A cause of death has finally been revealed for Jessica Aber, the former Biden-appointed U.S. Attorney who was found dead in her Virginia home more than five months ago.
Aber — who resigned from her position earlier this year when President Donald Trump retook the White House — died of a “sudden unexpected death in epilepsy” while sleeping, according to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, the Virginian-Pilot reported.
She was 43 years old.
Early last week, the State Medical Examiner’s Office responded to a request from the newspapers for an update on the case.
“The manner of death is natural and the cause of death is sudden unexpected death in epilepsy,” Jennifer Starkey, the medicolegal administrator for the State Medical Examiner’s northern district office in Manassas, wrote in an Aug. 20 email.
Starkey declined to provide the full autopsy report, citing health record exemptions under Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act, along with other laws barring its release.
Epilepsy is a neurological disorder that can cause sudden seizures when abnormal electrical activity disrupts brain function. The Epilepsy Foundation says about one in 1,000 people with the condition die from Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy, or SUDEP. Victims are often found dead in bed, with signs of a seizure nearby.
“Some researchers think that a seizure causes an irregular heart rhythm,” the foundation notes. “Other research has shown that breathing difficulties following a seizure lead to death.”
Authorities in Alexandria had said at the time that detectives found no evidence suggesting anything other than natural causes. Aber’s family later confirmed she had suffered from epilepsy and seizures for years.
Aber served as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia during the Biden administration, where she oversaw more than 300 employees in offices in Alexandria, Richmond, Norfolk and Newport News. She handled all federal prosecutions across Eastern Virginia after being recommended for the post by Virginia’s two Democratic senators, Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, in 2021. President Biden nominated her, and the Senate confirmed her that same year.
She became one of 94 U.S. attorneys nationwide.
During her tenure, Aber gained national attention prosecuting high-profile cases, including the conviction of ex-CIA analyst Asif Rahman, who admitted leaking classified documents about Israel’s planned strike on Iran.
“Asif Rahman is pleading guilty in federal court three months to the day that he disclosed top secret American documents in violation of his oath, his responsibility, and the law,” Aber wrote in a news release at the time.
She also oversaw the prosecution of Eleview International Inc. and its executives for attempting to illegally ship sensitive technology to Russia, and she played a role in the DOJ’s indictment of four Russian soldiers accused of war crimes against an American in Ukraine.
Closer to home, Aber’s Newport News office prosecuted Deja Taylor, the mother of a 6-year-old student who shot his first-grade teacher at Richneck Elementary School in early 2023.
Aber was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay area but moved east after high school, enrolling at the University of Richmond, where her grandparents lived. After transferring to William & Mary Law School, she said the small-town setting in Williamsburg allowed her to focus on her studies.
She interned at the Newport News Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office in 2005, later clerked for a federal magistrate judge, and worked at a Richmond law firm before joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Richmond in 2009. She became deputy chief for criminal prosecutions in 2016.
In a 2021 interview with the Daily Press and Virginian-Pilot, Aber described her new role as “a lifetime opportunity.”
“The most important issue facing this district — and frankly all districts — is a lack of community trust in the Department of Justice and the criminal justice system,” she said. “If we’re not helping America have more faith in the criminal justice system, everything we’re doing is kind of a loss.”