Former IRS Agent Indicted for Wife’s Murder Now Facing Child Cruelty Charges

Police tape on a blocked off road in a file image. Bryan R. Smith/AFP via Getty Images

A Virginia man accused of killing his wife and another man at his Fairfax County home is facing additional charges.

A grand jury indicted former IRS criminal investigative agent Brendan Banfield, 39, on one count of felony child abuse and neglect and one count of felony child cruelty in relation to the Feb. 24, 2023, deaths of 37-year-old Christine Banfield and 28-year-old Joseph Ryan, according to a Monday news release from the Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office.

Banfield was arrested and charged on Sept. 16 for allegedly stabbing his wife and shooting Ryan at his home in Reston, Virginia. Banfield is facing an indictment on four counts of aggravated murder and one count of using a firearm in the commission of a felony.

Prosecutors said newly discovered findings related to Banfield’s actions on Feb. 24, 2023, provide grounds for the additional charges because Banfield’s then-4-year-old daughter was in the house at the time of the killings.

“We believe these additional charges reflect the events that occurred in the house on that day,” Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano said in the news release.

2023 Killings

Prosecutors allege that Banfield began an affair with the family’s live-in au pair, Juliana Peres Magalhães, in August, 2022, and that he told her that he wanted to get rid of his wife. Soon after, he conspired with Magalhães to kill his wife, according to a probation document shared by WJLA.

Banfield allegedly created an account on an adult website to communicate with other users before he “settled” on Ryan and lured him to the family home. Ryan was allegedly enticed to the house under the guise of meeting Christine Banfield to have a consensual encounter, the probation document says.

Prosecutors claim that on the day of the killings, Ryan arrived at the house, after which Banfield and Magalhães entered the bedroom. It was there that Banfield shot Ryan in the head before stabbing his wife, the document states.

Magalhães called 911 and reported that Ms. Banfield had been hurt, according to the probation document. A man later identified as Banfield stated to dispatchers on the call that he had shot an unknown man who had entered his home because the man had stabbed a woman, authorities said.

Officers arrived at the scene and discovered Christine Banfield in an upstairs bedroom suffering from stab wounds to the upper body, and Ryan with gunshot wounds to the upper body. Christine Banfield was transported to a hospital where she later died, while Ryan was declared dead at the scene.

In an interview with police, Magalhães later admitted to shooting Ryan once after Banfield had shot him in the head.

Initially, the 24-year-old au pair was arrested in Oct. 2023 on charges of second-degree murder and the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony for the death of Ryan. A year later, on Oct. 29, 2024, Magalhães pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of manslaughter and is in custody awaiting her sentencing date, which has been set for March 21, 2025.

Banfield’s trial date is currently set for Feb. 3, 2025.

From NTD News