A 16-year-old boy called 911 just after midnight to report that his mother was lying on the ground bleeding, and that his father might have attacked her. The caller was Cameron Fairfax, son of former Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax and his estranged wife, Cerina. Both parents were dead before the night was over.
Fairfax County police say Justin Fairfax, 47, shot Cerina Fairfax, 49, in the unfinished basement of their $1 million Annandale home before going upstairs to a bedroom and turning the gun on himself. Their 14-year-old daughter, Carys, was also in the 2,000-square-foot house. Neither child was physically harmed.
The deaths mark a violent end to what Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis called a "messy divorce", one that court filings show had been escalating for months, with allegations of financial ruin, heavy drinking, and a handgun purchase made with money meant for the couple's children.
Audio obtained by the Daily Mail reveals the dispatcher relaying Cameron's report in real time. The teenager told the operator his father "might have stabbed his mom," that Cerina was "lying on the ground bleeding," and that he could "see holes in her shirt." He said he did not know where his father was.
Officers arrived and found Cerina dead in the basement. They then located Justin Fairfax in an upstairs bedroom. The New York Post reported that police radio traffic captured an officer's words from the scene:
"We got another subject down in the bedroom upstairs, I think this is gonna be our subject. He's got a firearm with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head."
Chief Davis said one of the teenage children was the 911 caller shortly after midnight and described parts of what happened. He said detectives have since corroborated some of those details.
Fox News reported that investigators believe multiple cameras inside the Fairfax home were active during the fatal attack and may have captured evidence. Davis described the scene as "very chaotic" and said he believed the cameras were rolling.
Police said they believe the same gun was used to kill Cerina and then Justin Fairfax. Autopsies will be conducted by the Fairfax County coroner's office to determine the exact cause and manner of each death. Fairfax County police said there is no ongoing threat to the community.
The couple had been married for 20 years. They separated in June 2024, and Cerina filed for divorce the following month. What the court filings describe is not a routine uncoupling, it is a portrait of a household in freefall.
Cerina alleged in those filings that Justin Fairfax had "chosen not to be a productive member of the family and that the dictionary definition of 'deadbeat' was accurate as applied to him." She accused him of defaulting on the mortgage, dodging household bills, and drinking heavily. The filings described him locking himself in his home office, only surfacing "long enough to get food or smoke cigarettes," surrounded by "empty wine bottles, trash and piles of dirty laundry."
A judge noted in the court filings that Fairfax did not dispute the claims Cerina made against him. As previously reported here, the couple's deteriorating situation had drawn police attention well before the fatal night.
One allegation stands out in hindsight. In 2022, Cerina alleged that Justin Fairfax spent money earmarked for their children's horseback riding lessons on a handgun. It remains unclear whether that firearm was the same weapon found with him on the night of the shootings.
AP News reported that a judge had written in a March 30 order that "it is clear tensions in the Fairfax home have been extremely high for an extended period of time." That order required Justin Fairfax to move out of the family home by the end of April. Court records show the couple were due back in court next week.
Chief Davis said court paperwork recently served on Fairfax "may have been a spark." In January, officers had responded to the home after Fairfax alleged that Cerina assaulted him inside the residence. Investigators determined the alleged assault never occurred, and no arrests were made.
Justin Fairfax served as Virginia's lieutenant governor from 2018 to 2022, holding office under then-Gov. Ralph Northam. He arrived at the state capitol in Richmond for his inauguration as a rising figure in Virginia's Democratic establishment, a former federal prosecutor and civil litigator who had served as co-chair for Sen. Mark Warner's 2014 reelection campaign.
That trajectory stalled before his term ended. Two women made sexual assault allegations against Fairfax. He denied the claims. He launched a bid for governor in 2021 and finished fourth in the Democratic primary.
Cerina Fairfax, meanwhile, had built her own professional reputation. A Duke University graduate, she earned her dental degree from Virginia Commonwealth University's School of Dentistry, which honored her in 2015 as its most outstanding alumna of the last decade. She ran a family dentistry practice in northern Virginia.
The contrast between the couple's public accomplishments and the private dysfunction described in court filings is stark. National Review noted that police described the incident as a murder-suicide connected to an ongoing domestic dispute and the divorce proceedings.
Virginia's two Democratic U.S. senators issued a joint statement. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine said:
"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 current lieutenant governor, Ghazala Hashmi, said her thoughts were with the children, loved ones, and friends of the Fairfax family. She added that she was "filled with sorrow" and awaited "further insights from our law enforcement officials." The political world in Richmond has had no shortage of controversy in recent years, but nothing quite like this.
Chief Davis readily conveyed the emotional toll on the two teenagers who were left behind. He called the case "high profile in nature" and "tragic in nature," describing it as a "fall from grace for a relatively high profile family that seemingly had a lot of things going in their favor."
"So tragic for the children to lose both parents, extra tragic for them to actually be in the home when it occurred."
Fairfax County Police Major Crimes Bureau detectives remained on scene. Officials from the coroner's office were seen removing bodies from the home. The investigation continues.
Open questions persist. What specific paperwork was recently served on Justin Fairfax, and when? What will the autopsy results show? Will the home surveillance cameras provide a definitive account of what happened in those early-morning hours? And what becomes of two teenagers, 16 and 14, who lost both parents in a single night inside their own home?
Virginia's political class will process this in the way political classes always do, with statements, condolences, and a quick pivot back to business. The state's Democratic leadership has plenty of other controversies to manage.
But two children cannot pivot. They are the ones who will carry this. And the system that saw the warning signs, the filings, the police calls, the court orders, the escalation plain on paper, did not stop it in time.
