Former Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax Shot and Killed His Wife Before Killing Himself — His Children Were Home

Former Virginia Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax fatally shot his wife Dr. Cerina Fairfax in their Annandale home in the early hours of April 16, 2026, then killed himself. Their two teenage children were in the home at the time. The couple had been in a contested divorce with Fairfax facing a court-ordered move-out deadline.

At approximately midnight on April 16, 2026, Fairfax County Police received a 911 call from the couple's Annandale, Virginia home on Guinevere Drive. The caller was the couple's teenage son, who reported that his father "might have stabbed" his mother, according to dispatch audio captured by Broadcastify. Officers arrived to find former Virginia Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax, 47, and his wife Dr. Cerina Fairfax, 49, both dead inside the house.

Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis confirmed at a press conference Thursday morning that Justin Fairfax had fatally shot his wife in their partially finished basement, firing multiple times, before running upstairs to the primary bedroom where he used the same firearm to kill himself. "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."

The couple's two teenage children, who were both in the house at the time, were physically unharmed. They are being cared for by grandparents and other family members, with support from the Fairfax County Police Department's victim services division.

Justin and Cerina Fairfax had been in a messy and contested divorce process. A judge had ordered Justin Fairfax to move out of the family home by the end of April 2026 — weeks away from the date of the murder-suicide. The specific proximity of that court-ordered deadline to the events of April 16 is a dimension of the case that investigators and commentators have noted.

In January 2026, Justin Fairfax had called police to report that his wife had assaulted him. No arrests were made from that incident. But critically, Chief Davis revealed at the press conference that Cerina had installed multiple cameras throughout the house prior to the January 911 call — a decision that captured the January encounter and led investigators to determine the alleged assault that Fairfax claimed did not occur, as recorded. Those same cameras also captured footage from the events of April 16.

The couple's financial situation added further context to the deteriorating relationship. Court records showed that the IRS had filed a lien against the couple for more than $91,000 in unpaid taxes — resolved in 2021 — and that in October 2024, Capital One bank had filed a civil warrant against Fairfax for unpaid debt, with a second filing from Discover Bank for $23,871 in May 2025. Both resulted in default judgments, meaning Fairfax did not respond to the court summons.

Justin Fairfax served as Virginia's Lieutenant Governor from 2018 to 2022, becoming only the second Black American in the state's history to hold the position. He had been seen as a rising star in Virginia Democratic politics until 2019, when two women separately accused him of sexual assault — allegations he denied and was never criminally charged for, but which effectively ended his political trajectory. His 2021 gubernatorial campaign in the Democratic primary failed.

He returned to practicing law after his political career ended, while Cerina maintained her dental practice in Fairfax, Virginia. She had earned her Doctor of Dental Surgery from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2005 and was, according to her practice's website, committed to community outreach and active outside work with trail running and her dogs.

Their children — now having lost both parents in a single traumatic morning — are the specific human cost of a family destruction whose details, documented by surveillance cameras installed by a wife who sensed something was coming, will be part of a legal and investigative record for years.