Two Teens Lost Both Parents in One Night as Fairfax Divorce Turned Fatal

Shortly after midnight on April 16, 2026, a teenage boy called 911 from his family’s home in Annandale, Virginia, saying he believed his mother had been stabbed. When Fairfax County police officers arrived at the house on Guinevere Drive, they found bullet casings near a woman’s body in the basement - and, upstairs in the primary bedroom, her husband dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The woman was Dr. Cerina Fairfax, 49, a practicing dentist with a private office in Fairfax County. The man was her husband of 19 years, Justin Fairfax, 47 - a former lieutenant governor of Virginia. Both of their teenage children were home when it happened.

Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis identified Justin Fairfax as the shooter and confirmed the incident as a murder-suicide. “This has been an ongoing domestic dispute surrounding what seems to be a complicated or messy divorce,” Davis said at a press conference Thursday morning.

A Marriage in Documented Collapse

Cerina Fairfax filed for divorce in July 2025. Court records obtained by multiple outlets reveal a marriage that had been deteriorating for years. According to those filings, Justin Fairfax drank daily, and his personal living space inside the shared home was described as cluttered with empty wine bottles and piles of laundry. A judge had ordered him to vacate the family home by the end of April 2026 - he had not yet left.

In January, Fairfax called police to report that his wife had assaulted him. Cerina had installed cameras in the home - placed there prior to the January domestic incident, according to police. No charges were filed against her.

Davis confirmed that Fairfax had recently been served with paperwork related to upcoming court dates, which police believe may have been a factor in what happened that night. “Mr. Fairfax was served some type of paperwork indicating when he was scheduled to next appear in court for the ongoing divorce proceedings,” Davis said. “That is something that we’re looking at as something that may have led to what happened.”

A Political Rise, Then a Long Fall

Justin Fairfax was once considered one of the most promising figures in Virginia Democratic politics. He was elected lieutenant governor in 2017, becoming only the second Black American in the state’s history to hold the position. He served under Governor Ralph Northam until 2022.

In 2019, two women publicly accused Fairfax of sexual assault - allegations he denied and was never criminally charged for. The scandal effectively ended his political ambitions. Close friends told The Washington Post that in the years that followed, he became increasingly consumed with clearing his name, and that preoccupation deepened his isolation from his family and accelerated his withdrawal from public life.

He never ran for office again.

Children Left Behind

Police described the incident as “traumatic” for the couple’s two teenage children. Victims’ services personnel were working with the teens and with other family members.

“This is certainly a fall from grace for a relatively high-profile family that seemingly had a lot of things going for them,” Davis said. “Tragic for the children to lose both parents. Extra tragic for them to actually be in the home when it occurred.”

Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger called Cerina Fairfax “a devoted mother, beloved dentist in the Fairfax County community.” Former Governor Ralph Northam, who had served alongside Justin Fairfax, said he and his wife were “devastated by this heartbreaking news.”

A Warning Weeks in the Making

Court documents now show what was, in hindsight, a documented escalation. A judge had recognized the risk to Cerina Fairfax and ordered her husband to leave their home. The cameras she installed were not placed there without reason. The January 911 call was not her first concern.

“Half of America probably goes through divorce proceedings at some point in time,” Davis said at the Thursday morning briefing, “and very, very rarely, thankfully, does it ever end up like this.”

The children who were home that night know better than anyone how quickly rarely can become always.

References: Former Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax kills wife, fatally shoots self, police say | Ex-Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax kills wife and himself amid divorce proceedings, police say