In a courtroom in Wilmington, Delaware, William Stevenson, the first husband of Jill Biden, appeared via video to plead not guilty to charges of murdering his current wife, Linda Stevenson. The 77-year-old faced the charges laid by a state grand jury earlier this month, which accused him of the murder of Linda, who was 64 years old at the time of her death. Jill Biden, now married to President Joe Biden since 1977, was previously married to Stevenson from 1970 to 1975, having met him during her college years.

The tragic incident unfolded on December 28, 2025, when police responded to a ‘domestic dispute’ call at the Stevensons’ home in Wilmington. Linda Stevenson was found unresponsive and, despite efforts from first responders to revive her, was declared dead on December 29. While the exact cause of her death remains undisclosed, Stevenson’s arrest followed on February 2, with the murder charge officially filed the next day.

Currently held without the ability to post a $2 million bail, Stevenson remains in custody, with his next court appearance scheduled for March 16. He is represented by a public defender. Meanwhile, Jill Biden has remained silent on the matter, with her representatives declining to comment on the case. Linda’s obituary omits any mention of William, though it does include her surviving family members, her daughter Christina Vettori and her grandchild, adding a poignant note to the unfolding legal proceedings.

Stevenson married then-Jill Jacobs in 1970 while she was an 18-year-old college student at the University of Delaware. He was a 23-year-old businessman at the time. The pair divorced in 1975 and two years later she married then-New Castle County Councilman Joe, the future president. Stevenson later claimed that Jill had cheated on him and that he kicked her out of the house when he learned of the affair with Biden. They both worked on Biden’s campaign. William, who went by Bill, founded the Stone Balloon, a popular music venue in Newark, Delaware, in the early 1970s.

Linda Stevenson ran a bookkeeping business. She was described in her obituary as a family-oriented mother and grandmother. Representatives for Jill told Inside Edition in 2020 that the affair claims he repeated to the Daily Mail were ‘fictitious’ to ‘sell and promote a book’ that Bill was preparing to release. ‘The relationship of Joe and Jill Biden is well documented,’ the spokesman said. ‘Jill Biden separated from her first husband irreconcilably in the fall of 1974 and moved out of their marital home. Joe and Jill Biden had their first date in March of 1975, and they married in June of 1977.’

In her 2019 memoir, When the Light Enters: Building a Family, Discovering Myself, Jill admitted she first thought she and Stevenson were ‘destined for each other.’ ‘Looking back, it may seem like a mistake of youth,’ she scathingly wrote about the man she indirectly referred to as ‘charming and entrepreneurial’ in the book. The Stevensons and Bidens shared Wilmington as their hometown throughout their lives.