The former Lieutenant Governor of Virginia has murdered his estranged wife and killed himself at their $1 million home.
Justin Fairfax, a Democrat, shot his dentist spouse Cerina dead in the unfinished basement of their home in Annandale in the early hours of Thursday, Fairfax County Police said.
The couple's son Cameron, 16, and 14-year-old daughter Carys were home at the time, but unharmed. They are being tended to by relatives and victim services.
Cerina, 49, filed filed for divorce from Fairfax last year and the proceedings were underway at the time of their deaths, with court appearances pending for next week.
Fairfax was recently served paperwork indicating when he was next due to appear in court which investigators say 'may have been a spark' to the deadly act of violence.
The couple had been living together despite being separated and were understood to have separate bedrooms, Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis said.
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
Cerina filed filed for divorce from Fairfax last year and the proceedings were underway at the time of their deaths, with court appearances pending for next week. The couple are seen with their children in an undated photo
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 Cameron 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.
Law enforcement secure the crime scene outside the home of Justin Fairfax on Thursday
Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis, during a press briefing Thursday, said Justin and Cerina Fairfax were in the midst of a seemingly 'complicated or messy divorce'
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.
The Fairfax family at a basketball game at DeMatha Catholic High School in December 2022
Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax answers a question during a Democratic primary debate held in Bristol, Virginia on May 6, 2021
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.