In a quiet Virginia suburb, what looked like a perfect family hid something unthinkable.

When police walked into the Banfield home in Herndon, they found 37-year-old nurse Christine Banfield stabbed to death and 39-year-old Joseph Ryan shot in the head. Her husband, former IRS agent Brendan Banfield, claimed it was self-defense — that Ryan had broken in and attacked his wife.

But investigators soon discovered the scene was staged.

Christine had never met Joseph Ryan. In reality, he had been lured to the house through a fetish site called FetLife, believing he was meeting Christine for a consensual role-play encounter. The account that contacted him used her photo and name — but wasn’t her. It was allegedly created by her husband.

Living in that same home was their Brazilian au pair, Juliana Peres Magalhães, who was having an affair with Brendan. She later admitted to helping orchestrate the meeting — and described the entire deadly plan as “part of the game.”

Prosecutors say the “game” was a plot to kill Christine and stage it as a home invasion gone wrong.

Both Christine and Joseph Ryan ended up dead.

Juliana has since pled guilty to manslaughter and agreed to testify against Brendan Banfield, who now faces aggravated murder charges in Fairfax County. His trial, most recently delayed, is set for January 13, 2026.

In this Hidden Killers deep dive, Tony Brueski exposes the chilling story behind the façade of suburban normalcy — how power, fantasy, and control converged into one of Virginia’s most disturbing murder cases.

This isn’t a story about sex. It’s a story about manipulation, obsession, and the fatal delusion of control.

Because when you start to play God, eventually, someone bleeds for it.

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