The Banfield Trial Begins: Cops Transferred The Expert Who Contradicted Their Murder Theory | Hidden Killers
Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski | True Crime News & Commentary
True Crime Today
3.3 • 908 Ratings
🗓️ 13 January 2026
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Brendan Banfield's murder trial starts Monday, January 12th. He's accused of killing his wife Christine and a stranger named Joseph Ryan in an elaborate plot involving the family's Brazilian au pair and a sexual fetish website. But the prosecution has a problem they can't explain away.
Their own digital forensics expert said the evidence doesn't support their theory.
Officer Brendan Miller analyzed 60 devices and concluded Christine Banfield appeared to be the one controlling the FetLife account — not her husband. His report stated there was "no indication that Christine lost control of her devices." He found she was communicating with multiple people on the site. His findings were peer-reviewed by the University of Alabama and confirmed.
Then Miller was told he would "never be doing another digital forensics case" in the major crimes bureau. He was transferred. The lead homicide detective who also disagreed was moved off the case.
Defense attorney John Carroll called it "a theory in search of facts rather than a series of facts supporting a theory."
Now the entire case depends on Juliana Peres Magalhaes — the au pair who changed her story after a year in jail and took a deal that lets her walk free if she testifies. She wrote to her mother from jail that she was "heartbroken" to be doing this to Brendan but wanted to come home.
The lead prosecutor was removed after being found drinking at 8 a.m. The child's interview was excluded as evidence. And it took nearly three years to get to trial.
Christine Banfield was a nurse who spent her career helping sexual assault survivors. Joseph Ryan was a man looking for connection who walked into a trap. Both are dead. Somebody is responsible. Starting Monday, a jury has to decide if it was Brendan Banfield.
#HiddenKillers #BrendanBanfield #AuPairMurder #ChristineBanfield #JosephRyan #FairfaxCounty #MurderTrial #TrueCrimePodcast #FetLifeMurder #CriminalJustice
Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISDOES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/
Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspod
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/
Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod
X Twitter https://x.com/tonybpod
Listen Ad-Free On Apple Podcasts Here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/true-crime-today-premium-plus-ad-free-advance-episode/id1705422872
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | is hidden killers with Tony Brucey. |
| 0:02.6 | Here now, Tony Bruske. |
| 0:06.7 | On the morning of February 24th, 2023, just after 8 a.m., |
| 0:11.8 | Fairfax County Police responded to a 911 call from a house |
| 0:15.2 | on a place called Stable Brookway in Herndon, Virginia. |
| 0:21.6 | What they found inside that upstairs bedroom is a kind of crime scene that stays with you, to put it lightly. |
| 0:32.8 | If you're wondering what the whole story is on this case. You've found the right place. |
| 0:38.4 | We're going to go through all of the details from the prosecution to the defense in a very |
| 0:43.7 | eye-opening way, I would say. |
| 0:47.4 | There's a lot of caveats to this case. |
| 0:49.8 | It is not quite as open as shut as one may think or as one may have been led to believe based on |
| 0:58.1 | what may have watched on this case out there. I just want you to hear it all so you can digest it |
| 1:04.9 | and make your decisions that way. So stick around. We're going to go through all of the aspects of |
| 1:13.2 | this case as this trial is set to begin this week. We'll be carrying it for you right here in our |
| 1:18.0 | podcast channels, the audio channels. If you want to listen to the trial, be sure to press |
| 1:24.5 | subscribe wherever it is. You're listening to us right now so you don't miss any of that |
| 1:28.8 | if you're on YouTube press subscribe as well we'll keep giving you updates every single day on this case |
| 1:33.3 | as the as the trial progresses and I'd love to get your thoughts comment section |
| 1:38.9 | there on YouTube you can weigh in and also if you want to talk directly with me in a more condensed |
| 1:47.8 | chat, sure to check out our substack. It's absolutely free to join right now. And that's where |
| 1:54.2 | you can conversate directly with me on there. So please do join us on a substack. The link is in the description. It's |
| 2:02.5 | hitting killers at substack.com. Okay, you're ready? You're ready to dig into this? You're |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from True Crime Today, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of True Crime Today and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.