Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - This Side Chick is in BIG Trouble // The Juliana Peres Murder Story

Episode Date: May 8, 2026

Juliana Peres Magalhães, a Brazilian former au pair, was a central figure in a sensational 2023 double-murder case in Northern Virginia, where she participated in a plot with her employer and lover, Brendan Banfield, to kill his wife, Christine Banfield. The pair orchestrated an elaborate scheme using a fetish website to lure a stranger, Joseph Ryan, to the family's home, where they fatally shot and stabbed him and Christine while attempting to stage the scene as a home invasion.

So this 21-year-old nanny will do anything to be with this much older man, including kill someone. Now, the nanny's name is Juliana. Juliana is around 21 when this story starts, and she wants a better life for herself. So one day in 2021, she moves from her home in Brazil all the way to the state of Virginia in the U.S. To be an au pair. Now, an au pair is basically a live-in nanny who's on a work visa. And so that is when she starts working for this guy, Brendan. And Brendan's around 36, and he is married to this woman, Christine.

And Brendan and Christine, they've been together since they were teenagers, and they have a kid together who Juliana has been hired to take care of. And so Juliana moves into their house, and she has her own room and everything to live in, and she works with this family for about a year before things start to get shady. because that is when Juliana and Brendan start smashing behind Christine's back. Not only that, but pretty quickly, Juliana starts wanting Brendan all to herself.

Like, she wants him to be her boyfriend, despite the fact that he's not even single. Like, she, like, starts taking pictures of them together and posting them on her socials. But, you know, since he's, like, literally married to the unsuspecting woman down the hall, Juliana covers Brendan's face with emojis, thinking that she's being slick.

So anyway, over time, Juliana starts wanting everything that Christine has. Not just her husband, but she wants her kid and she wants her house. She wants Christine's life. And Brendan wants Christine out of the way too. I mean, he's done with that relationship. But he doesn't want to divorce her because that would mean potentially losing custody of his kid and losing half his assets.

So he goes to Juliana and he tells her that he wants to be with her for real, but that in order to do that, they have to get rid of Christine for good. And so they agree to this absolutely evil plan to murder her and frame a random guy as the killer. And so they get to work on this plan. They go to a local shooting range and they start shooting for target practice. Brendan gets all-new triple-pane soundproof windows installed in the home so that neighbors won't hear the screaming. He also walks around the neighborhood scouting, checking to see if the neighbors have cameras that could possibly catch them. This guy even starts forming an alibi weeks in advance. Like he starts going to a McDonald's near the house for breakfast every morning. That way, when he appears there on the big day,

police won't notice anything suspicious. Like going to McDonald's just part of his routine, and appearing on the cameras in the drive-thru, will give him an alibi. So Brendan gets every detail planned out. Because here's the thing about him. He actually works in law enforcement. He's an IRS special agent, which is basically an armed cop that investigates financial crimes. So he's going to try and out smart any cop or detective that would potentially investigate what they're about to do. So now their next step is that they need someone to frame. So they get on the internet and they go to a website for people who are into S&M stuff. And they use pictures of Christine and they create a fake profile posing as her. And Juliana pretends to be Christine and she messages guys on the site and

she tells them that she wants to fulfill a fantasy of being essayed. And oddly, a lot of guys are into that. They're like, cool, yeah, I'm into that. Can we meet in public first and discuss? Now, meeting in public first is obviously not going to work for Juliana and Brendan's plan. I mean, they need this whole thing to be a surprise. And by the way, these guys requesting to meet in public first literally saves their lives because, you know, they don't end up getting involved in this murder. You'll see what I mean in a minute. Anyway, Brendan and Juliana, they keep looking for someone. Someone who doesn't want to meet in public first, someone who's willing to come straight to their house, no questions asked. And that's

is when they meet this guy, Joe. And for whatever reason, poor Joe, he's trusting enough to say yes to coming straight to their house to fulfill what he thinks is a consensual essay fantasy with Christine. And so from here, Juliana and Brendan, they set up a room in the house to look like the fantasy Joe is expecting, I guess. Then the next morning, it's finally time. And so they message Joe to come over early in the morning while Christine is there asleep in her bed. And they leave the door unlocked and they tell him,

just walk in. And Joe does exactly that. He walks right in and he goes down to the room that they set up and he takes off his clothes and he ties himself up and he puts on a blindfold expecting this fantasy role playing with Christine. And that is when Juliana walks up behind him while he's tied up and helpless and blam! She shoots him. Meanwhile, just as they planned, Brendan is at McDonald's, on the security cameras, out of the house, at the time of the murder. Then, Juliana calls him, and she says that her part is done. And that is Brendan's cue to race home, and there he sneaks upstairs, where Christine is still asleep in her bed, because she slept through this whole thing, I guess. And suddenly, boom, he starts stabbing her.

And he does until she's unfortunately unalived. These two psychopaths take two innocent lives, and they do all this with the little girl in the house, the same little girl that Juliana was hired to take care of. And so next, they staged the scene to frame Joe. They make Joe look like a home intruder, like that he was the one who broke in and stabbed Christine, and that Brendan just happened to walk in on it happening

and shot Joe in self-defense. This is the cover story that they had practiced over and over for months. Anyway, soon, police arrive. And Juliana and Brendan tell them this whole self-defense story. He started stabbing her. I think Brendan shot him. It's okay. You don't have to get it all that right now.

I never saw her before. And I guess police believe her because they eventually leave. And so it looks like Brendan and Juliana got exactly what they wanted. She's not a nanny anymore. She's the woman of the house. And soon she moves into Christine and Brendan's bedroom, and she starts sleeping there with him in the same bed where they murdered Christine. And Juliana takes down all the pictures of Christine with Brendan,

and she replaces them with pictures of herself with Brendan. She also takes out all of Christine's clothes from the bedroom closet, and she puts her own things in there, and she tells their little daughter that she can now call her. mommy. And so it looks like Giuliana has just successfully stolen Christine's entire life and Brendan got to keep all their money. Until. Until police are still investigating and pretty quickly forensics show that it was actually Giuliana who shot Joe and so bam, Juliana is arrested. Here's her mugshot. Now police, they continue to question Juliana, but she refuses to

clip on Brendan. And, you know, police can't arrest him because he has a pretty strong McDonald's alibi. And so it looks like at least he is actually going to get away with it. Visit BetMdmdm Casino and check out the newest exclusive. The Price is Right Fortune Pick. BetMDM and Game Sense remind you to play responsibly. 19 plus to wager. Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connects Ontario at 1-8665. 531, 2,600 to speak to an advisor, free of charge. BetMGEM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming, Ontario.

Until again. About a year goes by, and it's now 2024. And police confront Juliana with pictures of her with Brendan, because it turns out that her emoji idea wasn't actually so slick. And police have discovered that they were having an affair the whole time. Police also find photos of them at the gun range because these two geniuses actually took pictures of themselves practicing with the murder weapon. So in exchange for reduced time, Juliana finally flips and tells them everything. And so bam, Brendan is arrested. Here's his mugshot.

And so ultimately he goes to trial and he's found guilty and he faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison while Juliana takes a plea deal and she gets 10 years in prison.