A shot in the dark?

This winter, as the snow swirls around western Nevada—suspicion and mystery continue to swirl around the alleged murder of State Controller Kathy Augustine.

And the questions now seem to be drifting...  back into the past.

What first looked like a freak medical problem—a sudden heart attack in a healthy 50-year-old woman, now appears quite different. Prosecutors say its medical murder.

Kathy Augustine died last July after prosecutors say she was injected with the paralyzing drug succinylcholine.  A lethal dose, they say, administered by her husband, registered nurse Chaz Higgs.

When Higgs was charged with first degree murder, it opened up another chapter in this bizarre story.  A chapter that had people who knew Kathy Augustine looking back and seeing another series of events—and another sudden death—in a very different light.

Greg Augustine, Charles Augustine's son:  And she had mentioned to me it was massive organ failure.

When Greg Augustine’s father, Kathy’s third husband, Charles—died from complications of a stroke in 2003, he assumed his father had simply taken a turn for the worse.

For Greg Augustine, the questions began with the moment in 2003 when he learned that his father, Charles, Kathy’s third husband, had died from complications of a stroke.

Greg Augustine: And I remember thinking: How does that work?  Does a stroke cause massive organ failure? I was totally shocked at that turn of events.

Hoda Kotb, Dateline correspondent: Suspicious or just shocked?

Greg Augustine: Not really suspicious then.

Soon, he would have reason to be suspicious. As he thought back in time, there was another moment that set off alarm bells.  It was at his father’s house, at the reception  after Charles Augustine’s funeral:

But looking back, he’s now questioning everything  he thought he knew about his father’s death, beginning with a moment at the reception following his father’s funeral.

Kotb: I mean, there was Kathy...

Greg Augustine: Right...

Kotb:  Then you saw...

Greg Augustine: Chaz.

Kotb: Chaz.

Greg Augustine: At the wake.

Kotb: What was Chaz doing at your dad’s wake?

Greg Augustine: I had no idea.  I thought to myself, what is this person doing here?

It was Chaz Higgs. It turns out Kathy Augustine met Chaz Higgs at a Las Vegas hospital, where Higgs had served as Charles Augustine’s nurse.

Greg Augustine remembered that even then, he’d had a strange feeling about Kathy and Chaz when he had seen them in the hospital cafeteria.

Kotb: So while your dad was going through what he was going through in the hospital, and Kathy was at the hospital.

Greg Augustine: Right.

Kotb: Kathy and Chaz were eating in the cafeteria.

Greg Augustine: Right, right.  Absolutely.

Kotb: But you didn’t think anything of that.

Greg Augustine: Not at first.

Kotb: No.

Greg Augustine: Not at first.  But it seemed inappropriate. I remember thinking, you know, I’m not sure if that’s in the nurses code of conduct to have lunch with—

Kotb: Yeah.

Greg Augustine: It just seemed odd.

But as Greg Augustine looks back, the most unsettling event may be the one that took place—thousands of miles away.

It happened in Hawaii. While on vacation, Kathy Augustine and Chaz Higgs had gotten married. Not so unusual until you consider the date:  September 19, 2003, just three weeks after Charles Augustine’s death.

Kotb: What did you think of that timing?

Greg Augustine: It was absolutely bizarre behavior on Kathy’s part. Kathy was a person who makes controlled decisions. And she make decisions that are based on research. And thought. And this just seemed so out of character for her. I mean everybody was shocked. It was just so out of the ordinary for her.

Kotb: Were you upset with her? Angry at her at that point?

Greg Augustine: You know, I thought it was angry. I was sort of numb, I think, at that point.

Numb, and a bit angry perhaps, that the man who had married Kathy Augustine so soon after his father’s death stood to gain much more than her companionship.

Kotb: When your father died, did Kathy gain monetarily?  Did she?

Greg Augustine: Well, (sighs) yeah.  At that point they were divorcing.  And they had come up with a settlement amount.  And at that point, yeah.  He had passed on.  Instead of getting half or whatever it was they agreed to, she got it all.

Kotb: She got everything.

Greg Augustine: Uh-huh (affirms).

Kotb: What did you guys think about giving that?

Greg Augustine: I thought it was convenient for her.

Kotb: I mean they were getting divorced and he’s giving everything to the woman who—

Greg Augustine: Well, he wasn’t.

Kotb: Yeah.

Greg Augustine: You know, he was fighting that.

Kotb: Yeah.

Greg Augustine: He’s retired.  She had a career.  So, at that point—I’m not sure the terms, we’re looking into that, I think.

Kotb: Uh-huh (affirms).

Greg Augustine: The detectives maybe. But yeah, it seems convenient.  At the time I was upset.

In light of Kathy Augustine’s death and the murder charges against Chaz Higgs,  Greg Augustine set demanding answers in his father’s death.  What really happened to his dad, Charles?  Could he have been killed the same way Kathy Augustine allegedly was?

Greg Augustine: Any prudent person would have to go through the decision to exhume their father because Chaz was his nurse in the hospital. 

Kotb: To think of that possibility.

Greg Augustine: It hurts me. It hurts to think because he did have a stroke. He was in the hospital. He didn’t need to be pushed over the edge. That’s certainly not something that my dad deserved, because he was a great guy. 

Greg Augustine wanted answers...  and so did the police. 

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