True Crime with Kendall Rae
Au Pair & Husband’s Affair Leads To Double Homicide? The Christine Banfield & Joseph Ryan Case
Thu, 23 Jan 2025
In 2023, Brendan Banfield and his au pair, Juliana Peres Magalhães–whom he was having an affair with–planned and went through with the murder of Banfield's wife, Christine, and another man, Joe Ryan. And they had tried to make it look like a pre-arranged fetish sex meetup gone wrong at the Banfield house. -- This episode is sponsored by: Rocket Money Check out my foundation: Higher Hope Foundation: https://www.higherhope.org/ Watch my documentaries: 530 Days: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjUWkmOjNLk Apartment 801: https://bit.ly/2RJ9XXr True Crime with Kendall Rae podcast: Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3rks84o Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3jC66pr Shop my Merch! https://kendallrae.shop Check out my other podcasts: Mile Higher (True Crime) @milehigherpod YouTube: https://bit.ly/2ROzJcw Instagram: http://instagram.com/milehigherpod The Sesh (Current events, a little true crime, pop culture, and commentary) https://bit.ly/3Mtoz4X @the_seshpodcast Instagram: https://bit.ly/3a9t6Xr *Follow My Social!* @KendallRaeOnyt Instagram: http://instagram.com/kendallraeonyt Facebook: https://bit.ly/3kar4NK True Crime TikTok: https://bit.ly/3VDbc77 Personal TikTok: https://bit.ly/41hmRKg REQUESTS: General case suggestion form: https://zfrmz.com/yg9cuiWjUe2QY3hSC2V0 Form for people directly related/ close to the victim: https://zfrmz.com/HGu2hZso42aHxARt1i67 Join my discord to chat with other viewers about this video, it’s free! https://discord.com/invite/an4stY9BCN C O N T A C T: For Business Inquiries - [email protected] Send me mail: Kendall Rae 8547 E Arapahoe Rd Ste J #233 Greenwood Village, CO 80112
Chapter 1: What is the Christine Banfield and Joseph Ryan case about?
the floor. Today, we're gonna be diving into what we know about an ongoing case, has yet to go to trial, I will explain, but we're gonna be talking about Christine Banfield and Joseph Ryan. And you may have heard this referred to in the media or social media as the Au Pair murders, or also the Au Pair love triangle murders.
I've seen a couple different names for it, but it is truly, I can't even put into words, it's just nuts. And it's incredibly sad. I mean, these victims and the way that they have been smeared or were attempted to be smeared to damage their image, their character has just been so awful.
I swear, as long as I have been covering cases, to this day, it never ceases to just blow me away what some people are willing to do to try and get what they want and how they think they're actually going to get away with it. But... Oftentimes, these people who commit these crimes are stupid, and we sort of love that, right? Because stupid people get caught, and that's what happened here.
The reason I wanted to cover it now is because trial was supposed to begin very soon. Unfortunately, it did get pushed back, which I will explain. But I thought it was a good time to go over what we do know so far, which has been sort of limited. Um, I'll explain here and there, the things, you know, that we're still missing at this point.
And there's also quite a bit of, or I should say a lack of information regarding the victims and who they really were. And I know.
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Chapter 2: Who are the victims in this tragic case?
you guys know that that's really important to me to tell you as much about who they were while they were alive as possible because i think it's just as important as talking about what happened to them in the end of their lives when they were stolen from them as i just said we have two victims in today's case and their names are christine banfield and joseph ryan and like i also said a big part of the plot
in their murders were to make them look like bad people who made bad choices and that those choices led to their murders, which could not be further from the truth. But that is what the intention was. So I guess in some way I wanted to try my best to set the record straight with the information that we do have. I do, before we go any further, I forgot to mention earlier that, um,
Everyone in this case at this point is still innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. So we have to keep that in mind. And you will hear me, you know, say things like alleged and allegedly throughout this case. However, I will say the evidence really does speak for itself. But of course, there is the presumption of innocence. So I just had to mention that.
But anyway, let's get back into talking about our victims, starting with Christine and Banfield. Now, she was born as Christine Ann Benson, and she was born in September of 1985 and grew up on Long Island. She attended Quinnipiac University from 2003 to 2007 and graduated with a degree in nursing. And then along the way, she ended up meeting a guy named Brendan Banfield.
And in 2010, the two of them got married. And I wasn't able to pinpoint how the two of them met. And truthfully, I really don't have a lot of insight into their early relationship. And there are definitely some things that I'll share with you later on that would point to there being problems with one of them.
But I don't want to come on here and say that the relationship was this or that or try to paint a picture too much because... At the end of the day, I just don't know, especially when it comes to how their relationship was in the early days. What I can tell you though, is they had one daughter who Christine loved very, very much. She was actually a pediatric ICU nurse.
So caring for kids was quite literally her life's work. She was also a frontline worker during the height of the COVID pandemic. So truly a hero in my book.
And I loved learning about this, but a patient of hers actually described her as an angel saying that after waking up from a week's long coma, Christine was at his side and she even helped shave him and set up a zoom call so that he could speak to his family. And even with that little bit of info that we do have, I do think it paints a picture of someone who was incredibly selfless.
Now, when it comes to our second victim in this case, Joseph Ryan, I'm going to hold off on talking about him for a little bit because it will make more sense to speak about him later on when he comes into the case. But I do need to get into telling you more about Brendan Banfield and what was going on in his and Christine's life at the time of her murder. So who is Brendan?
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Chapter 3: What led to the au pair's involvement in the murders?
However, I'm sure by this point in the episode, hundreds of people have pointed out my mistake, but that's okay. I do make mistakes. Now I'm sure a lot of you are already familiar with what an au pair is. Um, I actually didn't really know what they were until I had my daughter and was looking into childcare solutions. And.
It's a pretty interesting concept and can be very beneficial in most cases. It works out great for a lot of families, but they're essentially a live-in nanny. And normally au pairs seem to kind of become part of the family if it's a good match. And typically it's someone who is part of a cultural exchange program.
So they get the benefit of coming to a new country, traveling in that sense, and then also getting free housing and a stipend in exchange for child care and sometimes some household work. Most of the time, stuff like that. Oftentimes they'll travel with families and everyone kind of builds their au pair experience a little differently. And I'm sure there's some more nuances.
And like I said, every situation is different. I've not had an au pair myself, so I'm not too familiar with that world. But from what I've read, it seems like most people have great experiences with their au pairs. And it, I mean, both ways that au pairs have great experiences with the families that they're with.
Very often, I'm sure, like I said, sometimes it does not go well, like it did in this case. But anyway, that is what the Banfield family had signed up for. And they ended up getting paired with Juliana Perez Magalhães, who is a 21-year-old Brazilian au pair who they eagerly welcomed into their home.
And a friend of Juliana's says that she was especially excited to be paired with the Banfields because she had actually been pursuing nursing herself. So to be paired with Christine, a nurse, was a pretty cool match. You know, she thought they'd have a lot in common, that she could maybe learn something from her. So it seemed to be a great fit for everyone involved, keyword seemed to be.
Now I've also seen it reported that the Banfields already had a Brazilian au pair before, and it was hard to really get information on that. So this may not have been their first time, and it's possible that they were familiar with how this all works. That being said though, I don't think anyone, especially Christine, could have predicted how...
Things would end up playing out, which takes me to February 24th, 2023. That morning at 7 49 AM a 911 call was placed by Julianna's cell phone to the local police department. However, no report was made. The dispatch officer heard what sounded like moaning, and then the call was disconnected.
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Chapter 4: What events unfolded on the day of the 911 call?
Now, as for what happens next, different sources have been reporting different things, which is just the nature of this case. And a lot of cases that are still developing, but basically some sources say that there were a few more of these hangup calls. And then other sources say that it was just that one.
And of course, I'm sure that that will all be clarified during trial or potentially before, we don't know. But the main point, which is generally agreed upon, is that 13 minutes after the first call, the main 911 call was made at 8.02 AM. And this call was also made by Juliana's cell phone. And she was the first person that dispatch spoke to on that call.
And it's been reported that she was pretty hysterical and hard to understand, but she ended up saying something along the lines of a friend was hurt. However, right after that, Brendan apparently took the phone and said something much more alarming. He told dispatch that he had shot a man because he found him in his house, stabbing his wife.
And when first responders got to the scene, appalling is the word that has been mostly used to describe what they saw. Inside the Banfield's house, 37-year-old Christine was found in an upstairs bedroom, naked with just her socks on, and numerous stab wounds to her upper body near an unnamed man. She was alive at this point, but she was in critical condition, and then later that evening...
I'm sad to say that she was pronounced dead after life-saving measures were unable to save her. Now, as for this unnamed man who was unnamed at the time, he was found deceased with two gunshot wounds, one to his chest and another to his head. And sadly there was no opportunity to try and save him because he was pronounced dead at the scene.
And this victim was identified as 39 year old Springfield resident, Joseph Ryan. Now, unfortunately, information about his life was even more difficult to find, but I did find something that I wanted to share that came from his mom. His mom, Deirdre Fisher, who says that she loved him so much, told a local news station, quote, we spent countless hours as an adult on the phone.
He would call me all the time. I can't really tell you the level of our friendship. Not everybody gets to have that, and I was blessed with that as a parent. And personally, I think that says a lot about a man when they have a great relationship with their mother. And then there was also a friend of Joseph's who spoke to the media that...
said something that I think also speaks a lot about who Joseph was. He described him as quote, the kind of person who took in dogs that had no chance of being adopted and just loved the hell out of them. And as a dog lover myself, as I'm sure many of you are as well, I just loved hearing that little detail about him.
And personally, I think people who really love animals and especially take in rescues and foster animals, um, are just very special humans. That aside though, I'm sure a lot of you are wondering who he is in relation to this crime. How did he end up involved? How did he end up dead at the Banfield home?
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Chapter 5: What did the investigation reveal about Brendan Banfield?
Doesn't explain why he wasn't curious about his wife's condition. But also it makes me think, And I'm sure that this is the case. I'm sure a lot of you are thinking this as well, that he was very concerned about if Joseph was going to survive or not, because Joseph would be able to be a witness in the case and would have known what actually happened at the scene that day.
But I think the biggest red flag here, the most bizarre thing that law enforcement noted, was the very strange story that they were being told that just didn't really make a whole lot of sense. First off, when officers were initially entering the house, Juliana was asked who shot who, and she said, Brendan.
Now, maybe this wasn't the right moment for her to go into her whole spiel about what happened, but based on what she would end up saying later that morning, it was really interesting that in that moment, she only mentioned that Brendan was the shooter. Because the truth is... They both shot Joseph.
But according to her own story, which she told later that evening at the police station, she explained that around 7.30 a.m., she and the Banfield's daughter left the house with the intention of going to the zoo. And sources say that Christine was the one to purchase their tickets that morning. So simple enough, right?
Going to the zoo, nanny au pair takes children, child to the zoo, very, very common. When I was a nanny, I would take the kids I nannied to the zoo, I feel like at least once a week. And I take my daughter to the zoo all the time. So very normal situation.
And then when leaving the house, she had forgotten the lunches that she had packed her and the Banfield's daughter in the fridge, which is also very common. I feel like every parent or caregiver forgets the lunch at home or something at home at least once.
But when her recollection of the morning starts becoming strange is what she said next, which was that when she pulled back up to the house, she saw a car that she didn't recognize in the driveway. And some sources have reported this, and I'm not entirely sure.
I mean, at this point in this case, but some sources are reporting that she also witnessed a man that she didn't recognize entering the house and carrying a bag. And this was concerning to her, of course, so she decided to call Christine and supposedly be like, who is this guy? Because maybe it was a maintenance worker or something like that.
She wanted to make sure it was someone who was supposed to be at the house, right? Again, somewhat normal. Now, she knew that Christine was still at home at the time, but... Apparently, Christine didn't answer the phone, so she called Brendan, who she knew had already left for work.
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Chapter 6: How did law enforcement respond to the claims of self-defense?
He had left the house around 7.11 a.m., and he had told detectives that he decided to make a quick stop at his local Mickey D's for an egg McMuffin. And McDonald's is where his cell phone location data placed him, so we know that he did go there. And I will be getting back to that, but for now, just know that that's where he was.
But anyway, Juliana calls him, he picks up and she wants to ask him obviously about this supposed strange car slash man situation. And unlike Christine, Brendan picks up. The call came in at 7.37 AM and he drove straight home where he met Juliana and his daughter outside of the house. And then after that, the three of them entered through the back door and into the basement.
Now, I'm pretty sure that most of you are having the exact same thought process as me right now and wanting to scream because this makes no sense, especially if you are a parent. Why on earth, if you thought an intruder was potentially in your home, would you bring your child inside to check it out with you? OK, no one would do that.
No one in their right mind would do that unless they're stupid, quite frankly. And maybe that's the case here. Or it's just that he knew there wasn't an actual intruder. Second thing. Also, why would you bring in your au pair? There's no reason for them to go in with you. Why wouldn't you just leave the au pair with your child in the car where it's safe and go check out the scene yourself?
Better yet, why wouldn't you just call the police and have them go check it out for you? And obviously there's some urgency if your wife is inside the home and you think there's a potential intruder. So like, I get that to some degree. But with his time having to drive from the McDonald's back home, he could have easily called law enforcement. So... not making a whole lot of sense here in any way.
But anyway, according to their story, the three of them are in the basement, but then Brendan leaves Juliana and his daughter to go upstairs and quote, investigate. Pretty quickly though, Juliana says she went upstairs to see what was going on. And that's when she heard Brendan screaming, police, drop the knife.
Apparently he had gone up to his bedroom to find this man, Joseph, holding a knife to his wife's neck. And Joseph supposedly told Brendan that he was going to kill Christine. And that's when he began to repeatedly stab her right in front of him. And again, I can't emphasize this enough. This is the story according to Brendan and Juliana. Now let's give them the benefit of the doubt here.
Since we don't have all the facts and... And we can say that maybe this portion of their story was believable, potentially. Of course, someone could have broken into the house and held a knife to his wife's neck. Is it possible? Sure. Is it probable? Probably not.
However, the next part of their story, I simply cannot give the benefit of the doubt to at all because it is so outlandish, so ridiculous that it makes any part of their story that could be true just totally lose credibility. I guess I have to say that's just my opinion though.
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Chapter 7: What are the implications for the child involved?
I have no idea.
And then... Oh, so his father called her to see what's going on because early in the morning, like, two people was here. And then he was... He tried to voicemail. I called Brandon. It's her husband. He's up there. I told him, I see a strange car, but I don't know who is that. Please come here. I'm scared. I was following the car. And then... He came here and then we went inside.
The guy, I don't know who it is, he was spanking her. I was just all here.
Were you here when it happened or did you walk up in there and that's how they were?
Yeah, he went upstairs first and then I went to see what was going on. I left in the basement and then... When I was there, Brandon was saying, police, drop the knife, drop the knife. They were yelling at each other. He was saying, like, drop the knife.
The knife or the gun?
It's okay. You don't have to get it all out right now. You didn't see the girl before either? So the guy and the girl you don't know?
Okay.
I'm very curious to hear what you guys think about that footage, about her demeanor, about what she said. Let me know your thoughts. Now, upstairs at the scene, officers ended up finding a set of cleanly cut pajamas, a bag containing fetish accessories, which will make more sense in a little, two guns, as well as the knife. And downstairs they found the Banfield's four-year-old daughter.
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Chapter 8: What does the future hold for the trial and the accused?
And all the reports out there say, thankfully, she was found unharmed. And of course, yes, physically unharmed. However, emotionally, mentally unharmed, obviously not the case. She lost her mom that day. And at this point, I don't think it'll be a surprise to you guys that her father was involved. So she lost him too. Not right away, but eventually.
And of course, we don't know how the trial is going to play out, but chances are. She will lose her father through all of this as well. She was brought into the station that morning alongside Juliana, where both of them made statements. And while the police aren't sharing much information about their daughter, they have said that she is safe and in good care now.
But the fact that this is her reality as a four-year-old, it's so heartbreaking. It makes me so angry that if Brendan really did this to her mother... That is the most heartless thing. I don't understand how as a parent you could do that. And I know I bring this up in cases all the time where one spouse kills the other spouse and there's a child involved or multiple children involved.
How evil can you be to take the parent of your child or children away from them? And this is totally just my opinion, but I don't even think that's possible if you actually love your child. If you really do have love for your child, but are willing to hurt them in that way by taking away their parent, their other parent, I don't think you ever loved them to begin with. I really don't.
My heart just absolutely breaks for her, and I hope that what we're hearing is true, that she's getting the best care and support possible during this time. I cannot even imagine at that age having to wrap your mind around all of this, and hopefully she's being shielded from it to some degree. But of course, as she gets older, she will understand more of it with time, so... It's just so fucked up.
There's no words. But even though nothing at the end of the day is going to bring her mom back, hopefully getting justice and the truth will be a positive step forward in her healing. And luckily, I really do think justice is on the horizon. I mean, we never know how these are going to go, but like I said earlier, I think the evidence here really speaks for itself.
Now, from the jump, like I said, law enforcement was very wary of that story. But in all honesty, they didn't have any proof that Brendan and Juliana were lying, at least not at first. So from that point forward, they needed to kick off an investigation to either prove or disprove what they'd been told.
And that meant figuring out who this man in the home was and why he was at the Banfield's house so early that morning. And I'll just cut right to the chase here. As part of their investigation, digital evidence was collected from the Banfield's home. And on Christine's computer, they found that someone, keyword someone, had created a profile on the website FetLife.
I had never heard of this website, but I learned it's a social networking website for the BDSM kink and fetish community. And the profile's username was Anastasia9, and it featured a photo of Christine wearing a bathing suit. Now, this photo of her in a bathing suit just so happened to be a photo that she had sent Brendan.
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