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Editor’s note: This story references domestic violence and suicide. If you or someone you know is struggling with this issue, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or text “START” to 88788. The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline can be called or texted at 988. You can also visit the website

Two years before Dr. Cerina Fairfax was shot and killed by her husband, former Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, she had tried to leave him.


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Former Virginia lieutenant governor Justin Fairfax is one of two people found dead early this morning (Thursday) after an apparent murder-suicide in Annandale.

Fairfax, 47, shot and killed his wife, 49-year-old Cerina Wanzer Fairfax, before turning the gun on himself inside the family’s home in the 8100 block of Guinevere Drive, the Fairfax County Police Department confirmed.


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Four men — each younger than 25 years old — were taken into custody last week after a non-fatal shooting in Bailey’s Crossroads, police said.

Officers responded Thursday afternoon (March 19) to the 5500 block of Seminary Road after one man was reported to have been shot. Another man at the scene was reportedly assaulted, according to the Fairfax County Police Department.


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A Fairfax County Circuit Court judge has accepted an Arlington man’s plea agreement of not guilty by reason of insanity in the murder of nonprofit CEO Gret Glyer.

The decision finalized yesterday (Thursday) resulted in the formal acquittal of Joshua Danehower, who had been charged with one count each of second-degree murder and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.


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Police have made arrests in connection to two different Springfield-area shootings earlier this month.

Suspects in both the Feb. 6 incident in the 7600 block of Cork Glen Way and a Feb. 13 incident at Springfield Town Center have been taken into custody, the Fairfax County Police Department recently announced.


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Two juveniles have been arrested in connection to the shooting of a man in Springfield earlier this afternoon (Friday).

The two suspects were taken into custody less than a mile away from the 7600 block of Cork Glen Way, where the shooting was reported, just after 2 p.m.


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A Herndon man faces life in prison after being convicted today (Monday) of murdering his wife and another man while having an affair with the family’s au pair.

After a trial that spanned more than two weeks, it took just one-and-a-half days for the 12-person jury to return a verdict against Brendan Banfield, finding the 40-year-old former IRS officer guilty for the February 2023 murders of Christine Banfield and Joseph Ryan.


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By OLIVIA DIAZ and TRAVIS LOLLER Associated Press

FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — Jurors began deliberating Friday on whether a former IRS law enforcement officer in Virginia conspired with his family’s Brazilian au pair, with whom he was having an affair, to kill his wife and pin it on a stranger.


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By OLIVIA DIAZ Associated Press/Report for America

FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — In the cold formality of a northern Virginia courtroom, Brendan Banfield testified on Thursday that prosecutors got it wrong: He did not fatally stab his wife in 2023, but instead shot the man who did.


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The Herndon man accused of killing his wife and another man while having an affair with their au pair denied planning to take his wife out of the picture in court yesterday (Wednesday).

Though Brendan Banfield was forthcoming about his months-long affair with co-defendant Juliana Peres Magalhaes, he firmly rejected the idea that he had planned the killing of his wife, Christine Banfield.


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