Justin Fairfax, a former lieutenant governor of Virginia, and his wife, Cerina Fairfax, were found dead at their home in Annandale, police said. Police believe Fairfax shot his wife before turning the gun on himself inside the couple’s $1 million property.
The former Democrat lawmaker, 47, is accused of shooting his dentist wife Cerina Fairfax, 49, dead in the unfinished basement of their home on Guinevere Drive in Annandale in the early hours of Thursday morning. Fairfax County Police said the couple’s teenage son and daughter were at home at the time but were unharmed. They are now being cared for by relatives and victim services. Officers were called to the 8100 block of Guinevere Drive shortly after midnight after the couple’s son Cameron dialled 911 and reportedly said he believed his father had stabbed his mother. When police arrived, they found Cerina unconscious and bleeding in the basement. Officers later determined she had been shot multiple times.
Cameron told responding officers he did not know where his father was.
Justin Fairfax was later found in another area of the home suffering from what police described as an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
Both were pronounced dead at the scene.
Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis said Mr Fairfax shot his wife and then himself.
The circumstances leading up to the deaths remain under investigation, but police said there is no ongoing threat to the community.
Justin Fairfax served as Virginia’s lieutenant governor from 2018 to 2022 under then-governor Ralph Northam.
A former federal prosecutor and civil litigator, he had once been regarded as one of Virginia’s best-known Democratic politicians and was the state’s second most powerful lawmaker during that period.
He later launched a bid to become governor of Virginia in 2021, but finished fourth in the Democratic primary after losing out to former governor Terry McAuliffe.
Fairfax left office in 2022.
Police continue to investigate the full circumstances surrounding the deaths.
