Former Virginia politician and wife found dead. What to know about Justin Fairfax
Justin Fairfax, Virginia’s former lieutenant governor, shot and killed his wife before killing himself, police said on Thursday.
Fairfax in 2019 faced a sexual assault accusation by a former Duke University student. He denied the allegation and was pressured to step down from the Board of Visitors of Duke’s school of public policy. Fairfax received his undergraduate degree from Duke in 2000.
In 2022, Fairfax demanded that the university take steps to clear his name and accused Duke of tarnishing his reputation by removing him from the board.
Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis said the couple’s son called 911 shortly after midnight. Fairfax and his wife, Cerina Fairfax, were found dead, the Associated Press reported.
Davis said Justin Fairfax shot Cerina Fairfax “several times” in the basement of the home before moving upstairs into the primary bedroom in the house and killing himself using the same firearm, according to a video posted to the FCPD Facebook page.
The couple’s two teenage children were in the house at the time of the incident, according to Davis.
Davis, in an update, said the situation has been an “ongoing domestic dispute surrounding what seems to be a complicated or messy divorce.”
He said Justin Fairfax was recently served with paperwork relating to an upcoming court proceeding “that apparently led to this incident last night.”
“It’s high-profile in nature. It’s tragic in nature,” Davis said. “Certainly a fall from grace for a relatively high-profile family that seemingly had a lot of things going in their favor.”
Fairfax served as a staffer in the early 2000s for then-U.S. Sen. John Edwards, a Democrat who represented North Carolina. When Edwards was a vice presidential candidate for John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign, Fairfax served as Edwards’ “body man,” according to a 2018 report by Columbia Law School.
The same woman who accused Fairfax of sexual assault while at Duke University also alleged that she was raped by a basketball player, The News & Observer reported in 2019.
Cerina Fairfax graduated from Duke in 1999 before receiving her doctor of dental surgery degree from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2005.
Where to go for help
Contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, available 24/7 in English and Spanish via call or text, if you are experiencing thoughts of suicide.
This story was originally published April 16, 2026 at 10:17 AM.
