Their two teenage children were home in Annandale during the overnight shooting, and one called 911.
ANNANDALE, Va. — Former Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax fatally shot his wife, Dr. Cerina Fairfax, and then killed himself at the couple’s home shortly after midnight Thursday as their two teenage children were inside, Fairfax County police said.
The deaths closed a violent chapter in a high-profile divorce and ended the public story of a onetime Democratic rising star whose career had already been battered by sexual assault allegations he denied. Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis said detectives are treating the case as a domestic-related murder-suicide and are reviewing home camera footage, court records and other evidence to understand what led up to the shooting after Justin Fairfax was recently served paperwork tied to an upcoming court proceeding.
Officers went to the 8100 block of Guinevere Drive in Annandale just after midnight after the couple’s teenage son called 911, Davis said. Police said they found Cerina Fairfax in the basement and Justin Fairfax in the primary bedroom upstairs. Davis told reporters that Justin Fairfax shot his wife inside the home and then used the same firearm on himself. The chief said the violence appeared to unfold quickly, without a long standoff or extended police encounter, and described the scene as one that shocked even veteran officers. “It all happened pretty spontaneously,” Davis said. By Thursday morning, investigators had secured the house, blocked off part of the street and begun collecting forensic evidence while neighbors and media gathered outside the brick home in the Washington suburb. Coroners later removed the bodies as officers continued moving in and out of the residence.
Police said the couple had separated in 2024 and filed for divorce last year, but were still living in the same house with their two children. Davis called the divorce “complicated” and “messy” and said Justin Fairfax had been served recently with paperwork telling him when to appear for the next court proceeding. Detectives are investigating whether that development played any role in the shooting, but Davis said Thursday that the motive had not been formally established. He also pointed to an earlier domestic call at the house in January, when Justin Fairfax told police that his wife had assaulted him. Davis said officers reviewed video from cameras Cerina Fairfax had installed inside the home and found that the alleged assault did not occur. Those cameras, police said, may now provide crucial evidence about the final minutes before the deaths. The children are staying with other family members while the investigation continues.
The January call has become one of the clearest markers in the public record of how strained the household had become. Davis said police had responded to prior domestic-related calls at the home, with the January incident the most recent one publicly discussed on Thursday. In that earlier episode, he said, officers reviewed interior recordings and concluded that the assault Justin Fairfax alleged never happened. That detail matters now because it suggests investigators entered Thursday’s case with some knowledge of the home, the family’s living situation and the camera system inside. Even so, many questions remained open by late Thursday: police had not released a full timeline of the shooting, said whether anyone heard an argument beforehand or disclosed whether any written message was found in the house. Detectives were also still working to confirm exactly what the cameras captured and how much of the final sequence was preserved on video.
For years, Justin Fairfax had been seen as one of Virginia’s most promising Democrats. A former federal prosecutor and civil litigator, he first sought the party’s nomination for attorney general in 2013, then won statewide office in 2017 as lieutenant governor. In 2019, as Gov. Ralph Northam faced a yearbook scandal and pressure to resign, Justin Fairfax briefly appeared to be in line to become governor. That moment ended when two women, Vanessa Tyson and Meredith Watson, publicly accused him of sexual assault in separate incidents from 2004 and 2000. Fairfax denied both allegations, said the encounters were consensual and was never criminally charged. Even so, the accusations triggered calls for his resignation, cost him staff support and reshaped his political future. He finished his term, ran for governor in 2021 and lost the Democratic primary before returning to legal work.
The fallout from that earlier scandal lingered beyond election losses. His public standing dimmed sharply inside Virginia Democratic politics, where he was increasingly isolated after 2019. He left a prestigious law firm after the allegations surfaced, and court filings later showed the couple dealt with financial strain, including an IRS tax lien of more than $91,000 that was resolved in 2021. None of those earlier troubles explain the shooting, and police have not suggested they do. But together they form the background to the steep decline Davis referred to when he called Thursday’s case a “fall from grace” involving a family that, from the outside, had once seemed to have much going in its favor. By the time of the shooting, Fairfax had largely disappeared from public office and statewide campaigning.
Cerina Fairfax was widely known in Northern Virginia for her dentistry practice and for work that connected her to Duke University and Virginia Commonwealth University. She and Justin Fairfax met as undergraduates at Duke and married on June 17, 2006. After dental school at VCU, she built a family practice and was honored in 2015 by the VCU School of Dentistry as its most outstanding alumna of the previous decade. Her practice biography described her as an avid reader who liked travel, yoga, trail running and time with her family. That public picture of a successful professional and mother sat in painful contrast to the police tape, news cameras and patrol cars outside the family home Thursday. Davis said the deaths had stunned people who knew the family and the wider community around them. “It’s very sad for this community,” he said. “A lot of people who know the Fairfax family, everybody’s shocked. We’re shocked.”
Thursday’s investigation was still in its early stages. Detectives said they were working through physical evidence from several rooms of the house and reviewing any usable recordings from the home surveillance system. Police also had not publicly laid out a minute-by-minute timeline, said whether any written message had been found or identified the specific court hearing connected to the papers Justin Fairfax had received. Police said they believed the same gun was used in both deaths, while investigators were still working to complete the evidence picture from inside the house. Davis said police would continue piecing together the case through interviews, video and forensic review. Because the only suspected shooter is dead, the next public steps are expected to center on the completed police findings, any later release of additional details from Fairfax County authorities and final rulings from the medical examiner about the deaths.
The deaths drew immediate reaction from political leaders who had known the family in public life. U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine said they were praying for the Fairfax family, “especially their two children,” as Virginia absorbed the news. Lt. Gov. Ghazala Hashmi called the deaths devastating and said she was waiting for more information from law enforcement. Former Gov. Northam, who served with Justin Fairfax, said he and his wife were “devastated by this heartbreaking news.” Gov. Abigail Spanberger called the killing of Cerina Fairfax in an apparent murder-suicide a horrific tragedy and described her as a devoted mother and beloved dentist. House Speaker Don Scott said he was heartbroken, and former Attorney General Jason Miyares offered condolences to the children and relatives. The comments, though varied in tone, centered on grief for the family and on the shock of watching a once-prominent political figure’s life end in violence at home.
As of Thursday evening, police had publicly identified the deaths as a domestic-related murder-suicide and were still reconstructing the final moments inside the home. The next visible milestone is any additional police briefing or case update after detectives finish reviewing camera footage, witness accounts and other evidence gathered on Guinevere Drive.
Author note: Last updated April 16, 2026.