someone moaning on a 911 call and then the husband calling back and saying, I just shot someone? Police also said they found something odd at the scene of the crime itself,

and it was the positioning of Joe's body. Remember, he was lying on the couple's dogbed in their room, but with his arms crossed over his chest, like he was lying in a casket. That's how he was found. And when investigators, even first stumbled on this, they're like, that doesn't feel like a natural position someone would die in.

Like, it looks like he's been moved over there or staged. But at the time, none of this was definitive proof of anything. there were still these text messages between Joe Ryan and Christine. This seemed to indicate something was definitely going on behind the scenes between the two of them that maybe Brendan wasn't aware of. Though Brendan's behavior after the crime doesn't really show a widow in mourning, again, we're not putting too much weight in it. But a few months after his wife's death,

Brendan was still living in the house with the four-year-old and he didn't seem to have any plans to get him or his daughter out of the house. Keep in mind the daughter was in the basement this entire time. She was there at the time of these deaths. Plus, detectives had been keeping a close eye on Juliana and Brendan's social media activity, obviously because their stories were just a little weird. And they noticed that Juliana, the nanny, had been posting some pictures of her and a new love interest on social media, but she's never showing his face.

She's always covering this guy's face with a giant emoji. Okay. But the pictures show them out to dinner together, clubs in the bathtub together. It's very intimate. She's posting intimate things. And detectives are zooming in on these pictures and they're like, wait a minute. We know that bathtub. This is the bathtub inside the Banfield's home footsteps from where Brendan's wife died.

Now keep in mind, she lives there. She definitely could be taking her love interest up to the bathtub in the primary bedroom and getting in the bath with him and taking pictures. But then they're also like, is there something else going on here? Is the man behind that emoji actually Brendan Banfield himself? Wait, what? As in nanny and husband are now dating. Oh, yes. No, yeah, yeah. Sorry, I was on a different world.

Oh, 100%. So in October of 2023, eight months. Sorry, interrupt. I feel like that happens a lot. A nanny dating a husband? Like an opair of a nanny, like dating a husband. I feel like that happens a lot. You know what doesn't happen a lot?

Both the nanny and husband shooting a guy with the same gun. This is true. This is true. And the wife and a random guy dying in the primary bedroom. Now eight months after Christine and Joe's death, investigators get themselves another search warrant for the banfield's home. because they're like, something's going on here. And almost immediately, their suspicions are confirmed.

I mean, first, his wife ends up murdered, and the people that murdered him are now dating in the same house where they were murdered. It's just weird. When they go to the house, they quickly discover that Juliana had moved into the primary bedroom with Brendan. There is a framed photo of the two of them on the nightstand, looking romantic, looking cuddly.

all of Juliana's clothes are now in Christine's closet. They find Juliana's lingerie scattered around the bedroom. Oh my gosh, this is a mess. And when they go back to this crime scene, after eight months, they find that every single hint of Christine has been erased from this house. Oh my gosh. There is not a single photo. What's wrong with people?

Of her. There's nothing. No evidence that she ever even exists. in this home. Now the detectives have enough to get an arrest warrant, but they only get one for Giuliana at first, and here's why. Her visa was about to expire,

and if she went back to Brazil, that's a problem because Brazil's constitution prohibits them from extraditing their own citizens in most circumstances. Interesting. They're like, should we be making this arrest right now? We maybe should be waiting for some more hard evidence,

but we're going to get her before she flees. But Brendan, they want to keep building a good case against him. And they actually are like, maybe Juliana's the perfect way to do that. So on October 19th, she's arrested and charged with second-degree murder for firing the fatal shot that killed Joseph Ryan, according to her own story, her own words. And she's also charged with a firearm offense. But she's not caving under the pressure of law enforcement like they had hoped. She holds firm and refuses to talk to authorities for an entire year. And that entire year, Juliana sits in a jail cell waiting for her trial.

And she's held without bail because authorities are too afraid she's going to run to Brazil. Like obviously, when you see these bail hearings, they're like, my client's not a flight risk. Let them out. Okay, she's very clearly a flight risk. So she ends up sitting in jail. But it turns out a big reason why she might have been keeping her mouth shut was because at this point, Brendan's mother was helping to pay for everything. She was wiring Juliana money for phone calls, commissary.

She was the one paying for her attorney. So at this point, it's very clear that Juliana the nanny has a loyalty to Brendan and his family. They are even taking care of her while she's in jail. But as Juliana's court date approached, there was another up. update to the story. And it's that Brendan Banfield was now also arrested for murder as well. And the final nail in his coffin that people had been waiting for this whole year, a blood spatter analyst who had seen crime scene photos as well as photos of Brendan right after the attack. And this expert found something on his arm like little blood droplets that would have only

gotten there from wielding a bloody knife. Not a gun. They're like, that's not gun blood spatter. Making the prosecution feel pretty confident that Brendan was actually the one who stabbed his wife to death, not Joe Ryan and Juliana was maybe in charge of taking Joe Ryan out. So almost 19 months after his wife's death, Brennan's pulled over in his vehicle and taken into custody for the double homicide. He's charged with two counts of aggravated murder

as well as child abuse and child cruelty for allowing his daughter to literally be in the home at the time he was allegedly committing the murders. So now, hearing that her boyfriend is about to face trial as well, Juliana's attorneys are looking out for her best interests. They're like, hey, you're no longer alone in this. It's possible he's going to try and pin this entire thing on you so he gets a plea deal first.

maybe you should take a plea deal first. I'm curious what deal they offer her. They offer her the lesser crime of manslaughter if she agrees to tell the truth and testify against Brendan. Which is interesting because... It definitely feels like a teamed up... Definitely feels like a teamed up, but was she the one who even killed? Right.

That's what I'm wondering. We don't even know at this point. We don't even know the truth. That's what I'm, that's what I'm curious of. It's easy to think that, you know, she was in charge of getting on the site, pretending to be Christine, luring Joseph Ryan there. Brennan was 100% in on it. They were in wait. I mean, it's easy to see that, but they also need some more evidence.

The prosecution says, if you do this, if you testify against Brennan and tell the truth, we will actually recommend that you be sentenced to. time served. Okay. She's basically been in prison for over a year. Yeah. So she agrees, obviously, that's an amazing deal. And that's when all of the missing pieces of the puzzle maybe sort of start to fall into place.

Here's, according to her, now fully telling the truth, how things went down. According to Juliana's testimony, she moved in with the family and started nannying for them around October of 2021. Remember the murders happened in 2023. The affair between her and Brendan, though, started about 10 months later. So just 10 months after working for the family, they began an affair in August of 2022 and things quickly escalated between the two of them. Juliana said that Brendan began telling her he wanted to marry her and have his own children with her, but there's a problem. He doesn't want to get. get a divorce because Christine would get more money than he did. And he didn't want to share custody

of their four-year-old daughter, which sounds actually insane. But why does this keep popping up over and over again in like spousal murder? I mean, it's, I feel like it's very common. I mean, even if you look at like divorce, like money is usually one of the number one reason. So it doesn't shock me too much, you know? Guys, let me just be the first to tell you. you're not going to get away with murder in the midst of a divorce with an affair partner. So let's stop trying.

Nope, not going to happen. Man or women, let's just stop trying. Yep. I want to be clear. This wasn't some sweeping once in a lifetime romance

between Brennan and Juliana. Like, oh my gosh, I've met my soulmate. Brendan had cheated on Christine before. One of those affair partners actually came forward during the investigation to say she and Brendan

had a year-long romance before they even hired this nanny while he was married to Christine. In fact, police discover he had actually been searching for it. This previous affair partner said they met on a sugar baby website and that after a few... Wait, sorry, what's this sugar? I know what's a sugar daddy? It's the same thing, but basically, instead of like a girl looking for a sugar daddy, a guy can look for a sugar baby.

The guy's looking for a girl that... is younger than him to take care of. Oh, a sugar baby. Oh, got it. Okay. But it can also be an older woman looking for a younger guy to take care of. Or just a guy to take care of in general. It can be either or.

But in this specific situation, Brendan was on a website while married to Christine before the nanny, looking for a girl to take care of to be his sugar baby. Okay. She said after a few meetings, he would invite her back to the house he shared with Christine while she was working odd hours at the hospital. hospital, saving lives, mind you. She said they would have sex there while the wife was away,

but the affair partner also said he would do these super intense cleanups after she left, which she called his, quote, CSI sweep. She's like he would like clean up everything to make sure that we weren't caught. And according to this witness, Brendan had said to her at least once that things would be a lot easier if, quote, his wife was just out of the picture. And obviously, a similar sentiment was shared with Juliana once their affair took off. The difference was Juliana, I guess, was actually willing to help him entertain this. Apparently, the discussion turned into a serious plan, a month or two, into them dating. That was a while before the murders actually happened. Brendan was in New York for what I imagine was work

and Juliana actually went with him and it was there that he told her he didn't want Christine in their lives anymore she was a terrible mother she was lazy she wasn't doing her job as a wife and a plan started to take shape Brendan created a fake profile on FetLife the fetish website and pretended to be Christine

eventually Juliana started helping with it too like keeping up with the communications they would steal Christine phone. This is nuts. While she was asleep, because keep in mind, Nanny lives in the house. Yeah. So typically the affair partner, maybe they don't even know each other or they don't

know what's going on, but Nanny lives at home. So as soon as Christine goes to sleep, they can sneak around the house, literally. And that's what they're doing. They steal her phone while she is sleeping. They log on to it or they log on through her laptop when she's not looking. and together they would swipe through her matches for this account they had created on FetLife for her. And they would message with people

looking for the perfect fall guy for Brendan's plan. The idea was this. Find someone to match with Christine and stage what would look like a home break-in type sexual assault fantasy. And that's how they came across 39-year-old Joseph Ryan, who had no idea. He was about to become collateral damage.

in this sadistic plan. Over the next few months, they actually build a relationship with Joseph, pretending to be Christine, both of them, making him feel comfortable that their meetup would fit in the boundaries of consent,

would be safe, it would be two adults just wanting to do something they had wanted to do. And meanwhile, January 2023, a month before the murder, Brendan goes out

and he buys a gun for Juliana. He then trained her at a local gun range in anticipation of the day that Joseph would finally come over to the house and they would execute their plan. It's just stuff like this. Like, oh, they just happen to buy a gun two weeks before this person died.

Like, come on. Also, they both trade in their cell phones and get new ones hoping that it would conceal any digital evidence. That's what it is. Of like the planning up until this point. Idiots. Brendan even made sure none of his neighbors

had doorbell cameras and he went as far as to soundproof his home. Before this attack. They then set the date between Christine and Joseph, February 24th, 2023. That day, Joseph believed he was finally going to be able to meet this woman. He had been connecting with online, Christine Banfield. He was going to follow her instructions, sneak into the house, play out of fantasy they'd been talking about. In his mind, it was consensual role-playing.

No violence would occur. But unfortunately, as we know, that's not how things went down. Juliana left the house that morning pretending like she was going to take the daughter to the zoo while Brendan left for work. Instead, he stops at a local McDonald's to wait for the phone call as Juliana parked further down the block

to wait for Joseph Ryan to arrive. First, she called Christine to feign some sort of concern. So she literally calls Christine as well. And then she called Brendan who begins rushing back to the house to play the hero. Now you understand why she didn't just go to the zoo and why she also turned around and went back with the daughter, despite the fact her being like, I think someone's breaking into the house. Yeah. Now, when Brendan got there, he found a terrified Christine and a more than surprised Joseph, who likely at this point is realizing he's been set up.

Like, Christine is not in on what's going on, which is absolutely devastating because she's probably terrified. And then when Joseph sees Brendan come up the stairs and Christine yelling at Brendan that, oh my gosh, this man's attacking me, he has a knife. Joseph turns to him with a completely shocked expression like, no, no, no, no, no. Like this is planned. We've talked about this. Me and her, we've agreed. And that was when Brendan shot him in the head. and then Brendan turned to the real target, his wife, who keep in mind is at this point thinking that her husband just showed up and is the hero who just saved her life.

Oh my gosh. From this attacker. But now he's going to turn around with a knife and start attacking her. He gets on top of Christine. He begins using the knife Joseph brought for their role playing, and he stabs her to death. Oh my gosh. Juliana says, this is when she called 911 the first time.

But as she's calling 911, because they're trying to work fast, she realizes Joseph is still alive. He's still moving. So she hangs up. She grabs the gun and shoots the final shot into Joseph. I can't believe they're doing this like it's nothing. Like they're just eating some food. According to Juliana, after Bullion,

of them were dead. Brendan then started scooping handfuls of his wife's blood over onto Joseph's body to try to implicate him further prove that he's the one who stabbed all while his four-year-old daughter is in the basement with her iPad. And that's when they make the second 911 call that brings first responders to the house. This is nuts. Now, after pleading guilty, Juliana is given the maximum sentence of 10 years behind bars with time served. So she does get extra time, but time served. Anna's promised she becomes a star witness in the case against her boyfriend, Brendan Banfield. Which again, you guys, when you kill for an affair, it never works out.

Like, they never end up together still madly in love in prison like Harley Quinn and the Joker. Like, it just, it never is. She tells the jury about the affair. Brendan's Longwell thought out, obviously not that thought out, plan to kill his wife. Brendan Banfield takes the stand in his own defense. He said Juliana wasn't being truthful. This was all a scheme she'd come up with. He loved his wife.

Though he had cheated on Christine before, because women had come forward. He never wanted to leave her, not for Giuliana, not for anyone else. He's like, no, this was an entire self-defense thing. And he returned to the house after Giuliana called him to tell him about the intruder. He knew nothing, nor did he plan to ever kill his wife or Joseph.

This must have just been Juliana setting this entire thing. up. Obviously, marriage says otherwise. In February 2026, after his three-week trial, the jury finds him guilty of all charges. This past June, 26, he received his sentence. And as the judge handed it down to him, she said, quote, the level of cruelty, calculation, and inhumanity in this case, reflects something far deeper than anger or impulse. It reflects evil, which is a lot of evil, which which is why I carry no burden, and I find no hesitation in sentencing you to life. Christine Banfield never deserved any of this. Wow.

She especially didn't deserve for someone to tarnish her legacy after death, because in the months, you know, first into the investigation, it comes out about Fet Life and people are thinking, wow, the nurse had this secret life and it turned bad. She was a nurse, a giver, a caretaker, someone who gave just as much to strangers as she did her own family. Her life wasn't a secret love affair. She wasn't cheating on her husband. There's nothing wrong with vet life itself between two consenting adults. It's the fact that people thought she was doing this in secret and behind her husband's back, seeking out these quick hits of pleasure. It makes me sick thinking of somebody who you've been married to, you love, that you're super close with killing you. I can't.

Like, it's pretty hard to fathom it, to be honest. It is. And also, again, in her final moment, she thought her husband was saving her from a deadly attacker. Yeah. And again, on that note, neither was Joseph Ryan's life what they painted it. out to be. He often becomes a one-dimensional character in this story. While there wasn't much about Joseph's life out there to research, I could tell how loved and admired he was by the way his family spoke about him. And because Joe as a victim often gets lost in this story, I'm going to

let his mother have the last words. During her victim impact statements at Juliana sentencing hearing, she said this, quote, when Joe was taken from me, truly and callously murdered by Juliana and Brendan on February 24th, 20203, I lost so very much more than I can possibly name. I lost my confidant, someone who knew me deeply, listened without judgment, offered advice with my best interests at heart. I lost my biggest ally and my cheerleader, that empathetic voice saying, Mom, you've got this.

Mom, you should be kinder to yourself. I lost my rock and protector, the person who flew down repeatedly to take care of me when I had cancer. And I lost the comfort of knowing that my son would be there to care for me when I'm an old woman. And that is the murders of Christine Banfield and Joseph Ryan. I hate people. I really do. Like, it's just, I don't know.

And again. I don't. I will never understand. It is the whole not only were you murdered. You were murdered by your cheating husband because he's having an affair. Or you were murdered by your cheating wife because she's having an affair. And instead of just divorcing you, they see you as having no value. They see you as such, like, useless space that they would rather kill you than just deal with the consequences of leaving you.

Yeah. And that's devastating. Yeah. All right, you guys, thank you for listening or watching today's episode. We will see you next time with another one. I love it. And I hate it. Goodbye.