Wanting to get paid.
The ex-wife of former NASCAR driver Greg Biffle, who passed away in a plane crash in North Carolina last December, is seeking $10 million from the estate of her ex-husband, alleging that it was his negligence that ultimately took the life of their daughter.
The retired NASCAR driver was among 7 people killed in the deadly plane crash, which also claimed the life of his wife Cristina Grossu, his children Emma and Ryder, longtime NASCAR crew member Craig Wadsworth, and pilot Dennis Dutton and his son Jack Dutton.
Emma Biffle was the only child of Biffle and his ex-wife, Nicole Lunders, who divorced in 2016 after nearly 8 years of marriage.
The full NTSB report isn’t expected to be released until late 2026, so we still don’t know exactly what happened or what caused the accident. But back in May, Nicole Biffle filed a wrongful death lawsuit against her ex-husband’s estate on behalf of their daughter:
“As a direct, proximate, and reasonably foreseeable result of Greg Biffle’s negligence and gross negligence, Emma Elizabeth Biffle suffered severe physical and mental pain and anguish and sustained traumatic blunt-force and thermal injuries and smoke inhalation that caused her death.”
The lawsuit also names the estate of Dennis Dutton as well as GB Aviation, the company owned by her late ex-husband, and seeks unspecified damages over $25,000.
But according to a recent filing in Greg Biffle’s estate, his ex-wife is seeking much more than that.
In a document filed on August 24, Nicole asks the court to issue an order prohibiting any further distributions or transfers from the estate to preserve the assets of the estate. And she also reveals that she’s seeking at least $10 million in her wrongful death claim:
“Petitioner has filed a Notice of Claim in this estate proceeding in the amount of Ten Million Dollars ($10,000,000.00), or such amount determined by a jury to be fair and reasonable compensation for the wrongful death of her daughter, Emma.”
Nicole says that there is no liability insurance policy that would cover the wrongful death claim, so any award in the lawsuit would have to come directly from the estate. And she also points to two additional wrongful death claims that have been filed against the estate, on behalf of both Dennis and Jack Dutton, each for $15 million.
If you’re bad at math, that’s a total of $40 million in wrongful death claims against the estate, which is being managed by Greg Biffle’s niece, Jordyn Carpenter Biffle.
In another recent filing, Jordyn provided an inventory of the estate, which includes approximately $6.5 million in bank accounts, stocks and other personal property, as well as approximately $9.3 million in real estate – far from the $40 million that is being requested in the wrongful death claims.
It’s a tragic situation that’s only made what’s no doubt a difficult time for the family even harder.
Of course the family has also had to deal with a burglary at his home that occurred shortly after Biffle’s death, which resulted in $30,000 and several pieces of NASCAR memorabilia being stolen.
Police held a press conference last month to announce a suspect has been arrested for the break-in, which occurred just a month after the plane crash.
According to a police report from the Iredell County Sheriff’s Department, the burglary at Biffle’s Mooresville, North Carolina home was reported by Cathy Grossu, who was Biffle’s mother-in-law and the mother of his wife Cristina Grossu.
The report says there were signs of forced entry, and that $30,000 in cash and a backpack were taken from the home. And according to WBTV, guns and NASCAR memorabilia were also reportedly being investigated as missing from the home, with the sheriff’s office reporting that they were working with race teams in the area to attempt to locate missing property and determine whether or not it was stolen.
Detectives said at the time that they believed the burglar was someone with knowledge of the layout of the home, including where the security cameras and safe were located. They released surveillance video showing the individual, who appears to be a woman, moving throughout the home:
Then back in April, we also learned that the thieves apparently attempted to drain his bank accounts and stole hundreds of thousands of dollars in the process.
According to search warrants obtained by WBTV, authorities noticed suspicious activity on Biffle’s account after his death, including the changing of email addresses, phone numbers, and passwords, as well as fraudulent activity on his wife’s Venmo account. His bank account information was allegedly changed over the phone, and at least one check was cashed from a bank account for Biffle’s businesses.
There were also apparently multiple additional attempts to get into the bank accounts in person at bank branches “across state lines,” and police say that at least some of the attempts to access their accounts came before the break-in.
The search warrants describe the persons of interest as part of Biffle and Grossu’s “inner circle,” and while their names haven’t been officially reported, there’s plenty of online chatter about the individuals who are the subject of the investigation.
And it also revealed a disgusting email that was sent to Biffle the day after his death:
“I heard you dead, rest in hell.”
Earlier this year, authorities executed search warrants on a home in Denver, North Carolina, as well a business in Mooresville. None of the stolen property was recovered, but detectives said that they seized several items, including electronic devices, from the home. They were reportedly able to zero in on the home based on the license plate of a pickup truck used in the burglary, and also alleged that a woman at the home abruptly left town and skipped a previously-planned wedding when the surveillance video was released.
At a press conference announcing an arrest had been made, Iredell County Sheriff Darren Campbell revealed that they have charged 44-year old Terrell Williams of Georgia with the burglary at Biffle’s home.
According to the sheriff’s office, over two dozens search warrants have been issued in the case so far, and on July 29, police in Georgia contacted North Carolina authorities regarding Williams, who had been arrested on another burglary that was related to a high-profile homicide case.
After searching Williams’ home, authorities found items stolen from not only the Biffle residence, but also from break-ins elsewhere in North Carolina. Notably, when Williams was arrested in Georgia, he was wearing a ring that authorities say was “NASCAR memorabilia” that they were able to trace back to Biffle.
Police say that they have been in contact with NASCAR, who has helped throughout the investigation.
According to police, the Biffle burglary was part of a pattern from Williams of targeting homes of high-profile individuals that he knew wouldn’t be home based on headlines in the media:
“He used headlines, social media posts, different things to find out when people were and were not at home.”
Investigators also discovered a radio frequency detector, which they believe was used in the Biffle residence to locate cameras throughout the home.
Police also used cell phone analysis to determine that Williams was in the area at the time of the break-in, though they don’t believe he was the one who was physically inside the home and committed the burglary. Authorities say that they believe others are involved, potentially including family members of Williams:
“I feel fairly confident that there will be some additional charges.”
Detectives determined that after the break-in, Williams used cash from the burglary buy a vehicle in North Carolina, and were able to locate that vehicle after zeroing in on their suspect.
Williams is currently being held without bond in Cobb County, Georgia, where he is being held in connection with a burglary that was committed at the home of another individual connected with a high-profile murder. Police also found a weapon that was stolen from the home of a North Carolina police officer that was burglarized while the officer was hospitalized, though Williams hasn’t been charged yet in that case.
Charged with multiple felonies including second degree burglary, safecracking, money laundering, obtaining property by false pretenses, possession of burglary tools, larceny of firearms, and larceny after breaking and entering. He’s currently being held without bond in Cobb County, Georgia on the case down there, which reportedly involved the murder of someone connected with a Fortune 500 company, but Iredell County officials are asking that he be extradited to North Carolina to face charges related to the Biffle break-in.
Notably, the sheriff said that Williams had no connection to Biffle, and that the investigation into the hacking of Biffle’s accounts is still ongoing.
The so-called “white-collar” investigation, which Campbell says has stretched all the way to California, sounds like it may not be related at all to the break-in and may have simply been the case of two separate bad actors targeting the estate during a vulnerable time. Authorities have said they have a suspect in that case and that the investigation is ongoing, but that they’re still investigating whether it’s linked to Williams and the burglary.
It’s a shame that there are people out there targeting victims of tragedy like this, but hopefully everybody involved can be brought to justice sooner or later.
