In February 2023, a Virginia man murdered his wife and lured a complete stranger to his home to take the fall for it.

In February 2023, a Virginia man murdered his wife and lured a complete stranger to his home to take the fall for it.

Brendan Banfield was a former IRS criminal investigator who lived in Herndon, Virginia, with his wife, Christine Banfield, a 37-year-old pediatric ICU nurse, and their young daughter. They had been married for nearly eleven years. In October 2021, the couple hired a Brazilian au pair, Juliana Peres Magalhães, to care for their daughter, and by August 2022, Brendan and Juliana were having an affair.

Brendan wanted out of his marriage, but he didn’t want a divorce. He told Juliana his wife would walk away with more money than him, and he wanted custody of their daughter. So instead of leaving, he decided to get rid of Christine.

Brendan and Christine(top frame), Joseph Ryan(bottom left), Brendan and Juliana Peres Magalhães(bottom right)

The plan was elaborate. Brendan and Juliana posed as Christine on a fetish website called FetLife and catfished a 39-year-old stranger named Joseph Ryan, luring him to the house under the pretense of a violent, consensual se*xual role-play. On the morning of February 24, 2023, Ryan arrived believing he was meeting Christine. Instead, Brendan shot him with his government-issued firearm and stabbed his wife multiple times in the neck. Their four-year-old daughter was hiding in the basement the entire time.

Brendan then staged the scene to look like a home invasion. He transferred some of his wife’s blood onto Ryan’s hands, called 911, and claimed he had come home to find a stranger attacking his wife and k*illed the man to protect her.

Investigators didn’t buy it. The “neatness” of the scene gave it away, including small details like Christine’s eyeglasses placed too carefully for such a violent attack. A months-long investigation followed, and Brendan was charged with aggravated mu*rder in 2024. Juliana pleaded guilty to manslaughter and testified against him in exchange for a reduced sentence.

In February 2026, a jury convicted Brendan Banfield of two counts of aggravated mu*rder, use of a firearm, and child endangerment. On June 5, 2026, he was sentenced to life in prison without parole. The judge called his actions “evil,” while he continued to insist he was innocent. Juliana is serving a 10-year sentence.