Jill Biden’s first husband held without bail after being charged in wife’s killing

William Stevenson is shown in this undated photo released by New Castle County Police, Del., on Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026. (New Castle County Police via AP)

WILMINGTON, Del. - A Delaware man who was once married to former first lady Jill Biden decades ago remains in jail on first-degree murder charges as authorities investigate the death of his wife, who was found unresponsive in their home late last year.

William Stevenson, 77, of Wilmington was charged Monday in a grand jury indictment with killing his wife, Linda Stevenson, 64, on Dec. 28. He has remained in jail after failing to post $500,000 bail, authorities said. Investigators have not disclosed a motive.

Police say they were called to the couple’s home shortly after 11 p.m. for a reported domestic dispute and found a woman unresponsive in the living room, according to a previous news release. Life-saving measures were unsuccessful.

Stevenson was charged following a weekslong investigation by detectives in the Delaware Department of Justice. It was not immediately clear whether Stevenson has an attorney. The Associated Press left a voicemail at a phone number and sent emails to addresses associated with him seeking comment. Court records made public so far do not list a defense lawyer, and charging documents detailing the allegations have not been released.

Linda Stevenson ran a bookkeeping business and was described in her obituary as a family-oriented mother and grandmother and a Philadelphia Eagles fan. The obituary does not mention her husband.

In a statement posted on Facebook, Linda Stevenson’s daughter Christine Mae described her mother as an avid reader and a dedicated runner. The mother-daughter duo would participate in a monthly 5k to support local charities, she wrote.

“One hug from her and all your worries would disappear,” Mae wrote. “The pain of losing her is paralyzing and the emptiness in my heart is an abyss.”

In her post, Mae also expressed frustration that coverage of the case has focused on Stevenson’s past marriage to Jill Biden rather than on her mother’s life. She said Linda Stevenson “deserves her own story” and should not be reduced to being described in relation to her husband’s former spouse.

Mae was not available for further comment.

Stevenson was married to Jill Biden from 1970 to 1975. Jill Biden married U.S. Sen. Joe Biden in 1977. He served as U.S. president from January 2021 to January 2025. A spokesperson for former U.S. President Joe Biden and first lady said Jill Biden declined to comment on Monday.

William Stevenson founded the Stone Balloon, a popular music venue in Newark, Delaware, in the early 1970s.

In her 2019 memoir, Jill Biden wrote about meeting Stevenson while she was a student at the University of Delaware and marrying him at age 18.

Jill Biden said she fell in love with a “tall ex-football player” who drove a yellow Camaro and who her parents “loved.” She described him as charismatic and entrepreneurial and wrote that she believed she had found a partnership “built on loyalty and devotion.”

“Looking back, it may seem like that relationship was a mistake of youth,” she wrote, adding that there was a time when she truly believed they were “destined for each other.”

Jill Biden wrote that the marriage later unraveled as they grew in different directions, calling its collapse “the biggest disappointment of my young life.”

She wrote that she ultimately decided not to “settle for a counterfeit love.” She said that the divorce underscored for her the importance of financial independence, a lesson she said she later passed on to her daughters and to young women she taught.

In the memoir, Jill Biden wrote that she had “absolutely no interest in politics” at the time she married her first husband, but that Stevenson became increasingly engaged in the long-shot 1972 U.S. Senate campaign of Joe Biden. She wrote that she began seeing campaign materials at their home and attended the election-night celebration, where she met Biden’s first wife, Neilia.

In a 2024 interview with the conservative outlet Newsmax, Stevenson criticized Jill Biden and described their divorce as contentious, calling her “bitter” and “nasty.”

By Mingson Lau And Maryclaire Dale

Dale reported from Philadelphia.