Wife Erased: What Police Found When They Returned 8 Months Later

Look at that nightstand.

Eight months after Christine Banfield was stabbed to death in this bedroom, police returned with a follow-up search warrant. Sgt. Kenner Fortner, the crime scene detective who documented everything on February 24, 2023, walked back through the house in October. Same house. Different story.

New flooring. New furniture. And on that nightstand, in a frame, a photo of Brendan Banfield smiling with another woman. Not his wife. The au pair. Juliana Peres Magalhães.

The photos of Brendan and Christine? Gone.

What the Detective Found

Fortner testified today about two visits to the Banfield home. The first was the morning of the murders, when he documented the crime scene, the vehicles in the driveway, and a detail the prosecution wants burned into the jury's memory: Christine's cell phone, powered off and hidden in a kitchen drawer.

The second visit was October 13, 2023. By then, everything had changed.

Juliana's bedroom, the one with the Brazilian flag over the bed and her personal effects on the dresser, was empty. Her clothes were gone. Fortner found them in the master bedroom closet, including red lingerie and a yellow shirt with green trim that he recognized from his first visit.

She had moved in. Into the room where Christine died.

What This Actually Proves

Here's where I have to pump the brakes, because I know what you're thinking. You're thinking this is damning. You're thinking no innocent man erases his murdered wife and replaces her photos with his mistress eight months later.

Maybe. But that's not how this works.

The prosecution isn't charging Brendan Banfield with being a bad husband. They're not charging him with moving on too fast. They're charging him with murder. And the question the jury has to answer isn't "is this creepy?" The question is: does this prove he killed her?

The defense will argue it proves nothing about February 24th. A man's behavior eight months after his wife dies, however distasteful, doesn't establish that he planned her murder. People grieve differently. People make questionable choices. That's not evidence of premeditation.

But here's what the prosecution is actually doing with this testimony. They're not trying to prove the murder happened. They already have Juliana's testimony for that. What they're doing is making the jury feel it. They're showing the jury who Brendan Banfield is. They're showing a man who, eight months after his wife was stabbed in their bed, put up a photo of himself smiling with the woman the state says helped him plan it.

That's not evidence. That's character. And character matters to juries, even when the instructions tell them it shouldn't.

The Hidden Phone

The other piece from Fortner's testimony that matters: Christine's cell phone.

On the morning of the murder, Fortner found it in a drawer in the bar cart area of the kitchen. Powered off. Hidden.

According to the prosecution's theory, Brendan disabled the phone and hid it so Christine couldn't call for help when Joe Ryan arrived. Juliana testified that Brendan turned off the phone and put it in that drawer. Fortner's documentation corroborates her story.

The defense hasn't directly addressed this yet, but they'll have to. A phone hidden in a drawer on the morning your wife is murdered by a stranger who somehow got into your locked house is a detail that demands explanation.

What the Jury Saw

Today wasn't about bombshells. It was about atmosphere. The prosecution put that bedroom photo on the screen and let the jury sit with it. They showed them who was erased and who took her place.

Is it fair? That's a different question. Is it effective? Absolutely.

Brendan Banfield is presumed innocent until proven guilty. That presumption doesn't disappear because he made choices that look bad in hindsight. But juries are human. And humans remember images.

They'll remember that nightstand.

▶️ WATCH THE FULL TESTIMONY Crime Scene Detective Returns 8 Months Later to Find Wife Erased in Au Pair Trial