Justin Fairfax, a former Virginia lieutenant governor whose political career collapsed after sexual assault allegations in 2019, fatally shot his wife before killing himself in their Annandale home overnight as the couple went through a contentious divorce, police said Thursday.
The couple’s teenage son called 911 just after midnight from the home on the 8100 block of Guinevere Drive, according to Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis. Both of the couple’s teenage children—a son and daughter—were inside the house when the shootings occurred.
Davis said Justin Fairfax, 47, shot his wife Dr. Cerina Fairfax, 49, multiple times in the basement of their home before going upstairs to the primary bedroom and turning the gun on himself. The same firearm appears to have been used in both shootings. Two gurneys were rolled out of the home just before 10 a.m. and loaded into a white van.
The shootings stemmed from a domestic dispute surrounding what Davis described as a “complicated or messy divorce.” The couple had been married since 2006 after meeting as undergraduates at Duke University. Cerina Fairfax filed for divorce on July 18, 2025, and they had been separated since 2024.
Despite their separation, the Fairfaxes still lived together but slept in separate bedrooms. Justin Fairfax was recently served paperwork indicating when he was scheduled to next appear in court for divorce proceedings. “That may have been a spark,” Davis told reporters, though he added that detectives would investigate further.
Court documents painted a troubling picture of Justin Fairfax’s mental state in recent years. A judge wrote that Cerina Fairfax stated her husband “had chosen not to be a productive member of the family and that the dictionary definition of ‘deadbeat’ was accurate as applied to him.”
In 2022, Justin Fairfax purchased a handgun with money his wife had intended for horseback riding lessons for their children. He left home with the gun and clothes in a suitcase, and his family later found him in the woods of a public park experiencing what court documents described as an adverse psychological event. His brother arranged for a mental health professional to speak with him in a parking lot at 1 a.m.
In January, Justin Fairfax called police and alleged his wife had assaulted him. Davis said officers reviewed footage from cameras Cerina Fairfax had installed throughout the home during the divorce proceedings and determined the alleged assault never occurred. No charges were filed.
Fairfax served as Virginia’s lieutenant governor from 2018 to 2022 under then-Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam. He had been considered a rising political star—the second Black American elected statewide in Virginia—before his career derailed in 2019 when two women accused him of sexual assault.
Vanessa Tyson accused Fairfax of forcing her to perform oral sex in 2004 at the Democratic National Convention in Boston. Meredith Watson claimed Fairfax raped her in 2000 while they were students at Duke University. Fairfax denied the accusations, saying the encounters were consensual, and called for an FBI investigation. He was never criminally charged and refused calls to resign.
Fairfax ran for governor in 2021 but finished fourth in the Democratic primary. He returned to practicing law after leaving office. Court records show the IRS filed a lien against the couple for more than $91,000 in unpaid taxes, which was resolved in 2021.
Cerina Fairfax earned her doctor of dental surgery degree from Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Dentistry in 2005, graduating magna cum laude. She ran a family dentistry practice in Fairfax, Virginia. VCU honored her in 2015 with its Outstanding D.D.S. Graduate of the Last Decade Award.
Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger called the murder “a horrific tragedy” and described Dr. Fairfax as “a devoted mother, beloved dentist in the Fairfax County community, and engaged supporter of her alma mater.” Former Gov. Ralph Northam said he and his wife were “devastated by this heartbreaking news.”
Lt. Gov. Ghazala Hashmi said Virginia “woke up this morning to devastating news” and expressed sorrow for the children. Attorney General Jay Jones called the tragedy “heartbreaking.”
Victim services are assisting the teenage son and daughter, both high school students. Davis noted the particular tragedy of the children losing both parents while present in the home. “So tragic for the children to lose both parents,” he said. “Extra tragic for them to actually be in the home when it occurred.”