VA - Herndon, Joseph Ryan shot, Christine Banfield stabbed, both deceased, in home - Feb 2023

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acutename said:
he is under a lot of stress.

the thing I do not understand is how R got in the house- was the door left open for him? Did CB say "who are you and what is going on?" Did they tell him that would be part of the fantasy?
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My theory is that BB or the au pair impersonated CB in an email/text and told JR the door would be unlocked and to come up to the bedroom. They planned on CB already being killed by the time JR arrived at the house. JMO.
 
acutename said:
he is under a lot of stress.

the thing I do not understand is how R got in the house- was the door left open for him? Did CB say "who are you and what is going on?" Did they tell him that would be part of the fantasy?
Click to expand...
I have a lot of questions here.

Number 1 —
Does the State have evidence of an affair between the au pair and husband prior to the murders?
(The new phones are suspicious but not really hard evidence. I assume LE was still able to obtain a lot of previous phone data via subpoenas to their service carriers, Apple, Google, social media companies, etc. — location data, phone pings, call history, data stored on servers and the cloud.)

Just because they were together 8 months after the murder doesn’t mean they were together before the murders. Maybe the shared traumatic experience brought them together? Or maybe the affair started after Brendan learned his wife was hooking up with men she met online. I don’t necessarily believe that’s what happened, but I am interested to know what evidence they have to prove the affair began before the wife’s death.

Number 2 —
Do they have proof that Christine’s profile on the kink website was created by someone else? Other than friends and family saying the messages don’t sound like her, as that is far from solid evidence. I would venture to guess that she’d talk much differently to someone on a kink website than she’d talk to her friends and family. Most people keep that side of their life private. I would need more proof if I were on a jury.

Number 3 —
If the goal was to get rid of Christine, why come up with such a convoluted and complex plan that also required them to kill a complete stranger? There are so many things that would need to happen exactly as they planned but are also totally unpredictable.

Number 4 —
If Ryan was lured to the house by a fake profile under false pretenses, how did Brendan and the au pair get him upstairs with Christine? There were no signs of forced entry.

I’d find it more believable that maybe both were having an affair. The husband with the au pair and the wife with men she met online. Perhaps the first part of the story is true—the au pair left the home and returned to find an unknown car, called the wife and then the husband. Maybe the husband walked in to find his wife having sex with a stranger and shot him in a fit of rage and stabbed his wife with the knife the guy had been using during knife play. Maybe when he attempted to stage the scene as self defense, he realized Ryan was still alive and so he yelled down to the au pair to grab his other gun and shoot him again. He couldn’t do it because his story wouldn’t make sense if two different guns were used to shoot the guy and he would also get the second gun bloody if he handled it.

I realize this sounds utterly ridiculous, but no less ridiculous that the prosecution’s theory! And while this scenario would make the husband and au pair no less culpable, the mitigating circumstances would be different and would preclude premeditation. I don’t know. It’s just so hard for me to believe that they concocted this ridiculous plan to kill his wife AND A COMPLETE STRANGER by setting up a fake profile on a kink website where a million and one things could go wrong.

PS. This is slightly off-topic but not really — FTR, knife play doesn’t actually involve any sort of stabbing or physical harm when it’s done responsibly. PPS. It’s inherently dangerous to invite a complete stranger into your home to engage in risky BDSM play (just the thought of doing so nearly makes me break out in hives). And from what I understand about the BDSM community (which admittedly comes largely from reading too many smutty romance novels), that’s like BDSM 101.
 
cujenn81 said:
I have a lot of questions here.

Number 1 —
Does the State have evidence of an affair between the au pair and husband prior to the murders?
(The new phones are suspicious but not really hard evidence. I assume LE was still able to obtain a lot of previous phone data via subpoenas to their service carriers, Apple, Google, social media companies, etc. — location data, phone pings, call history, data stored on servers and the cloud.)

Just because they were together 8 months after the murder doesn’t mean they were together before the murders. Maybe the shared traumatic experience brought them together? Or maybe the affair started after Brendan learned his wife was hooking up with men she met online. I don’t necessarily believe that’s what happened, but I am interested to know what evidence they have to prove the affair began before the wife’s death.

Number 2 —
Do they have proof that Christine’s profile on the kink website was created by someone else? Other than friends and family saying the messages don’t sound like her, as that is far from solid evidence. I would venture to guess that she’d talk much differently to someone on a kink website than she’d talk to her friends and family. Most people keep that side of their life private. I would need more proof if I were on a jury.

Number 3 —
If the goal was to get rid of Christine, why come up with such a convoluted and complex plan that also required them to kill a complete stranger? There are so many things that would need to happen exactly as they planned but are also totally unpredictable.

Number 4 —
If Ryan was lured to the house by a fake profile under false pretenses, how did Brendan and the au pair get him upstairs with Christine? There were no signs of forced entry.

I’d find it more believable that maybe both were having an affair. The husband with the au pair and the wife with men she met online. Perhaps the first part of the story is true—the au pair left the home and returned to find an unknown car, called the wife and then the husband. Maybe the husband walked in to find his wife having sex with a stranger and shot him in a fit of rage and stabbed his wife with the knife the guy had been using during knife play. Maybe when he attempted to stage the scene as self defense, he realized Ryan was still alive and so he yelled down to the au pair to grab his other gun and shoot him again. He couldn’t do it because his story wouldn’t make sense if two different guns were used to shoot the guy and he would also get the second gun bloody if he handled it.

I realize this sounds utterly ridiculous, but no less ridiculous that the prosecution’s theory! And while this scenario would make the husband and au pair no less culpable, the mitigating circumstances would be different and would preclude premeditation. I don’t know. It’s just so hard for me to believe that they concocted this ridiculous plan to kill his wife AND A COMPLETE STRANGER by setting up a fake profile on a kink website where a million and one things could go wrong.

PS. This is slightly off-topic but not really — FTR, knife play doesn’t actually involve any sort of stabbing or physical harm when it’s done responsibly. PPS. It’s inherently dangerous to invite a complete stranger into your home to engage in risky BDSM play (just the thought of doing so nearly makes me break out in hives). And from what I understand about the BDSM community (which admittedly comes largely from reading too many smutty romance novels), that’s like BDSM 101.
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How do you explain the husband taking the au pair to a shooting range and then buying the gun used in the shooting 2 months before the murders?
 
cujenn81 said:
I have a lot of questions here.

Number 1 —
Does the State have evidence of an affair between the au pair and husband prior to the murders?
(The new phones are suspicious but not really hard evidence. I assume LE was still able to obtain a lot of previous phone data via subpoenas to their service carriers, Apple, Google, social media companies, etc. — location data, phone pings, call history, data stored on servers and the cloud.)

Just because they were together 8 months after the murder doesn’t mean they were together before the murders. Maybe the shared traumatic experience brought them together? Or maybe the affair started after Brendan learned his wife was hooking up with men she met online. I don’t necessarily believe that’s what happened, but I am interested to know what evidence they have to prove the affair began before the wife’s death.

Number 2 —
Do they have proof that Christine’s profile on the kink website was created by someone else? Other than friends and family saying the messages don’t sound like her, as that is far from solid evidence. I would venture to guess that she’d talk much differently to someone on a kink website than she’d talk to her friends and family. Most people keep that side of their life private. I would need more proof if I were on a jury.

Number 3 —
If the goal was to get rid of Christine, why come up with such a convoluted and complex plan that also required them to kill a complete stranger? There are so many things that would need to happen exactly as they planned but are also totally unpredictable.

Number 4 —
If Ryan was lured to the house by a fake profile under false pretenses, how did Brendan and the au pair get him upstairs with Christine? There were no signs of forced entry.

I’d find it more believable that maybe both were having an affair. The husband with the au pair and the wife with men she met online. Perhaps the first part of the story is true—the au pair left the home and returned to find an unknown car, called the wife and then the husband. Maybe the husband walked in to find his wife having sex with a stranger and shot him in a fit of rage and stabbed his wife with the knife the guy had been using during knife play. Maybe when he attempted to stage the scene as self defense, he realized Ryan was still alive and so he yelled down to the au pair to grab his other gun and shoot him again. He couldn’t do it because his story wouldn’t make sense if two different guns were used to shoot the guy and he would also get the second gun bloody if he handled it.

I realize this sounds utterly ridiculous, but no less ridiculous that the prosecution’s theory! And while this scenario would make the husband and au pair no less culpable, the mitigating circumstances would be different and would preclude premeditation. I don’t know. It’s just so hard for me to believe that they concocted this ridiculous plan to kill his wife AND A COMPLETE STRANGER by setting up a fake profile on a kink website where a million and one things could go wrong.

PS. This is slightly off-topic but not really — FTR, knife play doesn’t actually involve any sort of stabbing or physical harm when it’s done responsibly. PPS. It’s inherently dangerous to invite a complete stranger into your home to engage in risky BDSM play (just the thought of doing so nearly makes me break out in hives). And from what I understand about the BDSM community (which admittedly comes largely from reading too many smutty romance novels), that’s like BDSM 101.
Click to expand...
In answer to question 1, per the article below (which quotes the Washington Post, who has their article behind a paywall), authorities state BB and the au pair began an affair several months before the killings, based on photos of the two on the au pair’s cellphone.

 
I hope that LE and investigators will be able to locate the likely murder weapon for the stabbing for DNA and other testing. And will be interesting to see what results from that including DNA transfer, touch DNA etc. from the slain wife’s body. And same for any firearms used. Sounds like two guns were involved? Hope also at minimum gun shot residue was done on all at that time. Time may also help to solve this. Not sure I’d be in a real rush on trial and attempt to convict the au pair. And seems some conspiracy charges are needed as well. MOO
 
ch_13 said:
Yeah, they kind of imply Ryan was the stabber, but they don't actually come out and say it.

And it's puzzling. Hypothetically speaking, if you were to hold a gun at someone and tell them to stab a third party, there's no way to foresee what would happen. They're just as likely to rush at you instead. It doesn't seem like a viable plan. Especially with a kid in the house which adds another element of uncertainty.
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I am late to this one, and this one sure is puzzling…… so I could be off on this……. It seemed IIRC up thread that JR was apparently known to all parties in the residence? If that is the case, maybe the au pair and husband BB used that in possible means to find a way to place blame and eliminate the wife?

Based on other information in this case, it seemed those two had at least a couple months to secure a weapon and have the au pair practice at a gun range? And who knows what else they conspired during that time.

The question will be how much evidence there is to prove, or disprove, any scenarios. And as we often find here, guilty parties will not realize what they should not know about a murder, crime scene, or evidence. MOO
 
cujenn81 said:
I have a lot of questions here.

Number 1 —
Does the State have evidence of an affair between the au pair and husband prior to the murders?
(The new phones are suspicious but not really hard evidence. I assume LE was still able to obtain a lot of previous phone data via subpoenas to their service carriers, Apple, Google, social media companies, etc. — location data, phone pings, call history, data stored on servers and the cloud.)

Just because they were together 8 months after the murder doesn’t mean they were together before the murders. Maybe the shared traumatic experience brought them together? Or maybe the affair started after Brendan learned his wife was hooking up with men she met online. I don’t necessarily believe that’s what happened, but I am interested to know what evidence they have to prove the affair began before the wife’s death.

Number 2 —
Do they have proof that Christine’s profile on the kink website was created by someone else? Other than friends and family saying the messages don’t sound like her, as that is far from solid evidence. I would venture to guess that she’d talk much differently to someone on a kink website than she’d talk to her friends and family. Most people keep that side of their life private. I would need more proof if I were on a jury.

Number 3 —
If the goal was to get rid of Christine, why come up with such a convoluted and complex plan that also required them to kill a complete stranger? There are so many things that would need to happen exactly as they planned but are also totally unpredictable.

Number 4 —
If Ryan was lured to the house by a fake profile under false pretenses, how did Brendan and the au pair get him upstairs with Christine? There were no signs of forced entry.

I’d find it more believable that maybe both were having an affair. The husband with the au pair and the wife with men she met online. Perhaps the first part of the story is true—the au pair left the home and returned to find an unknown car, called the wife and then the husband. Maybe the husband walked in to find his wife having sex with a stranger and shot him in a fit of rage and stabbed his wife with the knife the guy had been using during knife play. Maybe when he attempted to stage the scene as self defense, he realized Ryan was still alive and so he yelled down to the au pair to grab his other gun and shoot him again. He couldn’t do it because his story wouldn’t make sense if two different guns were used to shoot the guy and he would also get the second gun bloody if he handled it.

I realize this sounds utterly ridiculous, but no less ridiculous that the prosecution’s theory! And while this scenario would make the husband and au pair no less culpable, the mitigating circumstances would be different and would preclude premeditation. I don’t know. It’s just so hard for me to believe that they concocted this ridiculous plan to kill his wife AND A COMPLETE STRANGER by setting up a fake profile on a kink website where a million and one things could go wrong.

PS. This is slightly off-topic but not really — FTR, knife play doesn’t actually involve any sort of stabbing or physical harm when it’s done responsibly. PPS. It’s inherently dangerous to invite a complete stranger into your home to engage in risky BDSM play (just the thought of doing so nearly makes me break out in hives). And from what I understand about the BDSM community (which admittedly comes largely from reading too many smutty romance novels), that’s like BDSM 101.
Click to expand...
Also, I know you think the prosecution's theory is ridiculous, but people can be incredibly diabolical. This case reminds me a little of the Donnah Winger case. In 1995, six days after Donnah had lodged a complaint against a shuttle driver that took her home from the St. Louis airport, Donnah's husband invited the driver to their home (not sure under what guise). When the driver arrived, Donnah was already dead in the dining room (killed with a hammer by her husband) and the husband proceeded to shoot the driver. The husband told police that the driver had broken in and killed Donnah (the police presumed in retaliation for her complaint) and then he, the husband, shot the driver because he broke into their home. And oh by the way, the husband was having an affair with Donna's best friend at the time of her murder. He got away with it until 2001 when he was finally charged (and later convicted) with murder.
 
cujenn81 said:
Number 2 —
Do they have proof that Christine’s profile on the kink website was created by someone else? Other than friends and family saying the messages don’t sound like her, as that is far from solid evidence. I would venture to guess that she’d talk much differently to someone on a kink website than she’d talk to her friends and family. Most people keep that side of their life private. I would need more proof if I were on a jury.
Click to expand...
My understanding is it was the grammatical use/spelling, etc that didn't seem like her... not the content. Obviously no one's best friend or mom knows what they sound like in the bedroom.
 
DropthePuck said:
Also, I know you think the prosecution's theory is ridiculous, but people can be incredibly diabolical. This case reminds me a little of the Donnah Winger case. In 1995, six days after Donnah had lodged a complaint against a shuttle driver that took her home from the St. Louis airport, Donnah's husband invited the driver to their home (not sure under what guise). When the driver arrived, Donnah was already dead in the dining room (killed with a hammer by her husband) and the husband proceeded to shoot the driver. The husband told police that the driver had broken in and killed Donnah (the police presumed in retaliation for her complaint) and then he, the husband, shot the driver because he broke into their home. And oh by the way, the husband was having an affair with Donna's best friend at the time of her murder. He got away with it until 2001 when he was finally charged (and later convicted) with murder.
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I would not be surprised if BB was familiar with that case tbh. The parallels also jumped out at me. May justice also prevail for JR and CB. JMOO.
 
LifeIsAMystery said:
www.wusa9.com

'We believe in justice for both' | Grand Jury indicts au pair in connection to man's death

Juliana Peres Magalhaes, 23, was indicted on charges of second-degree murder and use of a firearm in commission of a felony.
www.wusa9.com www.wusa9.com

"'We believe in justice for both' | Grand Jury indicts au pair in connection to man's death
Juliana Peres Magalhaes, 23, was indicted on charges of second-degree murder and use of a firearm in commission of a felony."
Click to expand...
According to this news report, the trial for Peres Magalhaes is scheduled to begin on April 18.
 
Wondering now if the nanny was blackmailing the husband about "something", and he agreed to a very strange plan to kill his wife? IDK, but this feels different then other cases when there was a love affair that ends in a double murder. Maybe she was really after money?
 
Vegasgrl said:
Wondering now if the nanny was blackmailing the husband about "something", and he agreed to a very strange plan to kill his wife? IDK, but this feels different then other cases when there was a love affair that ends in a double murder. Maybe she was really after money?
Click to expand...

This seems a little fanciful to me. What kind of blackmail could an au pair possibly have over the husband? And why would that lead him to kill his own wife and a total stranger rather than just, you know, give her money? Especially considering he's a federal agent, while she's in her early 20s and in the U.S. on a work visa. If he just fired her, she'd have to find leave the country if she couldn't find someone else to hire her.

Plus, he left his child in her care. Seems odd anyone would do that with a blackmailer.
 
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