Au Pair Affair Trial (Brendan Banfield) - Part 1: The Plan and The Prosecution

This Feels Criminal: A True Crime Podcast (Formerly Killer Queens)

This Feels Criminal | Formerly Killer Queens

Society & Culture, True Crime

4.4 • 3.1K Ratings

🗓️ 25 February 2026

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

n the first installment of this explosive trial coverage, we dive into the Commonwealth's case against federal agent Brendan Banfield. What initially appeared to be a tragic home invasion and the heroic defense of his wife, Christine, quickly unraveled into a twisted plot involving an affair with the family's 22-year-old au pair, Juliana Magalhaes.

We break down the prosecution's opening statements, which allege Brendan masterminded a "fake rape fantasy" on FetLife to lure an unsuspecting man to his home—setting the stage for a double murder he hoped to blame on an intruder. Hear the chilling details of the initial 911 calls and the star witness testimony of Juliana Magalhaes, who describes the moments Brendan allegedly turned a knife on his own wife.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Did you ever hear a story and think, we're not getting the full picture?
0:08.6	That's where we start.
0:10.1	On this feels criminal, we unpack crime, corruption, and conspiracy with curiosity, context, and just a touch of chaos.
0:17.5	We step outside the timelines and ask better questions and explore the systems
0:21.9	behind the story, all in a voice that feels more like a friend than a reporter. Because when you
0:26.4	identify the patterns, you can't unsee how often they show up. This is a case that I had
0:34.8	never heard before. I'd never heard of it. And I started listening to the opening statements.
0:39.8	And I was like, this is not real life.
0:43.4	This cannot be real life.
0:45.1	This is the craziest, wildest, out of a movie plot to kill your wife I've ever heard of.
0:54.0	Oh. Okay. And the defense is like,
0:59.8	hold my beer because this investigation was corrupt, first of all. All of the homicide detectives,
1:08.5	they got moved out if they disagreed, like all of these things. And so like,
1:13.7	after having covered Karen Reed, watching all of that, knowing the corruption out of Massachusetts,
1:20.0	I'm like, well, wait a second. Like, you know, that's not, that's not unheard of. Right. So I wanted to, that I was all in.
1:29.5	I was like, okay, I'm watching this trial.
1:30.9	I have to watch this trial.
1:32.7	The trial name, you know, they give trials names, is the Opaire Affair trial.
1:39.6	Oh, okay.
1:40.9	I've seen the headlines.
1:41.9	I haven't watched.
1:42.7	I'm not a trial watcher.
	...

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