78 - Christine Banfield & Joe Ryan

It’s the morning of February 24 2023, and emergency services in Herndon (Fairfax County, Virginia) have just received an abandoned call for help from within a quiet suburban house occupied by the Banfield family. The call is brief - only eight-seconds long - but within it, quiet groans can be heard.

When dispatchers phone the Banfield residence back, the family’s au pair answers. From here, police will learn that a shocking and violent crime has just taken place within the home, and there are multiple fatalities. Clare presents this case.

Theme music by MVM Productions.

Transcript

Clare 0:00

This podcast covers a variety of true crime, mystery, and unexpected stories. A warning that episodes will contain graphic details and may not be suitable for everyone. Welcome back to Death and Taxes, a true crime podcast. I'm Claire. I'm Carrie.

Benny 0:26

And I'm Benny.

Clare 0:28

Welcome back, everybody. Before we start today, we'd love to give a big shout-out to longtime listeners, Kathy and Katie, who often listen to our episodes while going on road trips. They're going on one this week. Big shout out to you ladies. Hope this episode gets there in time.

Carrie 0:42

Hi ladies! Drive safe.

Benny 0:45

Have you got a doozy for them?

Clare 0:46

Drive safe. I do have a doozy today. Okay. So Brendan and Christine Bainfield were a typical suburban couple in their late 30s. The pair had been married for several years, college sweethearts, and had a four-year-old daughter. They lived in a very nice area of Virginia and had a very good income. Brendan was an officer for the Criminal Investigations Division of the IRS. Christine also had a wonderful job that she was very passionate about. A pediatric intensive care nurse. She'd also spent several years as a sexual assault nurse. She took her job very seriously and was said to be extremely compassionate. So they'd been living in this beautiful neighborhood for quite some time. They were kind of integrated quite well into the neighborhood. Everybody who knew them talked about them being quite a lovely little family and that there was seems to be outwardly just a really nice normal area. The area that they lived in as well was a nice suburban space with no known large crime or regular crime that occurred. So on the morning of the 24th of February 2023, when 911 received not one but two calls in quick succession, that peaceful existence was shattered. The first 911 call at 7.47am lasted only a few seconds, providing 911 with nothing to really go on. They call they called the number back, but with no response. But then only a few minutes later, at 8.02 a.m., a call from the same number came through. A woman, clearly panicked and traumatized, trying to explain to the opera operator what was happening. She struggled to give the 911 operator really much anything much of use, kind of blurting very like brokenly. Uh, she's been stabbed, something's happened. The operator tries to get the address from her, she can't quite make out the address, but in the background you can hear a man. So the the phone gets handed to the man, and I'd like to play the 911 call. Perfect 911, where's our emergency?

Speaker 4 2:59

I need I need help. He's playing hello. I don't know what to do anymore. And what's your name and what's going on? I'm a federal here. Somebody here. Uh I I um she's got several several marks on her neck. What do I do? What do I do? Okay. So what I need you to do is apply direct pressure directly to where she's bleeding from, okay? And if it becomes just add more cost to what is already there.

Clare 3:39

So for the purposes of both of you, of what he just said, he said, My name is Brendan Vainfield. This is my house. There's somebody here. I shot him. But he stabbed her. She's bleeding, she's got several marks on her neck. What do I do? So the 911 operator starts talking him through CPR, applying a pressure to the wound. He's clearly panicked, and he keeps reiterating what he said already.

Benny 4:04

So initially, someone calls 911 and then hangs up, and then some and then they call back and a woman answers, is that right? And there's a man in the background. And then the man gets on the phone and then says, What we just heard, is that right?

Clare 4:15

Yes, yes. So I can't see how to do that.

Benny 4:17

So someone's been shot and someone has been stabbed, is we hearing her.

Clare 4:21

So what we hear is Brendan Branfield, the owner of the house, he identifies himself. He says that there's someone in his house that he shot him, but he stabbed her, and she's bleeding from several marks on his neck.

Benny 4:34

On her neck.

Clare 4:35

Through the call, he lets them know that the woman who has been stabbed is his wife, Christine.

Speaker 4 4:41

Okay.

Carrie 4:42

Does he say who the man is or he says he doesn't know who the man is.

Clare 4:46

He doesn't know who the person is.

Carrie 4:48

So we're we're assuming some kind of intruder at this stage.

Clare 4:51

So at this point, you're right, there is uh what appears to be an intruder that's entered the home and has attacked Christine before getting interrupted by Brendan. The woman whose voice you could hear on the at the start of the 911 call is the couple's nanny, uh Juliana Perez-Margleese. So when police arrive on the scene not long after the call is made, they find in the main bedroom Brendan applying pressure to Christine's neck, who is fading but still alive, the couple's nanny, Juliana, standing by the bedroom door, and a man laying against the bed frame. So he's kind of like slumped, but he's been shot twice and he's deceased. Heartbreakingly, also, the couple's four-year-old daughter was at home when this all took place. She wasn't visible to it, so I just want to make that very clear. She was down in the bottom of the house. Christine's underwear has been cut off and was found near the deceased man's head or body, and her shirt had also been ripped. The police quickly recognized that they could do nothing for the man who had been shot twice. He was declared dead on the scene. The ambulance was also called when the police came and they take Christine away. The police also take Brendan outside. There is actually a lot of body cam footage of this scenario. So of everything of the police coming into the house, them finding the bodies, them taking Brendan out, and even in the ambulances, they're starting to talk him through of what's happening. He's pretty forthcoming with the story of he he walked in, an intruder's there, he shot him, I'm trying to stop he was stabbing her. So it's it's quite frenzied. There, there's a lot of energy, there's a lot of happening stuff that's happening in there, but you can watch all the footage of him kind of like reiterating this story to um police. When they arrive at the pol at the hospital, Brendan is informed, unfortunately, due to her huge blood loss, Christine could not be saved and has died. Brenda doesn't say too much to the police at this time, other than that he does confirm that he did shoot the intruder. So he's very forthcoming with that. He doesn't deny any of that. He's like, yep, I walked in, this is what's happened. Meanwhile, the nanny, Juliana Perez-Marglies, is at the police station. So she's gone there with the police, um, along with the daughter as well. She's gone with them. So Juliana had been living as a nanny for the Bainfields for about a year at this point. She was from Brazil, and there's like an I think it's like an au pair kind of like network where you can bring people. Um, so they'd previously used this service and had previously had another another nanny through this service.

Benny 7:25

And she lives in the house with them full-time, does she?

Clare 7:27

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Benny 7:28

Okay.

Clare 7:28

Yeah. The police quickly try to establish an understanding of the family dynamic from her because they're like, oh, what's happened? Like, this man's here, like, t tell us what's going on, like, tell us about this family, tell us about who they are. So they ask her things like, Were they happy? Were their issues? What was Christine like? Um, she's very complimentary about the family, talks about how nice they are, how beautiful they are as a couple, that she loves working with them and living with them. Doesn't can indicate to anybody that there was any kind of red flags. The reason why they start to ask this is because the police, when they first arrive on the scene, they can't see any forced entry. So they're trying to establish of, well, did this person know the house? Did they know what was happening to kind of come into the house? Because they can't see any broken doors, windows, anything left unlocked. They kind of can't find anything that indicates that they've been forced in.

Carrie 8:22

And you're saying this is kind of a nice area, there's not a highlight. It's a very nice, so it's very uncasual. Yeah, but assume they'd probably have some kind of security and kind of a fancier area, like cameras maybe.

Clare 8:34

Um I don't I don't think that the house had any cameras, but that's a good assumption.

Benny 8:39

Because there's only a few years ago as well, 2000, so we would say 2023.

Carrie 8:43

Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah. I'm just thinking if you've got a live-in nanny, I mean Yeah, you have money. Uh yeah.

Benny 8:50

You think they've got a ring doorbell or something at least, or nanny cams within the house or something. Yeah.

Clare 8:55

Potentially, but that's not I haven't seen anything actually referencing that. So they may, but I haven't seen anything referencing that.

Carrie 9:02

Did the police ask her was she panicked? Did she hang up? Why did why were there two calls?

Clare 9:08

Good question. So she kind of she kind of dismisses it of I tried to call and I I it was it was all just happening so fast, is basically kind of what she indicates. But she's very forthcoming with the police and actually outlines the movements of what led up to this. Because remember, it's like it's like 8:30 in the morning when all of this is happening. It's also a Friday, so it's like a work day as well. So all of this is taking place well before most people have even left home or they're just starting to leave home. And so four-year-olds are getting up, they're not they're awake. Oh, yeah, absolutely. So she explains that Brendan left for work early that morning, so he was out of the house. And Juliana had agreed to take the daughter, and I've deliberately not used the daughter's name throughout this episode. Um, you can find some reports where her name is referenced, but a lot of them they don't. So I'm just gonna call her the daughter throughout this session.

Carrie 10:02

Yeah, I think that's nice. She doesn't need she doesn't need her name out there.

Clare 10:06

So Juliana had agreed to take the daughter to the zoo, and she left home just before 7.20, so around like 7.15. Um, she doesn't get too far before she realizes that she actually left the lunches that she'd made for her and the little girl at home. So she circles back and heads back to the house. But when she arrives to the house, she sees a car in the driveway that she doesn't recognise. As she's sitting there, she watches a man she doesn't know get out of the car with a backpack, walk up to the door and walk straight straight into the house. So the way she describes it is it to her, from the vantage points that she had, it didn't look like he was like fiddling with a lock or anything. It looked like he just opened the door and looked very familiar with the space, like as if he'd been there before. So she says she then called Christine, who, as far as she knows, is still at home. And Christine's not answering, the phone's not ringing, it's going straight to voicemail. So she panics and calls Brendan, who has not long left from from home. Like he's not that far away. He's actually at the local McDonald's getting some breakfast. So she calls him and she's like, uh, this has just happened. Like, what do I do? So then he tries to call Christine as well. Again, go straight to voicemail, no answer. So he calls Juliana and says, I'm just gonna come home just to check. So he pulls up back to the house, and Juliana and Brendan and the little girl all walk into the house together. The way Juliana describes it is that she starts hearing noises, or her and Brendan start hearing noises from upstairs. So they put the little girl in the basement and tell her basically, stay there, don't move until we come and get you. Then they both head upstairs, where she describes walking in on a naked Christine with a strange man shirtless on top of her with a knife in his hand. So Brendan, again, remember she's in the IRS, so he has a service weapon. So he so she says that he drew his service weapon on the man and started yelling for him to drop the knife. She says that then he started yelling back, drop the gun. And so they they're going back and forth of like drop the gun, drop the drop the knife, like back and forth. Um, and it's just kind of getting heated and louder and louder.

Benny 12:19

Who in the IRS has a service weapon?

Clare 12:22

I think well he did criminal investigations. So I I mean, I don't know. I mean it's white collar crime, right? And I would have thought it was like paper trail crime. So I'm not sure what you need a weapon for, but I guess I guess if you're a sworn-in officer, maybe you just get a weapon. So then he's like, I'm gonna kill her, and then this goes back and forth for a while, and then according to her, he just starts stabbing Christine. So at that point, she says that Brendan just shoots the man. He just shoots him in the head and the man falls to the side. Brendan then apparently yelled at her to go to the safe that was in the upstairs bedroom and get his other gun. So he has a private gun as well. He has a service gun and a private gun. Of course. Go and get the private gun so that he can start so he can try and save Christine, but she he can keep an eye on the man on the floor in case he does anything. So she tells the police that she saw him start moving, so she shot him again. So she openly admits. So both of them have openly admitted to shooting this man, this intruder that was in the house. This all seems very weird to me.

Benny 13:26

Summon's afoot.

Clare 13:28

So back at the crime scene, the police are a little bit confused. As I said, they're still they can't see any signs of forced entry or evidence of a struggle to get into the house. So obviously there's a struggle in the bedroom, but they can't quite pinpoint how did the bedroom how did that happen? Like, where did how did they get to that point? The man who they've now been able to identify is Joe Ryan, who has absolutely no connection to the Banefields and also no history of crime. So from what they can see, this man seemingly out of nowhere has just arrived at this house and uh uh undertaken this attack.

Carrie 14:07

It's just interesting to me because my first thought, and I don't know what this says about me, but was oh, Christine's having an affair, like this guy knows her. Like even the nanny's initial reaction to me is quite odd. Because my mind wouldn't immediately be if I saw someone, I mean, how well does she really know these people? And you know, could be a cousin, could be a relative coming to visit. Like I think the initial reaction's very strange. What do you guys think?

Benny 14:38

I was thinking affair as well, and and as I was thinking, okay, let's say the husband she calls the husband. I think that's weird anyway, but then they both arrive together, or that if she waits and they he arrives and they go in with the with the daughter, if potentially I mean, it just makes no sense to take her inside, in my opinion.

Carrie 14:56

And go go wait in the basement by yourself. Like, why wouldn't you beat the neighbour's house?

Benny 15:01

Uh yeah, leave her in the car if perhaps her mum is in there having an affair or something, or I don't know that it's a dangerous situation yet, but it sounds but a man has waited for them to leave to work into the zoo and then he's arrived. It sounds a little bit like it was a planned rendezvous to me.

Carrie 15:16

Well, if I'm the nanny, I'm not risking my life for your I mean, sorry, but like for your fam, I'd be like me and the daughter, we're gonna be at Jill's next door, we're gonna have some lemonade, let us know.

Clare 15:29

Yeah, we'll just sit in the car and we'll wait, or we'll call the police if you think there's something, yeah, there's a crazy issue or something.

Benny 15:35

Yeah, yeah.

Clare 15:36

Yeah, very unusual.

Benny 15:37

We'll be we'll be at the zoo. Let us know if there's any problems.

Clare 15:40

Yeah, we'll be yeah, we'll be at the zoo. I'll just buy lunch. Like, don't worry about the pack lunch, I'll just buy lunch.

Carrie 15:45

It's all very strange, and like, oh, there's just random back and forth, and then he just stabs her. Look, the math is not mathing.

Clare 15:52

The math is not mathing, I like that. So the police are also a little bit the math's not mathing. So agreed around the affair. Initially, they were like, okay, so maybe this is something that's gone wrong. They can't find that in intruder element. So they start to kind of like actually survey the scene. So when they start to look at the way Joe Ryan's body has fallen, it's kind of like he's got his arms in like almost like a vampire pose. Like his he's like the hands are like across, like crossed and sitting on top of his chest, which is a pretty odd pose to either fall in or as they described it, this kind of like tussle and that he was shot suddenly and he'd like fell to the side, and apparently like part of his body was kind of like under the bed frame, or like fallen under the bed frame, so then they had to kind of like pull him out from under the bed frame a little bit. Um, so so a little bit unusual. They also noticed that when they were looking at his hands, because they've like moved his hands to like check if there's any other weapons or anything like that, his hands don't have as much blood as they would expect for somebody wielding like a knife. So they're like, all of this is a little bit strange. But what they do find as well is that the two guns, so the service weapon and the personal weapon that they that Brendan and Juliana did describe, are both there sitting on the bed where they've they said that they left them. But what they do find a little bit unusual is where the knife ends up from where Joe's body was. So it kind of contradicts Juliana's account that she was at a risk. So basically, like the police are kind of like, well, she had no reason above all the things that have happened, she had no reason to shoot him that second time. Um, when they do the autopsy of Joe's body, they do find that that second shot was actually the one that killed him. So the police are a little bit like, well, this is a bit strange. Why would she shoot him if there wasn't an immediate risk? Also taking in account, though, there's a lot happening. If Christine's like, they think she's dying, they've walked in on this, it's a scary scenario. Maybe sometimes things just are rushed potentially.

Carrie 17:59

The second gun doesn't even make sense. If you think about it logically, so this guy's stabbing your wife, you have then shot him, right? And he's fallen. Why are you then getting the nanny? Wouldn't you get the nanny to do CPR and you just stay with the dude? Like, yeah, true. But why does she why do you need to swap over to the wife?

Clare 18:24

Or something to be like, here, take the gun, like, yeah, very strange. That's a good point.

Carrie 18:28

You don't need to go and get another gun. If she can leave the room, why isn't she leaving and calling for help? Why is she doing a little trot up the hallway to get another like this is not making sense?

Benny 18:40

Where was he shot? Sorry, do we know like the you mentioned the second one was the one that killed him?

Clare 18:43

The first shot was in the head, and the second shot was in the chest. Yeah, I don't know if it was like direct or like it hit him in the head.

Benny 18:50

A graze, yeah, okay.

Clare 18:51

But yeah, it was that second shot that again, I think the first shot probably would have eventually like he probably would have died from those wounds.

Speaker 4 18:58

Yeah.

Clare 18:59

But that second shot, yeah. Um I mentioned at the start that Juliana said that she saw the man walk in with a backpack, so the police could confirm that there was a backpack in the bedroom. When they opened up the up the bag, they found chains, clothing pins, electrical tape, more restraints, like clearly like all of this, like a murder kit or an abduction kit. Yeah, like things to kind of like restraints and things like that to hold somebody down or and chains to either again like hold somebody down or whip them or something. But there was quite a lot of stuff in this backpack.

Benny 19:36

Could still be like a BDSM kit.

Carrie 19:38

And did Christine have any of that on her? Because he's he's already been there for some like if if the nannies had time to call, have a look, call the husband, the husband's then had to drive home. Was Christine tied up in any way?

Clare 19:52

I'm glad that you said that, Carrie. Um when they examined Christine's body, they could confirm that she had been stabbed six times, but she also had cuts all cuts and bruises all over, like across her arms and her legs and markings from her wrists. So being either held down or tied down, they could identify that there was bruising there. When they also start to look through the house, though, they end up finding Christine's phone turned off and left in a kitchen drawer, which is pretty odd behaviour of because she's got a four-year-old, right? So, like, why would she have a tractor?

Benny 20:28

They're at the zoo, there could be an emergency.

Clare 20:30

Exactly. Yeah, yeah.

Benny 20:31

Or maybe there's a house phone, but that's true.

Clare 20:34

When they look at the lock on the front door as well, it was one of those smart locks that you can control via an app on your phone. And prior to Christine's phone being turned off, she had unlocked the door via that app and then turned her phone on.

Benny 20:51

She had or someone had?

Clare 20:53

Well, someone had. Her phone had been used to unlock the door. Let's put it that way. Yep. Yep, yep. So the police began to wonder, and you were both straight onto this around potentially, that um Joe and Christine actually had something planned together. That like, was this actually something that they had planned? And perhaps could he actually have been an invited guests? Guest. So at this point, the police begin to look through Joe's phone, and they find that they've been he had been chatting in an encrypted um chat service with an account called Anastasia 9 on a site called FETLife, a BDSM chat network. Now, here at Death and Taxes, we do not kink shame, we do not kink shame, whatever floats your boat, you do you. This network, FetLife, allows users to create profiles and communicate with other members of the BDSM community to talk about their kinks, arrange hookups, whatever floats your boat. So through FetLife, they started to look further into this Anastasia profile, and they realized that the profile picture, and it was like a body. Shot like the face wasn't in it, was actually a photo of Christine. So it was a like a bikini shot of Christine. In the profile, Anastasia Nine describes herself as a married woman who would cheat on her husband as he was too gentle and soft for her needs. So the police realized that Joe and Anastasia slash Christine had been communicating since January of this previous year. So the pair had shared a number of discussions about their kinks on FetLife. But then they moved from FetLife to like an encrypted like app. Like kind of like Messenger, I guess, but like an encrypted app.

Benny 22:41

Signal or telegram or something.

Clare 22:43

Yeah, where they would share more graphic details about their desires. So recently they had been talking about an sexual assault fantasy that Anastasia had wanted to bring to life with Joe. They discussed her pretending to be a sleeping woman and that Joe would come into the house pretending to be an intruder, tie her down, and mimic a violent sexual encounter. When the police go through these messages, it's very clear and very detailed of what was planned around the meeting to go ahead. So, um in these conversations with each other, again, like there's lots of detail that's kind of like in these messages, and they do go back and forth um throughout. The police were able to like identify that the Anastasia account was delivering messages through Christine's devices. So her phone, her laptop, um, and the again, the photo is of her. So in the messages, Anastasia tells Joe to come over to her house at 7.20 a.m. on Friday, as her husband wouldn't be there. She told him to leave his phone in the car and to let himself in as she would unlock the door and head upstairs to her bedroom where she would be pretending to be asleep and they could act out their fantasy. In these messages, it does say, no matter how much I kick scream, say no, ignore all of that, that's part of the fantasy. So they had a pretty clear detail. I think it's worth now just talking a little bit about Joe because so Joe, according to Family and Friends, this is like something like murder is not something on his radar. So he was somebody who had a number of responsibilities as well. He lived with his grandmother and was essentially like her carer. He also was somebody who um like raised and supported um abused dogs and animals and um was a very gentle person by nature. But as we said, we do not kink shame. Joe had enjoyed the BDSM community. Um, the police did speak to some of his several past encounters or partners through that he met through FetLife, and all of them agreed that he um he was very gentle, always asked consistently for consent. Um often in these kinds of communities, they do generally like meet in person before they act out any of these fantasies because it it can be so graphic in understanding, I guess, like what those safe words are and what that looks like. And so Joe in the past had done these things.

Carrie 25:22

So did they have a predetermined, like um obviously it's part of the fantasy to you know, the screaming, the saying no, and all of that, but did they actually have a pre-planned actually if I do want it to stop, this is what I'm gonna do? Because it sounds like we've had that previously.

Clare 25:41

Yeah, so Joe did request a phone call because they were basically like, no, we won't, like, let's not meet up, let's just get it, let's just jump straight into it. And he was like, I'd feel more comfortable having at least a phone call. So they did speak on the phone. So if that was arranged, that must have happened on that phone call because in the messages the police found, it wasn't like explicit what the safe word was or whatever that act to your point, Carrie, what's that what's that thing that kind of like said it out or whatever? So while Joe was somebody who was who was not not like to all of his family and friends outwardly about the BDSM community, but it was something that he had engaged with before. From Christine's perspective, this was completely out of pocket from her family and friends' perspective. Not only did they disagree that she would be involved in some of this stuff, I mentioned at the start she was a sexual assault nurse. So, like, even just to have that fantasy, it's a pretty odd again, like her family and friends are like, it just doesn't make sense based on what she's seen and what she's dealt with. Um, but also said that even just cheating on her husband was not something that aligned with her values as a person. This is just so left of pocket, and they were like, we just can't can't reconcile that. It doesn't really make sense to us that that that would happen.

Carrie 27:03

Um I feel like people often have an inner life though that you're not gonna be able to do that. This is true, yeah.

Benny 27:09

Yeah, friends and family probably aren't gonna know about your personal sexual interests, like they might think it's not not her character, but we often have very personal sex lives that they of course they wouldn't know about those things.

Clare 27:20

Yeah, yeah, that's true.

Benny 27:21

And we've also talked on this podcast before about the fact that uh what we explore in sex lives can contrast to who we are and what we are in real life. So, yeah, she may be a sexual assault counsellor in real life, but we explore things that uh that are uh uh opposite to what we are in real, you know, so it that doesn't necessarily mean that she would be against any kind of like fetish or BDSM either.

Clare 27:40

Very true, very true.

Carrie 27:41

When they were searching her devices, so I know you said they they definitely linked that these these messages are coming from her devices. Um was there any evidence that her husband was aware that these things were going on? Like maybe they had an open relationship, maybe he knew about this, or cause He's a cuckold, maybe.

Clare 28:03

Yeah, or you know, because right now it's sounding like a misunderstanding of, you know, he's come home, seen this, assumed something incorrectly, and maybe it's an interesting question you raise because when the police start to, I guess, like delve a little bit further and try and understand, I guess, like also the pattern of communications and things like that. One of the things that they do notice is that the communications between Joe and Christine uh on these apps only occurs when Brendan is at home, never when he's not there, which is pretty unusual, right? Like very unusual behavior for somebody maybe having an affair. You would wait till your partner is out of the house to have these potentially very private conversations, but also life life-altering if they get caught, type of conversations. So as things are progressing through the investigation, the police are starting to piece more and more things together, and they're like, some things just don't seem to quite add up. As I said, like there's some unusual patterns that are happening as part of this maybe tryst that was happening with Joe and Christine. It was out of ordinary. They started to look at when this profile was created, and it was a pretty recent creation. She had never communicated on any of these sites before. Her devices had not visited any of these sites before. So then they start to backtrack. Well, what about the profile photo? Where did this photo come from? It turns out that the photo was a selfie that she had sent to her husband Brendan. So not long after Christine's death, Brendan and his daughter and his mother and nanny, Juliana, moved back into the house that Christine was murdered in. Which is, again, pretty unusual, right? So the police.

Carrie 29:51

Why would you even keep that job if you were that nanny?

Clare 29:54

Why would you?

Carrie 29:56

Well, exactly.

Clare 29:57

The police start to take note of maybe there's the relationship between Brendan and Juliana.

Carrie 30:03

How about that?

Clare 30:04

How about that? So they start to kind of piece together of what's their movements been like. So they start to realize that through the year prior to Christine's death, they'd taken multiple trips together. They'd spent a lot of time together. Again, if you've got a daughter and you've got a live-in nanny, not totally out of the ordinary to do that type of thing.

Benny 30:24

Is the daughter on these trips? Like, is like Brendan taking his daughter on these trips and then nanny's coming to look after her, or is it Oh, okay. Audience Claire's shaking your head, no.

Clare 30:34

I am suspiciously shaking my head. So I'd love to ask you all what does Brendan have in common with Ethan Hawke, Jude Law, and Gavin Rosdale? That's right. The live-in nanny. Turns out that Christine and Brendan's relationship was not perfect. He was in fact a notorious cheater. He had been unfaithful a number of times in their marriage to Christine. And as police begin to dig, they realise that Brendan and Juliana are spending a lot of time together. So they've gone on trips. Brendan taught Juliana how to hold a gun at the gun range. Then on her phone, there's many photos.

Benny 31:17

How on earth do you do these trips without his wife finding out that?

Clare 31:21

Well, see, she knew, I mean, she's living with them, right? And Brendan's like, oh, we have to teach her how to hold a gun to for safety.

Benny 31:29

We Yeah, that m that may be, but trips away together. How on earth do you how do you hide that from her? Or do they just say that they're off doing separate things, like she's visiting family?

Clare 31:39

Yeah, they're like separate things. She's a nurse, so you know, like I I also I can't account for every trip not having the daughter. The daughter, I'm sure I'm assuming that she was used as an excuse for some of these trips.

Carrie 31:51

But this just means they've they've roped this poor Joe guy. This innocent, lovely, amazing man.

Benny 31:59

Looks after dogs, that's what I'm thinking. I just Oh, Joe.

Clare 32:04

So when the police dig around, they confirm that Juliana and Brennan had actually been seeing each other since 2022. So at least a year. The police also then begin to wonder: is there more to this story? Could Anastasia 9 actually not be Christine, but in fact be a catfish? So Juliana, I said at the start, was Brazilian. So the police decide to have a little bit of a dig again. They're watching their movements, they're seeing what they're doing, and they notice that she's applied for a fresh passport. They note that Brendan started taking Portuguese lessons, which is convenient, and the police go, she might be a flight risk here, and neither of them are talking. They're sticking to this story that this intruder was there, this is what happened. Makes no sense. Makes no sense.

Benny 32:55

Have they admitted to the affair? Like, I mean, obviously they've kind of found some evidence of a story.

Clare 32:59

Oh, they haven't, well, I mean, they're clearly together now, but they haven't necessarily like admitted. The police have found evidence, but they haven't necessarily admitted that they're together to the police, if that makes sense. But clam chowder, clamped right up. Yeah.

Benny 33:15

I have a feeling when Joe insisted on speaking to someone on the phone, I'm worried that that person might have had a Portuguese accent.

Carrie 33:21

I think we know it did. She did indeed. And that's why they wouldn't meet in person.

Clare 33:27

Mm-hmm. Yeah, you're right, guys.

Carrie 33:30

I hate this so much.

Clare 33:31

I know, I know. So, but the police start to think, okay, so Julianne, Juliana, we've got to try and figure out how we we crack these two. Like, we don't necessarily have enough to go on yet, but we know something's going on. We know we can't prove it, but we know something's going on. So they go back to the police, like the initial crime scene where Juliana admitted that she shot Joe the second time. And the autopsy confirming that that second shot was the shot that killed Joe. So the police arrest her for second-degree murder of Joe. So they're thinking we're gonna smoke her out, essentially. We're gonna arrest her and she's gonna crack and she's gonna tell us everything. But what they didn't account for is that Brendan's mother starts paying for Juliana's lawyer. She is bankrolling this woman's defense.

Carrie 34:25

What is it with these mothers? Like, I always think that about um, you know, Shannon Watts? Yes, his name and his mother.

Clare 34:35

Insane. Insane. You barely know this woman. Mm-hmm. Exactly. So, so they're like communicating in jail. They've got all these like letters and phone calls between her and Brendan, and she's not saying a word. She's like, Yeah, I told you guys that like I shot him, but like I didn't do anything wrong. Like, this is what happened, it's self-defense, blah, blah, blah. So the police do a search warrant on the house. So remember, this is a house that Christine died in. And when they walk in, they're like, she has been erased from this house. There's not a single photo, there's no clothes, nothing. And again, like it further confirms to them that like there's a pretty long-term relationship happening between him and uh Brendan and Juliana. The poor daughter, imagine that. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So the police are like, well, she didn't do this on her own. He he is lying, something's lying. So they actually then go back to the crime scene and they start to go through all the evidence again. So remember when I mentioned that the way that Joe's hands were sitting, so they go back and they start to kind of like again relook at all of the components of the way that he was found. And when they look at the how his body was found and they and they look at his hands, not a lot of blood on the hands, and also even in between the fingers and stuff. So if you think about like if he's stabbing somebody with a knife, there would be blood through the hands. Like there was a lot of blood in the boom. There could be bruising, that's exactly right.

Benny 36:06

It's frenzied, like there's gonna be a lot of blood splattering. Exactly, yeah.

Clare 36:10

But when they look at Joe's clothes, they also note that the blood that's on Joe's shirt is like drops of blood, like as if somebody's standing over you and blood is being dropped on you, rather than what's been described that he's like frenzy, like to your point, Blaine, about the blood blood splatter. Where's the splatter on his clothes? And you would expect spray marks, you would expect the the angle of blood, everything, and there's none of that there.

Benny 36:36

Especially stabbed in the neck, that is just a spurt that is gonna be splashed in it.

Carrie 36:41

The more I think about this, the more angry I'm getting. Think about poor Joe, they've done this to him, but not only have they done this, they just put the daughter in the basement to do this. Yeah, yeah, insane. They just put this little girl, she's a baby in the basement to do this. Who would have heard things, who would have I oh we don't know if she's innocent, Carrie.

Benny 37:07

Let's reserve judgment on the daughter. We don't know if she's the mastermind.

Clare 37:13

She's Anastasia.

Benny 37:15

She's a long lost Anastasia.

Carrie 37:18

And that's a throwback to our episode on Anastasia from Ben's aunt Bebe. Ben put in episode number here. 43.

Clare 37:25

Insert episode number here. It's it's a great app. Great episode. So when the police, so they've looked at Joe's clothes and they go, let's look at Brendan's outfit. Let's go back and look at his outfit. And you can see photos of all of this online as well. There's so much information. There's so much body camera footage and um photos that you can research online as well. But when they look at his clothes, surprise, surprise, splatter marks everywhere, all over his pants in particular. Blood splatter everywhere.

Carrie 37:57

So he's basically a Jason Pollock. Yes. Yes. It's Jason Pollock. No, it is Jason Pollock.

Benny 38:06

Jackson Pollock.

Carrie 38:07

There we go. Who was it?

Benny 38:09

Jackson Pollock.

Carrie 38:10

I don't even know if that's a splatter artist. It's just what I was thinking.

Benny 38:13

The blue poles. He does the sp he does a splatter.

Clare 38:15

Yes, exactly. Yes. So then they can using this analysis, using the extra information that they now know that there's been an affair and there's stuff going on. In September of 2024, police finally decide to make their move and they arrest Brendan on multiple murder charges, but also aggravated child abuse because the daughter was in the room. Yes. Sorry, in the house when the crime justice for the daughter. Yeah, yeah. So let's head back to Juliana. So this is like a year. She's been in jail for like a year at this point, or like just under a year. But she's been waiting her time. She's been waiting for a trial. She's been sitting there. She's got love of her life, sending her messages, mother's bankrolling her defense, like she's she's okay. But then Brendan gets arrested and communication stops. And perhaps maybe feeling a little bit like a woman's scorn. She's like, what's going on here? Why am I not hearing more from him? Like, she's also getting discovery files, and the police have outlined like his cheating ways. And she's like, Well, hang on a minute, I'm supposed to be like number one. Like, what's this?

Carrie 39:21

Like, I I like the true love, and yet he's had all these other would have ever thought he would cheat on me.

Benny 39:28

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Clare 39:30

Yeah. And like, so there's all these like letters that she was writing home to Brazil and like to and phone calls with her family where she's talking about like things aren't fair. She also talks about um that she deserves more because like Netflix have allegedly approached her about doing an episode, but they only want to give her 10 grand, but she deserves more than that for what she's been through. Like, so she's cracking. She's cracking under the maybe he's not gonna like now he's been arrested. What's next kind of thing? So the police decide to jump on this, they make a deal with her. She agrees to plead guilty to involuntary manslaughter and to testify against Brendan in exchange for time served. Less than a year. I'm so I'm sorry, guys. I think that's such an insane deal to offer somebody. Um, they had enough evidence against her, even just for the murder charge of Joe. Like what an absolute They should have just gone for them both. Yeah, yeah.

Benny 40:29

Will she still serve time for the manslaughter charge?

Clare 40:32

No, that's for the manslaughter charge. That's for that's it. A year. A year. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So on October 25th, 2024, Juliana now finally provides the police with a detailed story that fills in all the gaps for the police. And again, noting this is her account of all of this. So Juliana confirms that Brendan and her had been having an affair since August of 2022. She shared that later that year, Brendan expressed to her that he wanted to get rid of Christine and that he basically outlined her his plan to kill her, and that they would both agree to make the fake count on FetLife. She said that they both communicated as Anastasia with Joe and arranged the meetup. Juliana also confirmed that Joe wanted a phone call to confirm before they had the meetup, and it was indeed her. But she talks to him, communicates with him, confirms all the details about what the what the plan was going to be, essentially. Police were able to confirm that in January of 2023, Brendan had bought that second gun, so that private gun. And Juliana shared that basically they'd been using that to train her to hold and shoot a weapon. So she'd never held a gun prior to this. And Brendan was basically like, I'll teach you how to do it so that you can like be my backup and you can shoot the in the scene as well.

Benny 42:01

It sounds like they've made a deal. Like we both have to shoot her. We need to kind of equal. It can't just be one of us, it needs to be like equal responsibility. I think they've kind of both agreed that they'll shoot him at least once.

Clare 42:09

Yeah. So she confirmed Juliana confirmed that on the morning of the murders, Brendan had messaged Joe from Christine's device, unlocked the door, turned her phone off, and put it in the drawer. Christine didn't have to work that day, and Brendan had told her to have a sleep in of like, you know, like the nanny's taking the daughter, just have a sleep in, relax, treat yourself, stay. I know, isn't it? It's disgusting. Brendan and Juliana then both left the house and waited for the timing for Joe to arrive. So they l so literally they waited for Joe to be inside the house, watched him walk up and wait till he was in the bedroom, and then they confronted them.

Benny 42:48

What time do they leave again? Like quarter past seven?

Clare 42:50

I was like tw uh yeah, like quarter past seven. So they told him to be there about twenty.

Benny 42:54

Like as if if it is her organizing a secret tryst, as if she's gonna tell him to come 15 minutes later. You're gonna say like a good hour minimum. Like you're not gonna leave the window that close and think like, oh, what if my husband's delayed? What if the kid's not out the door? As if she's organized it to be that close, yeah. Yeah.

Carrie 43:11

And meanwhile, you've told this little girl that you're taking her to the zoo and you you just sit there watching her house so you can do this to her.

Clare 43:19

Yeah, it's insane. It's insane.

Carrie 43:21

And just she's just sitting there with you.

Clare 43:23

Yeah, yeah.

Carrie 43:25

I'm furious.

Benny 43:26

Can I also say though, like, I mean, they they're basically giving her this incredible deal, manslaughter, but time served, you're gonna be free, you just have to tell like who wouldn't who wouldn't testify? I mean, I would make up stuff to testify against the husband for for that deal to think like I'm no risk on me, I'm out of jail, I'm getting out, no expenses, like I sort of feel like that's a little too good. Like anyone would take that deal, and anyone would make up a story that would fit that.

Clare 43:51

Yeah, that's I don't know.

Benny 43:52

I don't know how I feel about that.

Clare 43:54

So she confirms that when they got up to the bedroom, that Brendan then shot Joe, then Jumped on top of Christine and stabbed her repeatedly. Juliana says that when Joe moved, that's when she shot him. So she still stands by, she still admits willingly that she did shoot Joe and that but Brendan shot him first.

Benny 44:14

And did Joe even have a knife? Was that part of the intruder thing, or did they plant the knife to the channel? Oh, so he did bring one. Okay, that was part of the fantasy.

Clare 44:20

Yeah, because Joe Joe was into knife play. I guess like that was his like main BDSM kink. Um, and so they'd incorporated the knife into the fantasy. Apologies, I didn't say that earlier. Yeah.

Carrie 44:34

To go back to your point that you're making, Ben, not only is this like she's gonna get out scot-free times her, she now thinks he's moved on with someone else. So she's got motive to kind of paint him in the in the worst light possible.

Clare 44:48

Oh, sorry. No, the cheating wasn't that he was seeing somebody else now, it was like the history of cheating. Sorry. I think she thought that she was like special.

Carrie 44:57

But like sh she's not getting contact. Yeah, she's not getting contact from him now. She doesn't know what he's doing. Yeah, that's true. That's true.

Benny 45:04

I feel like the I feel like his defence could eagle easily argue that she is making up a story, like that she's been given this incredible deal, that she's yeah, a woman scorned. I think she's telling the truth, but I just feel like it's a little bit precarious defence to think that like she's being offered all these incredible things and getting off scot-free to tell a story about him.

Carrie 45:22

Why couldn't he just get divorced? I don't understand. It's okay to divorce people.

Speaker 4 45:30

My God.

Benny 45:30

Are they wealthy? Do they do we know much about their finances and kind of what was at risk if he if there was a divorce between them?

Clare 45:38

I don't think the money uh money was definitely, I don't think, the motive. I think he just wanted her to be a gun, I guess. I don't know. Didn't have the guts to leave like a normal. So in January of 2026, Brendan's murder trial begins with him entering a not guilty plea to all charges. The trial lasted three weeks, and the jury listened to 34 witnesses. And honestly, they were all pretty damning for the defense's case. Um they had witnesses confirming his many affairs, forensic specialists who outlined the digital footprint for Anastasia's profile, but also like the blood splatter, the positioning of like the knife and all the information that was there. But most damning, of course, was when Juliana took the stand. So she outlined her story, acknowledging her role, and confirmed some more of the of the details for the jury. So including this is a direct quote, he got on top of her, and that's when I saw him stab her with a knife, she said on the stand. The prosecutor asked her to clarify where in the body was he stabbing her. He was stabbing her in the neck. So you can watch her full testimony on court TV. Uh shout out to their Instagram page because there's great little clips on there. You can find them on TikTok as well, but also on YouTube. Um then in an unexpected move, Brendan took the stand in his own defence. And look, members of the pod and our community, number one, never take a stand in your own defense. It's never gonna be a good plan. This is not a good idea. Not a good idea.

Benny 47:18

I feel like I'd be good at it. I feel like I'd do a good job.

Clare 47:21

But that's why you'd be bad at it. That's exactly why you'd be bad at it.

Benny 47:26

Because when you watch this man, can afford to not represent themselves.

Clare 47:30

Because when you watch him on the stand, so he venomously denies killing Christine and he sticks and stands by his original story, and he's so unlikable. He's just you're watching it in real time crumble before your eyes of going, why did this man take the stand?

Carrie 47:47

How is he having all these affairs when this is his personality?

Clare 47:50

Oh my gosh, I have to send you guys this clip. Sorry, you can put this in one, but I have to show you this clip because he talks about they ask, like, how did the because he acknowledges that the affair with Juliana did start, and then they ask him, like, well, what led to the affair or whatever? And he's like, Well, like, she was showing me her hinge account, and like she was only following people with like Brendan, Brandon, Braden, and like she just couldn't stay away from me. And he's like, genuinely like trying to like suppress a smirk, like he's just so foul. He's so foul.

Speaker 4 48:21

Juliana showed me um quite a few screenshots of her of her dating app. I believe it was Hinge. And the people that were in the people that were in the Hinge app all had similar names to me. Their names were Brendan and Brandon and Brennan. Um, and these were people that she had matched with uh on the app. And so um and how did it progress from there? Um she was making quite a few jokes about about it uh when she was talking about different people, she was described, people that she was interested in, people that were taller, people that were older, and it appeared to me that she was along with the photos that the screenshots that she had shown me of people that she had matched with, that she was basically describing me.

Carrie 49:36

So he's still he's still really turned on by it. He's still really getting that ego boost from her attention.

Clare 49:43

Yeah. So he does share that Christine did know about some of his previous affairs, but she did not know about Juliana. So he acknowledges that he hadn't. But he also kind of includes to downplay the affair, I guess, of like, well, it wasn't like that serious or whatever. But then they were like, Oh, but now you're together. And he's like, Yeah, well, like my wife's dead now. So like they're like, he doesn't say it like that, but that's basically the gist of what he's getting at. So the jury took only nine hours to return a verdict of guilty for all charges against Brendan. And just last month, at the end of June, this literally happened, like uh, I think like actually almost like exactly a month ago, Brendan Bainfield was sentenced to consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. In considering her sentence, the judge stated, the disregard for the life of your wife, someone you supposedly loved, is almost unfathomable. Additionally, luring a completely innocent man into your death trap can and continuing on after the murders without a care and not once, not once thinking about the impact that had on those in your life, including that of your daughters.

Carrie 50:54

Nine hours? What were they hanging out for? Did they want the free lunch? Why why is it taking so long?

Clare 51:00

I thought it was pretty quick, but yeah, two minutes. Guilty, guilty of sin. You're right. Guilty as sin. The judge also disapproved of the prosecutor's plea deal with Juliana, rejecting the time-served exchange. She's like, no, this is not happening, and sentenced her to ten years in jail with no possibility of parole.

Benny 51:19

So just allowed to do that, even though they promised it. Well, how can I do it?

Carrie 51:23

I'm glad because that was outrageous. I agree. I agree.

Benny 51:27

It's probably in their wording, it's like, we'll ask for this for you. It's probably not like a guaranteed, it's probably because otherwise I feel like they can't promise her things and take it away. It's probably more like a we'll be lenient and we'll push for this kind of child for you. But I'm glad the judge overruled it.

Clare 51:41

Yeah, I agree. During the sentencing hearing, Joe's mother shared to the court that her son was an extremely caring person. I mentioned earlier that he was a caretaker for his grandmother and other loved ones. Joe was a guy who believed in fighting for the underdog, actually, even neglected dogs. And speaking for Christine, her sister shared, when she was born, I became we. I haven't stopped saying we when I speak about my childhood after her death. Except now when I do, it takes my breath away. A pause filled with love that has nowhere to go. Isn't that so beautiful? Heartbreaking. Heartbreaking. While the sentencing and legal justice has been served for Christine and Joe, it doesn't erase the pain caused to their families, the impacts that will last lot last lifetimes. We hope that Christine's daughter can find peace and live a beautiful life, and Joe's family continue to remember him as the loving, generous person he was, who sadly was in the wrong place. And that's our crime for today, everybody.

Benny 52:44

Wow.

Clare 52:45

Not much to say, really. Like it's yeah, like it's it's it's like we said, just get divorced.

Benny 52:51

It's hard to believe that he was so scared of losing custody or something, because I mean he he just put the daughter in the basement while this murder was going on. It's it doesn't sound like he really cares about the door. Like, do you know what I mean? Like it's not that that concerned about her and her welfare, and it's not like he wants to I can't leave my wife because then I'll have to share custody and I want full custody.

Carrie 53:10

And it's not true true love with the nanny. You've had multiple affairs, like you're just not happy, dude. Just go on date. You can.

Benny 53:17

I don't think he had feelings for the nanny at all. I think he used her for this plot.

Clare 53:21

Especially because, like, um uh like what I r I find really frustrating about cases like this as well is like he's n he's never gonna acknowledge guilt, even though he's been sentenced to all of this, like he's never gonna acknowledge that he did it. So, like actually understanding of like, but why did you do this? Like, what what did you get out of this? Like, what was the point? Like, just leave this poor lady alone, like let her build a new life. It's just yeah, it's heartbreaking. What a wait, senseless waste.

Carrie 53:52

But even thinking of the daughter, even if you hate this woman, that's that's the mother of your child. Yeah. What you've done to your own child now.

Clare 54:01

Yeah.

Carrie 54:02

Just get divorced.

Clare 54:04

Just get divorced. That can be a hashtag for our podcast. Just get divorced.

Benny 54:09

Good new merch line, people. Just get divorced t-shirts. You can get a cap with um, I bet you it was a Dell written on it.

Carrie 54:16

You know, yes. Classic lines. Please see one of the things. I don't think I'm ever gonna live down Jason Pollock. That's gonna haunt me now.

Speaker 4 54:27

Jason Pollock.

Clare 54:28

It still feels almost right, like it's so close that it feels almost right.

Carrie 54:33

Uncultured, maybe, but what can we do? We're trying our best out here.

Clare 54:38

And that's us for another another episode.

Speaker 4 54:41

Thanks.

Clare 54:41

Thanks for listening.

Benny 54:42

Good one. Hope you enjoy what's your what are your friends' name on the drive again? Hope you enjoy that, girls.

Clare 54:46

Kathy and Katie. Kathy and Katie. Big shout out, ladies. Can't wait to hear what you think. Oh no, yes. Sorry. Ignore that then. Yes. I'm glad that you said that, Carrie.