"Finger-Like" Blood Transfers on Joseph Ryan's Body: Forensic Expert Says Scene Was Staged | Banfield Trial Update
True Crime Today | Daily True Crime News & Interviews
Tony Brueski
4.2 • 612 Ratings
🗓️ 21 January 2026
⏱️ 26 minutes
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Summary
Prosecutors have rested their case in the Brendan Banfield double murder trial after presenting forensic testimony they hope will convince jurors the crime scene was deliberately staged. Blood stain pattern analyst Iris Dalley Graff walked the jury through graphic crime scene photographs, explaining that blood from Joseph Ryan's wounds flowed in multiple directions — evidence, she said, that his body was repositioned after death.
Graff's most critical testimony centered on transfer stains found on Ryan's hands, pants, and arm. She described parallel "finger-like" patterns on his right leg and blood droplets on his forearm consistent with someone dripping blood from above. According to the prosecution, this corroborates au pair Juliana Peres Magalhães' account that Brendan Banfield intentionally placed his wife Christine's blood on Ryan to make it appear Ryan was the attacker.
The defense isn't buying it. Attorney John Carroll objected repeatedly during Graff's testimony and later pointed to body camera footage showing Banfield with bloody hands pressed against his wife's neck when officers arrived. Carroll argued that's a man trying to save his wife — not stage a murder scene. He moved to dismiss all charges after the prosecution rested, but Judge Penney Azcarate denied the motion.
Now the defense presents their case. Carroll has four to five witnesses ready. Can he convince at least one juror that the prosecution got it wrong?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is Hidden Killers with Tony Bruske. |
| 0:03.4 | Here now, Tony Bruske. |
| 0:07.0 | The prosecution has rested in the Brandon Banfield double murder, |
| 0:11.8 | awe pair affair trial extravaganza. |
| 0:17.1 | It kind of feels that way sometimes with some of these cases, doesn't it? |
| 0:20.2 | Where it's like the titles get so creative. |
| 0:22.8 | It's like, and clowns ran through the room through rings of fire, trial of the century. |
| 0:35.1 | But this certainly is one that if the prosecution's theory is true, I mean, you're one step away from rings of fire and clowns because the planning, the storyline, the ruse. |
| 0:53.6 | It's really shocking in this case, the depths to which it went, far deeper than a lot of cases that we see. |
| 1:02.1 | Sloppily done, if it is what it is, but still, points for creativity. I guess we'll give it that. |
| 1:11.8 | And the way they chose to end their case, the prosecution that tells you exactly what they want the jury to remember when they walk into that deliberation room. |
| 1:21.4 | The blood. |
| 1:23.4 | Four days of testimony, five witnesses on day one, two days of the au pair laying out an alleged murder conspiracy. |
| 1:31.7 | In excruciating detail, DNA experts, digital forensic surveillance footage from a McDonald's drive-thru and when it came time to put a bow on it. |
| 1:42.2 | Prosecutors in Fairfax County Circuit courts spent nearly an entire final day of |
| 1:47.2 | their case on one thing what the blood at the crime scene actually says about what happened inside |
| 1:55.6 | the band filled home on February 24th, 2023. And we're going to get into all of that. |
| 2:02.6 | I'm going to catch you up on the case. |
| 2:04.1 | If you're new to this and you want to kind of get a little background, |
| 2:06.5 | we're going to do that. |
| 2:08.4 | Before we do, though, please do press subscribe wherever it is. |
| 2:11.8 | You're listening to us or watching us, whether it's Apple Podcasts or YouTube or |
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