❓WHAT HAPPENED: Former First Lady Jill Biden’s first husband, William Stevenson, has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of his late wife, Linda Stevenson.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: William Stevenson, 77, and his late wife, Linda Stevenson, 64. Jill Biden was previously married to William Stevenson from 1970 to 1974.
📍WHEN & WHERE: Linda Stevenson was found unresponsive in their Wilmington, Delaware home on December 28, 2025. William Stevenson was taken into custody at the same location on February 2, 2026.
💬KEY QUOTE: “Police were responding late at night on December 28, 2025, to a ‘reported domestic dispute’ at the Stevensons’ residence,” according to a New Castle County Police Department press release.
🎯IMPACT: The case has drawn attention due to William Stevenson’s past marriage to Jill Biden, now the wife of former President Joe Biden.
William Stevenson, the ex-husband of former First Lady Jill Biden, has been charged with first-degree murder following the death of his current wife, Linda Stevenson. Linda, 64, was found unresponsive in their Wilmington, Delaware, residence on December 28, 2025, after police responded to a reported domestic dispute late that evening.
According to the New Castle County Police Department (NCCPD), Linda Stevenson was found unresponsive and was later pronounced dead. The circumstances surrounding her death prompted a police investigation, with William Stevenson being arrested and charged with murder on Monday, February 2, 2026.
“Following an extensive weeks-long investigation into the death of 64-year-old Linda Stevenson, Detectives from the Division’s Criminal Investigations Unit, in coordination with the Delaware Department of Justice, presented the case to a grand jury,” the NCCPD stated, adding: “As a result, an indictment was returned by the New Castle County Superior Court charging 77-year-old William Stevenson with Murder in the First Degree.”
Previously, Stevenson and Jill Biden were married from 1970 to 1974; Jill Stevenson would later marry Joe Biden in 1977. William Stevenson would later claim the separation was a result of an affair between his then-wife and her future husband. According to Stevenson, he kicked Jill out of his home after uncovering the relationship.
“One of her best friends told me she thought Joe and Jill were getting a little too close. I was surprised that she came to me,” Stevenson claimed in 2020. He went on to state that the affair was confirmed to him when a friend informed him that Joe Biden had been driving his then-wife’s car when she was involved in an accident, “I asked Jill to leave the house, which she did.”
The NCCPD has not yet released a cause of death for Linda Stevenson nor a motive for her murder.
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