FAIRFAX, VA — A former Internal Revenue Service law enforcement officer was sentenced to life in prison without parole Friday for murdering his wife and an innocent man in an elaborate scheme involving the family’s Brazilian au pair.
Brendan Banfield, 39, received consecutive life sentences from Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Penney Azcarate for the February 24, 2023 killings of his wife Christine Banfield, 37, and Joseph Ryan, 39, in their Herndon home. Prosecutors said Banfield orchestrated the murders with au pair Juliana Peres Magalhães to eliminate his wife and start a new life with his lover. The judge called Banfield’s actions “evil and calculated,” adding five years for child endangerment and three years for firearms charges.
The scheme unfolded when Banfield created a fake profile on fetish website FetLife under his wife’s name to lure Ryan to their home under false pretenses of a BDSM encounter. Christine Banfield, a pediatric intensive care nurse, was unaware of the plot that would cost her life. On the morning of the murders, Magalhães waited outside with the couple’s 4-year-old daughter while Banfield positioned himself at a nearby McDonald’s. When Ryan arrived at the house, Magalhães called Banfield, who returned home to execute the deadly plan. “The disregard of the life of your wife, someone you supposedly loved, is almost unfathomable,” Judge Azcarate said during sentencing.
According to trial testimony from Magalhães, Banfield told her he wanted to marry her and have children but needed to “get rid of” his wife first. He avoided divorce because Christine “would have more money than he would” and he wanted full custody of their daughter, Magalhães testified. The 21-year-old au pair, who began working for the family in 2021 and started an affair with Banfield in 2022, described how they staged the crime scene to appear as a home invasion. Banfield shot Ryan with the knife the victim had brought, then stabbed his wife. When Magalhães saw Ryan still moving, she fired a second fatal shot. Police found no signs of forced entry when they responded to 911 calls from the residence.
The investigation revealed contradictions in Banfield and Magalhães’ initial claims of self-defense against a violent intruder. Fairfax County detectives uncovered digital evidence linking the couple to the fake online profile used to contact Ryan, a Washington D.C. resident with no prior connection to the family. The pair had traveled together to New York City during their affair, with Banfield expressing desires to end his marriage without financial consequences. Physical evidence at the scene contradicted their story that Ryan had attacked Christine before they shot him in defense. The couple’s young daughter was found unharmed in the basement during the incident.
Family members delivered emotional victim impact statements during Friday’s sentencing hearing. Christine Banfield’s sister, Danielle Hocker, described growing up “chasing fireflies and sleeping next to each other on the floor in sleeping bags” with her sibling. “When she was born, ‘I’ became ‘we’,” Hocker said. “I haven’t stopped saying ‘we’ when I speak about my childhood after her death, except now when I do, it takes my breath away.” Ryan’s mother, Deidre Fisher, told the court her son was “extremely caring” and cared for his grandmother and other loved ones. “Joe was a guy who believed in fighting for the underdog, and even actual neglected dogs,” Fisher said. “He would walk into an animal shelter and ask for the oldest, ugliest dogs, bring them home and love them for years.”
Magalhães was arrested in October 2023 and charged with second-degree murder and firearm offenses. She pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in Ryan’s death in October 2024, agreeing to testify against Banfield for the prosecution. Despite prosecutors recommending “time served” as part of her plea agreement, the judge sentenced her to 10 years in prison in February 2026. Banfield was indicted in September 2024 on multiple counts and denied bond as a flight risk and danger to his daughter. A Fairfax County jury convicted him of aggravated murder in February 2026. During his sentencing, Banfield proclaimed his innocence and said he loved his wife, though he admitted to having affairs. Judge Azcarate cited his lack of remorse as justification for the maximum sentence.
The case gained national attention as the “au pair affair” murders due to the defendants’ relationship and the elaborate nature of their scheme. Ryan’s aunt, Sangeeta Ryan, told the court that Banfield “didn’t just take Joe and Christine from us. He tried to erase the truth of who they were.” Banfield emphasized during his sentencing that there was disagreement within the police department about whether he could have sent the online messages used to lure Ryan. However, investigators concluded that digital and physical evidence supported the prosecution’s theory that he and Magalhães conspired to commit the murders and stage them as self-defense.
Banfield remains incarcerated without possibility of parole following his conviction on two counts of aggravated murder. Magalhães completed her testimony as the prosecution’s key witness and is serving her 10-year sentence. The case represents one of Fairfax County’s most complex murder prosecutions, involving extensive digital forensics and testimony about the defendants’ alleged conspiracy to eliminate Christine Banfield and frame an innocent victim.
