MURDERED: Christine Banfield & Joseph Ryan

Crime Junkie

A seemingly random home invasion in Fairfax County led to the deaths of Christine Banfield and Joseph Ryan. A fabricated story by her husband Brendan and au pair Juliana Perez Magelyanies unraveled as investigators uncov

Key takeaways

• Christine was murdered during a staged encounter based on a secret BDSM fantasy.

Transcript preview

February 24, 2023, 47, 32. Fairfax County, 9.9.000, where's our emergency? That few seconds of 911 call that came into Fairfax County, and Fairfax County, I mean the caller hung up right where it cut off after that groan. That few seconds of 911 call that came into Fairfax County might not sound like a lot. I mean, the caller hung up right where it cut off after that groan. So it tells a first time listener almost nothing. But that call would turn out to be everything. Prosecutors say those few seconds are among the strongest pieces of evidence that a man named Joseph Ryan was murdered. And if that's true, then he was lured there and executed as part of the same plan that got Christine Banfield killed. You can be the judge. But the legal systems already made up its mind. And two people are now serving time related to one of these. sickest most twisted premeditated plots I've ever heard of. A real reminder of crime junkie life rule number one. You never really know anyone ever. I'm Ashley Flowers and I'm Brett. Let's dive into the case crime junkies. After that odd 911 call came in, the dispatcher in Fairfax County, Virginia tries calling the number back. cell phone they can't pinpoint where to send police so they're kind of just stuck until 15 minutes later when the same phone number calls back and this time a frantic young woman is on the line. I need any help there is a my friend she just was the second and like now she's putting a lot I don't know what to do anymore. Okay where are you located? What's your address? I just let me know your address. Take a deep breath for me. Just let me know your address. Okay, one three. Okay, one three. One three. One three. One three. One three. One three. One three. One three. One three. Okay. One three. One three. Okay. One three. Are you on Stable Brookway? Yes. What's your house number? What's your name and what's going on? My name is my name is Barten Banfield. I'm a federal agent. This is my house. There's somebody here. I shot I shot him. Um, but he stabbed her. She's bleeding. She got several. Several marks on her neck. What do I do? Okay. So what I need you to do is apply direct pressure directly to where she's bleeding from, okay. more clock to what is already there. How old is the person? I don't know. The person that's bleeding? 37. Okay. Okay. So the person that you shot, where is he? Okay, so the person that you shot, where is he? I don't know him. Okay, where is he though? Okay, where is he though? Okay, and the person that he stopped, where are they now? Are they still not? I have nothing to do. I have nothing to come back to you. We're in the way. E. M. in Fairfax County police head to the Banfield's home, a large brick front colonial tucked into a quiet cul-de-sac in the DC suburb of Herndon. They're let in and led upstairs by the family's o'er. She is who called 911 and she directs them, and she is who called 911 and she, and she to the main bedroom where they see the bed is stripped with bloody linens on the floor. Two guns are on the bare mattress and Brendan is kneeling on a towel beside the bed next to his naked wife 37 year old Christine Banfield and he's using his bare hands to stop the bleeding that's coming from stab wounds in her neck. And lying atop a dog bed against the bed frame the officers see the stranger that Brendan said he shot. Under the dog bed by his head they find Christine's underwear ripped at the crotch and nearby is what's believed to be one of her shirts with a jagged cut down the back. Now paramedics go to each person but the man is already beyond saving. There's still hope for Christine though. She is breathing. So EMS rushes her to an ambulance waiting outside while responders inside try to get a handle on this chaotic scene including tending to Brendan who seems unable to even stand on him. Are you check him out? Yeah, I got more units here, but we'll check him out. He's starting out right down with it. Stay with start with it. Stay with starting out. I'll just do walk through a thing. Okay. We're gonna have to get him out of here. Yeah, I know. Can you give him a second? Don't touch anything else. I'm not. Can we change my gloves out. We can get him out of here. Right here, the officer standing closest to Brendan mouths in the direction of the body camp. He doesn't know. He says it twice, but it's not totally clear what he means. Because Christine was still alive at the house. So it's not like he's saying he doesn't know that she's passed. But I mean, it's possible that anyone with medical training would know that her injuries were bad. Likely not survivable. fresh air right now as well, okay? So we can get you outside. Can you, you have love on? Can you help him just be with him? Yep. Yep. Correct. Did you, did you call my office? No. I need to call my manager. At some point. It's the least of our words right now, man. We're just gonna get you in a cruiser outside in the air where you can read it. They're all going to get him in an ambulance to make sure that he's not injured at all. We're limping a little, but he says he doesn't know what's wrong. He seems to just kind of be in shock as he hangs his head and stares at the ground. Just take some deep breaths, all right? Do you need to sit down somewhere there? Is there a way to get an update? Right now, right now. They're handling everything from here. Take it every one. Is anything bothering you right now? I just feel like steady here. Okay. Were you hit with anything, knife, anything? No, I took the knife from him. Okay. Not your blood, correct? I think it's. You want to slip this jacket off for me so we can evaluate you real quick? They check him out, but Brendan is basically physically unharmed, although he thinks maybe the stranger struck him once. But when they get to the hospital, he overhears someone talking about his wife, Christine. The status of his wife, man. The status of his wife, man. My name is Dean, I'm one of the doctors here. Your wife has died. the time. Is there any part that I can help, you know, I can explain what happened when she arrived here but you were there and it sounds like there was a lot of blood loss. Yes. So I think that she died of blood loss. Her airway was actually okay. I'll call the medical examiner of course and we'll do an autopsy and make sure we know for certain. But I was starting to apply. Presser. Yeah. I mean those were enormous wounds and you know. There was so many. Yes and the neck is not compressible so it's not possible really to stop all the blood loss and her airway it seems like was in the midline okay she was able to be intubated everything that was possible to be done was done for her right away you did a wonderful you know you did everything that was possible it's not a survivable injury. and a single dad to his and Christine's four-year-old daughter. Police want to give him some space but they need to know what happened. Except Brendan isn't just going to be an open book. Like I don't know if you caught it on the 911 call but he said that he was a federal agent works for the Internal Revenue Service IRS criminal investigation division. So he knows the life rule that we preach. Always get a lawyer. Right. He has already given a little bit of information like kind of jumbled in the 911 call in the 911 call in the 911 call. a little bit to first responders. Basically what they put together is that an intruder was attacking his wife. He shot the intruder and he confirms that the two guns that were sitting on the mattress were his. But that is about all he's ready to say. Police aren't totally in the dark though because while Brendan was at the hospital, the family's au pair and the Banfield's little girl who she nannies for are at the police station. Her name is Juliana Perez Magelyanies, a 22-year, a 22-old, a 22-year old old Brazilian woman who came to the US through an O'PARE program nearly a year and a half prior, like back in October of 2021. And since then, she had been living with the Banfields, caring for their daughter. Tell me about the family. I don't have any complaint about them. They are always amazing. They are always amazing. They are always amazing. They are always, they are always amazing. The sweet ever. They always dreamest ever. They always dreamy really well. They are always. They are always. They always. They are always. They always. They always. They are always. They are always. They are always. They are always. They are always. They are always. They are always. They are always. They are always. They are always. They are always. They are always. They are always. They are always. They are always. They are always. They are always. They are always. They are always. They are always. They are always. They are always. They are always. They are always. They are always. did things like family what about the relationship between mom and dad oh they are really good with each other they have they are super stable I never seen like anything like you know it's because you or anything it's deposit it's they are super super I don't know super super I never seen them fighting no they're at home ever everyone is common we talk we don't yell we don't you know don't have fights never there like when you say fights do you mean yelling fights or physical or physical or fights you never or physical or physical no never heard anything work early and Christine planned for Juliana to take their little girl to a zoo in DC it opened at 8 a.m so they headed out at around 7.20 730 a.m. But before they even left the street Juliana realized that she had forgotten their lunches so she was just gonna run back in but then she saw an unfamiliar gray jeep pull into the driveway like before she could and a man that she had never seen before parked got out carrying a backpack or something thing and walked inside like he owned the place. Now she said she tried calling Christine who was still inside but it went straight to voicemail so that's when she called Brendan who was at a nearby McDonald's. He tries calling Christine too, same thing, got her voicemail. So he came home and all three went in together, Juliana Brendan and the little girl. Now Julianna said that she heard a slapping or like a spankinging type noise upstairs so the two adults told the four year to stay in the basement went up to investigate. But by the time they got upstairs, what she says they walked in on was a shirtless man over a naked Christine on the floor. And before she even fully realized what was happening, Brendan was standing in front of her in the doorway with his gun, like his service weapon drawn. And they were yelling to each other, didn't really understand what they were saying. It was too fast. And Brendan said, uh, drop the knife, please drop the knife, please drop. the guy who was saying dropped the gun, dropped the gun, they were yelling each other and then he, the guy, he said, dropped the gun, he said, like, dropped the gun, I'm gonna kill her. He had, and when he said it, I was, I was, I'm gonna kill her. He had, and when he said it, I was, I was, for me, I didn't, I didn't believe that somebody I was okay and I don't know what he did I can't when it started I covered my ears I closed my eyes I didn't want see or hear anything because they were getting getting serious I covered my eyes I didn't want to hear anything because they were getting serious I guess like he was saying I'm gonna kill her he kept saying that Then he didn't want to see that but he started stabbing her with the knife and when I saw that I just closed my eye and I never seen that so I what's happening then I I was even more scared. She says Brendan then told her to go open his safe and grab his other gun so that she could be his backup while he helped Christine. Now, Juliana knew how to handle a gun because Brendan had taken her to a shooting range before, so she did what he asked. And then I got the gun and he was trying to help Christine with the her neck and he was bleeding out. And then I got the gun. And he was, he was bleeding out. And then I got, he was... reacting so he was going to do something with Brendan also. And then I shot him also. I did. Detectives knew there were two shots to their male victim, one in the head, one in the chest. And they knew there were two guns found on the bed. But this is the first time that they get confirmation that both Juliana and Brendan shot this guy, basically to stop a threat, as Julianna put it. But they didn't actually stop it. Christine had been stabbed in the neck six times. She had even more cuts on her neck and shoulder, bruises on her arm and hands and legs and chin, and an abrasion on her wrist, possibly from being restrained. And it looks like the male victim had come with both restraints and intentions. His pants are undone and he has a backpack with him. In that backpack, police find zip ties, chains, chains, padlocks, clothes pins, electrical tape, saran wrap, a gag, and strangely a single apricot. Okay, but I mean the timing alone he had to have been like lying in wait for Julianne's leave. You would think that, right? Because everything happened so quickly. Yeah. But they're actually able to identify this guy from his car and his cell phones as 39 year old Joseph Ryan from nearby Springfield. And in his wallet, they also find a receipt from Walmart, time stamp 713-13. that morning and that had just three items on it. So toothpaste, the same lube that was in his backpack and apricots. Based on that drive from Walmart, the earliest that he could have arrived at that house is 725. So he's at the store before this, not stalking the house. And if this was some highly planned attack, why does it seem so amateur? I mean he did nothing to hide his identity. He parked his jeep right in the driveway. His wallet is there in the room. and Juliana didn't know him at all. Not that anyone can tell, but there are other reasons that this just doesn't sit right as a random crime. I mean this is an affluent low-crime