NEED TO KNOW
- Cristina Grossu Biffle’s mom Cathy tells ipromiseyoumedia her daughter texted her, “We’re in hassle,” earlier than dying alongside husband and NASCAR champion Greg Biffle in a aircraft crash
- Cathy says the household was headed out for a birthday journey when the tragedy occurred, and says she’s “devastated” and “brokenhearted”
- Biffle and Cristina, plus their son Ryder and his daughter Emma, together with three others, died within the crash
NASCAR champion Greg Biffle’s spouse Cristina despatched a harrowing message moments earlier than the deadly aircraft crash that killed the couple, their household and three others, Cristina’s mom tells ipromiseyoumedia.
Simply earlier than her demise on Thursday, Dec. 18, Cristina Grossu Biffle, 35, texted her mom Cathy Grossu, writing, “We’re in hassle,” Cathy tells ipromiseyoumedia.
“She texted me from the aircraft and she or he stated, ‘We’re in hassle.’ And that was it,” Cathy says, crying. “So we’re devastated. We’re brokenhearted.”
The crash killed seven individuals in whole: Greg, 55, Cristina, their son Ryder, 5, and Greg’s daughter Emma, 14 (who he shared with ex-wife Nicole Lunders); plus Dennis Dutton and his son Jack; and Craig Wadsworth.
The group was heading out for a “birthday journey” in Florida, Cathy says.
“To assume that they’d be killed on a birthday journey, that was simply such a enjoyable time for the household,” she says. “And to see the horrific approach that it ended, it is simply, it’s so laborious to bear. I can not imagine they’re gone.”
Simply the day earlier than, Cristina and Greg have been at her home.
“I do not bear in mind what the final phrases that I stated to my daughter or to Greg or to my valuable Ryder,” Cathy says. “I do not bear in mind. I do know we hugged, however I do not bear in mind these final phrases and that is going to hang-out me. However they have been completely satisfied.”
Cathy says her grandson Ryder and step-granddaughter Emma, in addition to Greg, “had a lot life” and have been “doing so many good issues” earlier than the tragedy.
“They embraced each side of their life and each second,” she shares. “And it is such a loss. They touched so many individuals’s lives. It’s so laborious to bear. I can not imagine they’re gone.”
Cathy says that one among her final conversations along with her daughter was about Santa letters that Cristina would ship “at her personal expense” to households in want.
“She stated, ‘Mother, are you able to go choose up the final 17 letters which can be at Staples? I need to get them within the mail earlier than I get on the aircraft tomorrow,’ ” Cathy shares.
“So I ran over and acquired ’em and took them to their home, and once they acquired house final evening, she put them in envelopes and completed all of them as much as get them off to these final 17 households to deliver pleasure to them, and that might be the very last thing that she would’ve executed.”
A good friend of Cristina’s, Erica Zangwill, tells ipromiseyoumedia the mom of two “had the largest coronary heart” and “beloved serving to different individuals earlier than herself,” on Thursday.
“She was a one in one million particular person and I can not imagine she’s gone,” says Zangwill, President and CEO of the Carolina Aviators Community.
Preliminary experiences that Biffle’s aircraft had crashed did not establish the victims. A good friend of the household, Rep. Richard Hudson, later confirmed the Biffle household had died in a press release on X.
“I’m devastated by the lack of Greg, Cristina, and their youngsters, and my coronary heart is with all who beloved them,” Hudson wrote.
“They have been pals who lived their lives targeted on serving to others. Greg was an ideal NASCAR champion who thrilled hundreds of thousands of followers. However he was a rare particular person as nicely, and might be remembered for his service to others as a lot as for his fearlessness on the observe.”
The households of the Biffles, the Duttons and Wadsworth remembered them in a press release on Thursday afternoon.
“We’re devastated by the lack of our family members. This tragedy has left all of our households heartbroken past phrases,” the assertion reads.