Former Virginia lieutenant governor Justin Fairfax and his estranged wife, Cerina Fairfax, are dead following an apparent murder-suicide.
“Officers are on scene of a death investigation,” a police statement read on Thursday, April 16. “An adult male and an adult female were found deceased inside a residence. Preliminarily, all parties are accounted for, and there is no threat to the community. Detectives are investigating.”
Fairfax County police officer Captain Chris Cosgriff, claimed in a secondary statement that Justin, 47, appeared to have “shot the adult female before shooting himself in a domestic related incident.”
“We are withholding the identities until next of kin can be notified,” Cosgriff said. “Anyone who may have information that can assist detectives with their investigation are asked to call crime solvers … additional information will be released on our X account and on the FCPD blog when it’s available.”
The police chief, Chief Kevin Davis, confirmed Justin and Cerina’s identities several hours later.
“Former lieutenant governor Justin Fairfax shot and killed his wife inside their home, and then shot and killed himself,” Davis said in a press conference. “This has been an ongoing domestic dispute surrounding what seems to be a complicated or messy divorce. So far what we know is what you know. There seems to be divorce proceedings that have been ongoing.”
Justin and Cerina, 48, got married in June 2006, later welcoming a son and a daughter.
“From what I understand at this early stage, [Justin] was recently served some paperwork associated with an upcoming court proceeding. That apparently led to the incident last night,” Davis said on Thursday. “Both of their children, teenagers … were in the house when it happened. That’s horrible news for the family, certainly a traumatic event for those children to live through.”
According to Davis, the former politician shot Cerina “several times” before shooting himself in a different room of the house.
Justin previously called the police department in January over an alleged domestic violence altercation amid their divorce proceedings. Davis claimed in Thursday’s press conference that Justin told 911 operators that Cerina physically assaulted him at their house.
“We reviewed the cameras [in the home] and we corroborated that the alleged assault never occurred,” he said. “There was no arrest made, there was a report written but the allegation that Mr. Fairfax made in January that Mrs. Fairfax assaulted him was proven to be untrue.”
Justin served as the lieutenant governor of Virginia from 2018 to 2022. In 2019, multiple women accused the politician of sexual assault, which he publicly denied.
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 for confidential support.
