Brendan Banfield, who was involved in a gruesome double murder plot with his family’s au pair, has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The former IRS agent was found guilty of aggravated assault and other charges in February for the 2023 murders of his wife, Christine Banfield, and a stranger, Joseph Ryan. Banfield plotted the murders with his Brazilian au pair Juliana Peres Magalhaes, with whom he was having an affair. Magalhaes, who helped lure Ryan to the Banfields’ Virginia home using a fetish website, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and is now serving a 10-year sentence.
Here’s what we know about Brendan Banfield and his elaborate murder scheme.
Who Is Brendan Banfield?
Prior to his arrest, 41-year-old Brendan Banfield worked as a criminal investigator for the Internal Revenue Service. He had been married to his wife Christine, 37, a pediatric intensive care unit nurse, for nearly 11 years, and had settled into a house in Herndon, Virginia, with their then 4-year-old daughter.
In October 2021, the couple hired au pair Juliana Peres Magalhaes to care for their daughter full-time. Nearly a year after moving into the Banfields’ home, she became romantically involved with Brendan Banfield in August 2022. Wanting to leave his marriage while avoiding an expensive divorce and messy custody battle, Banfield and his new lover soon began concocting a plan to kill his wife and pin the murder on another man.
How Did Brendan Banfield Kill Christine Banfield and Joseph Ryan?
In February 2023, Banfield and Magalhaes posed as Christine on the fetish dating website FetLife and lured Joseph Ryan, 38, to the Virginia home under false pretenses, inviting him over to participate in a violent sexual role-play. When Ryan arrived at the house, however, Banfield shot him and stabbed Christine. During the murders, his daughter was hiding in the basement.
Staging the scene as a home invasion, Banfield called 911 claiming that he returned home to find a man, Ryan, raping and stabbing his wife, and that he shot him in self-defense. He left his gun safe open to make it appear like he had grabbed it spontaneously and even poured some of Christine's blood onto Ryan’s body.
However, this story did not hold up, and police eventually determined that Banfield had orchestrated both murders. Several months later, Banfield and Magalhaes were arrested in September and October 2023, respectively. While Magalhaes was initially charged with second-degree murder, she pleaded guilty to manslaughter in October 2024 in exchange for testifying against Banfield.
During his trial, she revealed that she was the one who shot Ryan, but insisted that Banfield was the mastermind behind the whole scheme. Three years after killing his wife, in February 2026, Banfield was found guilty on two counts of aggravated murder, one count of using a firearm in committing a felony, and one count of child endangerment.
Before his sentencing hearing in June, Banfield maintained his innocence, telling the court, “I was found guilty of a crime that I did not commit.”
Ultimately, this did not sway Judge Penny Azcarate, who sentenced him to life without parole. “The level of cruelty, calculation, and inhumanity in this case reflects something far deeper than anger or impulse; it reflects evil,” she said, “which is why I carry no burden and find no hesitation in sentencing you to life.”
Where Is Brendan Banfield Now?
As of June 5, Banfield is being held at the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center, where he will remain temporarily before being transferred to a maximum-security reception facility in Virginia.
Catherine Caruso joined the Biography.com staff in August 2024, having previously worked as a freelance journalist for several years. She is a graduate of Syracuse University, where she studied English literature. When she’s not working on a new story, you can find her reading, hitting the gym, or watching too much TV.
