The husband of a woman who was found stabbed to death in an elaborate double homicide involving an affair and a fetish website has been charged with her murder.
Christine Banfield, 37, was found inside her bedroom suffering from stab wounds alongside Joseph Ryan, 39, who had been shot in February 2023.
Her husband, Brendan Banfield, was charged earlier this week with her death and charged with four counts of aggravated murder.
The couple had been living inside their million-dollar home in Herndon with their 4-year-old daughter and nanny Juliana Peres Magalhaes, 24.
Magalhaes faces charges in connection with Ryan’s death, with authorities saying she fatally shot him after finding him in the middle of an attack on Christine.
Brendan Banfield was charged earlier this week with his wife’s death and charged with four counts of aggravated murder.
Christine Banfield, 37, was found inside her bedroom suffering from stab wounds in February 2023.
Brendan Banfield and Magalhaes were reportedly involved in a romantic relationship at the time of the murders, according to officials.
Magalhaes and Banfield said they entered the home and found Ryan attacking Christine.
Juliana Peres Magalhaes, 23, is accused of killing a BDSM fetishist as part of a plot with her boss, an IRS agent, to get rid of his wife so they could be together.
Magalhaes told police he had left the family home to take the boy to the zoo, but returned after realizing he had left his lunches behind.
She said she left the girl in the basement after she and Banfield heard what sounded like an intruder before discovering Christine was being attacked.
Banfield, an Internal Revenue Service agent, told police he grabbed his service weapon and shot and wounded Ryan.
He told police he then ordered Peres Magalhaes to take another gun and shoot him again, which she did, allegedly killing him.
Preliminary prosecutors said evidence points to a very different story, suggesting Ryan was shot to death as part of a plan to get rid of Christine.
Investigators became suspicious of Magalhaes’ story after she and Banfield failed to disclose their alleged affair when they spoke to detectives.
Police said they discovered evidence of a secret lovers’ getaway and noted that just eight months after the murders, Magalhaes had moved into the master bedroom.
According to prosecutors, the au pair and her employer Brendan Banfield were having an affair, and photographs of the couple were found in the bedroom where Christine died.
Prosecutors allege someone created a fake account for Christine on a BDSM site and made plans to have “rough sex” with Ryan, as seen here
They produced a photograph showing a framed photo of Magalhaes and Banfield on her bedside table and her clothes were in Christine’s closet.
Prosecutors allege someone created a fake account for Christine on a BDSM site and made plans to have “rough sex” with Ryan before they were both killed.
The court heard that the fetish website account Ryan had been posting on was maintained on Christine’s computer under the username Annastasia9.
However, “there was not a shred of evidence that she engaged in knife play, bondage or BDSM,” prosecutor Eric Clingan said.
Ryan and the account user talked about rough sex and blood play, an act in which someone deliberately cuts another person.
During the chats, Annastasia9 wrote that she cheats on her husband “whenever she wants.”
Preliminary prosecutors said evidence points to a very different story, suggesting Ryan was shot to death as part of a plan to get rid of Christine.
Prosecutors also pointed to a 10-minute delay between Magalhaes’ first 911 call and his last call.
In announcing the new charges against Brendan Banfield, Fairfax County Prosecutor Steve Descano said: ‘On February 24, 2023, I stood in the middle of a dead-end street in Fairfax County and described the deaths of two people inside a residential home.
‘Now, 570 days later, we know that the deaths of Joseph Ryan and Christine Banfield are, in fact, murders.’