WILMINGTON – The suburbs of Delaware are on edge after the arrest of William “Bill” Stevenson, the first husband of former First Lady Dr. Jill Biden. Stevenson, 77, was taken into custody Monday and charged with first-degree murder in the death of his current wife, Linda Stevenson.
Police say the arrest comes after a weeks-long investigation into a domestic incident that ended in tragedy in late 2025. While it’s a local homicide case, Stevenson’s connection to a well-known public figure has pushed it into national headlines, pulling attention back to an early part of Jill Biden’s life that has stayed mostly private.
The case began late on December 28, 2025. New Castle County Police reported that officers were sent to the Stevensons’ home in the Oak Hill area of Wilmington after a call about a domestic dispute.
When first responders arrived, they found 64-year-old Linda Stevenson unresponsive in the living room. Police and paramedics tried to save her, but she was pronounced dead at the scene. Her body was sent to the Delaware Division of Forensic Science for an autopsy.
Bill Stevenson was at the home and reportedly cooperated at first. Still, investigators spent more than a month reviewing evidence and interviewing witnesses before prosecutors moved forward. On February 2, 2026, a grand jury indicted the 77-year-old businessman on a charge of first-degree murder.
Who Is Bill Stevenson?
In Delaware, Bill Stevenson is known for founding the Stone Balloon in Newark, a well-known college bar that hosted major acts, including Bruce Springsteen. Outside the state, many people know his name mainly because of his past marriage to Jill Biden.
Stevenson and Jill Biden, then Jill Jacobs, married in February 1970 when she was 18 and attending the University of Delaware. Their marriage lasted five years. In the mid-1970s, as the relationship broke down, Jill met a young Delaware senator named Joe Biden.
Their divorce was finalized in May 1975. Jill Biden went on to build a career in education and served as First Lady of the United States from 2021 to 2025. Stevenson stayed in Delaware and later married Linda. They had been married for close to 40 years when she died.
A Long-Running Dispute in Public
This isn’t the first time Bill Stevenson has drawn attention during the Bidens’ years in the spotlight. In recent years, he spoke out publicly against his ex-wife and her second husband, President Joe Biden.
In interviews and in a memoir, Stevenson challenged the timeline the Bidens have shared about how Joe and Jill met. The Bidens have said they were introduced on a blind date in 1975, after Jill’s first marriage ended. Stevenson claimed their relationship started earlier. Biden spokespeople rejected those claims, calling them recycled and untrue.
Jill Biden has rarely spoken in detail about her first marriage. After news of Stevenson’s arrest, a spokesperson for her office said she would not comment.
Remembering Linda Stevenson
As the case moves into the court system, friends and clients are grieving Linda Stevenson, who was described as loyal and tough.
Linda Stevenson ran a successful bookkeeping business and was a devoted Philadelphia Eagles fan. Her obituary describes her as a mother and grandmother who loved family time, especially trips with her daughter and granddaughter. The obituary, published shortly after her death in December, did not mention her husband.
People who knew her have shared shock and sadness about what happened. One neighbor said Linda would do anything for her family and called her death heartbreaking.
Bill Stevenson is being held at the Howard R. Young Correctional Institution in Wilmington. At his arraignment, a judge set bail at $500,000 cash. As of Wednesday morning, he remained in custody because he had not posted bond.
The Delaware Department of Justice has not released the cause of death or a possible motive, pointing to the ongoing prosecution. If convicted of first-degree murder, Stevenson would face a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole.
The trial is expected to bring heavy media coverage, both because of the serious charge and because of Stevenson’s ties to one of the country’s best-known political families. For now, the center of the story is a courtroom in Wilmington, where a once familiar Delaware name is now at the heart of a homicide case.
