The Other McCain

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Death by Online Misadventure

Posted on | October 7, 2024 | No Comments

Say hello to Joseph Nathan Ryan, “a Springfield, Va., resident who lived with his grandmother and a small dog,” according to the Washington Post, until one day in February 2023, when he was shot to death as “part of an elaborate ruse that lured a man interested in sexual fetishes” to the home of a married couple “in a well-to-do suburb of the nation’s capital.”

My brother Kirby told me about this story, and after doing some research, I remarked to him what I’ve often said before: “There’s a reason why some things are called ‘fantasies,’ because if you try to do them in real life, bad things happen.” Certainly, Joseph Ryan would agree, were he still alive to discuss the subject. What brought Ryan to the home in Herndon on the day of his death was a website called “FetLife,” catering to the devotees of bizarre sexual fetishes, where Ryan’s account handle was “tacosupreme7000.” He had been communicating with an account with the handle “Annastasia9.” The photo associated with the “Annastasia9” account was of a 37-year-old woman.

Christine Banfield was a pediatric ICU nurse, the mother of a 4-year-old, but according to prosecutors, she was not involved in the kinky BDSM practices that “Annastasia9” had been discussing on FetLife with Joseph Ryan. In fact, it is alleged, she apparently had no idea that her photo was being used on this site, because “the elaborate ruse” was apparently a setup hatched by her husband, Brendan Banfield, and the couple’s 22-year-old Brazilian au pair, Juliana Peres Magalhães.

Brendan Banfield (left), Juliana Magalhães (right)

It took investigators a long time to get enough evidence to bring charges, first against Magalhães, in April, and then last month against Brendan Banfield. Both are charged with the death of Ryan, but so far not with the death of Christine Banfield who, it seems, was stabbed by Ryan, who apparently came to the Banfield home with the idea that “Annastasia9” wanted to be tortured with a knife. Sounds crazy, right? The Washington Post calls it “a case that has become an internet sensation, prompting an episode on ‘Crime Stories With Nancy Grace,’ a social following on TikTok and fervid coverage in Brazilian media outlets.”

Frankly, it’s got enough dramatic twists and turns it could be a Netflix series, and here’s just a little ironic plot twist:

In a Facebook post that included a link to her online petition protesting the COVID-era suspension of foreign travel visas, Christine Banfield wrote: “Our au pair has become a part of our family and we share our love of America with her and she shares her Brazilian culture with us.”

Yeah, there was lots of cultural sharing between Christine’s husband and their au pair, which affair prosecutors allege was the motive for the “elaborate ruse” that got both Christine and Joseph Ryan killed. As I understand it, the prosecution’s theory is that Brendan Banfield and Magalhães had been sexually involved for some months prior to that deadly day in February 2023. Banfield set up this FetLife account “Annastasia9,” which lured Ryan to the Banfield home with the idea of acting out somekind of fantasy involving sex at knifepoint. So then Brendan Banfield and Magalhães claim to have discovered this knife-wielding “intruder” in the Banfield home, fatally stabbing Christine. Ryan is then shot to death, supposedly in self-defense, thereby eliminating the only witness who can explain what’s happening. If they got away with it, Brendan Banfield and Magalhães would then carry on their romance, but despite the deviousness of this scheme, somehow prosecutors were able to figure it out, and so a trial is now scheduled for November.

Among the many possible lessons that might be learned from this bizarre case, arguably the most crucial is this: You have no idea who is really behind that sexy-looking online profile you might encounter in your Internet browsing. It is very easy to create fake personas on the Internet — or so I have been told by the former deputy Minister of the Interior of Nigeria, who sent me an email inviting me to get rich with his assistance.

If something seems too good to be true, it’s probably neither good nor true. Scammers are everywhere, but when Joseph Ryan went pursuing his fantasies on FetLife, he apparently had no doubt that “Annastasia9” was who she said she was. A lack of skepticism can get you killed, and while most murders perpetrated through such online impersonation schemes is as luridly fascinating as the plot that killed Joseph Ryan, it certainly illustrates the point I made to my brother: “There’s a reason why some things are called ‘fantasies,’ because if you try to do them in real life, bad things happen.” Be careful out there, y’all.



 

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Category: Crime

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