The former Lieutenant Governor of Virginia has taken the life of his estranged wife before ending his own, in their million-dollar residence in Virginia.

Authorities from Fairfax County Police reported that Justin Fairfax, affiliated with the Democratic Party, fatally shot his wife Cerina, a dentist, in the early hours of Thursday. The tragic incident occurred in the unfinished basement of their Annandale home.

During this unfortunate event, the couple’s two children, 16-year-old Cameron and 14-year-old Carys, were present in the house but were unharmed. They are currently under the care of family members and victim support services.

Cerina, aged 49, had initiated divorce proceedings against Fairfax last year, and the legal process was ongoing at the time of their deaths, with court dates scheduled for the following week.

Investigators have suggested that Fairfax’s recent receipt of court appearance documents might have triggered this tragic episode.

Even though the couple had separated, they continued to live under one roof, reportedly occupying separate bedrooms, as stated by Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis.

Davis said his officers responded to the home in January this year after Fairfax alleged that Cerina assaulted him inside the home.

Investigators determined that the alleged assault never occurred and no arrests were made, police said.

Former Virginia Lt Gov Justin Fairfax murdered his wife Cerina in their $1 million Annandale early Thursday morning before turning the gun on himself, police said

Justin Fairfax and his wife Cerina, seen with their daughter Carys and son Cameron

Fairfax, a former federal prosecutor and civil litigator, served as Virginia’s lieutenant governor from 2018 to 2022 under then-governor Ralph Northam. 

He was the state’s second most powerful lawmaker during that period.  

Fairfax launched his own bid for governor in 2021, but finished fourth in the Democratic primary after his campaign was heavily overshadowed by sexual assault allegations from two women.

Fairfax adamantly denied the women’s allegations and said both encounters were entirely consensual. Cerina stood by his side throughout the scandal.

Police descended on the residence just after midnight after Cameron called 911 to say that he thought his father stabbed his mother.

When officers arrived on scene, they discovered Cerina unconscious and bleeding inside the home. Police determined she had been shot.

Cameron told responding officers he did not know where his father was.

Investigators later found Fairfax in a separate area of the home with what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

Both victims were pronounced dead at the scene.

Justin Fairfax launched a failed bid for Virginia governor in 2021. He is seen during the last Democratic primary debate in June that year

Cerina and Justin Fairfax with Carys and Camerson in an undated photo. The children were home at the time of the deadly shooting

Fairfax at the Steelers Training Camp in July 2022. He was born in Pittsburgh but raised in DC

The circumstances leading up to the deadly shooting remain under investigation. Police say there is no ongoing threat to the community. 

‘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,’ Davis said during a press briefing Thursday. 

‘So tragic for the children to lose both parents, extra tragic for them to actually be in the home when it occurred.’ 

The couple had been married for 20 years but were in the midst of what Davis called a seemingly ‘complicated or messy divorce.’

Cerina formally filed for divorce in July last year, but the couple had reportedly been separated since June 2024. The reason for their split was not immediately clear.

Fairfax was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania but raised in Washington DC. 

He studied public policy at Duke University and earned his law degree from Columbia University in 2005.

He worked as a litigation partner in Northern Virginia and DC before serving as a federal prosecutor for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Fairfax, a descendant of slaves, was elected lieutenant governor in 2017, making him the second African American person in Virginia history to win a statewide office.

He was dragged into scandal in 2019 after a photo surfaced from Gov. Ralph Northam’s 1984 medical school yearbook page showing a man in blackface standing next to someone in a Ku Klux Klan hood and robe.

Northam faced calls to resign over the racist photo and issued a public apology, while also denying being either of the individuals in the photograph.

Fairfax, in a statement at the time, said he was ‘shocked and saddened by the images.’

‘As someone whose great-great-great-grandfather was enslaved in Virginia, this episode strikes particularly close to home,’ he wrote. 

‘The Governor needed to apologize, and I am glad that he did so. He also reached out to me personally to express his sincere regrets and to apologize.’

Northam faced near-unanimous calls to resign over the yearbook scandal and Fairfax appeared poised to become Virginia’s governor.

But two women, just days apart, accused Fairfax of sexual assault in February 2019. The allegations did not result in criminal charges.

One accused him of forcing her to perform oral sex in his hotel room during the Democratic National Convention in Boston in 2004. 

The second accused Fairfax of raping her in 2000 while they were students at Duke University. 

Fairfax denied the allegations and filed a $400 million defamation lawsuit against CBS News after the outlet broadcast interviews with his two accusers.

A federal judge threw out the lawsuit in February 2020 after Fairfax failed to prove ‘actual malice.’ 

Both Northam and Fairfax ultimately went on to finish their terms in office.