A disturbing 911 call detailed the moments immediately after Virginia’s former Lieutenant Governor killed his wife and himself in a murder suicide.
Justin Fairfax, a Democrat, shot his dentist spouse Cerina dead in their $1 million Annandale home in the early hours of Thursday. He then turned the gun on himself.
Their son Cameron called 911 just after midnight after he discovered his mother’s blood-covered body lying on the floor, according to audio obtained by the Daily Mail.
A dispatcher detailed how the 16-year-old had said that his dad ‘might have stabbed his mom’. The dispatcher said Cameron had told them that Cerina was ‘lying on the ground bleeding’ and he could ‘see holes in her shirt.’
Cameron added that he did not know where his father was.
When officers arrived on scene, they discovered Cerina unconscious and bleeding in the unfinished basement of the home.
‘The husband’s not gonna be here. It’s gonna look like an obvious D.O.A.,’ a responding medic told dispatch, adding the victim ‘doesn’t have a pulse.’
Fairfax, 47, was found in his bedroom with the firearm and appeared to have suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
Former Lt Gov Justin Fairfax with his wife Cerina, their daughter Carys and son Cameron
Justin Fairfax, a Democrat , shot his dentist spouse Cerina dead in their $1 million Annandale home in the early hours of Thursday
Fairfax County Police Major Crimes Bureau detectives at the family’s home in Annandale
Cameron and his 14-year-old sister Carys were home at the time of the murder, but unharmed. They are being tended to by relatives and victim services.
The circumstances leading up to the deadly shooting remain under investigation. Police say there is no ongoing threat to the community.
Crime scene investigators have cordoned off the residence and remain on scene as they carry out their investigation into the horrific shooting.
Officials with the Fairfax County coroner’s office were seen removing bodies from the home. Autopsies will be conducted to determine the couple’s exact cause of deaths.
The couple had been married for 20 years but separated in June 2024 and were in the midst of what Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis called a ‘messy divorce.’
Cerina, 49, filed for divorce from Fairfax in July last year, alleging that he was a ‘deadbeat’ father and alcoholic, according to court filings obtained by the Daily Mail.
The former lawmaker had been drinking heavily and would lock himself in his home office, only surfacing ‘long enough to get food or smoke cigarettes,’ the divorce document said.
His estranged wife described in the petition how Fairfax was living in squalor, surrounded by ’empty wine bottles, trash and piles of dirty laundry’.
‘It is high profile in nature, it’s tragic in nature. Certainly a fall from grace for a relatively high profile family that seemingly had a lot of things going in their favor,’ Davis said during a press briefing Thursday.
‘So tragic for the children to lose both parents, extra tragic for them to actually be in the home when it occurred.’
the proceedings were underway at the time of their deaths, with court appearances pending for next week.
Cameron, with his father in an undated photo, called 911 after discovering his mother’s blood-covered body just after midnight
A police officer puts cordon tape on a hydrant outside the home of former Virginia Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax
A Fairfax County Police Major Crimes Bureau detective carries an evidence bag out of the home of former Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax
Fairfax was recently served paperwork indicating when he was next due to appear in court which investigators say ‘may have been a spark’ to the deadly act of violence.
The couple had been living together despite being separated and were understood to have separate bedrooms, police said.
They had reportedly been separated since June 2024. The reason for their split was not immediately clear.
Davis said his officers responded to the home in January this year after Fairfax alleged that Cerina assaulted him inside the home.
Investigators determined that the alleged assault never occurred and no arrests were made, police said.
Fairfax, a former federal prosecutor and civil litigator, served as Virginia’s lieutenant governor from 2018 to 2022 under then-governor Ralph Northam.
He was the state’s second most powerful lawmaker during that period.
Fairfax launched his own bid for governor in 2021, but finished fourth in the Democratic primary after his campaign was heavily overshadowed by sexual assault allegations from two women.
Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, followed by his wife Cerina, waves to the crowd as he arrives for his inauguration at the state capitol in Richmond, Virginia in 2018
Fairfax shared this family photo to his Facebook page in 2023 to honor Cerina on Mother’s Day
Fairfax adamantly denied the women’s allegations and said both encounters were entirely consensual. Cerina stood by his side throughout the scandal.
Cerina ran a family dentistry practice in northern Virginia. She graduated from Duke University and the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Dentistry, which honored her in 2015 as its most outstanding alumna of the last decade.
The couple’s tragic deaths stunned political leaders throughout the state.
‘We are keeping Cerina and Justin Fairfax’s family – especially their two children – in our prayers as we all process this shocking and horrifying news,’ Virginia’s Democratic US senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine said in a joint statement.
Fairfax had served as co-chair for Warner’s 2014 reelection campaign.
Ghazala Hashmi, Virginia’s current lieutenant governor, called the deaths devastating.
‘My thoughts are with their children, loved ones, and numerous friends,’ Hashmi said in a statement. ‘Along with so many in the Commonwealth, I am filled with sorrow; I await further insights from our law enforcement officials.’
