On Friday, the family of Dr. Cerina Fairfax released a statement though the Fairfax County police’s Victim Services Division in Virginia asking for privacy and space.
“This is an unimaginably difficult moment for the family, and our attention is on supporting one another. We respectfully ask for privacy and space as we navigate the days ahead,” the statement read.
The statement was in response to the discovery this week of Cerina Fairfax and her husband, former Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, dead in their Annandale home as the result of a murder suicide where Justin Fairfax killed his wife and then turned the gun on himself.
The couple was in the midst of a “messy” divorce.
Fairfax was apparently served paperwork “associated with an upcoming court proceeding,” which may have led to the shooting, Police Chief Kevin Davis said.
In January, Fairfax alleged that his wife assaulted him, an accusation that Davis said was investigated by police and found to be untrue.
The couple were separated while living in the house together, but Justin Fairfax had until the end of April to move out, per a judge’s order.
Cerina Fairfax had testified in court that her husband drank daily, and that his living space was littered with empty wine bottles and piles of dirty laundry. He bought a handgun in 2022 with money intended for horseback riding lessons for their children, court records showed.
According to court documents, Justin Fairfax’s “mental and emotional health” suffered after two setbacks: his unsuccessful 2013 campaign for the Democratic nomination for attorney general and the 2019 sexual assault scandal that ended his political career. After both, he drank heavily and withdrew from his family, but while it took about a month to recover from the first setback, he never bounced back from the second.
The couple’s teenage children, a boy and a girl, were in the house when it happened. Police said neither were physically harmed.
An outpouring of support and sympathy has been left at Dr. Fairfax’s dental office in the days since her murder.
Longtime patients described her as kind, compassionate and deeply caring.
No additional information is being shared by the family at this time.
WTOP’s Will Vitka contributed to this report.
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