Jill Biden’s first husband, William Stevenson, has been charged with killing his wife, Linda Stevenson, at their Delaware home on Dec. 28, according to Delaware authorities. The announcement came in a news release Tuesday, with Stevenson remaining jailed after failing to post $500,000 bail following his arrest Monday on first-degree murder charges.
Stevenson, 77, is a former husband of Jill Biden. Delaware Attorney General spokesperson Caroline Harrison confirmed to an Associated Press reporter that Stevenson is Jill Biden’s former husband, and the former first lady did not comment, according to an emailed response from a spokesperson at the former president and first lady’s office.
Authorities said police were called to the home after 11 p.m. for a reported domestic dispute. In the earlier announcement, authorities said officers found a woman unresponsive in the living room and that life-saving measures were unsuccessful.
The AP reported that Linda Stevenson ran a bookkeeping business and was described in an obituary as a family-oriented mother and grandmother and a Philadelphia Eagles fan; the obituary did not mention her husband. Stevenson was charged in a grand jury indictment after what Delaware officials described as a weekslong investigation by detectives in the Delaware Department of Justice.
It was not immediately clear to authorities whether Stevenson has a lawyer, the AP reported. The Associated Press also reported that Stevenson founded a popular music venue in Newark called the Stone Balloon in the early 1970s.
In a 2024 interview with the conservative news outlet Newsmax, Stevenson criticized Jill Biden and described their divorce as contentious, calling her “bitter” and “nasty,” according to the AP. Jill Biden later married U.S. Sen. Joe Biden in 1977, and he served as president from January 2021 to January 2025.