Woman accused of stabbing mother changing her baby in Macy’s pleads not guilty
Shoppers wait in line outside of Macy’s flagship store in Herald Square before opening on Black Friday in New York, US, on Friday, Nov. 28, 2025. (Adam Gray/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — A woman pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges she stabbed a mother changing her baby’s diaper inside a bathroom in Macy’s flagship store in New York City during the Christmas shopping season.
The woman, Kerri Aherne, 43, was charged with attempted murder, assault and child endangerment in connection with the Dec. 11 stabbing inside Macy’s Herald Square.
“As alleged, Kerri Aherne carried out a horrific and unprovoked stabbing of a mother who was simply caring for her 10-month-old baby. This tourist was attacked inside one of the city’s largest and most frequented department stores, posing public safety implications for employees, visitors, and New Yorkers alike,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said.
“I wish the victim a swift recovery,” Bragg said.
The 39-year-old victim was visiting New York from California. Prosecutors said she was changing her 10-month-old’s diaper in a seventh-floor bathroom when Ahere approached from behind and began stabbing her, unprovoked.
Aherne had purchased the knife at Macy’s moments before the attack, prosecutors said.
According to the indictment, the victim eventually managed to grab the knife from Aherne and throw it to the other end of the bathroom. During the attack, the baby fell from the changing table onto the floor.
Aherne was restrained by the victim’s boyfriend and by store security workers until police officers arrived to arrest her on the scene.
The victim was taken to the hospital to be treated for two stab wounds to her back and lacerations to her arm and hand that required stitches. The baby was not hurt.
A spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said that both the victim and her husband work for the LASD.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said Aherne was previously arrested in Massachusetts for threatening to kill Sen. Elizabeth Warren. The woman told police she has been hospitalized for psychiatric problems.
Aherne was remanded into custody. She is next due in court on Feb. 11.
Brendan Banfield testifies in his own defense on Jan. 28, 2026, during his double murder trial in Fairfax County, Virginia. (Pool/ABC News)
(FAIRFAX, Va.) — A jury has reached a verdict in the double murder trial of a Virginia man accused of killing his wife and a stranger lured to their home under false pretenses in an elaborate plot to get rid of his spouse so he could be with his au pair, with whom he was having an affair.
Brendan Banfield, 40, is accused of stabbing his wife to death in their home in Fairfax County and fatally shooting a man he allegedly “catfished” on a fetish website. Prosecutors said he pretended to be his wife to lure the man to their home for what was believed to be a consensual fake rape scenario in order to frame that stranger for his wife’s murder.
The jury deliberated nearly nine hours over two days, starting Friday, before reaching a verdict Monday afternoon. The verdict is expected to be read in court at 5 p.m. ET Monday.
The former IRS agent was charged with aggravated murder in 2024 following a monthslong investigation into the deaths of his wife, 37-year-old nurse Christine Banfield, and the man, 39-year-old Joseph Ryan.
Prosecutors accused Brendan Banfield of plotting the murders with the family’s au pair, 25-year-old Juliana Peres Magalhaes, who was initially charged with second-degree murder in connection with the deaths.
Ahead of the trial, Peres Magalhaes pleaded guilty to manslaughter. Under the plea agreement with prosecutors, she will receive time served for testifying against Brendan Banfield.
During closing arguments on Friday, the prosecutor made the case that the murders were premeditated.
“He was in love with Juliana. He can pretend that this was a fling and affair — he’d had them before, no big deal. He was in love with Juliana,” prosecutor Jenna Sands said. “He was afraid of losing her. He needed to get rid of his wife so that they could be together, so that they could marry, so that they could have those babies that he was picking out names for.”
Sands said there was no evidence that Christine Banfield had previously used dating or fetish websites, argued that there were signs that the crime scene had been “manipulated,” and reminded jurors that during the au pair’s testimony, Peres Magalhaes “told us how the plan was crafted and how it played out.”
The defense, meanwhile, pushed back on the catfishing theory, questioned the thoroughness of the investigation and argued that there were conclusions made based on confirmation bias. The attorney, John Carroll, claimed that prosecutors pressured Peres Magalhaes to change her story and that she “secured herself a deal that benefited her.” Carroll also said Brendan Banfield didn’t have to testify, but he did as they sought “to get the truth out there.”
“Is it reasonable, after a six- to eight-week affair, that someone is going to try to get rid of their companion of 19 years, wife of 12 years? Is that reasonable?” Carroll asked the jury. “You heard from my client: He thinks it’s absurd.”
During his testimony, Brendan Banfield called the allegations “absolutely crazy” and said his affair with Peres Magalhaes was just that and nothing more.
He said he came home on Feb. 24, 2023, after the au pair called to alert him about a stranger in the home. He said he went up to his bedroom with his gun drawn and found his wife naked with Ryan and that she called out, “Brendan, he has a knife!”
“I was extremely terrified,” Brendan Banfield told the jury. “I don’t think I’ve ever been more panicked in my life.”
He said he fired his government-issued firearm, striking Ryan in the head, after the man appeared to stab his wife.
Prosecutors said Christine Banfield was stabbed seven times in the neck.
Peres Magalhaes testified that Brendan Banfield expressed his desire to “get rid of” his wife in October 2022, saying, “At first, I thought he was joking.”
She testified that she had helped Brendan Banfield catfish Ryan on the fetish website to lure Ryan to the home.
Peres Magalhaes told the court that Brendan Banfield told her he wanted to marry her and have children with her, and that he didn’t want to divorce his wife because “she would have more money than he would” and because he wanted custody of the couple’s daughter.
Brendan Banfield was additionally charged with using a firearm while committing or attempting to commit murder and child endangerment. The couple’s then-4-year-old daughter was in the house at the time of the killings, in the basement.
“He left her in the basement, knowing that Joe Ryan was upstairs,” Sands said during her closing argument. “He left her in the basement while he shot and killed Joe Ryan. He left her in the basement while he stabbed his wife.”
U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts Leah Foley speaks with ABC News, Dec. 19, 2025. ABC News
(BOSTON, Mass.) — It was Thursday morning when investigators definitively determined the same individual opened fire on a study group at Brown University and, two days later, murdered an MIT professor — raising fears among law enforcement officials that the killer may have had other intended targets, according to the top federal law enforcement official in Boston.
“We had no idea if he had a hit list and these were just the first two stops on his tour,” Leah Foley, the United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, told ABC News on Friday.
Foley said that the suspect, Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, was found dead in the New Hampshire storage unit with two 9mm Glock firearms equipped with green laser sights, five magazines with nearly 200 rounds of ammunition and nearly $900 in cash. In his car, investigators said they found more ammunition and body armor.
“This was highly premeditated and he was definitely equipped for the mission that he sought out to do,” Foley said.
Neves Valente, 48, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said.
On Friday, an autopsy was underway to determine how long the suspect had been dead by the time his body was found. Ballistics tests and DNA tests were underway.
Investigators were also searching through the contents of three USB thumb drives found in the suspect’s car to see if they contained clues about a motive. It is unclear at this time if the suspect had any other potential targets, according to people familiar with the investigation.
Foley said investigators believe Brown University and the MIT professor — Nuno F.G. Loureiro — were intentional targets, but they do not know why.
“I don’t know that even if he had explained why, that that would be an answer that is satisfactory to anyone,” Foley said. “He was evil.”
The possibility that the killer could have struck again infused the manhunt with new urgency. Federal agents fanned out across four New England states and posted up at airports in Boston and Hartford.
“We had no idea if he was going to act again in New England or try to leave New England,” Foley said.
Neves Valente had already switched license plates once, according to authorities. In the car, investigators said they found another expired plate.
The suspect was a former Brown graduate student who attended the school some 25 years ago, school officials said. He had enrolled as a Ph.D student in Brown’s physics program in 2000 and attended for less than a year, before going on a leave of absence and then withdrawing.
Neves Valente and Loureiro were both Portuguese nationals and had attended the same physics engineering program at Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisbon, the school confirmed to ABC News.
The Pima County Sheriff’s Department announced on Sunday that a woman missing in Arizona is the mother of “Today Show” host Savannah Guthrie. (Pima County Sheriff’s Department)
(NEW YORK) — There is evidence of a crime at the home of the missing 84-year-old mother of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie, according to authorities in Arizona.
Nancy Guthrie was last seen in the Catalina Foothills area on Saturday night, according to the Pima County Sheriff’s Department. Her family reported her missing on Sunday around noon local time, authorities said.
Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said investigators processed her home on Sunday and “saw some things at the home that were concerning to us,” and that it is considered a crime scene.
“She did not leave on her own, we know that,” Nanos said during a press briefing on Monday.
Nancy Guthrie is described as having some physical ailments and limited mobility, but does not have cognitive issues, her family said, according to the sheriff.
She takes medication that if she doesn’t have in 24 hours, “it could be fatal,” Nanos said Monday.
“So we make a plea to anyone that knows anything about this, who has seen something, heard something, to contact us, call 911,” he said, urging residents to check any home security cameras.
The search and rescue effort for Nancy Guthrie, which was conducted late into Sunday night “to no avail,” has ended for the time being, Nanos said.
“Right now, we don’t see this as a search mission, as much as we do a crime scene,” he said.
The FBI said it is assisting in the investigation.
There’s no indication at this time that the public is in danger, authorities said.
Nancy Guthrie was last seen Saturday night by family members, Nanos said. Her children brought her home, where she lives alone, around 9:45 p.m. local time, according to Nanos. The following morning, her family got a call from their mother’s church saying she wasn’t there, he said.
“The family went to the house. I’m thinking they spent some time looking for her themselves before they called us,” he said.
Investigators found “circumstances on scene that we believe are suspicious in nature,” Sgt. David Stivers from the sheriff’s department’s homicide team, said during the press briefing Monday, though he did not go into further detail.
Authorities said they are reviewing the home’s security cameras and have Nancy Guthrie’s cellphone.
It is unclear if this was targeted, Nanos said. When asked whether Savannah Guthrie has received any threats, the sheriff said his department has been in touch with her security team and is unaware of any such threats at the moment.
“We’re not going to dismiss any angles for sure, but right now, immediately, we don’t know of anything like that,” Nanos said.
An NBCUniversal spokesperson confirmed early on Monday that Nancy Guthrie is missing and said the family is “working closely with local law enforcement.”
“On behalf of our family, I want to thank everyone for the thoughts, prayers and messages of support,” Savannah Guthrie said in a statement read by Craig Melvin on the “Today” show on Monday. “Right now, our focus remains on the safe return of our dear mom.”
“We thank law enforcement for their hard work on this case and encourage anyone with information to contact the Pima County Sheriff’s Department at 520-351-4900,” the statement continued.
ABC News’ Cecilie Larcher contributed to this report.
