Former Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax - murder/suicide?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I believe his wife was a dentist. The best thing you can do is get out as fast as you can after you file if you're afraid for your life. File a restraining order and take the kids. Men are predators who will kill you while pregnant or going through a divorce. Virginia judges are not pro-women.

I was abused by my wife so women are predators as well. Thank you for ignoring me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Could there be processes that get guns temporarily confiscated during family law proceedings if there has been red flag behaviors like alcoholism and fights? Just getting rid of the easy access might help in situations like this.

Virginia has red flag laws. But someone has to feel comfortable making the report without fear of retaliation. The person responsible for half your kids' tuition and the mortgage - you comfortable reporting on them?

She was a dentist, FFS. Of course she could afford to walk away, rent a small apartment, either cover kids' tuition by herself or put them into public school for a period of divorce. This is really bothers me - according to the article, she knew he purchased the gun in 2022. She knew for at least several months he was heavy drinker. She knew that he does not value human lives. Why was she staying in the same house with him?

DV survivor. No you absolutely cannot do this. It's called kidnapping and a court would eviscerate you for taking such drastic actions. An abusive partner will use the courts to attempt to take the kids from you too.

+1. You are often advised to not leave the house. And then parents are often awarded 50/50 custody. So a worry of a lot of parents is that the other one has the kids in a bad situation alone. That’s not good either. We are all just guessing and either way- this situation is terrible for those children. Don’t look back and say why didn’t she do this. That’s not helpful to the kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Could there be processes that get guns temporarily confiscated during family law proceedings if there has been red flag behaviors like alcoholism and fights? Just getting rid of the easy access might help in situations like this.

Virginia has red flag laws. But someone has to feel comfortable making the report without fear of retaliation. The person responsible for half your kids' tuition and the mortgage - you comfortable reporting on them?

She was a dentist, FFS. Of course she could afford to walk away, rent a small apartment, either cover kids' tuition by herself or put them into public school for a period of divorce. This is really bothers me - according to the article, she knew he purchased the gun in 2022. She knew for at least several months he was heavy drinker. She knew that he does not value human lives. Why was she staying in the same house with him?

DV survivor. No you absolutely cannot do this. It's called kidnapping and a court would eviscerate you for taking such drastic actions. An abusive partner will use the courts to attempt to take the kids from you too.

+1. You are often advised to not leave the house. And then parents are often awarded 50/50 custody. So a worry of a lot of parents is that the other one has the kids in a bad situation alone. That’s not good either. We are all just guessing and either way- this situation is terrible for those children. Don’t look back and say why didn’t she do this. That’s not helpful to the kids.

I know nothing about the actual situation. But it is absolutely incorrect to say that a domestic violence victim cannot legally move out with the kids. Please consult actual lawyers and DV advocates, not the internet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I didn't read the entire thread--a lot of it, but not all--so my apologies if someone else already said this.

She is a dentist. That means she works in a place that has to be publicly known in order for her to get patients. IOW, it's not a job in which she can work from home or a domestic violence shelter. Even if she only saw existing patients who were willing to come to her, she's not going to have the equipment she needs to treat them.

In that case, an order of protection or just moving out is of limited use. She can move out of their shared home, but he knows exactly where she's going to be most of the day most days. An order of protection isn't going to stop a man angry enough to murder her sitting in the parking lot waiting for her to go into or come out of the building or, worse, storming into her office and shooting her in front of her co-workers. There are a gazillion women with protection orders who moved out of a shared abode and were killed at work or en route to/from work by enraged ex boyfriends and husbands.

Plus, they have kids. Even if she took them with her, he knows where they go to school and she might worry that he will pressure them to tell him where she is if she does stay out of work. Shooting your kids to punish a wife you're angry with isn't rare.

So, I wish those of you who are blaming her for not leaving and saying that was an easy solution would stop.

This exact thing happened to my aunt. Her abusive ex-husband killed her and then himself in a parking lot shortly after they divorced. The people who are blaming her do not understand these dynamics and need to just stop.

I knew a friend of a friend who was murdered while she was moving out of a shared apartment. She even had people with her to help, it just happened really, really quickly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Could there be processes that get guns temporarily confiscated during family law proceedings if there has been red flag behaviors like alcoholism and fights? Just getting rid of the easy access might help in situations like this.

Virginia has red flag laws. But someone has to feel comfortable making the report without fear of retaliation. The person responsible for half your kids' tuition and the mortgage - you comfortable reporting on them?

She was a dentist, FFS. Of course she could afford to walk away, rent a small apartment, either cover kids' tuition by herself or put them into public school for a period of divorce. This is really bothers me - according to the article, she knew he purchased the gun in 2022. She knew for at least several months he was heavy drinker. She knew that he does not value human lives. Why was she staying in the same house with him?

DV survivor. No you absolutely cannot do this. It's called kidnapping and a court would eviscerate you for taking such drastic actions. An abusive partner will use the courts to attempt to take the kids from you too.

+1. You are often advised to not leave the house. And then parents are often awarded 50/50 custody. So a worry of a lot of parents is that the other one has the kids in a bad situation alone. That’s not good either. We are all just guessing and either way- this situation is terrible for those children. Don’t look back and say why didn’t she do this. That’s not helpful to the kids.

I know nothing about the actual situation. But it is absolutely incorrect to say that a domestic violence victim cannot legally move out with the kids. Please consult actual lawyers and DV advocates, not the internet.

The previous poster was advising kidnapping the kids

[Anonymous]

I'm really irritated by all the social media posts I'm seeing blaming the rape victims for this as though 1) they weren't actually telling the truth and 2) that somehow explains murder.

[Anonymous]

Just pointing out that 48 hours has past, and the site's rule about remarks made after a person has died no longer applies.


So, I'd just like to say that Justin Fairfax is a horrible piece of trash, and I wish he'd done us all a favor and removed himself from his family, friends, and Virginia far sooner.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Could there be processes that get guns temporarily confiscated during family law proceedings if there has been red flag behaviors like alcoholism and fights? Just getting rid of the easy access might help in situations like this.

Virginia has red flag laws. But someone has to feel comfortable making the report without fear of retaliation. The person responsible for half your kids' tuition and the mortgage - you comfortable reporting on them?

She was a dentist, FFS. Of course she could afford to walk away, rent a small apartment, either cover kids' tuition by herself or put them into public school for a period of divorce. This is really bothers me - according to the article, she knew he purchased the gun in 2022. She knew for at least several months he was heavy drinker. She knew that he does not value human lives. Why was she staying in the same house with him?

DV survivor. No you absolutely cannot do this. It's called kidnapping and a court would eviscerate you for taking such drastic actions. An abusive partner will use the courts to attempt to take the kids from you too.

+1. You are often advised to not leave the house. And then parents are often awarded 50/50 custody. So a worry of a lot of parents is that the other one has the kids in a bad situation alone. That’s not good either. We are all just guessing and either way- this situation is terrible for those children. Don’t look back and say why didn’t she do this. That’s not helpful to the kids.

I know nothing about the actual situation. But it is absolutely incorrect to say that a domestic violence victim cannot legally move out with the kids. Please consult actual lawyers and DV advocates, not the internet.

The previous poster was advising kidnapping the kids

It’s not “kidnapping” if you are protecting the kids from imminent violence and/or you get emergency custody orders. And yes consult with lawyers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm really irritated by all the social media posts I'm seeing blaming the rape victims for this as though 1) they weren't actually telling the truth and 2) that somehow explains murder.

+1. The story goes that Justin Fairfax was so despondent over these “false allegations” that he “spiraled into mental illness” and then just had to kill the mother of his children. PUHLEESE. Murder suicide is not about mental illness, it’s about control. If I can’t have it, you can’t either.

Now that the 48 hours is up, let’s just say I had the ick on this guy and I feel vindicated. The way he made it absolutely clear that he felt entitled to the governorship after Northam’s blackface scandal came out as a matter of racial justice, all the while knowing he had multiple and more recent gender violence skeletons in his own closet, just struck me as so cynical and gross. This guy amplified Republican crap, lead the pile on, and went after an objectively decent man who was doing good for Virginians because it served his own ambitions.

Not to excuse what Northam did one bit, but the 80s in the South was a different time. The consensus on blackface being unequivocally bad is a relatively recent cultural development. He was caught flat footed and rightfully paid the price.

But we all knew rape and assault were bad in the 2000s.

Both men saw the end of their political careers, but Northam at least had a legacy of distinguished service to marginalized populations that he could fall back on. Fairfax apparently was a miserable, lying drunk whose own wife installed cameras in her home to protect herself.

It’s not like law firms shy away from aggressive lawyers with checkered pasts - people saw through this guy. All of his charm just hid the fact he was a narcissist who served no one it himself, and when people started to see that, he was cooked. Look at all the “friends” who wanted nothing to do with him after the scandal came out. Everyone suspected it was true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is reported they were in the middle of a messy divorce. So awful.

Ugh. Another layer of awful.

In Virginia, you must be separated for a year in order to get divorced and you can live in the same house while being separated (if you move you it can be seen by the court as abandoning your claim to the house, happened to my cousin). Reports are that the couple had started this process so I am not surprised they were both still living in the house.

Fairfax made an accusation against his wife earlier this year that she had physically assaulted him. Apparently she had cameras in the house and after reviewing the footage the police determined the assault claim wasn't valid and there was a scheduled upcoming court date re this incident which could be what triggered the current awful events.

There were 2 teen sons in the house. This is absolutely awful.

I hope this is a wake up call to change the law re: leaving the home. It forces women into staying in a potentially very dangerous situation.

This

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is reported they were in the middle of a messy divorce. So awful.

Ugh. Another layer of awful.

In Virginia, you must be separated for a year in order to get divorced and you can live in the same house while being separated (if you move you it can be seen by the court as abandoning your claim to the house, happened to my cousin). Reports are that the couple had started this process so I am not surprised they were both still living in the house.

Fairfax made an accusation against his wife earlier this year that she had physically assaulted him. Apparently she had cameras in the house and after reviewing the footage the police determined the assault claim wasn't valid and there was a scheduled upcoming court date re this incident which could be what triggered the current awful events.

There were 2 teen sons in the house. This is absolutely awful.

I hope this is a wake up call to change the law re: leaving the home. It forces women into staying in a potentially very dangerous situation.

That and the 1 year separation. What is the purpose??
Tragic.

Maryland recently shortened their one year separation requirement to six months if there are no children in the marriage. I think the rationale is that the state has an interest in wanting couples to be sure they need to get a divorce before they do? Not supporting this.

Or make sure you aren’t currently pregnant

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I didn't read the entire thread--a lot of it, but not all--so my apologies if someone else already said this.

She is a dentist. That means she works in a place that has to be publicly known in order for her to get patients. IOW, it's not a job in which she can work from home or a domestic violence shelter. Even if she only saw existing patients who were willing to come to her, she's not going to have the equipment she needs to treat them.

In that case, an order of protection or just moving out is of limited use. She can move out of their shared home, but he knows exactly where she's going to be most of the day most days. An order of protection isn't going to stop a man angry enough to murder her sitting in the parking lot waiting for her to go into or come out of the building or, worse, storming into her office and shooting her in front of her co-workers. There are a gazillion women with protection orders who moved out of a shared abode and were killed at work or en route to/from work by enraged ex boyfriends and husbands.

Plus, they have kids. Even if she took them with her, he knows where they go to school and she might worry that he will pressure them to tell him where she is if she does stay out of work. Shooting your kids to punish a wife you're angry with isn't rare.

So, I wish those of you who are blaming her for not leaving and saying that was an easy solution would stop.

This exact thing happened to my aunt. Her abusive ex-husband killed her and then himself in a parking lot shortly after they divorced. The people who are blaming her do not understand these dynamics and need to just stop.

I knew a friend of a friend who was murdered while she was moving out of a shared apartment. She even had people with her to help, it just happened really, really quickly.

In my nice suburban 4-bedroom house neighborhood in Western PA, an ex-husband showed up at his former mother-in-law's house and killed his ex-wife and shot his ex-MIL. His ex-wife had moved in with her mother. There was also a dentist who deliberately killed his wife...I don't remember the details.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if there were cameras in the basement as that is where he killed her.

I hope there is a watershed of information on when he got his gun and other indications of violence escalation. Somehow I don't believe like others have suggested that he just "snapped." His world was crumbling and he wasn't going down alone. At least he spared his children, but to what a traumatized future at that.

He’s an anti gun champion so really interested on how he obtained the murder weapon

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is reported they were in the middle of a messy divorce. So awful.

Ugh. Another layer of awful.

In Virginia, you must be separated for a year in order to get divorced and you can live in the same house while being separated (if you move you it can be seen by the court as abandoning your claim to the house, happened to my cousin). Reports are that the couple had started this process so I am not surprised they were both still living in the house.

Fairfax made an accusation against his wife earlier this year that she had physically assaulted him. Apparently she had cameras in the house and after reviewing the footage the police determined the assault claim wasn't valid and there was a scheduled upcoming court date re this incident which could be what triggered the current awful events.

There were 2 teen sons in the house. This is absolutely awful.

I hope this is a wake up call to change the law re: leaving the home. It forces women into staying in a potentially very dangerous situation.

That and the 1 year separation. What is the purpose??
Tragic.

Maryland recently shortened their one year separation requirement to six months if there are no children in the marriage. I think the rationale is that the state has an interest in wanting couples to be sure they need to get a divorce before they do? Not supporting this.

Virginia has that law too. Six months with no kids, but that wouldn't have changed anything here.

In Virginia if you file for divorce on grounds like cruelty there's no separation period, but then you're basically litigating almost a DV case (it's not quite that hard, but it's not easy) plus handling the difficulties of divorce.

Hopefully without wading too much into the controversy, I do hope this case highlights how dangerous the period after separation is for women in divorce cases in far too many cases, and perhaps has an impact on Virginia law. It's not just the ability to physically leave - there's so much more, though certainly not less.

She filed one year and one day after the date of separation. They had been separated since June/July 2024 according to her filing, so she filed in July 2025. It appears the issue may have been over the house, and if either of them left/moved out they abandon their rights to claim it. This is what kept her in jeopardy if she felt she couldn't leave. The required separation time was over.

So terribly unfortunate. Money is not worth all that, she obviously felt in danger she should have left

[Anonymous]

What a disgusting narcissist. It was only ever "me, me, me" with him. No regard for the women he hurt, no regard for his wife or even his children. Horrible, horrible human. So sorry for Cerina and those kids.