The Agent Who Used Fetish and Double Murder to Hide Affair

A former IRS agent used his federal training and a BDSM fetish website to orchestrate a double murder and hide his affair. Brendan Banfield, a criminal investigator with the IRS, created a fake FetLife profile posing as his wife Christine to lure 39-year-old Joseph Ryan to the family home in Herndon, Virginia [citation:3][citation:10]. Prosecutors said Banfield and his Brazilian au pair, Juliana Peres Magalhães, had been having an affair for months and conspired to "get rid of" his wife to avoid a costly divorce [citation:7][citation:10]. The two armed themselves, shot Ryan, and stabbed Christine Banfield, then staged the scene to look like self-defense against an intruder [citation:3]. The au pair later testified against Banfield in exchange for a manslaughter plea [citation:3]. In June 2026, Banfield was convicted of two counts of aggravated murder and child endangerment, and sentenced to life in prison without parole [citation:7].