‘A wonderful human being’: Patients honor slain Dr. Cerina Fairfax

Patients of Dr. Cerina Fairfax dropped off flowers outside her closed office door. She was killed by her husband, former Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, police said.

News4 has learned new details on the tragedy and the couple’s divorce proceedings.

People who knew Cerina remembered her as bright and caring. Patients dropped off flowers at the closed door of her family dental practice on Lee Highway.

“I’ve never had a health care provider that would talk to me for like an hour about, you know, everything, and she was just a really great health care provider,” one patient said.

“From my perspective, she was just a wonderful human being,” she added.

As the investigation continues, we’re learning more about what was going on inside the Fairfaxes’ homes in recent years.

Cerina had filed for divorce last summer, saying Justin had slipped into alcoholism and self-isolation, detaching himself from the family following 2019 sexual abuse allegations against him. They are allegations for which he was never charged.

New images from court show piles of cigarette butts outside the family home. Cerina told the court there were times when Justin would only poke out of his isolation to smoke and grab more alcohol, while they continued living in Annandale with their two teen children.

“It definitely sounds like it was a messy divorce. They probably shouldn’t have been living together, but there’s so many reasons that people do,” family law attorney Joey Kirchgessner said. He practices in Virginia but did not work on the couple’s case.

The case was set to move forward next week, though there were ongoing disputes that complicated the case. In Virginia, parents seeking divorce must show the court 12 months of separation prior to being legally divorced.

That separation date was in contention, which Kirchgessner said is common with disputes over money and assets.

“If you have a 401K that’s worth $100,000 on one day but then on another day, two months later, there’s a spike and now it’s worth $200,000, well that makes a big difference of when your separation date is. What are you splitting, right?” he said.

The Fairfaxes’ teen children, who were at home at the time of the shootings, are with their grandparents as detectives work to piece together the tragedy that left them without their mom and dad.

After news broke that former Virginia lt. gov. Justin Fairfax killed his wife and himself, News4’s Jummy Olabanji and Melissa Mollet speak with Dr. Aeva Doomes for a candid conversation on intimate partner violence.

If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline by calling 1-800-799-SAFE (7233), visiting www.thehotline.org or texting LOVEIS to 22522.

If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or chat live at 988lifeline.org. You can also visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for additional support.