Former Virginia Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax shot and killed his wife before turning the gun on himself early Thursday in what the Fairfax County Police Department is calling a murder-suicide.
Police believe Fairfax shot his wife in the basement of their Annandale home, ran upstairs, and shot himself. The couple’s children were in the home at the time of the murders and called 911, according to Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis.
“This has been an ongoing domestic dispute surrounding what seems to be a complicated or messy divorce,” Davis said. “I don’t think it’s a secret that there’s been a divorce proceedings that have been ongoing. From what I understand in this early stage, former Lieutenant Governor Fairfax was recently served some paperwork associated with an upcoming court proceeding that apparently led to this incident last night.”
The couple had been married 20 years, but was currently separated and still living together, according to authorities. Cerina Fairfax filed for divorce in July, according to court records.
Fairfax served as the lieutenant governor under former Democratic Governor Ralph Northam from 2018 to 2022. While in office, the lieutenant governor was accused of sexually assaulting two women years earlier. He maintained the sexual encounters, one of which took place in 2000 and another in 2004, were consensual. He then launched an unsuccessful bid for Virginia governor in 2021, coming in fourth in the Democratic primary. Prior to his tenure as lieutenant governor, Justin Fairfax served as a federal prosecutor.
On top of the sexual assault allegations against Fairfax, the Northam administration was also rocked by the emergence of a yearbook photo from 1984 depicting two men, one in black face and the other in a Ku Klux Klan costume. Northam initially said he was one of the two men but did not specify which. In the days following the scandal, however, Northam said he was not actually in the photo, but did admit to wearing black face for a Michael Jackson dance competition. Northam, however, never resigned.
“Pam and I are devastated by this heartbreaking news. I had the privilege of getting to know the Fairfaxes while our families served together,” Northam said in the statement Thursday morning.
After his term as lieutenant governor concluded, Fairfax started his own law practice.
Fairfax was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He and his wife shared two children.
“So tragic for the children to lose both parents, extra tragic for them to actually be in the home when it occurred,” Davis said. “Certainly a fall from grace for a relatively high-profile family that seemingly had a lot of things going in their favor.”