US officers imagine the taking pictures associated to the Democratic politician’s ongoing divorce with Cerina Fairfax, a dentist.
Revealed On 16 Apr 2026
Virginia’s former lieutenant governor, Justin Fairfax, has shot and killed his spouse earlier than taking his personal life in an obvious murder-suicide, in keeping with authorities in america.
The 47-year-old politician and his spouse, 49-year-old dentist Cerina Fairfax, have been discovered useless of their house within the Washington, DC, suburb of Annandale in northern Virginia. Their teenage son known as the police shortly after midnight to report the crime.
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Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis stated on Thursday that the incident seems to have been associated to the couple’s ongoing divorce.
“It’s very unhappy for this neighborhood,” Davis stated. “Lots of people who know the Fairfax household. All people’s shocked. We’re shocked.”
The Related Press reported that Cerina and Justin Fairfax had separated in 2024 and filed for divorce final yr, citing a court docket submitting. Police indicated on Thursday that they have been nonetheless dwelling in the identical house with their two youngsters, each of whom have been at house on the time of the shootings.
Fairfax was “just lately served some paperwork related to an upcoming court docket continuing”, Davis defined. “That apparently led to this incident.”
He added that Fairfax’s spouse had put in cameras within the house and that the previous lieutenant governor had known as the police in January, stating that his spouse had assaulted him.
Footage from the cameras disproved that declare, in keeping with Davis.
Fairfax, as soon as seen as an up-and-coming determine within the state’s Democratic Occasion, confronted allegations of sexual assault, beginning in 2019 whereas he was serving as lieutenant governor.
Regardless of resignations from his workers and calls to step down, Fairfax stayed on and served out the rest of his time period in workplace, till 2022. He denounced the allegations in opposition to him as false.
He ran for governor in 2021 however largely disappeared from politics after successful lower than 4 % of the vote.
Thursday’s incident shocked Virginia, with officers expressing condolences for the household of the victims.
“We’re conserving Cerina and Justin Fairfax’s household — particularly their two youngsters — in our prayers as all of us course of this stunning and horrifying information,” Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, Virginia’s representatives within the US Senate, stated in a joint assertion.
The present Lieutenant Governor Ghazala Hashmi additionally known as the information “devastating”.
“My ideas are with their youngsters, family members, and quite a few mates,” she stated. “Together with so many within the [Virginia] Commonwealth, I’m stuffed with sorrow.”
