Amy Robach & T.J. Holmes Present
Au Pair Affair Trial: VERDICT WATCH; Who Do Jurors Believe? The Au Pair or the Husband?
30 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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In the middle of the night, Saskia awoke in a haze. Her husband, Mike, was on his laptop. What was on his screen would change Saskia's life forever. I said, I need you to tell me exactly what you're doing. And immediately, the mask came off.
You're supposed to be safe. That's your home. That's your husband.
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This is Rider Strong, and I have a new podcast called The Red Weather. In 1995, my neighbor and a trainer disappeared from a commune. It was nature and trees and praying and drugs. So no, I am not your neighbor. Back then, I lied to everybody.
They have had this case for 30 years.
I'm going back to my hometown to uncover the truth. Listen to The Red Weather on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Whether it is getting swatted or just hateful messages online, there is a lot of harm in even just reading the comments.
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Chapter 2: What are the closing arguments in the Brendan Banfield trial?
And you have to vote that way, babe.
It means there's reasonable doubt. I think that's where I am because I can honestly say I don't know. And that's a problem for the prosecution.
But you don't know if she knew about the account or not.
I am so confused. And I cannot come up with a scenario that makes me feel confident beyond a reasonable doubt that it was only Brendan and Juliana the au pair who had access to the Gmail, the FetLife, and the Messenger service.
I have no confidence. That they were in control? I don't have confidence that Christine was in control. So do I send the man to prison for the rest of his life based on a coin toss of who I believe, him or her? Because both of them are problematic witnesses.
And yes, the truth is probably somewhere in between, but the problem, the big problem for the prosecution, well, they've got a lot of problems, but your star witness who you need the jurors to believe to make this version of events, to make this narrative work is problematic because she's been massively incentivized to say whatever the prosecution tells her to say, period, point blank.
That's kind of undeniable.
She shot a guy. She shot a guy. The fatal shot. And he died. She's convicted of murder as we speak, right? Manslaughter, yeah. Convicted. And she's going home free, done. That is a hell of an incentive. Life in prison or I get to go home today and I need to get on the stand and say, what do you need me to say? Sure, I can say that. No problem.
And then when she was cross-examined, she didn't remember anything.
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Chapter 3: How does the defense challenge the au pair's testimony?
Where was Christine? I think she was upstairs.
Who wrote this email? Who wrote that email?
Every time.
I don't know. I don't remember.
Every time. That's a problem.
That was a problem. That is a problem. And look, for the prosecution to say, that it was up to the jury who they believed more, that's also a problem. That was how she was like. That was her big thing.
I can't remember the other one.
That was her big moment.
Damn it. What was that moment when she said, and then she said, yes. She said, what was that line? Oh, my God. Please, please, please. Because we said, if you were a politician, you would clip it right there and run that against her time and again on television. She said something we could not believe. They said, the defense is accusing us of da-da-da-da-da. And then she said, yes. It was unreal.
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Chapter 4: What strategies did the prosecution use in their closing arguments?
This is wild. Listen to Mind Games on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
This is Ryder Strong, and I have a new podcast called The Red Weather.
It was many and many a year ago in a kingdom by the sea.
In 1995, my neighbor and a trainer disappeared from a commune. It was hard to wrap your head around. It was nature and trees and praying and drugs. So no, I am not your guru. And back then, I lied to my parents. I lied to police. I lied to everybody.
There were years, Ryder, where I could not say your name.
I've decided to go back to my hometown in Northern California, interview my friends, family, talk to police, journalists, whomever I can, to try to find out what actually happened.
Isn't it a little bit weird that they obsess over hippies in the woods and not the obvious boyfriend? They have had this case for 30 years. I'll teach you sons of bitches to come around here with my wife.
Boom, boom. This is The Red Weather. Listen to The Red Weather on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
The moments that shape us often begin with a simple question. What do I want my life to look like now? I'm Dr. Joy Harden-Bradford. And on Therapy for Black Girls, we create space for honest conversations about identity, relationships, mental health, and the choices that help us grow.
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Chapter 5: What evidence did the defense present to support Brendan Banfield?
He's got a man saying police with a gun on him. He's desperate. That's right.
desperation works for me. I don't, I don't never had a gun pulled on me. He gave a scenario in a very, a room that small and close. There was a scary, terrifying situation. And he clearly was surprised. I think everybody there understands if anybody didn't have any idea what was going on in that room, it was Joe Ryan. He gave us scenario robes and it made sense.
But in that whole scenario, the defense attorney explained something about the knife that you and I went, what the actual hell? There was no evidence, no DNA, nothing on that knife from Brendan Banfield. And there were also no wounds on Brendan Banfield's hand. So he is accused of violently stabbing his wife. Seven times. With this knife.
Look, if you watch any true crime, you've seen enough of these stories. The person who does the stabbing oftentimes has their hand all cut up in a lot of ways. Okay, maybe it didn't happen this time. But how does he get his DNA off the knife but still have Joe Ryan's and blood and everything else on it?
I'm telling you, that was jaw-dropping to me in this closing argument by the defense to imagine that Joe Ryan's hands were cut up. They had knife injuries that would be consistent with someone stabbing another person, and he had all of the different blood on him. So how did Brendan Banfield manage to stab his wife, knock at any DNA on that knife,
and not get any wounds on his hand, doing that seven times, and they were deep, and we heard about just what types of wounds she was contending with in her neck, seven of them. That's hard to imagine. When I heard the defense attorney say that... You start to go into this logical part of your brain and you just think, wait, that doesn't make sense.
How could he have pulled that off in that little amount of time? I don't know what the time was between when they called 911 and when police and paramedics arrived.
That's when the moaning was important. That's why that moaning 911 call.
Whether it was the dog or whether it was Joe Ryan. It's just confusing to me how, and by the way, Christine didn't die right away. She died in the hospital. So I'm wondering if Brendan really did stab her and kill her. Is he panicked now that she's going to survive, that she's going to survive and tell the real story? I was thinking about all of that, too.
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Chapter 6: How did the jurors react to the testimony from both sides?
Walk in, as soon as we walk in, after we get the case and we take that straw vote. Right now, everybody, before we go over the evidence, let's just show of hands. Who thinks he's guilty? Who thinks he's not guilty? Your hand is going where?
So I think right now I would be in the not guilty camp, but not because I don't think he didn't do it. I think he very well may have done it, but I don't think the state proved that he did it the way they said he did it beyond a reasonable doubt.
Same thing. First vote. Not guilty. All right. Going through the evidence. I don't know where we'll land, but I am open. It's just too much of a question. And I have too many questions about credibility of one of your witnesses, which you're admitting. I have to send this man to jail for the rest of his life based on testimony that was bought and paid for.
from a witness who has every incentive to lie, who actually can't remember a damn thing, and actually wasn't that convincing or apologetic or sympathetic or remorseful on the stand.
Her testimony was not credible enough for me to send a man to prison for the rest of his life. I just don't think there was enough actual evidence to back up her version of... against his version for me to feel comfortable as a juror.
I'm willing to listen to my fellow jurors. I want to listen to another argument by all means. But right now, this is a tough one. What do you think? That was what we would do. What do you think this jury is going to do right now? Official prediction is?
I think it's either Hung jury or not guilty. I don't think they're going to come back with a guilty verdict.
I'm going with Hung. How did we do on the predictions on Walsh and Diddy? I think I was wrong on both.
I think I was wrong on both, so don't listen to what we're saying. Look, because the interesting thing is the folks who are making these decisions also don't have legal backgrounds. They're like you and me. They listen like we do. Perhaps maybe we've seen more trials than most and have watched outcomes more often than not. And I will say, having watched them for the last three decades...
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