"She Said She Still Loved Him" — FBI Trust Expert Robin Dreeke On Juliana's Letter & The Banfield Dynamic
Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski | True Crime News & Commentary
True Crime Today
3.3 • 911 Ratings
🗓️ 17 January 2026
⏱️ 32 minutes
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Summary
Juliana Peres Magalhaes wrote from jail that she was "heartbroken for doing this to Brendan" and that she still loved him. Then she testified against him to go home to Brazil. So who was manipulating whom?
Retired FBI Special Agent Robin Dreeke joins Hidden Killers to break down the relationship at the center of the Brendan Banfield murder trial. Dreeke led the FBI's Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysis Program and literally wrote the book on trust and manipulation. If anyone can decode this dynamic, it's him.
The prosecution portrays Juliana as a young woman manipulated by an older, more powerful man. They say Brendan told her it was "too late to back out" and pressured her into participating. The defense says she's a liar who flipped to save herself. Dreeke examines the behavioral evidence to determine which version is closer to the truth.
Juliana maintained the home invasion story for a full year before changing it. What causes someone to hold a lie that long? What causes them to flip? Dreeke explains the psychology of both.
The affair began in August 2022. Juliana was living in the Banfield home, caring for Christine's daughter, sleeping with Christine's husband — all under the same roof. Dreeke analyzes what that arrangement reveals about power, control, and the dynamics between all three people.
If Brendan and Juliana actually conspired to commit murder, that requires extraordinary trust. Dreeke explains what would need to exist for that kind of criminal partnership to form — and whether he sees evidence of it here.
#BrendanBanfield #JulianaPeresMagalhaes #HiddenKillers #RobinDreeke #FBI #Trust #Manipulation #AuPairMurder #StarWitness #Psychology
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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. |
| 0:06.2 | And that's what I'm wondering about with where things stand today in this case, |
| 0:12.6 | and the Auper Affair murder trial of Brandon Banfield. |
| 0:15.7 | The prosecution says Brennan Banfield manipulated Juliana Perez-Mengalise |
| 0:20.1 | into helping him commit double murder, |
| 0:22.0 | they claim he expressed his desire to be rid of his wife, pressured their young au pair into the |
| 0:29.9 | plan, and told her it was too late to back out. That's the allegations, and handed her a gun the |
| 0:35.8 | morning of the killings. But Juliana isn't some passive victim in the story. |
| 0:39.5 | She's 22 years old, living in the Banfield home, sleeping with the husband, and allegedly |
| 0:44.4 | participating in planning and executing a double murder. Then she spent a year in jail, |
| 0:49.7 | telling police the same story Brendan did, before flipping. and in also effect saving herself from jail. |
| 0:57.8 | She wrote to her mother that she was heartbroken for what she was doing to Brendan. |
| 1:03.4 | She said she still loved him, but she wanted to come home. |
| 1:07.9 | Robin Drake retired FBI special agency for the counterintelligence behavioral analysis |
| 1:12.7 | program with us. Let's get into some of this. Specifically, the flipping. The prosecution |
| 1:23.9 | portrays Julianna as this young woman manipulated by an older, more powerful man. |
| 1:29.2 | The defense says she's a liar who will say anything to go home. |
| 1:33.9 | I don't know. |
| 1:35.0 | I find it interesting that it took nearly like, I think it was like 17 months to arrest Brendan. |
| 1:40.8 | The pair was arrested far earlier at like, I believe, six to nine months. |
| 1:45.1 | I don't have the exact numbers in front of me. |
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