Former Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax (D) died after fatally shooting his estranged wife, Cerina Fairfax, before taking his own life inside their Virginia home, according to authorities.
Police said the shooting happened early Thursday morning at the family’s residence in Annandale while the couple’s two children were inside the house.
Both Justin Fairfax, 47, and Cerina Fairfax, 49, were pronounced dead at the scene.
The incident came just weeks before Fairfax was under court order to move out of the $1 million marital home by the end of April as part of the couple’s ongoing divorce proceedings.
Court records cited in reports indicate the pair had been separated for two years but were still living under the same roof.
A judge previously described tensions in the household as “extremely high for an extended period of time” and ordered Fairfax to vacate the residence.
The same records reportedly painted a troubling picture of Fairfax’s mental state.
A judge wrote that he had displayed “a sense of fatalism and hopelessness.”
Friends also told reporters that Fairfax had become increasingly withdrawn after his wife filed for divorce last year.
According to those accounts, he had been drinking heavily, isolating himself, and allowing his room to fill with empty wine bottles and clutter.
Police said the couple’s 16-year-old son called 911 shortly after midnight, initially believing his father had stabbed his mother.
When officers arrived, they found Cerina Fairfax unconscious and bleeding inside the home.
Investigators later determined she had been shot.
Officers then found Fairfax in another area of the house with what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The tragedy marks a dramatic and devastating end to the political career of a once-rising Democratic figure.
Fairfax served as lieutenant governor of Virginia from 2018 to 2022 under Governor Ralph Northam, per the Daily Mail.
At one point, he was considered a potential future governor and rising star within the Democratic Party.
That trajectory changed in 2019 when two women accused Fairfax of sexual assault.
One alleged he forced her to perform oral sex in 2004, while another accused him of rape during their time at Duke University in 2000.
Fairfax denied all allegations and said the encounters were consensual.
No criminal charges were filed.
He later launched a $400 million defamation lawsuit against CBS News after the network aired interviews with the accusers, but the case was dismissed.
Despite the scandals, Fairfax completed his term in office, though his 2021 gubernatorial campaign collapsed and he finished fourth in the Democratic primary.
Cerina Fairfax had publicly stood by him during the earlier political controversies.
