How an Alleged Twisted BDSM Fetish Plot Led to a Double Murder — and Au Pair Says It Was ‘Part of the Game’

A Brazilian au pair who admitted to her role in the deaths of her alleged ex-lover’s wife and another man said the double killings were all “part of the game.”

In a recorded interview from October 25, 2024, Juliana Peres Magalhaes told prosecutors as part of a plea deal about the BDSM-fueled plot that she claims was hatched between herself and her alleged former lover Brendan Banfield.

That interview was obtained by NBC4, and details the events leading up to the deaths of Joseph Ryan and Banfield’s wife Christine.

Christine, a pediatric intensive care nurse, was found mortally wounded after being stabbed in her Herndon, Va., home on February 24, 2023. She later died in the hospital. Ryan was found dead nearby — with gunshot wounds to the head and chest. 

Prosecutors allege Peres Magalhaes and Banfield, a former agent for the criminal division of the Internal Revenue Service, began an affair after she moved into the home Banfield shared with his wife and their then 4-year-old daughter.

During the interview, Peres Magalhaes told prosecutors that Banfield expressed interest in getting rid of his wife around October 2022. 

“And then I asked him, ‘Are you gonna divorce her?’ And then he said, ‘That’s not what I’m thinking about.’ And then he explained that he was thinking about finding a way to just get rid of her, out of the picture,” Peres Magalhaes claimed, per NBC4.

Prosecutors allege that months before the murders, Banfield created a profile on the bondage website FetLife.com and began communicating with Ryan, a mixed martial arts enthusiast who liked live action role-playing. 

Peres Magalhaes claimed in the interview that they used Christine’s work computer and looked for someone who would willingly participate in a rape fantasy they choreographed.

“[Banfield] wanted somebody that sound, like, violent and was kinda playing the way he wanted the person should play, so that’s when he started talking to Joe,” Peres Magalhaes said, according to NBC4.

Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Eric Clingan alleged at the Oct. 29 plea hearing in Fairfax County Circuit Court that Banfield lured Ryan to the home on the morning of Feb. 24, 2023, alleging that “Ryan likely believed that he was meeting Christine Banfield to have a consensual sexual encounter involving restraints used on her, her clothing being cut off with a knife he brought, and other violent sexual role play.”

Banfield allegedly gave the au pair a gun he bought a month earlier and told her to call Christine’s phone when Ryan entered the home and then to call him.

Banfield was at a nearby McDonald’s “waiting so that he could return quickly,” Clingan alleged.

Peres Magalhaes allegedly told prosecutors that Christine was sleeping when Ryan showed up at the home.

“We told him before that it was kinda part of the game, where the person gets in the bedroom and then I would act like scared, like, try to run or try to scream or if the person starts doing something, she would just get kinda freaked out and try to resist but it was like ‘part of the game,'” she said, per NBC4.

Prosecutors allege Banfield then drove home, where he shot Ryan in the head and stabbed his wife.

Peres Magalhaes “saw Joseph Ryan moving, and shot him,” according to Clingan, who added that the duo then “reported the offense as if Joseph Ryan was an intruder who stabbed Christine Banfield.”

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After serving warrants on the Banfield home in October 2023, investigators allegedly found photos of Banfield and Peres Magalhaes “in loving poses” arranged throughout the bedroom along with the au pair’s lingerie.

That same month, Peres Magalhaes was charged with second-degree murder and use of a firearm in commission of a felony in the death of Ryan.

She later pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter in October 2024.

Banfield was indicted a month prior in September 2024 by a Fairfax County grand jury on four charges of aggravated murder and one charge of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony in connection with the deaths of both Ryan and Christine.

His trial is set for October 2025.

Prosecutors agreed to recommend that Peres Magalhaes be released from custody with credit for time served after Banfield’s trial, provided she continues to cooperate with authorities, the New York Times reported.