Nanny and Husband Having an Affair Charged in Double Murder: 'An Appalling Scene,' Say Police

Mar. 15, 2025

Juliana Peres Magalhães; Brendan Banfield.Photo:Fairfax County Police Department (2)

Fairfax County Police Department (2)

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

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

He remembers waking up from a weeks-long coma to see Banfield’s kind face beside his bed:

“She shaved me; she helped me set up a Zoom call with my family. The construction project manager struck up a friendship with his nurse, inviting her and her husband, Brendan Banfield, an IRS criminal division special agent, and their then-3-year-old daughter Valerie to a party in a park near Washington, D.C., in the spring of 2021.

Christine told him she was planning to hire an au pair from South America to live with the couple and help with their toddler. “She wanted me to recommend restaurants in the area,” says the Colombian-born Valderrama. “That was her personality—she wanted the au pair to feel at home.”

Christine and Brendan Banfield with daughter Valerie.

Joe Ryan.

For more on the Virginia murders,subscribe now to PEOPLE, or pick up this week’s issue, on newsstands Friday.

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

On Oct. 13, 2023, Peres Magalhães was arrested and charged with second-degree murder in the death of Ryan. Nearly a year later, on Sept. 16, 2024, citing recently obtained information, Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano announced that Brendan had been indicted for murder in the deaths of Ryan and Christine. “I will ensure that my office puts forward 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 doted on the daughter they both adored. Christine, who grew up on Long Island and graduated from Quinnipiac University with a nursing degree in 2007, and Brendan, who studied accounting at St. Joseph’s University on Long Island, launched a children’s math tutoring center in Moriches, N.Y. They moved 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 dog-boarding facility for the family’s husky.

Christine Banfield.

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

Or so it seemed. By August 2022 Brendan fell for the au pair and had begun expressing “his desire to be rid of his wife,” Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Eric Clingan said at an October hearing. In the weeks before the murders, Brendan allegedly created a profile on a website for bondage and role-play enthusiasts and began communicating with a fellow user, Ryan. Days before the killings, Clingan said, Brendan directed Peres Magalhães, who posed as Christine, to call Ryan on an encrypted messaging app and confirm the details of “a consensual sexual encounter involving restraints used on her, her clothing being cut off with a knife and other violent role play.”

Police found several photos of Brendan Banfield and Juliana Peres Magalhães in the Banfield home.Fairfax County Police Department

Fairfax County Police Department

Julianna Peres Magalhães.

In the months following Peres Magalhães’s arrest, while Brendan continued to live at the family’s house with his daughter and his mother, strains developed in the couple’s relationship. In a recorded jail call, Peres Magalhães can be heard saying, “I hope you are not just staying with me because you are afraid I’m going to turn against you,” according to prosecutors. In another taped conversation found on his mother’s phone, prosecutors say, Brendan complained that the nanny can’t “keep her goddamn mouth shut” on calls from jail.Finally, on Oct. 29, just days before her murder trial was scheduled to begin, Peres Magalhães struck a deal with prosecutors, pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter and agreeing to cooperate with authorities in exchange for potentially being released from custody on time already served.

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

source: people.com