Former Virginia lieutenant governor Justin Fairfax fatally shot his wife, Dr. Cerina Fairfax, before taking his own life at the family’s home in Annandale, Virginia, in the early hours of Thursday, April 17, 2026, according to Fairfax County police. The killings occurred as the couple was in the advanced stages of a contentious divorce, with a court-ordered deadline for Justin Fairfax to vacate the family home weeks away and a three-day asset division trial scheduled to begin the following Monday.
Fairfax County police said that shortly after midnight, Justin Fairfax shot his wife several times in the basement of their home on Guinevere Drive in Annandale. He then went upstairs to the primary bedroom and shot and killed himself with the same firearm. Both Justin Fairfax and Dr. Cerina Fairfax were pronounced dead at the scene. Police recovered cartridge casings and a firearm at the property.
Officers from Fairfax County Police responded after one of the couple’s teenage children placed a 911 call. Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis confirmed at a morning news briefing that both of the couple’s high school-age children were inside the home when the shootings occurred. The 911 caller initially stated that he believed his mother had been stabbed. When officers arrived at the scene, they found bullet casings near the body of Dr. Cerina Fairfax. Justin Fairfax was subsequently found upstairs with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Neither child was physically harmed.
Davis told reporters that there had been an “ongoing domestic dispute surrounding a complicated, messy divorce” between Justin Fairfax and his wife. Davis said that Justin Fairfax had recently been served legal paperwork related to the pending court proceedings, and that the service of that paperwork may have been a contributing factor in the events of that night. Davis described the motive as still under investigation, characterising the legal paperwork as a possible spark while cautioning that detectives were continuing to establish a definitive account. Davis added that he believed the violence had unfolded rapidly, with little or no gap between the shooting of Dr. Cerina Fairfax and the 911 call.
What Fairfax County court records revealed about the divorce proceedings before the Annandale murder-suicide involving Justin Fairfax
Fairfax County court records obtained by multiple news organisations showed that Justin Fairfax and Cerina Fairfax were in the midst of a highly contentious divorce at the time of the killings. A judge had awarded Cerina Fairfax custody of their two children the previous month. The couple were due to return to court on Monday, April 20, 2026, for a three-day hearing concerning the division of marital assets, and Justin Fairfax had been ordered by the court to vacate the family home in Annandale by April 30, 2026.
The couple had been separated but had continued living together in the same home in separate bedrooms during the divorce process. Court filings indicated that the separation had taken place in 2024, with a formal divorce notice issued the following year. Legal filings described Justin Fairfax as engaging in daily alcohol use and characterised him as emotionally withdrawn and “cloistered,” alleging he had made a profound retreat from domestic life that included neglect of family finances and household responsibilities. Justin Fairfax and Dr. Cerina Fairfax had been married for 19 years. They had met while both attending Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.
How a false domestic violence allegation made by Justin Fairfax in January 2026 preceded the April shooting in Annandale
Fairfax County police had previously responded to the Annandale home earlier in 2026. In January, Justin Fairfax called police and alleged that his wife had assaulted him. Dr. Cerina Fairfax had installed surveillance cameras throughout the home during the divorce process. Davis said responding officers reviewed the footage and determined that the alleged assault had never occurred. No charges were filed in connection with that incident. Davis confirmed that the same camera system captured footage relevant to the investigation of the April 17, 2026, shooting.
The January incident now forms a significant part of the investigative timeline. The decision by Dr. Cerina Fairfax to install cameras in the family home, a step she is understood to have taken as a precautionary measure during the breakdown of the marriage, not only disproved the assault allegation made against her at the time but also provided investigators with a contemporaneous visual record of the events of April 17, 2026. Davis told reporters that the footage had already corroborated the account provided by the couple’s son in his 911 call. The presence of that footage is expected to assist the Fairfax County Police Major Crimes Bureau as it works to establish a complete timeline of events leading up to the shooting.
Who was Dr. Cerina Fairfax, the Fairfax County dentist and mother killed in Annandale, Virginia
Dr. Cerina Fairfax was 49 years old at the time of her death. She earned her doctor of dental surgery degree from Virginia Commonwealth University’s Medical College of Virginia School of Dentistry in 2005 and maintained a private dental practice in Fairfax, Virginia. According to her practice’s website, she was committed to community outreach programmes and had personal interests that included trail running, reading, and Bikram yoga.
Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger described Dr. Cerina Fairfax as a devoted mother, a beloved dentist in the Fairfax County community, and an engaged supporter of her alma mater, Virginia Commonwealth University. Community members described her as brilliant and noted that she was a well-regarded figure among Black female dentists in the Northern Virginia area.
Justin Fairfax’s political career as Virginia’s 41st lieutenant governor and the sexual assault allegations that ended his political future
Justin Fairfax was 47 years old at the time of his death. He served as the 41st lieutenant governor of Virginia from 2018 to 2022. He had previously worked as a private attorney and assistant district attorney before first running for office in 2013 in the Virginia attorney general’s race, where he lost by approximately 4,500 votes. He won his 2017 bid for lieutenant governor and became only the second Black American elected to statewide office in Virginia’s history.
Fairfax was a law school graduate from Columbia University in New York City. Before entering Virginia politics, he had worked on Democratic political campaigns, clerked for a federal judge, and served as a staff member on the United States Senate’s Judiciary Committee.
In early 2019, while serving under Governor Ralph Northam, Justin Fairfax faced accusations of sexual assault from two women. The alleged assaults were said to have occurred in 2000 and 2004. Fairfax denied the accusations and characterised them as a coordinated smear campaign. He defied calls from members of both parties to resign, and the allegations were never tested in civil or criminal court proceedings. Justin Fairfax was never criminally charged in connection with the allegations and remained in office until his term concluded in 2022. He ran for governor in 2021 but lost in the Democratic primary.
How Virginia’s political community and elected officials responded to the death of Cerina Fairfax and the killing by former lieutenant governor Justin Fairfax
Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger described the murder of Dr. Cerina Fairfax in an apparent murder-suicide as a horrific tragedy and said she was deeply saddened. Spanberger called on fellow Virginians to hold the Fairfax children in their hearts and prayers.
United States Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine of Virginia released a joint statement in which they said they were keeping Cerina and Justin Fairfax’s family, especially their two children, in their prayers as they and the country processed the news. Warner separately described the development as “awful news” and said he and Kaine had spoken and were both shocked. Former Virginia Governor Ralph Northam said he and his wife Pam were “devastated by this heartbreaking news” and that he had had the privilege of knowing the Fairfax family during the period when their families had served in public office together.
Virginia House Speaker Don Scott called the killings “an unspeakable tragedy” and said his heart was with the family, particularly the children and loved ones whose lives had been permanently changed. Virginia Lieutenant Governor Ghazala Hashmi said the news had shaken the commonwealth and extended her thoughts to the children, loved ones, and friends of the Fairfax family.
Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis described Justin Fairfax as someone who had once been considered a rising political star in Northern Virginia and across the state, and characterised the events of April 17, 2026, as a fall from grace for a relatively high-profile family that had appeared to have considerable promise.
The investigation is being conducted by the Fairfax County Police Major Crimes Bureau. The inquiry remains active and ongoing.
What the murder-suicide of Cerina Fairfax and former Virginia lieutenant governor Justin Fairfax means for domestic violence awareness and public accountability in the United States
- Justin Fairfax, who served as the 41st lieutenant governor of Virginia from 2018 to 2022 and was the second Black American elected to statewide office in Virginia, fatally shot his wife Dr. Cerina Fairfax before shooting himself at the family’s Annandale home shortly after midnight on April 17, 2026, while their two teenage children were present in the house.
- Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis confirmed the killings occurred amid an active and contentious divorce, with Justin Fairfax recently served legal paperwork related to pending court proceedings, a court-ordered departure deadline of April 30 from the family home, and an asset division trial set for the following Monday.
- A January 2026 domestic incident in which Justin Fairfax alleged his wife had assaulted him was determined by police to be unsubstantiated after a review of interior surveillance footage installed by Dr. Cerina Fairfax; no charges were filed at that time.
- Court filings from the divorce proceedings documented daily alcohol use and a prolonged withdrawal from family responsibilities attributed to Justin Fairfax, with the court having granted Cerina Fairfax custody of the couple’s children the month prior to the killings.
- Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger, United States Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, Virginia House Speaker Don Scott, Virginia Lieutenant Governor Ghazala Hashmi, and former Virginia Governor Ralph Northam all issued statements expressing grief, shock, and condolences to the Fairfax family, particularly the couple’s two children.
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