FBI Behavioral Expert: "Does Brendan Banfield Act Like A Calculated Killer?" | Robin Dreeke Analysis
Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski | True Crime News & Commentary
True Crime Today
3.3 • 911 Ratings
🗓️ 16 January 2026
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
If Brendan Banfield planned an elaborate double murder, why did he leave a framed photo of himself and his mistress on the nightstand for police to find eight months later? Retired FBI Special Agent Robin Dreeke joins Hidden Killers to answer the question nobody else is asking: does Banfield's behavior actually match the prosecution's theory?
Dreeke led the FBI's Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysis Program. He's spent his career reading people, detecting deception, and understanding why criminals do what they do. He brings that expertise to a case built almost entirely on the word of a woman who flipped after a year in jail.
Brendan Banfield was an IRS criminal investigator. He knew how cases are built. He understood evidence. Prosecutors say he used that knowledge to orchestrate murder and stage it as self-defense. But Dreeke examines the behavioral red flags that should appear if that's true — and whether they actually show up in this case.
The prosecution claims Banfield spent months planning: creating fake FetLife profiles, luring Joseph Ryan to the house, coordinating with Juliana, buying a gun, taking her to the range. Then he called 911 and gave a detailed statement. Dreeke explains what investigators should have seen in that call if Banfield was lying — and what it means if they didn't see it.
He also tackles the McDonald's detail prosecutors love: Banfield allegedly waited nearby so he could return quickly when Ryan arrived. Calculated staging? Or innocent behavior being reframed after the fact?
This is the behavioral breakdown of Brendan Banfield you won't get anywhere else.
#BrendanBanfield #RobinDreeke #HiddenKillers #FBI #BehavioralAnalysis #ChristineBanfield #JosephRyan #AuPairMurder #Deception #CriminalPsychology
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is Hidden Killers with Tony Bruske. |
| 0:03.2 | Here now, Tony Bruske. |
| 0:06.8 | Let's talk about this case. |
| 0:09.7 | Brendan Banfield was an IRS criminal investigator, a federal agent, trained to build cases, |
| 0:15.7 | analyze evidence, and understand how investigations work. |
| 0:20.2 | Prosecutors say he used that training to orchestrate the murder of his wife, Christine, and Joseph Ryan, |
| 0:28.2 | then staged the crime scene to look like self-defense against a home invader eight months after the killings. |
| 0:34.8 | Police found a framed photo of Brendan and his family's au pair on his |
| 0:39.0 | nightstand. I'm not surprised by this. I don't know why it's supposedly criminal, but we'll talk |
| 0:44.1 | about it. He'd been having an affair with her for months, and he admitted to it, but here's what |
| 0:49.7 | doesn't fit. If Brendan Vanfield planned an elaborate murder, why leave evidence of an affair in plain sight? |
| 0:55.5 | Why keep the au pair in the country? Why give a story to police that could be picked apart? |
| 1:02.1 | Robin Drake, retired FBI special agency for the counterintelligence behavioral analysis program. |
| 1:07.9 | Joining us, Robin, Brennan was an an IRS criminal investigator, spent his career building |
| 1:13.2 | cases and understanding how investigations work. If he planned this murder, does his post-defense |
| 1:19.4 | behavior match what you'd expect from someone with that kind of a background? |
| 1:22.7 | So first we have to look at his backgrounds because when we say criminal investigator, all right, so let's |
| 1:28.3 | look at what he investigated, white collar crime, IRS stuff. So he was not a homicide detective. |
| 1:35.3 | He did not cover true crime because I guarantee you this. If you did cover any true crime or even |
| 1:40.1 | watch our show, he would not have done what he did. So his background. Allegedly. |
| 1:45.8 | Right. So all allegedly, but at least he's being prosecuted for this. So I'm going to have my |
| 1:51.8 | hypothetical hat on for this. And my thought experiment had as always. So what that tells me when I |
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