A shot in the dark?

As Nevada’s casinos were doing record business in late 2003, State Controller Kathy Augustine was bouncing back from the death of her third husband, Charles, and taking a gamble by marrying a new man named Chaz Higgs.

Victoria Campbell, KRNV-TV reporter: He swept her off her feet.  She told her family that he was the answer to a prayer, that he was everything she ever wanted.

Heidi Smith, Kathy Augustine’s friend: Chaz was there. She had been spending all this time in politics and Chaz was there to comfort her.  She called him her angel because he provided comfort.

Chaz was a registered nurse eight years Kathy’s junior. To some, the pairing seemed a bit odd. 

Smith: I mean, Chaz, with his spiked hair, wouldn’t do well at a political cocktail party to raise money. Kathy was a political animal. She went 24/7.

Hoda Kotb, Dateline correspondent:  And Chaz?

Smith: I don’t think in the whole time I knew Chaz I heard him say more than four or five sentences.

Kotb: Did you guys used to scratch your heads, thinking “What do those two doing together?”

Smith: Never asked...

Kotb: …but yeah, well, girls will be girls.  We used to talk a lot, yes.

But friends also say Kathy Augustine seemed to thrive in her new marriage.

Smith: Chaz whipped her into shape. Kathy had gained a lot of weight. Chaz put her on a regimen. He got her exercising. She really looked good.

Even so, something about the marriage just didn’t sit well with those who had been close to Kathy’s previous husband, Charles.

Greg Augustine, Charles Augustine's son: It kind of seemed like a slap in the face to my dad.  So I thought it was disrespectful.

But as 2004 rolled around, whispers about Kathy Augustine’s private life were drowned out by the roar of a public scandal.

Kathy Augustine: I think that both sides of the story have to be told and resigning was not an answer.

Kathy Augustine’s hard-charging style had transformed some state employees into bitter enemies.  That spring they lashed out at their boss—accusing Augustine of forcing them to work on her 2002 campaign on state time — a violation of the state’s campaign finance rules.

Victoria Campbell, KRNV-TV: They took their allegations before the State Assembly, which sent it on to the Senate.

Kathy Augustine became the first official in Nevada history to be impeached. The trial played out for weeks.

There was tension and animosity as some employees described an abusive boss who made them break the law.  Augustine denied the allegations, but after the votes were in, Kathy Augustine was convicted on one charge but acquitted of two others. 

Augustine paid a $15,000 fine. The governor asked her to resign from office, but she refused. And when asked, even insisted she would have no trouble working again with the very employees who wanted to bring her down.

(Augustine-KRNV-TV interview)

Campbell: Would you worry that there could be animosity? That there could be problems?

Kathy Augustine: Well, there could be, but after everything I’ve been through.  I certainly, certainly can handle a little animosity and I’m perfectly capable and certainly willing and perfectly confident that I would be able to complete the two years, my last two years in office that the people of the state elected me to do.

Heidi Smith, Kathy Augustine's friend: Kathy was a star on the rise, and to some people, she was a thorn in the side. And I always gave her credit for continuing forward, even though she’d made some bitter enemies.

And enemies or not, in 2006, Kathy Augustine felt confident enough to run for an even more important statewide office—Nevada treasurer.

Kotb: And how surprising was that?

Campbell: Not at all.  I wasn’t surprised at all. Kathy Augustine was convinced she had a future in state politics.  And she was not going to let a little thing like impeachment stand in her way.

Early last summer, Kathy Augustine was busy campaigning and planning her next political steps.   

Smith: We had talked about her campaign and the people that I had to call to set up fundraising parties.

But all of Kathy Augustine’s hard-charging ambition was about to be stopped in its tracks. One Saturday morning last July, Augustine was supposed to have been at a fundraiser.

Smith: I went out there. She wasn’t there. I came home to give her a call and chew her out.

kathy was not around, because in the early morning hours of July 8^th, Chaz Higgs placed a frantic 911 call. Kathy Augustine wasn’t breathing. Apparently, she had suffered a massive heart attack.

Higgs says he administered CPR, but the efforts may have come too late.  Later, he spoke to reporters:

Chaz Higgs (at a press conference): I went into try and wake her up. I couldn’t get her to wake up and I checked her out, it was like an instinct, because as I said I’m a critical care nurse, so it’s something I’ve dealt with before. I just checked her out, she wasn’t breathing, she had no pulse, so I started CPR.

Brad Horn / AP Chaz Higgs, husband of Nevada's impeached state controller Kathy Augustine, speaks to the media in Carson City, Nev., in this July 10, 2006, file photo.

Campbell: But by the time she got to the hospital, Kathy Augustine was in a very deep coma.

The news came as a bolt from the blue for her stepson.

Greg Augustine: And I was shocked. I couldn’t believe it.

Kotb: Why was it so surprising?

Greg Augustine: Because they originally reported a kind of heart trauma. At 50, it didn’t make any sense.

Campbell: There was a gym at the Capitol building. And she worked out every day. I mean, it was apparent she was in good health.  Anybody who could have made it through that, that ordeal a couple years ago and still have been standing had to have something going for her.

But Augustine’s husband Chaz Higgs had his own theory—she may have fallen victim to the stress of hard work and long days.

Chaz Higgs (at a press conference): She came to work every day...  did her job as she would here, and then after work she would go to one or two events in the evening, so getting in late at night.

Could it have been stress?  Doctors did not know for sure.

And three days after that 911 call, Kathy Augustine, the tough, determined public servant, lost the fight of her life. She died without ever regaining consciousness. Her family members made the decision to terminate life support.

Phil Alfano, Kathy Augustine's brother: We were comforted by the fact that Kathy had left us with written directives regarding the circumstances under which life-sustaining treatment should be terminated.

The shock reverberated across the state.

Kotb: When you heard the news that Kathy Augustine had died, what did you think, Greg?

Greg Augustine: My mind went crazy with scenarios and things that could have happened. But I didn’t know what to think.  It just made no sense.

Kotb: A 50-year-old woman dropping dead of a heart attack...

Greg Augustine: No, it happens, it happens.  But I don’t think she was that person.  She wasn’t that person.

In fact, questions had begun flying even before Kathy Augustine was buried. Right from the start, her sudden illness and death raised the necessity of an autopsy. And there were troubling details when the results were released...

Victoria Campbell: That found no evidence of a heart attack, no evidence of heart damage, no blockage, no evidence the heart muscle had died.

If a heart attack didn’t kill Kathy Augustine, then what did?

Smith: I wondered what really had happened. And then I just said “I’ll wait for the coroner’s report before I believe it.”

And there was even more troubling information from the autopsy. It was evidence, perhaps, that when it came to Augustine’s death, there was nothing natural about it at all. And now the rumors winding their way through the hills and valleys of Nevada hinted of something far more sinister: murder.

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