It was a horrifying parade. Former Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax shot and killed his wife, Cerina, on Thursday before taking his own life. The murder-suicide has shocked Virginia. The roots of this tragedy trace back to the rape allegations made against Mr. Fairfax by two women during Ralph Northam’s governorship. Although it ended his career, he served out the remainder of his term.
After leaving office in 2022, Mr. Fairfax grew distant, drank heavily, bought a gun, and was ultimately ordered to vacate by April 30 under a judge’s ruling. He separated from his wife in 2024, though they continued to live in the same house in Annandale, Virginia. Fairfax also lost custody of his children but was granted visitation rights amid a messy divorce process (via WaPo):
“Heavy daily alcohol use” had become routine following the end of his term in 2022, and his wife told the court that he had used money meant for horse riding lessons for their children to purchase a gun that year.
Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis said Fairfax shot Cerina Wanzer Fairfax several times in the basement of their home in the Annandale area of Northern Virginia, then shot and killed himself in an upstairs bedroom.
“This has been an ongoing domestic dispute surrounding what seems to be a complicated or messy divorce,” Davis said at a news conference Thursday morning outside the couple’s home.
Justin Fairfax, a Democrat, was elected to Virginia’s second-highest office in 2017, becoming the second African American elected statewide in Virginia. He served with then-governor Ralph Northam and was once a favorite to become the state’s chief executive.
But the sexual assault allegations from years past brought by two women that year upended those hopes, which caused a depressive ripple on his personal life, a Fairfax County Circuit Court judge wrote in a March 30 opinion related to the couple’s divorce proceeding.
Davis said that Fairfax, 47, was recently served paperwork related to that case. The couple, he said, were separated but living together. They married in 2006.
[…]
In January, Davis said, Justin Fairfax called police and reported that he had been assaulted by his wife. Police responded and determined by viewing footage from cameras installed inside the home by Cerina Fairfax that no assault had occurred. Davis said it was the only time the Fairfax police department had been to the home.
That same year, Fairfax bought the gun with his children’s horseback riding lessons money, according to the documents. At some point, he left home with the gun and a suitcase packed with clothes. Cerina, her stepfather and a relative went looking for him.
When Fairfax was later found in a public park near the family’s home, he said the gun was for personal protection, documents show. He also said he took it, according to the court filings, because he didn’t want his children to find it in the family home. The next morning, Fairfax’s brother arranged for a mental health professional to speak with him.
Fairfax shot Cerina several times in the basement of the Annandale home on Thursday morning, before venturing upstairs and shooting himself in the bedroom. The two Fairfax children were in the house when the murder-suicide happened and called 911.
Virginia’s first black lieutenant governor made history again by becoming the first to murder his wife last night. https://t.co/xghohXJHLz
— Luke Rosiak (@lukerosiak) April 16, 2026