An affair with a live-in nanny that led to two brutal deaths. That’s what prosecutors believe happened in one Fairfax home in 2023. And years later, the full salacious story will be laid out in trial.
The trial of Brendan Banfield starts Monday morning and is expected to last four weeks. It will be streaming live on WUSA9+. Learn how to watch here.
On Feb. 24, 2023, police were called to the Banfield family home on Stable Brook Way for a stabbing and a shooting around 8 a.m. Brendan Banfield, an IRS special agent, had told police he shot a man who had stabbed his wife, Christine Banfield.
When they arrived, police found Christine Banfield, nude and stabbed multiple times, in an upstairs bedroom, investigators said. Nearby, they found a man named Joseph Ryan shot multiple times. Brendan Banfield, along with the family’s au pair, then-22-year-old Juliana Peres Magalhaes, and the Banfields’ then-4-year-old daughter, were also inside the home.
It wasn’t until October of that year that police arrested Peres Magalhaes for shooting and killing Ryan. Then in September of 2024, Brendan Banfield was arrested for murdering both his wife and Ryan. Police believe the two conspired together to kill both.
Peres Magalhaes, who is from Brazil, accepted a deal to plead guilty to manslaughter a month after Brendan Banfield was arrested. And Monday, nearly three years after the crime, his trial begins. He’s facing four counts of aggravated murder, one count of using a firearm to commit a felony, two counts of child abuse with disregard for life and one count of child cruelty. Peres Magalhaes has agreed to testify against him.
Here’s where things stand.
What We Know
Brendan Banfield and Peres Magalhaes were having an affair for months before the deaths, prosecutors allege. And in court, Peres Magalhaes’ attorney referred to her as Brendan Banfield’s “girlfriend, live-in lover.” Records in court showed newly framed photos of the two on a nightstand in the bedroom of the Banfield home, shortly after the killings.
According to prosecutors, Brendan Banfield told Peres Magalhaes he wanted to get rid of his wife, and the two allegedly started plotting her murder.
The two are accused of luring Joseph Ryan to the home through a post on an adult sexual fetish website called Fetlife. The attorneys alleged that the conversations confirmed they would be doing a violent sexual role play and Ryan brought a knife with him.
At an April 2024 hearing for Peres Magalhaes, prosecutors showed records that two months before the shooting, Peres Magalhaes and Brendan Banfield visited the Silver Eagle Group Shooting Range. A few weeks later, Brendan Banfield also purchased a gun, which was eventually used to shoot Ryan, Senior Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Eric Clingan said.
Peres Magalhaes allegedly tried to back out, but Brendan Banfield said it was too late, she told prosecutors.
On the morning of Feb. 24, 2023, two 911 calls were made from Peres Magalhaes’ phone. The first came in at 7:47 a.m. and quickly hung up. Groans could be heard as the 911 operator says, “Fairfax County 911, what’s your emergency?” in the the eight-second audio obtained by WUSA9.
Fifteen minutes later, the second call was made. In that call, Brendan Banfield told dispatchers he shot a man who had stabbed his wife.
Fairfax County Police found that Ryan had been shot twice, by different guns. Peres Magalhaes admitted to shooting Ryan, and said Brendan Banfield told her to do so.
The child abuse and cruelty charges were brought after the initial murder charges. Prosecutors allege that Brendan Banfield acted criminally toward their daughter, who was home during her mother’s death.
Investigators conducted a 30-minute forensic interview with the Banfields’ daughter after the incident, but a judge blocked the statements from being used as evidence in the trial.
