Lester Holt

The family was in full force at this hearing.

There might be more here.

Welcome to Dateline True Crime Weekly.

I'm Lester Holt.

It's January 29th, and here's what's on our docket.

In Athens, Georgia, after a law student was murdered 25 years ago, her grieving family teamed up with a podcaster to try and solve her murder.

This week, her alleged killer finally heads to trial.

In Dateline Roundup, the Crystal Rogers case is back in the news and allegations of witness intimidation in the case of Utah mom and murder suspect Corey Richens.

Plus, how to solve a murder when there's no body.

We talked to a veteran cold case detective.

But before all that, we're heading back to Northern Virginia and the trial of the former IRS agent accused of masterminding a double murder so he could run off with the family au pair.

Over the past two and a half weeks, a jury in Fairfax County has heard dueling accounts of what happened inside the home of Brendan Banfield on the morning of February 24th, 2023, and the violent encounter which ended up with two people dead, Brendan's wife, Christine, and a man by the name of Joseph Ryan.

The prosecution alleges that Brendan, who has pleaded not guilty, lured Joseph Ryan, a complete stranger, to the Banfield home and shot him.

Then they say Brendan fatally stabbed his wife.

Prosecutors allege it was all part of an elaborate plot to frame Ryan for his wife's murder.

The defense says that's not true at all.

They insist there's no evidence Brendan lured Ryan to the home, that in fact it was Christine who invited Ryan over for a sexual liaison, and when he got there, Ryan attacked her with a knife.

They say Brendan was heroically trying to defend her when he shot Ryan dead.

And this week, the jury got to hear from Brendan Banfield himself as he took the stand to tell his story.

I think that it's an absurd line of questioning that a plan was made to get rid of my wife.