After NASCAR’s Greg Biffle and family died, police now think ‘friends’ stole from them
It’s been less than a month since former NASCAR driver Greg Biffle and his family died in a plane crash last yearinvestigators say two ‘friends’ conspired breaking into an empty house and took cash, weapons, and financial information in an attempt to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Authorities in North Carolina say more than 40 search warrants have been issued, focusing on a married couple who allegedly knew Biffle and his wife, Cristina. Iredell County Sheriff Darren Campbell said the suspects “did a lot of planning to financially gain” from their deaths. The Associated Press is not naming the duo because no arrests have been made.
Biffle, his wife and two children died in the crash on December 18, along with three others. Under investigation by NTSB. Some of the survivors of those killed are suing the Biffle estate and the pilot for millions of dollars.
According to the search warrant affidavit, the husband under investigation met with Biffle while the former driver was using his private helicopter to provide assistance in the wake of Hurricane Helene. The woman had attended a Christmas party at Biffles’ home in Mooresville, North Carolina, weeks before the crash.
Authorities say the home was broken into on Jan. 8 and $30,000 in cash, two Glock pistols and NASCAR memorabilia were stolen. Search warrants were then executed in two areas, one near Biffles’ home and the other in a nearby county.
A person seen in surveillance video and identified as a woman appeared familiar with the layout of the large house, including the locations of cameras, closets and the safe room, a detective wrote in a search warrant affidavit. The intruder spent approximately six hours inside the house from the night of January 7 until the next morning.
Evidence showed a cell phone and multiple devices were active on the property during this time, according to the warrant. The only people allowed to be there were the property managers, but they weren’t there.
Authorities said they linked the woman to someone who participated in the incident Biffle’s celebration of lifeand that license plate readers located her husband’s truck near the house that night.
The search warrants also identify alleged financial crimes. Investigators say bank, Venmo and PayPal accounts tied to Biffles were accessed online using personal information, and phone numbers and email addresses were changed to gain control of funds. The money was then allegedly transferred to accounts that did not belong to the family and was used for purchases, according to the warrant.
At least one fraudulent check connected to Biffle’s business interests was cashed and other attempts were made to access accounts. The event took place in multiple states. The sheriff did not say whether the same suspects in the break-in were being investigated for financial crimes and said the department was awaiting further evidence.
Meanwhile, the plane crash led to a lawsuit against Biffle’s estates and pilot Dennis Dutton, who was killed along with his son.
On April 17, Dutton and his son’s estates filed suit against Biffle’s estates for at least $15 million each, alleging that Biffle failed to properly maintain the plane and operated it in a defective condition. The claims include loss of income and “pre-death pain and suffering.”
In February, Biffle’s ex-wife, Nicole Biffle, filed a notice of lawsuit against Dutton’s estate on behalf of the estate of the couple’s 14-year-old daughter, seeking at least $10 million for wrongful death.
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Associated Press writer Allen G. Breed in Wake Forest, North Carolina, contributed to this report. ___
AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/apf-AutoRacing
