NEWS'Deeply Depressed' Former Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax Fatally Shoots Wife and Himself in Tragic Murder-Suicide: Police Report
The couple was in the midst of a 'messy divorce,' according to cops.
April 16 2026, Updated 2:00 p.m. ET
Ex-Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax fatally shot his estranged wife before turning the gun on himself at their million-dollar home, authorities reported on Thursday, April 15.
According to an outlet, Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis reported the pair's teenage children were both home during the murder-suicide on Thursday morning, with their son said to be the one to call 911.
In photos obtained by another publication, the former couple's bodies can be seen being removed from the residence in Annandale, Va.
'Tragic for the Children to Lose Both Parents'
The estranged couple's two teenage children were home at the time.
"It is high-profile in nature, it’s tragic in nature. Certainly a fall from grace for a relatively high-profile family that seemingly had had a lot of things going in their favor," the police chief told reporters.
Davis added, "Tragic for the children to lose both parents, extra tragic for them to actually be in the home when it occurred. So yeah, there’s a lot going on."
Per the New York Post's reporting, 47-year-old Fairfax was considered "an up-and-coming member of the Democratic Party in the 2010s after working on the presidential campaigns of Al Gore and John Kerry.
The pair were still living together despite no longer being together.
After unsuccessfully running for commonwealth attorney general in 2013, he was elected lieutenant governor to Ralph Northam in 2017.
Unfortunately, multiple women accused Fairfax of sexual assault in 2019, squashing his ambitions of becoming Virginia's governor.
He was reportedly still living with his wife of 20 years, Cerina Fairfax, amid ongoing divorce proceedings after she filed in July 2025. The pair had separated a year earlier.
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Their divorce was reportedly a 'messy' one.
The chief said, "This has been an ongoing domestic dispute surrounding what seems to be a complicated or messy divorce."
He continued, "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."
Meanwhile, conservative columnist Sophia Nelson, who described Justin as a "close friend," wrote on X Thursday that he'd been "deeply depressed."
'We Never Saw This Coming'
A 'close friend' expressed shock on social media.
"He was going through a bad divorce. Still sharing home with his wife," she explained, before adding that they "never saw this coming. Ever."
"We are all devastated," she added.
According to the Post, Justin accused his wife of assaulting him in January, but police later discovered he lied after reviewing footage from cameras that Cerina put up inside the home.
Cerina was a respected dentist who co-owned a practice in Oakton, Va.
