Au Pair Murders - Christine Banfield and Joseph Ryan

In the affluent suburbs of Fairfax County, Virginia, IRS Special Agent Brendan Banfield seemed to have the perfect life. But on the morning of February 24, 2023, when police arrived at his home, they walked into a horrific scene of a double homicide. Brendan claimed he had walked in on a handyman, Joseph Ryan, attacking his wife, Christine Banfield, and acted in self-defense. But as the "Au Pair Murders" investigation unfolded, the story of a heroic husband crumbled. In this episode of True Crimecast, we dive into a twisted web of a secret affair between Brendan and the family’s au pair, Juliana Peres Magalhães, and a chilling plot involving a fake fetish profile used to lure an innocent man to his death. We examine how a man trained to catch criminals thought he could use his expertise to stage the perfect crime—only to have his partner in crime turn into the prosecution's star witness.