When 37-year-old Christine Banfield and 39-year-old Joseph Ryan were found fatally injured inside a Virginia home in 2023, investigators were initially told that Ryan was a violent intruder and that Christine’s husband, Brendan Banfield, a federal agent, had tried to save her. But as investigators examined digital evidence, they uncovered a different possibility: that Ryan had been lured to the home through a fake online persona and that the scene had been staged to conceal a double homicide.
What happened in the 15 minutes between two 911 calls? And what does the evidence reveal about the story investigators were first told?
Head over to our Crime Junkie YouTube channel to WATCH this episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCRHdJ7TfmY
Source materials for this episode cannot be listed here due to character limitations. For a full list of sources, please visit: https://crimejunkiepodcast.com/murdered-christine-banfield-and-joseph-ryan/
Did you know you can listen to this episode ad-free? Join the Fan Club! Visit https://crimejunkiepodcast.com/fanclub/ to view the current membership options and policies.
Don’t miss out on all things Crime Junkie!
Instagram: @crimejunkiepodcast | @audiochuck
Twitter: @CrimeJunkiePod | @audiochuck
TikTok: @crimejunkiepodcast
Facebook: /CrimeJunkiePodcast | /audiochuckllc
Crime Junkie is hosted by Ashley Flowers and Brit Prawat.
Instagram: @ashleyflowers | @britprawat
Twitter: @Ash_Flowers | @britprawat
TikTok: @ashleyflowerscrimejunkie
Facebook: /AshleyFlowers.AF
Text Ashley at 317-733-7485 to talk all things true crime, get behind the scenes updates, and more!
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Плейлист
Crime Junkie
Nine years after Heather Turner was found dead on her bathroom floor in Dallas, Georgia, the questions surrounding her final night haven’t gone away. They’ve only gotten louder. Her husband Andy says...
In the early hours of May 4, 2017, responding deputies arrived at a home in Dallas, GA after receiving a report of a woman with a gunshot wound to the head. While it first appeared to be death by suic...
On Halloween night in 2009, 38-year-old D.C. restaurateur and salsa queen Nori Amaya went out dancing, came home alone, and was found strangled in her bed two days later. Police have DNA and hours of...
It’s the kind of detail that lingers: a meeting, just after midnight… that no one can explain. In May 1997, 20-year-old Keith Mann was building a future—new apartment, new job, new fiancée. But someti...
It started with a parked car near Philadelphia's Liberty Bell and a woman's voice from inside: "You're going to hurt me." Within hours, investigators were at the door of a boarded-up rowhouse in the c...
The murder of 41-year-old Toby Tate is a case that no one thought would ever be resolved – one that spent decades collecting dust in a file box at the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office. Until tw...
In 1989, a woman is found brutally murdered in Mohave County, Arizona. Decades later, a detective identifies her as Marina Ramos, and discovers that her two young children disappeared with her. Severa...
In May 2023, Lakesha Thompson’s entire family was upended by a single bullet that took their mother away from them forever. From the beginning, who pulled the trigger has been the question at the fore...
In 2019, we covered the Sodder children, five siblings who vanished after their family’s home burned down on Christmas morning in 1945. Officials said they died in the fire, but no bodies were ever fo...
When 30-year-old Alyssa Romine-Olson is found floating naked and face down in the pond of a Gilbert, Arizona nature preserve in 2016, online coverage makes the case sound like a suicide. But her missi...
Come spiral with us as we recap the biggest true-crime documentary right now, "Death of the Pastor's Wife." The takes are hot, the eyes will roll, and Ashley and Brit will be trauma bonding as they re...
When 30-year-old Alyssa Romine-Olson is found floating naked and face down in the pond of a Gilbert, Arizona nature preserve in 2016, online coverage makes the case sound like a suicide. But her missi...
Twenty-seven-year-old Natalie Jones vanished after a July 4th lake party in Alabama in 2020. Ninety-three days later, her car and her remains were found in a rural Georgia field. No arrest. No clear a...
In 2011, 74-year-old high school sweethearts Bill and Peggy Stephenson were found murdered inside their Kentucky condo on Memorial Day weekend. Nothing valuable appeared to be missing, but the crime s...
When Kerry O’Brien-Krueger vanished in 1989, her husband claimed she left for a work trip that never existed. Decades later, investigators are still untangling shifting stories, missing evidence and s...
In part two of Joyce’s story, we dig deep into the case file and letters left behind by Joyce herself, which reveal even more suspects, including the roommate she’d been avoiding that summer.
If you...
In this special episode of Crime Junkie on the Nancy Guthrie abduction case, breaking news reporter Briana Whitney and host Ashley Flowers reveal all details from the ransom notes you haven't heard ye...
In the summer of 1971, 21-year-old Joyce LePage disappears after a skydiving lesson followed by a beer with friends. In the beginning, the only clue is a piece of missing carpet that was cut out from...
In August 2005, a woman disappeared just days before she was supposed to testify against her boyfriend, a corrections officer accused of sexually abusing minors. For years, her family says she was tre...
On March 23, 1993, screams tore through the thin walls of a gated Indianapolis apartment complex as 19-year-old Carmen Van Huss fought for her life. Neighbors heard the attack, but no one called 911....
When 37-year-old Christine Banfield and 39-year-old Joseph Ryan were found fatally injured inside a Virginia home in 2023, investigators were initially told that Ryan was a violent intruder and that C...
On November 30, 2018, 23-year-old Brittany Wallace Shank showed up barefoot and bleeding at a stranger's door asking for help. She said the man she was with had crashed their car and ran away. Deputie...
Alberta O. Jones was breaking barriers in Louisville, Kentucky. She was the first Black woman prosecutor in the city’s history, she helped register some 6,000 Black citizens to vote, and she was a lea...
In November 2024, 15-year-old Tripp Brazeale was found hanging from a tree in the middle of the woods of Forrest City, Arkansas. His death was quickly ruled a suicide, but in the weeks and months that...
A call from someone you love in crisis is terrifying enough - but what if the voice begging for help isn’t really them? We break down how AI voice cloning is fueling virtual kidnapping scams, why pani...
In the summer of 1973, the Jaeger family wakes at a Montana campground to every parent's nightmare: their young daughter, Susie, is gone. Searches turn up nothing, until a man begins tormenting the fa...
In February 2008, six women were held hostage in a women’s clothing store in Tinley Park, Illinois.. Rhoda McFarland, Carrie Hudek Chiuso, Connie Woolfolk, Sarah Szafranski, and Jennifer Bishop were e...
Bobby, Sherilynn, and 6-year-old Madyson Jamison went to the Sans Bois Mountains in southeastern Oklahoma in search of a fresh start. The family planned to live off the land in a remote, rugged area o...
On Black Friday 2016, 22-year-old Christopher “Cole” Thomas was driving through rural North Carolina with two coworkers. Hours later, the coworkers approached police and said Cole had suddenly panicke...
Spencer Irwin was just 30 years old when he vanished one Sunday morning in July 2024. Days later, his body was found in a way that raised questions – naked, alone and quickly dismissed by authorities....