MURDERED: Christine Banfield & Joseph Ryan

**Brit Prawat** (0:00)
Hi, Crime Junkies, it's Brit. If you're like me and you're ready to dive into even more cases, there's another podcast I think you're going to love, Park Predators.
In Park Predators, host Delia D'Ambra dives into the haunting crimes that happen in some of the most beautiful and unexpected places across the globe. Delia has helped host a couple of episodes of Crime Junkie in the past, and if you've listened to her before, you already know her investigative approach brings the facts of each case and their chilling details to life, making Park Predators the perfect mix of captivating and informative storytelling. So once you're done with this episode of Crime Junkie, go check out Park Predators. New episodes drop every week. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.
February 24, 20203, 74732

**SPEAKER_2** (0:53)
Fairfax County 911, where's your emergency?

**SPEAKER_3** (0:57)
Hello, Fairfax County 911

**Ashley Flowers** (1:00)
That few seconds of 911 call that came into Fairfax County might not sound like a lot. I mean, the caller hung up right where it cut off after that groan. So it tells a first-time listener almost nothing. But that call would turn out to be everything. Prosecutors say those few seconds are among the strongest pieces of evidence that a man named Joseph Ryan was murdered. And if that's true, then he was lured there and executed as part of the same plan that got Christine Banfield killed. You can be the judge, but the legal systems already made up its mind and two people are now serving time related to one of the sickest, most twisted, premeditated plots I've ever heard of. A real reminder of Crime Junkie Life Rule Number 1
You never really know anyone ever.
I'm Ashley Flowers.

**Brit Prawat** (1:58)
And I'm Brit.

**Ashley Flowers** (1:59)
Let's dive into the case, Crime Junkies.
After that odd 911 call came in, the dispatcher in Fairfax County, Virginia, tries calling the number back, but no one answers. And because it came from a cell phone, they can't pinpoint where to send police. So they're kind of just stuck, until 15 minutes later, when the same phone number calls back. And this time, a frantic young woman is on the line.

**SPEAKER_2** (3:00)
I need, I need help. My friend, he just wasn't sat in the mic now. He's bleeding a lot. I don't know what to do anymore.

**SPEAKER_3** (3:10)
Okay.

**SPEAKER_2** (3:10)
Where are you located? What's your address?
Take a deep breath for me.

**SPEAKER_3** (3:20)
Just let me know your address. Okay, one, three.

**SPEAKER_2** (3:38)
Um, um, I just, Take a deep breath for me.

**SPEAKER_3** (3:41)
You're on Stable Brookway?

**SPEAKER_2** (3:44)
Are you on Stable Brookway? What's your house number?
Is there somebody else there that can give you the address? Okay, and what's your name, and what's going on?

**SPEAKER_3** (4:16)
My name is Brendan Banfield. I'm a federal agent, this is my house. There's somebody here.
I shot him, he stabbed her. She's bleeding, she got several marks on her neck.

**SPEAKER_6** (4:35)
What do I do?

**SPEAKER_2** (4:36)
Okay, so what I need you to do is apply direct pressure directly to where she's bleeding from, okay? And if it becomes so, just add more clock to what's already there.

**SPEAKER_6** (4:45)
How old is the person?

**SPEAKER_3** (4:48)
I don't know.

**SPEAKER_2** (4:49)
The person that's bleeding?

**SPEAKER_3** (4:52)
I was 37

**SPEAKER_2** (4:53)
Okay. Okay, so the person that you shot, where is he?

**SPEAKER_3** (5:05)
I don't know, I don't know him.

**SPEAKER_2** (5:07)
Okay, where is he, though?

**SPEAKER_6** (5:09)
He's here, he's on the ground.

**SPEAKER_2** (5:15)
Okay.

**SPEAKER_3** (5:18)
Okay, and the person that he stabbed, where are they now? Are they still not in the house?

**SPEAKER_2** (5:23)
I have a few comments to you.

**SPEAKER_3** (5:25)
Please take my life.

**Ashley Flowers** (5:27)
EMS and Fairfax County Police head to the Banfield's home, a large brick front colonial tucked into a quiet cul-de-sac in the DC suburb of Herndon. They're let in and led upstairs by the family's au pair. She is who called 911, and she directs them to the main bedroom where they see the bed is stripped with bloody linens on the floor. Two guns are on the bare mattress and Brendan is kneeling on a towel beside the bed next to his naked wife, 37-year-old Christine Banfield. And he's using his bare hands to stop the bleeding that's coming from stab wounds in her neck.
And lying atop a dog bed against the bed frame, the officers see the stranger that Brendan said he shot. Under the dog bed by his head, they find Christine's underwear ripped at the crotch. And nearby is what's believed to be one of her shirts with a jagged cut down the back.