Nanny Who Testified in Ex-Lover’s Murder Trial Posted Bathtub Selfies with Him on Instagram By Christine Pelisek

The Brazilian au pair who testified at her former employer and ex-lover’s ongoing murder trial in Virginia posted multiple photos of the pair on Instagram — including a selfie of them in a bathtub.

The social media posts, which also included a photo of au pair Juliana Peres Magalhaes at a firing range with a caption in Portuguese that read, “The handsome guy takes really good pictures HAHAHA,” were part of the evidence prosecutors showed jurors during Brendan Banfield’s aggravated murder trial, the Washington Post reported.

The former IRS agent is accused of killing his wife Christine, a pediatric intensive care nurse, as well as a 39-year-old stranger named Joseph Ryan, who was allegedly lured to the couple’s Virginia home on Feb. 23, 2023, for a fake BDSM encounter.

Last week, Peres Magalhaes, who previously pleaded guilty to manslaughter in connection with Ryan’s death, testified that Brendan started planning the murderous scheme after the two started having an affair around October 2022.

The woman, who moved in with the couple and their 4-year-old daughter months earlier, told the jury that Brendan allegedly said “divorce was not an option” because “money was involved” and he did not want to share custody of his daughter with Christine, NBC4 reported.

According to prosecutors, Brendan allegedly created a profile on Fetlife.com — a bondage website — posing as Christine. Prosecutors claim he started communicating with Ryan and allegedly began discussing 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.”

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The alleged plot — in order to make it look like a home invasion — included giving Peres Magalhaes a gun and having her call Christine’s phone when Ryan entered the home on Feb. 23, before then calling Brendan’s phone afterwards.

Brendan, who was waiting at a nearby McDonald’s, allegedly received the au pair’s call, drove home and then shot Ryan in the head. He then stabbed his wife in an attempt to frame Ryan in her death, prosecutors alleged.

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

During the trial, prosecutors also showed a photo of Brendan’s hand on Peres Magalhaes’ upper thigh and a video of the couple in a car singing “A Thousand Miles,” the Washington Post reported.

Peres Magalhaes was initially charged with second-degree murder and use of a firearm in commission of a felony in the death of Ryan, but she later pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter in October 2024.

Defense attorney John Carroll argued that Peres Magalhaes changed her story after she received a deal with prosecutors that included being released without further jail time and deported after the trial as long as she cooperated, according to the Post.

“The whole reason she was arrested was to flip her against my client,” Carroll said, per the newspaper. “There’s a vulnerable person who is open to prey for what they need. And I would respectfully suggest that Juliana Peres Magalhães is the linchpin in all of this.”

Brendan Banfield has pleaded not guilty.