Christine Banfield, already a dedicated nurse and patient advocate, seemed to go above and beyond during the pandemic.

“She was an angel to me,” remembers Rodrigo Valderrama, a COVID patient at the suburban Virginia hospital where Christine worked.

He remembers waking up from a week-long coma and seeing Banfield’s kind face at his bedside:

“She shaved me; she helped me schedule a Zoom call with my family. The construction project manager befriended his nurse, inviting her and her husband, Brendan Banfield, a special agent in the IRS criminal division, and their daughter Valerie, then 3, to a party at a nearby park. from Washington, D.C. in spring 2021.

Christine told him she planned to hire an au pair from South America to live with the couple and help with their little one. “He wanted me to recommend restaurants in the area,” says Valderrama, who was born in Colombia. “That was her personality: she wanted the au pair to feel at home.”

However, it was the Banfields’ Brazilian au pair, Juliana Peres Magalhães, 22, who in two calls to 911 on the morning of February 24, 2023, first alerted police to what they described as “a “frightful scene” in the family home. home in Herndon, Virginia. In a second-floor bedroom, Fairfax County Police Department officers found Christine, 37, naked except for her socks, bleeding from fatal wounds to her neck; she died later that day at a hospital. Nearby was the body of Joe Ryan, 39, who authorities said arrived at the house that morning for a pre-arranged sexual tryst, with gunshot wounds to the head and chest. Also at the bloodstained location were Peres Magalhães and Christine’s husband, Brendan, 38, according to police, as well as a bloody knife, two guns and a bag full of fetish sexual accessories. Valerie, then 4 years old, was found unharmed in the basement.

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During a nine-hour interview at the police station, Peres Magalhães confessed to killing Ryan following the chaotic period following a shocking assault on Christine. According to court documents, the babysitter said she was in a car with the baby outside the house that morning when she saw a man carrying a bag come through the front door. He called out to Christine, who was alone inside. When Christine didn’t answer, Peres Magalhães called Brendan, he said. He had already left for work but returned quickly. He and Peres Magalhães then entered the bedroom and found Ryan standing over a kneeling Christine with a knife to her throat.

In Peres Magalhães’ initial account of what happened next, Brendan, who carries a gun at work, shot Ryan in the head with his service revolver and yelled at Peres Magalhães to get another gun from the bedroom safe. . Afraid that Ryan would attack again, she said she pointed the gun at him and fired the bullet that pierced his heart and killed him. The police, however, were not convinced by Peres Magalhães’ story about breaking up a home invasion and killing an intruder in self-defense.

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Investigators soon discovered evidence that Brendan and Peres Magalhães were in a sexual relationship: text messages about his new love sent from Peres Magalhães’ phone, photos of the couple on a trip to New York City, and lingerie scattered around the Brendan’s bed.

Records allegedly showed that the duo visited a shooting range nearly two months before the double homicide, and that Brendan returned to the facility to purchase a Glock 43X, the weapon used by Peres Magalhães.

On October 13, 2023, Peres Magalhães was arrested and charged with second-degree murder for Ryan’s death. Nearly a year later, on September 16, 2024, citing recently obtained information, Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano announced that Brendan had been charged with murder in the deaths of Ryan and Christine. “I will ensure that my office presents the strongest case possible at trial and that we continue to seek justice for the victims and their families,” Descano said.

By all appearances, the Banfields were a happily married couple who adored the daughter they both adored. Christine, who grew up on Long Island and graduated with a nursing degree from Quinnipiac University in 2007, and Brendan, who studied accounting at St. Joseph’s University on Long Island, launched a math tutoring center for children in Moriches, N.Y. York. They moved in with newborn Valerie. to Virginia in 2019. When not working as an ICU nurse, Christine was active in a neighborhood Facebook group, seeking recommendations for a backyard landscaper, a “doll hospital” to repair her daughter’s toy, and a shelter for dogs for the husky in the family.

The couple, who had previously hired another Brazilian nanny, contacted Peres Magalhães in 2021. “Juliana wanted to travel and learn English,” says a friend from Brazil. “She was excited because she had just graduated from nursing classes and was coming to live with a nurse, so they had a lot in common.” In Virginia, Peres Magalhães “seemed very happy,” says her friend. “It was easy. Everything was working perfectly.”

Or so it seemed. In August 2022, Brendan fell in love with the au pair and had begun to express “his desire to get rid of his wife,” Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Eric Clingan said at a hearing in October. In the weeks before the murders, Brendan allegedly created a profile on a website for bondage and role-playing enthusiasts and began communicating with a fellow user, Ryan. Days before the murders, Clingan said, Brendan ordered Peres Magalhães, who posed as Christine, to call Ryan via an encrypted messaging app and confirm details of “a consensual sexual encounter that involved restraints, cutting of clothes with a knife.” and other violent role-playing games.”

On the morning of February 24, 2023, the carefully scripted plot by Brendan and Peres Magalhães to get Christine off the road unfolded as planned, authorities say. At 7:17 a.m., Brendan was waiting at a nearby McDonald’s for Peres Magalhães to call when Ryan arrived at the house for his pre-planned kinky sexual tryst with Christine. Back at the house, Brendan and Peres Magalhães entered through the basement and left Valerie there while they climbed the stairs to the second floor. Brendan allegedly called out “police officer” before shooting Ryan in the head and then stabbing Christine. Peres Magalhães then shot Ryan after she allegedly saw him moving on the ground.

In the months after Peres Magalhães’ arrest, while Brendan continued to live in the family home with his daughter and mother, tensions arose in the couple’s relationship. In a recorded jail call, Peres Magalhães can be heard saying, “I hope you don’t stay with me simply because you’re afraid I’ll turn on you,” according to prosecutors. In another recorded conversation found on his mother’s phone, prosecutors say, Brendan complained that the babysitter can’t “keep her damn mouth shut” on calls from jail.

Finally, on October 29, just days before her murder trial was to begin, Peres Magalhães reached a deal with prosecutors, pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter and agreeing to cooperate with authorities in exchange for potentially being released on time. already fulfilled.

Meanwhile, Ryan’s friend Zulu Bey says he’s grateful the truth is coming to light about his eccentric friend’s unwitting role in the twisted murder plot. “I know he didn’t do what they said,” Bey says. “He was just a pawn. “Joe was the guy who took in dogs that had no chance of being adopted and he just loved them so much.” And Christine, her friend Valderrama says, will be remembered for her service to the community: “She was one of a kind.”