Authorities said on April 16 that former Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax killed his wife and then himself in a murder-suicide incident in Fairfax County, Virginia.
“This has been an ongoing domestic dispute surrounding what seems to be a complicated or messy divorce,” Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis said in a news conference on Thursday morning.
“I don’t think it’s a secret that there’s been divorce proceedings that have been ongoing. From what I understand in this early stage, former Lt. Gov. Fairfax was recently served some paperwork associated with an upcoming court proceeding that apparently led to this incident last night.”
Officials said that Fairfax and his wife, Cerina Fairfax, were married for 20 years but were separated and still living together at the time of the incident. The couple’s two teenage children, a boy and a girl, were in the home at the time of the incident, officials added.
“That’s horrible news for the family,” Davis said, adding that it’s devastating for the children. “Certainly a fall from grace for a relatively high-profile” politician in Virginia, he later said.
Davis said that Justin Fairfax shot and killed his wife in one area of the home, an unfinished basement, and then went to another part of the home, the primary bedroom, and killed himself with the same firearm. One of the children called the police after the incident.
In January, Justin Fairfax called the police and alleged that his wife had assaulted him, Davis said. When the police reviewed camera footage, officials said that no alleged assault had ever occurred and was “proven to be untrue,” the police chief stated.
“We know that because when Mr. Fairfax called us to their home back in January and alleged that his wife assaulted him in the home, we were able to go to those cameras and determine that that never occurred,” he said.
He wasn’t cited for making a false report to police, Davis said.
Davis said that authorities are investigating court papers that his wife served him in the divorce proceeding, adding that he was asked to appear in court.
Fairfax, a Democrat, was the lieutenant governor in the administration of former Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam, who served from 2018 to 2022. He ran for Virginia governor as a Democratic candidate in 2021 but finished fourth in the primary.
In 2019, two women accused him of sexual assault several years earlier, prompting Virginia Democrats to call for him to step down from office.
“The Lieutenant Governor no longer has our confidence or support. He must resign,” state Democrats said at the time. Fairfax, at the time, denied the allegations and remained in office until his term ended.
Cerina Fairfax had worked as a dentist, Davis said.
Police are still in the preliminary stage of the investigation, Davis said, adding that more details will be provided in the case at a later date. Officials are working to provide social services to the two children, he added.
