The Case Of Christine Banfield and Joseph Ryan

On the morning of February 24th , 2023 , police officers would respond to 911 calls, which were placed by a Brazilian au pair. She would find Christine Banfield’s body in her large home . Christine Banfield would be stabbed , and she would soon die due to her injuries. She also found a strange man’s body as well . He was shot to dead.

The police would soon arrive at the scene . They would walk into an appalling scene. Au pair and Christine Banfield’s 4 year old daughter was there at the scene and they were both unharmed.

The au pair would make a statement to the police saying that Joseph was about to stab Christine Banfield and they were just trying to defend themselves. The police later found no signs of forced entry.

Background

Christine Banfield was a 37 year nurse who was married to Brendan Banfield and they together had a 4 year old daughter. Brendan Banfield worked as a criminal investigator for the IRS. The tragic events of this case would start when Christine and Brendan would decide to hire an au pier. They needed help . They needed someone who would take care of their 4 year old daughter , when both of them are stuck at work. So that’s when they hire a Brazilian au pier Juliana Peres Magalhaes who was 24 at the time of her hire.

People who knew Juliana said that she was very excited when she got hired. Juliana always wanted to become a nurse and Christine was a well established nurse. So, Juliana thought this was a perfect opportunity for her to learn from Christine. Juliana was super exited.

What really happened according to au pier ?

Juliana started her job as live in child care worker for the Banfield’s around 2021. According to her on the morning of Christine Banfield’s murder , she had taken the couple’s daughter to the zoo but had to return because she had forgot to take lunch. When she returned she had seen an unfamiliar care parked outside and she immediately called Brendan. Once he arrived , they entered the house together. Brendan would go inside the house to look around while Juliana would take the couple’s daughter to the basement. When they were at the basement , she would hear a commotion from upstairs and she would hear Brendan screaming the words “Drop the knife”. After this altercations Brandon would shot this strange man in their house. Brandon had told the 911 operator that he shot the man who was apparently stabbing his wife. This strange man who was shot by Brendan would die on the spot while Christine was still fighting for her life. The paramedics would arrive and try to revive Christine. But the injuries sustained to her was so bad that she would ultimately loose her life.

You know what makes things worst, Brendan would keep asking paramedics how is the man’s injury and he did not seem to care about how his wife was doing. His wife was struggling for her life, but he seem not to care . He did not even care for her one bit. She is still the mother of his 4 year old daughter, but he did not care.

Who was this strange man that was shot at Banfield’s home ?

This man was Joseph Ryan . According to the prosecutor he allegedly exchanged messages with a profile featuring Christine on a website called FetLife. This website is a community for people who like kinky sexual practices. But the prosecutor did not believe that this profile belonged to Christine. People who knew Christine personally knew her preferences and they were confident that she was not interested into such kinky practices. There were no evidences that showed that Christine was into such kinky practices. But , Joseph on the other hand was quite open about his preferences. His friends and family accepted him for who he was. The prosecutor believed that this profile belonged to Brendan . Joseph was exchanging messages with Brendan and not Christine. This profile was created to lure Joseph into the Banfield ’s home under the pretext of rough sex.

Affair between a husband and an au pier

The prosecutor believed that Juliana and Brendan were having an affair and they believed that this was the motive of why they did what they did. They believed that they lured an innocent man to frame him for murder. They lured Joseph under the pretext of rough sex to frame him for murdering Christine. Brendan would then shoot Joseph and later he would go on say it was self-defense. They thought that he could escape by saying it was self-defense. This is truly disturbing. They wanted to get Christine out of the way so they could be together. He did not even stop to consider that Christine was his daughter’s mother. Because of 2 selfish people, the daughter have to grow up without a mother.

By October 2023 , the police officers would finally return to Banfield’s house with an arrest warrant to arrest Juliana. They found out that Juliana had already moved into the house where Christine was murdered. How sick is that? She moved into the master bedroom, the same bedroom where Christine was murdered. The house was already filled with Juliana’s clothes and a framed photo of them together was placed at their bedside table. This goes to show hoe selfish people can really be. They just did not care about Christine or her memory. They just wanted to get her out of the way, so they can be together.

Charged

Both of them would finally arrested . Juliana would then plead guilty to manslaughter and Brendan Banfield would also be charged with four counts of aggravated murder and the use of firearm in the commission of felony in the deaths of both his wife and Joseph. His trial is set to be on February ,2025. Juliana faces at least 10 years of prison and her trial is set to be on March , 2025

This case is still developing and trial is set to happen this year. This is one of those cases when two selfish people wanted to get rid of someone to have their way. It is so sick to think that they even involved and lured an innocent man. They wanted to paint a picture that Christine was cheating with Joseph. They wanted us to side with their narrative. The investigators saw right through it and no one believed them. When I was researching this case , all I could think was why did not Brendan get a divorce? Why would he think that murdering Christine was the easy way out. If they got a divorce, his daughter would still have her mother. What goes through their mind , when they decide to commit such heinous act?