Content warning: This story discusses sexual assault, violence and suicide. 

A former government official is at the center of a horrific tragedy. 

Justin Fairfax, a democrat who served as Virginia’s lieutenant governor from 2018 to 2022, died in an apparent murder-suicide, shooting and killing his wife Dr. Cerina Fairfax and then himself at the couple’s Annandale home, local authorities confirmed. 

“I know he was served some paperwork,” Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis said in an April 16 press conference. “Apparently the paperwork indicated when he was next to appear in court. That could have been a spark.”

However, police are still determining a motive, with Davis adding, “Detectives will figure out what led to this tragedy here.”

Fairfax, 47, and Cerina, 49, married in 2006 after meeting as students at Duke University. They were parents to two teenage children, a son and a daughter, both of whom were home at the time of the shootings. Police said their son is who placed the initial 911 call. 

Davis emphasized, “A mother shot and killed, taken from her children and then he takes his own life.”