The funeral home director accused of murdering his wife claims her sister took advantage of the death by stealing jewelry and Christmas presents.

Mark Bowling – charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder for the December slaying of his wife and business partner, Julie Bowling – is suing his sister-in-law, Debbie Bunn, for fraud, civil conspiracy and conversion for allegedly abusing her power as executrix of Julie's estate.

Bunn and her husband, Shaun, call those charges bogus.

"He's grasping at straws," Shaun Bunn said of Bowling, who is awaiting a criminal trial along with his alleged co-conspirator, Rose Vincent. "He's trying to flex his muscles."

Bowling's suit asks for Bunn's removal as executrix because she and Shaun allegedly took items from the estate for personal use and because she is allegedly using the estate's money to help in Mark's prosecution.

Debbie Bunn replaced Mark Bowling as the executor of Julie's will because of his incarceration.

Julie's will names Mark as her sole inheritor, a role he would be disqualified from if he is convicted in the criminal case or found liable in the wrongful death suit Debbie Bunn filed in February.

But since no guilty verdict has been reached, Mark on the surface seems to have a valid case against Bunn, said Bill Reppy, a Duke University law professor who teaches estates law.

"Every move they make, they have to keep in mind the presumption of innocence," Reppy said. "(Bowling) is presumed to be the distributee until he's proven guilty, so they shouldn't be wasting assets in a manner that's harmful to the ultimate distributee."

The Bunns say Mark's allegations all have valid explanations.

The suit claims Julie had more than $250,000 in jewelry inside the Bowlings' River Glenn home. But her estate's inventory shows a jewelry appraisal of less than $80,000, which Bowling's suit alleges points to stolen property.

"We didn't go into the house until the lawyer and police went with us," said Bunn, adding that Mark must have overvalued the items. "We never touched the jewelry without the police being there."

And other charges of missing property came from the family's ignorance of the law, Bunn said.

The Bunns took Julie's furniture from the River Glenn home and returned it to Julie's house on Bethlehem Road because, they said, they didn't know they weren't allowed to take back her possessions, including her grandmother's table.

As for the Christmas presents, the Bunns took a couple of paintball guns intended for neighbors' children and gave them the gifts.

"(Debbie) wanted to make sure that what Julie's wishes were, were followed through with," Shaun Bunn said.

That move violated estates law, Reppy said, because the gifts became the estate's assets upon Julie's death.

At this point, Bunn said, he and his wife are taking orders from their attorney on how to proceed.

But if what the Bunns did was wrong, he said, Bowling's brother, Scott, should be required to return the guns, scuba equipment and boat he took.

"I helped him load it in the truck," he said.

Bowling's attorney in the civil suit, John Bryant of Raleigh, declined to give details on the case.

"Mark Bowling has already been sort of tried and convicted in the press," Bryant said. "And the next time, he's going to get a trial in the courthouse, where I think it should've happened in the first place."

Bowling and Bunn aren't the only people fighting over Julie Bowling's estate.

Creditor claims total more than $2.5 million on the estate.

The Bowlings were joint owners of Bowling Funeral Homes, which had locations in Rocky Mount, Scotland Neck, Enfield and Tarboro.

But the Tarboro facility closed in October, and PB Properties, which the Bowlings rented the building from, have filed a lawsuit and a $711,000 claim on the estate.

Bank of America also has a $1.8 million claim.

Those debts, in connection with a $1 million life insurance policy purchased for Julie a month before her death, may allow the prosecution to point to a monetary gain as a motive in the criminal trial.

To begin paying those debts, everything Mark and Julie owned will be put up for auction, possibly this month, Shaun Bunn said.

"They're putting a pricetag on everything," he said. "Her grandma's dining room table, they're going to sell it at auction. The only way we can get it back now is to buy it from auction."

Even the family business may soon be sold.

An invoice in Julie's estate file shows the estate's attorneys have spoken to David Oettinger, the court-appointed neutral receiver for the business, about selling the funeral homes. Oettinger, a certified public accountant, is charged with managing the funeral homes; his appointment was supported by Bowling and the Bunns.

Word of the sale isn't confined to Rocky Mount.

"I'm hearing the same rumors," said Paul Harris, executive director of the N.C. Board of Funeral Service in Raleigh. "(But) any time there's a transfer or sale of stock, it requires a new establishment permit."

Such a permit has not been filed, he said.

If Mark is acquitted in his criminal trial, which likely won't begin for several months, and if he then wins the wrongful death suit, he will inherit all of whatever is left of Julie's estate.

But if he is found guilty, his family could still stand to benefit from Julie's death.

If Mark is disqualified from her will, it states that half of her remaining assets will go to her sister, Debbie Bunn, one-fourth will go to Mark's brother, Scott, and one-fourth will go to Mark's mother, Lois Bowling.