Inside a Fairfax County, Virginia, house, a woman was stabbed to death and a man fatally shot in February 2023 in a complicated double homicide involving an alleged affair and a fetish website. Now, her husband is being charged with murder in both of their killings, nearly a year after the couple’s au pair was charged with shooting the man to death.
In February 2023, Christine Banfield, 37, was found inside her bedroom, suffering from stab wounds, alongside 39-year-old Joseph Ryan, who was shot and killed, police said.
Brendan Banfield was indicted on multiple charges of aggravated murder and the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, more than 570 days after police said he killed his wife and Ryan, Fairfax County officials said in a news conference Monday.
Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano and Police Chief Kevin Davis announced Brendan Banfield’s arrest on Monday, but neither offered many details about the evidence that led to the new charges, citing concerns about compromising the criminal investigation or prejudicing a future jury.
“This much is clear — we have evidence to now allege that Christine Banfield’s life was unlawfully taken and Joseph Ryan’s life was unlawfully taken,” Davis said.
Descano did say “new information” uncovered by Fairfax officers “was very instrumental in giving today’s indictment.”
At the time of the killings, Brendan and Christine Banfield were married and living in a Herndon house with their 4-year-old daughter and 22-year-old au pair Juliana Peres Magalhaes.
Police said Brendan Banfield was involved in a “romantic relationship” with Peres Magalhaes — who denied allegations the two were having an affair immediately after the shooting and the stabbing.
Back in October 2023, Peres Magalhaes was charged with second-degree murder and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony in Ryan’s killing. She was not charged in 37-year-old Christine Banfield’s death. Her trial in Ryan’s death is scheduled in November, The Associated Press reported.
Brendan Banfield is being held at the county’s adult detention center, the same facility where Peres Magalhaes has been in custody as she awaits trial, police said.
Fairfax County police executed a search warrant at the Banfields’ house on Monday, Davis said.
“This isn’t over. We’re not spiking the football, we’re not celebrating,” Davis said. “We’re still in the midst of this journey within our criminal justice system.”
What happened inside the Banfields’ house?
Prosecutors have alleged that someone used Christine Banfield’s laptop to make an account on an adult fetish website. Ryan had responded to the profile and went to the home with the intention of having “rough sex” with Christine Banfield.
Prosecutors haven’t said who they believe created the account.
At an earlier hearing, Peres Magalhaes’ defense attorney, Ryan Campbell, argued that the evidence showed that Christine Banfield established the adult website account, and also purchased tickets for Peres Magalhaes to take the couple’s 4-year-old daughter to the National Zoo in D.C. during her alleged assignation with Ryan.
At the December 2023 hearing, Campbell said it was difficult for him to accept that somebody other than Christine Banfield would be going on her computer to lure Ryan for months.
After the incident, Peres Magalhaes told detectives she saw Ryan holding a knife to the throat of Christine Banfield, who was nude, inside the master bedroom.
Police said Brendan Banfield, a criminal investigative division agent for the IRS, shot Ryan near his right eyebrow with his IRS-issued service weapon.
After shooting Ryan, Peres Magalhaes said Brendan Banfield told her to get a gun from a safe in the bathroom of the master bedroom. She then fired a shot at Ryan, which struck him in the chest, and “devastated his heart,” according to the medical examiner who testified at a December 2023 hearing.
Peres Magalhaes called 911 around 7:45 a.m., but the call was disconnected. Around 15 minutes later, she called 911 again and gave the phone to Banfield, who told the dispatcher he had just shot a man who was stabbing his wife.
Both guns and a knife were recovered by law enforcement at the scene, Davis said.
What was the relationship between Brendan and Juliana?
Prosecutors said that Peres Magalhaes visited a shooting range in Ashburn with Brendan Banfield a few months before the double homicide.
Brendan Banfield returned to purchase a Glock on Jan. 28, 2023, which prosecutors said was the weapon that Peres Magalhaes retrieved from a bathroom safe and used to shoot Ryan.
In the months between the shootings and Peres Magalhaes’ arrest, prosecutors said photo and text evidence showed the two had been engaging in an affair.
Campbell, the attorney, has repeatedly objected to the relevance of the alleged relationship between his client and Brendan Banfield.
“The purchase of the weapon before the incident is the relevance,” the judge said in April, who later described the court proceedings as, “the government … playing two potential defendants against each other.”
WTOP’s Jack Moore, Abigail Constantino and Neal Augenstein contributed to this report.
Editor’s note: The couple’s au pair was arrested on a murder charge nearly a year ago in October 2023. The story has been corrected.
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