William Morgan
Warning: This article contains discussion of suicide which some readers may find distressing.
The former lieutenant governor of Virginia, Justin Fairfax, has been found dead at his home after shooting his wife in tragic circumstances overnight that police have described as a murder-suicide.
The two teenage children of the high profile state politician and his wife Cerina were at the couple's home in Annandale, Va, when the fatal double shooting took place just after midnight on Thursday (April 16).
“Former Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax shot and killed his wife inside of their home and then shot and killed himself,” Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis told a news conference this morning, confirming that their son had phoned 911 following the shooting.
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47-year-old Justin Fairfax had served as Virginia's lieutenant governor from 2018 to 2022, when his term ended amid a number of sexual assault accusations.
While he refuted the claims dating back to 2000, they ultimately shuttered his 2021 gubernatorial campaign.
Fairfax County Police also published details of the deadly attack at the family home, with the former lieutenant governor shooting his wife dead in the basement before going up to the master bedroom and ending his own life.
While the investigation into the tragic incident is ongoing, Police Chief Davis was able to provide some background information about what may have led to the murder-suicide.
He said it appeared to be a 'domestic dispute surrounding what seems to be a complicated or messy divorce'.
Davis added that the couple had been sleeping in separate bedrooms, NBC reports, with Fairfax recently being served divorce papers telling him when he would next have to appear in court, which the chief thought 'may have been a spark.'
At 10am today, reporters outside the Fairfax home saw two gurneys being rolled out and placed into the back of a white van, while police executed a search warrant of the property and recovered the weapon used in the double killing.
Fairfax's issues outside of politics came to the fore during 2019, when two women came forward with credible allegations of sexual assault dating back to 2000 and 2004, with the first alleging rape when he was a student and the other claiming that he had forced them to commit oral sex at the Democratic National Convention.
This scandal coincided with two others at the very top of Virginia's state government, with then-Governor Northam's old college yearbook revealing images of him in blackface when he was younger.
While politicians at the time called for Northam to resign as a result of the blackface scandal, the assault allegations levelled against his successor, Fairfax, ultimately led to a deadlock at the top of the state government, with no one wanting to oust the Governor, as his replacement was also mired in controversy.
Then, it emerged that the state's third-ranking politician, Virginia's attorney general, had also been pictured doing blackface in college. Despite, or perhaps because of, these issues, all three managed to serve out the rest of their term.
Fairfax had failed to continue his career in politics after these sexual assault allegations emerged, ultimately losing the 2021 Democratic gubernatorial race to Terry McAuliffe, who ultimately lost in the general.
Then, in January of this year, Fairfax called the police and accused his wife of assaulting him. However, officers who turned up to their house said 'that the alleged assault never occurred'.
This was then corroborated by cameras around the property, which had been installed by Cerina as part of the divorce proceedings.
Reflecting on the tragedy this morning, Police Chief David said: “It’s high-profile in nature. 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.
"So tragic for the children to lose both parents, extra tragic for them to actually be in the home when it occurred.”
If you or someone you know is struggling or in a mental health crisis, help is available through Mental Health America. Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org. You can also reach the Crisis Text Line by texting MHA to 741741.