Former Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax and his wife were both found dead inside their Annandale home on Thursday morning in what police are calling a murder-suicide.
Using the same firearm, Fairfax fatally shot his longtime wife in their unfinished basement before running upstairs to the primary bedroom and shooting himself just a few minutes after midnight. The late Democratic politician was believed to have been motivated by a personal problem.
The married couple was going through a “complicated or messy divorce” at the time of the shooting, Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis told reporters outside the crime scene.
In January, Fairfax called the police to report a domestic abuse incident, claiming his wife, Cerina, assaulted him. After reviewing cameras inside their home, police determined that the alleged assault never happened.
“The allegation that Mr. Fairfax made in January, that Mrs. Fairfax assaulted him, was proven to be untrue,” Davis said.
The spouses lived together in separate bedrooms while they were going through a divorce, the police chief noted. They were married for 20 years.
“It’s tragic in nature, certainly a fall from grace for a relatively high-profile family that seemingly had a lot of things going in their favor,” Davis continued. “So tragic for the children to lose both parents, extra tragic for them to actually be in the home when it occurred.”
The Fairfaxes left behind two teenagers, a boy and a girl.
Local police are actively carrying out a search warrant of the home to recover evidence, including the firearm used in the murder-suicide.
Fairfax served as lieutenant governor under former Gov. Ralph Northam from 2018 to 2022. Ineligible to run for consecutive terms under state law, Fairfax unsuccessfully ran for governor in the 2021 election cycle.
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After his exit from politics, Fairfax continued working as a lawyer.
In 2019, the then-lieutenant governor was accused of sexual assault against multiple women dating back to 2000 and 2004. He strongly denied the allegations at the time.