GUILTY: Brendan Banfield Convicted of Murdering Wife Christine — Au Pair Walked Free
True Crime Today | Daily True Crime News & Interviews
Tony Brueski
4.2 • 612 Ratings
🗓️ 2 February 2026
⏱️ 18 minutes
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Summary
The verdict is in. Brendan Banfield has been found guilty of aggravated murder in Fairfax County, Virginia. The former IRS special agent was convicted Monday in the February 2023 deaths of his wife Christine Banfield, 37, and Joseph Ryan, 39 — a man prosecutors say was catfished on a fetish website and lured to the family home as part of an elaborate murder plot.
The jury of five men and seven women deliberated nearly nine hours over two days. They heard from 34 witnesses across three weeks of testimony, including the most damning account of all: Juliana Peres Magalhães, the family's au pair and Banfield's mistress, who told jurors she helped execute the plan and watched Banfield stab his wife.
Magalhães originally faced second-degree murder charges. She struck a deal — plead to manslaughter, testify against Banfield, walk out with time served. The defense called her "bought and paid for" and attacked her credibility at every turn. They pointed out Banfield's DNA wasn't on the knife. They challenged the investigation as biased and the digital evidence as flawed.
None of it worked. The jury believed the au pair.
Under Virginia law, aggravated murder carries mandatory life without parole. Banfield, 40, will never leave prison. His four-year-old daughter — who was in the basement of the house during the killings — is now seven. She'll grow up visiting her father behind bars, if she visits at all.
Today we cover the verdict, the key evidence, and what comes next as Banfield's team prepares the inevitable appeal.
#TrueCrimeToday #BrendanBanfield #ChristineBanfield #AuPairMurder #GuiltyVerdict #JulianaMagalhaes #FairfaxCounty #MurderTrial #JosephRyan #LifeInPrison
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is Hidden Killers with Tony Bruske. |
| 0:03.6 | Here now, Tony Bruske. |
| 0:07.4 | Don't you just love happy endings? |
| 0:10.4 | Brandon Banfield is going to die in prison. |
| 0:13.0 | That's a weird way to start a story, isn't it? |
| 0:15.3 | But it is what it is. |
| 0:18.8 | Of course, not for without an appeal. We'll get to all of that. |
| 0:24.6 | Brandon Banfield is going to die in prison. That is not speculation. That is not commentary. |
| 0:31.2 | That's Virginia law. If everything holds up, a Fairfax County jury just convicted, the former IRS agent of aggravated |
| 0:40.1 | murder. You're the deaths of his wife, Christine Banfield, and Joseph Ryan under Virginia Code 18.2-3-1. |
| 0:48.6 | Aggravated murder carries a mandatory sentence of life without the possibility of parole. |
| 0:56.1 | He has not technically been sentenced yet, but it's pretty much a given. No good behavior credits, no early release, no second |
| 1:02.6 | chances. Brendan Banfield, age 40, will spend every remaining day of his life behind bars for where |
| 1:08.7 | prosecutors argued was an elaborate scheme to murder his wife |
| 1:12.6 | so he could run off with the family's Brazilian au pair. |
| 1:18.6 | How'd that work out for you, Brandon? |
| 1:22.3 | Here's a lot of people who I'm sure have dealt with this man through the IRS |
| 1:28.9 | when he was an agent |
| 1:31.1 | at a field office not |
| 1:34.6 | I know he's an investigator in the criminal |
| 1:36.9 | but prior to that he wasn't |
| 1:38.3 | there's a lot of people right now |
... |
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