Nanny and husband accused of murdering his wife during secret affair

Already a dedicated nurse and patient advocate, Christine Banfield seemed to go above and beyond during the pandemic.

“She was an angel to me,” recalls Rodrigo Valderrama, a COVID patient at the suburban Virginia hospital where Christine worked.

He remembers waking up from a weeks-long coma and seeing Banfield’s friendly face next to his bed:

“She shaved me; she helped me set up a Zoom call with my family. The construction project manager befriended his nurse and invited her and her husband, Brendan Banfield, a special agent of the IRS criminal division, and their then three-year-old daughter Valerie to a party at a park near Washington, DC. in the spring of 2021.

Christine told him she planned to hire an au pair from South America to live with the couple and help with their toddler. “She wanted me to recommend restaurants in the area,” says Colombian-born Valderrama. “That was her personality; she wanted the au pair to feel at home.”

Yet it was the Banfields’ Brazilian au pair, 22-year-old Juliana Peres Magalhães, who, in two 911 calls on the morning of February 24, 2023, first alerted police to what they described as “a horrible scene” at the family. home in Herndon, Virginia. In a second-floor bedroom, Fairfax County Police officers found 37-year-old Christine, naked except for her socks, bleeding from fatal stab wounds to the neck; she died in a hospital later that day. Nearby lay the dead body of Joe Ryan, 39 — who authorities say arrived at the house that morning for a prearranged sex date — with gunshot wounds to the head and chest. Police said Peres Magalhães and Christine’s husband, Brendan, 38, were also present at the blood-stained scene, as well as a bloody knife, two guns and a bag full of fetish sex accessories. Valerie, then 4 years old, was found unharmed in the basement.

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During a nine-hour interview at the police station, Peres Magalhães confessed to killing Ryan in the chaotic aftermath of a shocking attack on Christine. According to court documents, the babysitter said she was sitting in a car outside the house with the baby that morning when she saw a man with a bag enter the front door. She called Christine, who was inside alone. When Christine didn’t answer, Peres Magalhães called Brendan, she said. He had already left for work, but quickly returned. Then he and Peres Magalhães walked into the bedroom to see Ryan standing over a kneeling Christine with a knife to her throat.

In Peres Magalhães’ first account of what happened next, Brendan, who carries a gun on the job, shot Ryan in the head with his service revolver and shouted at Peres Magalhães to get another gun from the bedroom safe. Afraid that Ryan would attack again, she said she pointed the gun at him and fired the bullet that pierced his heart and killed him. However, police were not convinced by Peres Magalhães’ story about interrupting a home invasion and killing an intruder in self-defense.

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Investigators soon discovered evidence that Brendan and Peres Magalhães had a sexual relationship: text messages about her new love sent from Peres Magalhães’ phone, photos of the couple on a trip to New York City, and lingerie found on Brendan’s bed.

Records showed that the duo visited a shooting range almost two months before the double murder and that Brendan returned to the facility to purchase a Glock 43X – the pistol used by Peres Magalhães.

On October 13, 2023, Peres Magalhães was arrested and charged with manslaughter in Ryan’s death. Nearly a year later, on September 16, 2024, Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano, citing recently obtained information, announced that Brendan had been charged with murder in the deaths of Ryan and Christine. “I will ensure that my office presents the strongest possible case at trial, and that we continue to seek justice for the victims and their families,” Descano said.

It seemed that the Banfields were a happily married couple in love with the daughter they both adored. Christine, who grew up on Long Island and graduated from Quinnipiac University in 2007 with a degree in nursing, and Brendan, who studied accounting at St. Joseph’s University on Long Island, launched a math tutoring center for children in Moriches, NY. They moved to Virginia with newborn Valerie in 2019. When she wasn’t working as an ICU nurse, Christine was active in a neighborhood Facebook group, looking for recommendations for a landscaper, a “doll hospital” to keep her daughter’s toys to repair and a dog boarding facility for the family’s husky.

The couple, who had previously employed another Brazilian nanny, contacted Peres Magalhães in 2021. “Juliana wanted to travel and learn English,” says a friend from Brazil. “She was excited because she had just graduated from nursing school and was going to live with a nurse, so they had so much in common.” In Virginia, Peres Magalhães seemed “so happy,” her friend says. “It was easy. Everything worked perfectly.”

Or so it seemed. In August 2022, Brendan fell for the au pair and began “expressing his desire to get rid of his wife,” Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Eric Clingan said during a hearing in October. In the weeks before the murders, Brendan is said to have created a profile on a website for bondage and role-play enthusiasts and began communicating with a fellow user, Ryan. Days before the murders, Clingan said, Brendan Peres instructed Magalhães, posing as Christine, to call Ryan through an encrypted messaging app and confirm details of “a consensual sexual encounter during which she was held down and her clothes were cut off with a knife. and other violent role-play.”

On the morning of February 24, 2023, Brendan and Peres Magalhães’ carefully written plan to get rid of Christine unfolded as planned, authorities allege. At 7:17 a.m., Brendan was waiting at a nearby McDonald’s for Peres Magalhães to call when Ryan arrived at the house for the pre-planned kinky sex date with Christine. Back at the house, Brendan and Peres Magalhães entered the basement, leaving Valerie there as they climbed the stairs to the second floor. Brendan reportedly shouted “cop” before shooting Ryan in the head and then stabbing Christine. Peres Magalhães then shot Ryan after allegedly seeing him moving across the floor.

In the months following Peres Magalhães’ arrest, as Brendan continued to live in the family home with his daughter and his mother, tensions arose in the couple’s relationship. In a recorded phone call, Peres Magalhães is heard saying: “I hope you are not staying with me just because you are afraid that I will turn against you,” prosecutors said. In another recorded conversation on his mother’s phone, prosecutors say, Brendan complained that the nanny couldn’t keep her damn mouth shut about calls from jail.

Ultimately, on October 29, just days before her murder trial was set to begin, Peres Magalhães struck a deal with prosecutors, pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter and agreeing to cooperate with authorities in exchange for a possible release on time she already had had served.

Meanwhile, Ryan’s friend Zulu Bey says he’s grateful the truth is coming out about his eccentric friend’s unwitting role in the twisted murder plot. “I know he didn’t do what they said he did,” Bey said. “He was just a pawn. Joe was the guy who took in the dogs that had no chance of being adopted and he loved them.” And Christine, says her friend Valderrama, will be remembered for her service to the community: “She was unique.”