Man charged with shocking murder of wife and another man, 19 months after au pair’s arrest

A Virginia man was arrested Monday and charged with four counts of murder in the deaths of his wife and another man in a puzzling case involving the couple’s au pair, with whom he was having an affair, in February 2023.

Brendan Banfield, a 39-year-old special criminal agent, was indicted by a grand jury on four counts of aggravated murder and one firearm charge, the Fairfax County prosecutor announced at a news conference. press conference Monday alongside the Fairfax County police chief.

His arrest comes 19 months after the murders of his wife, Christine Banfield, a 37-year-old pediatric nurse, and Joseph Ryan, 39, in their home in Herndon, an affluent suburb of Washington, D.C. On Feb. 24, 2023, shortly after 8 a.m., police responding to a 911 call found Christine Banfield naked in her upstairs bedroom with fatal knife wounds. Ryan’s body was a few feet away. He was fully clothed and had been shot, allegedly by different weapons, authorities said.

Juliana Peres Magalhaes, 23, the Banfields’ au pair, was charged in April with second-degree murder in Ryan’s killing, and her trial is currently scheduled for November.

Her attorney said she acted in self-defense, and authorities said Banfield ordered her to shoot the stranger who was attacking Christine Banfield after Banfield shot her. HuffPost reached out to attorneys for Peres Magalhaes and Banfield but did not immediately receive a response.

The arrest of Brendan Banfield while he was driving in Fairfax County on Monday was a dramatic — though not entirely unexpected — development in a case that had perplexed investigators and confounded the public, who had been privy to few, bizarre details.

From the start, Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis told NBC4 Washington in April that he expected there would be “a lot of twists and turns” in the case, that it was “still ongoing,” and that he believed that eventually “more than one person” — meaning Peres Magalhaes — would be held accountable.

Authorities said Ryan was invited to the Banfields’ home through a sex fetish website, where he exchanged messages to arrange the meeting with an account pretending to be Christine Banfield’s. But prosecutors said in a court hearing that the account was created by someone else as part of a premeditated plot to kill Christine and Ryan.

Authorities say Brendan Banfield and Peres Magalhaes were having an affair before the murders and remained a couple afterward. After the murders, prosecutors said they found framed photos of them together in the Banfields’ bedroom, as well as evidence that the couple had gone to a gun range shortly before the murders and purchased a Glock, the same gun Peres Magalhaes allegedly used to fire the shot that killed Ryan.

In a 911 call Peres Magalhaes made the morning of the killings — she also reportedly called twice 13 minutes before and hung up both times — Banfield told the dispatcher that he shot Ryan after seeing him stab his wife multiple times, the Washington Post reported.

Authorities said Banfield used his IRS service weapon to shoot Ryan. Investigators said Banfield then told them he asked Peres Magalhaes to get the Glock and shoot Ryan again.

It’s unclear whether Banfield is still employed by the IRS. The Treasury Department did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s question about his employment status.

The Banfields’ 4-year-old daughter was home at the time of the killings, but authorities said she suffered no physical injuries.

Despite authorities’ allegations that Banfield collaborated with the au pair to plan the murders, he remained free for more than a year after his arrest. Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano said at Monday’s news conference that the “new information” obtained by investigators was “very helpful” in Banfield’s new indictment, but he declined to elaborate.

“This information will be revealed during the trial,” he said.

Banfield and Peres Magalhaes are both being held at the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center, Descano said. She has been held there since her arrest last October. Davis said they had no “legitimate reason” to seek to hold Banfield elsewhere, and Descano noted that there is only one detention center in the county and that it was “just typical protocol” to house her there.

In Virginia, aggravated murder, which is when multiple people are killed at the same time or when multiple killings occur within three years, carries a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole. The firearm charge carries a mandatory minimum sentence of three years, Descano said.

Banfield will be arraigned in Fairfax County General Court in the coming days, Descano said, with a hearing date set for Thursday.

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