An Almost Perfect Murder (8 page)

As the aura of mystery surrounding Kathy Augustine’s death grew in intensity, the story began to shift gears to quickly become one of political intrigue that served to cast doubt on why the Nevada State Police found it necessary to bring in its investigative arm to assist the Reno Police Department with their investigation. The official story, of course, was that the Reno Police Department had asked for their help with the case, but as the story continued to unfold, it caused many people, including investigative journalists for national television news programs, to begin asking questions. While it is no secret that corruption has always run high at all levels of government in Nevada, it appeared that, just prior to Kathy’s death, the Nevada controller was preparing to blow the whistle on alleged significant dishonesty at the state level. Some people believed that it may not have been a coincidence that Kathy had become the target of the state’s first impeachment proceeding against one of its elected officials. After all, it was no secret that people in high places at the state level of government wanted her out of the way—most of the state’s politicians did not want to sit idly by and see her win yet another position of elected office. What better way was there to get her out of the picture than by disgracing her politically?

According to Barbara Woollen, a Nevada businesswoman who was running for lieutenant governor in the 2006 Republican primary election, Kathy Augustine approached her one day, after she had announced her run for state treasurer, and confided in her that she had initiated an investigation into corruption in the state. Woollen explained the situation briefly to CBS News
48 Hours
when reporters for that program came to Nevada to cover Kathy Augustine’s suspicious death.

“She told me that she had information that she thought I needed to know about,” Woollen said. “It involved political corruption. Misappropriation of funds, slush funds.”

Woollen told reporters that Kathy was aware that her politically volatile investigation into political corruption and financial transgressions had placed her life in danger.

“She said that a prominent Republican figure had thrown her against a wall,” Woollen recalled, “and said the following to her: ‘What are you doing? You’re going to “F” it all up. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll drop out of this race and go away. Otherwise, you better watch your back.’”

According to Las Vegas political analyst Jon Ralston, the Republican leadership in Nevada were staggered and taken aback, not only by her investigation into corruption, but also by her announcement that she was going to run for state treasurer right after being impeached while state controller. They also felt that she had betrayed the party.

“I think they were flabbergasted,” Ralston said. “I think they were upset. I think they didn’t know exactly what to do because some thought, ‘You know what? She might have a chance.’”

Despite the threats and other tactics that were being used against her, allegedly by her colleagues inside her own political party, Kathy rejected their attempts to get her to quit. At one point, she appeared on Ralston’s television show to defend herself, and he had asked her on the air if she had ever thought about resigning.

“When you know that what you did, did not rise to the level of impeachment,” she replied, “then it was a matter of staying there and fighting for something you truly believed in.”

Ralston recounted some of Kathy’s political misdeeds, and made comments about the ruthless politician that lay beneath her on-camera smile.

“I think people really, really despised Kathy Augustine because of the tactics she used,” Ralston said to
48 Hours
correspondent Troy Roberts. “She really hit people below the belt. And she really used the most divisive wedge, personal, emotional, inflammatory issues to get ahead.”

But was it her political persona that had upset people so much? Or was it the fact that she had launched an investigation that had the potential to not only embarrass some of the state’s elected officials but to possibly bring them down as well? Given the mystery surrounding how Kathy had died, the questions really needed answering—but the police did not seem to have an interest.

Some people hinted that Kathy’s political problems began after her state colleagues realized that she was being considered for the position of U.S. treasurer. One of her close friends, Nancy Vinnik, had been vocal about it.

“She was being looked at for a position in the U.S. Treasury,” Vinnik said. “And I think there were some good ole boys that didn’t like that. That’s when all the troubles in her life really, really started to happen—politically.”

But had it really been the U.S. Treasury position that she was being considered for that had upset people in her party? Or was it fear of her perfectionist ways that bothered them, knowing that someone as thorough as Kathy might actually get to the bottom of the purported political corruption involving slush funds that she was attempting to bring out into the open? Were the alleged wrongdoers really
that
fearful that she might actually expose them?

“Everything in her whole life was organized,” Vinnik recalled as she explained how Kathy possessed an emblematic type A character trait. “That was just Kathy. All of her clothes were color coordinated. All of her suits were in order. She was a perfectionist to a T in everything that she did.”

Interestingly, according to
48 Hours,
the threat against Kathy was never taken seriously by the police and was not investigated. Neither were a number of other alleged serious threats against Kathy’s health and safety—they were all apparently ignored by the police as they investigated her death.

Phil Alfano, Kathy’s brother, told
48 Hours
a similar account. He said that Kathy had told him that there were several people who had tried to scare her to keep her from running for state treasurer.

“She did tell me that several people had warned her to be careful,” Alfano told CBS correspondent Troy Roberts. “There were threats made to her.”

But there was another troubling aspect surrounding the involvement of the Nevada State Police being so active in the investigation of Kathy’s death. According to the
Las Vegas Sun,
while the Reno Police Department was still referring to their case as a death investigation and proclaiming that Chaz Higgs was neither a suspect nor a person of interest, the state police were apparently closely monitoring all of the media reports, print and broadcast, that came out about Kathy’s death. At one point, the
Sun
had launched its own investigation and had reporters scrambling to try and learn as much about Chaz Higgs as possible. During the course of their efforts, they spoke to each of Higgs’s ex-wives in an attempt to develop a profile of the newly widowed man, and at least in one instance that the
Sun
documented, the Nevada Division of Investigation had been there afterward advising the source not to speak with the news media.

The big question on the minds of many people was
“why?”
Since there hadn’t been any gag orders issued in the case, what made the state police think that it was their responsibility to advise people not to speak with the news media? And even if a gag order had been issued, it would seem that a violation of such would become an issue for the court and not a police agency. Were there larger issues behind the actions of the state police? Had those in power at the highest levels of state government given orders for the state police to monitor the news media reports and, wherever possible, put a lid on the flow of information? If so, why? If it is the job of the investigative arm of a police agency to determine the truth behind criminal activities, what was there to hide?

When the
Sun
brought the matter up to the Reno Police Department, the response that the newspaper received was that the Reno Police Department had not asked the state police to instruct people not to talk about the case.

“They probably did it thinking they were helping us,” Lieutenant Jon Catalano told the
Sun.

Helping them do what? Find the truth? Or cover up the corruption that Kathy Augustine had purportedly been trying to expose?

Like the circumstances of Kathy’s death, their action was a mystery that might never be solved because no one, it seemed, wanted to ask the questions needed to arrive at the answers. After the
Las Vegas Sun
article about Chaz Higgs came out—with the information buried deep inside about the state police advising people not to speak with the media—no one, it seemed, had been interested in pursuing the issue any further.

According to the
Las Vegas Sun,
Chaz Higgs’s name had first shown up in news media accounts as early as March 2005, right after he had filed a complaint with the Nevada Ethics Commission against Senator Steven Horsford, a Democrat who represented north Las Vegas. Higgs alleged in his complaint that there were irregularities that pertained to some of the senator’s campaign contributions. According to published reports, Horsford claimed that Higgs’s complaint had been filed purely for retribution for criticism he had voiced during Kathy Augustine’s impeachment proceedings. Nonetheless, Horsford later filed amendments to some of his campaign reports, and the matter seemed to go away. Questions, such as whether Higgs had filed the complaint at the behest of his wife, or whether he had done it on his own, or whether Horsford had been a part of Kathy’s larger corruption investigation, were never adequately answered.

As the summer of 2006 passed quickly for most people, it seemed to drag on forever for Kathy Augustine’s family as they anxiously awaited the results of toxicology tests that were being performed on Kathy’s blood and urine by the FBI’s crime laboratory. As July came to a close and moved into August, her family and friends recalled her laughter, the fact that she was an accomplished pianist, as well as a swimmer in school, and an upbeat person who was fond of collecting elephant figurines and throwing birthday bashes for members of her staff. Although many people had known her as tough and abrasive, there were just as many people, perhaps more, who had seen and recognized the funny, kind, and caring side of Kathy Augustine. Her brother Phil pointed out that her favorite singer had been Barbra Streisand, a liberal Democrat.

On the other side of the coin, there were those who would always remember the Kathy Augustine who seemed to make waves wherever she went. Nevada Republican Party chairman Paul Adams, who had worked hard to get her ostracized from her party, was one of those people. About two months before her death, Adams had introduced a motion at the state GOP convention that would effectively change the party’s bylaws to prevent party support, financial or otherwise, for candidates who had been impeached and found guilty. His motion was approved, and many people, both from within and outside the party, had viewed his actions as an unswerving political assault against Kathy.

Adams had also made the remark after her death, published in the
Las Vegas Review-Journal:
“My goal was for her to live a long and productive life, just not as a Republican candidate.” Kathy’s family, including her mother, had read Adams’s statement and had taken offense to it. Phil Alfano indicated that he was going to “make sure her reputation doesn’t get trashed.” After taking considerable heat over making the remark, Adams apologized.

“I understand all of it has been difficult for them (Kathy’s family),” Adams said. “I would apologize for any difficulty I caused for the family, and from now on, I will have no more comments.”

Nonetheless, as cruel and mean-spirited as such comments may be perceived, they do go with the territory of being a politician.

At another point during the summer, Kathy’s brother announced that a scholarship fund had been established in Kathy Augustine’s name. It was designed for students who wanted careers in public service.

“It is one way for her spirit to live on,” Phil Alfano said.

 

 

Recounting an episode depicting the marital lives of Kathy and Higgs, Winifred Cindy Baker, a nurse and a witness on behalf of the state, who had been mentored by Higgs at Washoe Medical South, related an incident in which Kathy had brought Higgs into the hospital’s emergency room for treatment of what was termed a “severe allergic reaction.” Higgs was obviously having a difficult time breathing. While hospital personnel were attempting to obtain information about Higgs and his condition, Kathy was purportedly talking about herself and an unspecified project that she was currently working on. At one point, Baker interjected and explained to Kathy that the hospital staff was not there for her at that time, and that they were there for Chaz, who presently wasn’t doing too well. Baker’s remarks clearly hadn’t won Kathy over as a friend, and Kathy, regardless of Chaz or his condition, hadn’t hesitated to let her know it.

“I can have your job by the end of the day,” Kathy reportedly said to Baker.

There were other incidents of unpleasant exchanges, usually over the phone when Kathy would call to speak with Higgs.

The next time Baker saw Kathy Augustine was on the morning of July 8, 2006, when paramedics brought her into the emergency room. Although Kathy was being treated by Marlene Swanbeck and Chris McCabe, Baker was on duty that morning. Curiosity took her into the area where Swanbeck and McCabe were working on Kathy, but only for a brief moment. Baker saw Higgs when he showed up at the hospital, and she spoke to him as any employee would to another.

Because it had been determined that Kathy needed a heart catheter, not to mention the fact that she was critically ill due to an as-yet-unknown cause, the decision was made to move her from Washoe Medical South to the ICU at Washoe Medical Main. According to Baker, she made the decision to visit Kathy and Higgs later that day, at about 8:00
P.M.
, thinking that Higgs might need some help or support from his coworkers. After passing a little time in the ICU waiting room, Baker was allowed to enter the area where Higgs and Kathy were to be found.

While Higgs was talking to a nurse with a chart in her hand, presumably about Kathy’s condition, treatment, and prognosis, and going over lab reports, Baker walked up to Kathy’s bedside. Kathy appeared to be conscious, but she wasn’t. Her eyes twitched uncontrollably, and a nurse later said that the reason her eyes were twitching was because she was having seizures. Baker held Kathy’s hand at one point and said, “I’m so sorry” before leaving.

Baker said that her actions in the ICU room with Kathy that evening were the result of compassion due to the fact that Kathy was her coworker’s wife—despite the fact that Kathy had shown her unpleasant side by threatening to have Baker fired from her job.

 

 

The Nevada primary election, with Kathy’s name on the ballot for state treasurer, occurred while everyone waited to find out once and for all whether Kathy had died of natural causes or whether she had been murdered. Not surprisingly, she collected 26,000 posthumous votes. It wasn’t enough votes to get past the primary election, but her family took solace in the fact that there were so many people who had voted for her even though she was dead. It was an impressive number of votes for a dead person, made all the more remarkable because state law requires that notices be posted in every polling location in the state explaining that her name was on the ballot even though she was deceased.

Soon the month of August had passed, and Chaz Higgs had retrieved what few personal items he had from the two houses that he had shared with Kathy and left the state. Taking one of the vehicles that had been left to him in Kathy’s will, Higgs moved to South Carolina, where he stayed with relatives. Almost everything had been left to Kathy’s daughter, Dallas.

“Not much was left for Chaz,” Phil Alfano said.

Whether Higgs knew the details of the will that Kathy had drawn up in 2004 was not clear. He had claimed to know the will’s details before Kathy’s death, but the possibility that he only found out after her death could not be ruled out. If he had known that everything would be going to Dallas Augustine in the event of Kathy’s death, it would serve to diminish motive if it turned out that Higgs would be charged in her death. On the other hand, it could be a different matter entirely if he hadn’t had prior knowledge of the will’s contents and had presumed that he might get a bigger piece of the pie in the event of his wife’s demise. A last will and testament can be a vile thing when aligned with a person who possesses murderous intentions.

Even though Higgs had no criminal record, the Reno Police Department made sure that they knew where he was at all times through communications with law enforcement agencies in South Carolina as they awaited the toxicology reports from the FBI. They also had information that Higgs had a relative in the Hampton, Virginia, area that they factored into the contingency plan they had put together, which would be ready, if needed.

As September rolled around and autumn drew near, the stress levels of Kathy’s family naturally rose higher. They all wanted to know what had happened to Kathy and were anxious to get some closure over her death so that they could get on with their lives. But the tests were taking so long. What everyone had been led to believe would take only five or six weeks had by now stretched to eight weeks, and then nine. They began to wonder if they would ever know what had really happened to Kathy.

“It’s really tough on my parents,” said Phil Alfano. “They lost a daughter. . . . The wait has caused them a lot of stress. It has caused me stress.... They can’t do just one test if they don’t know what they’re looking for. If they do not find drug A, then they have to do a test for drug B. The wait has been tough on all of us.”

Lieutenant Jon Catalano told family members that he sympathized with them, but said that “three months is not out of line” to receive a toxicology report from the FBI in a case that was not specifically labeled a homicide.

“We were hoping for that quick turnaround,” Catalano said. “It hasn’t happened. We thought this death would have a high priority. That’s why we wanted them to do it instead of our local crime lab. We are a little bit anxious because it is taking a long time.”

Meanwhile, Kathy’s family began expressing their opinions about Chaz Higgs. They described their initial relationship with him as cordial, “not unfriendly.” Although Higgs’s family had liked Kathy, many of the Alfanos, particularly Kathy’s mother, hadn’t liked him. She had kept her feelings to herself for a long time, but when asked, she decided that it was time to express her feelings more honestly.

“I didn’t like him,” said Kathy’s mother, Kay Alfano. “And I told her so.... None of us liked him.”

She went even further by saying that she believed that Higgs, not any of Kathy’s political enemies, had killed her daughter. She said that she had based her opinion on “the way he acted.” She said that while Kathy was in a coma in the hospital, Higgs had not shown any emotion. He had not shed any tears when she died after the family decided to remove her from life support.

“When she died, he just sat down,” Kay said. “He just sat there. Didn’t say a word.”

The family, according to Kathy’s brother, Phil, hadn’t taken their suspicions to the police because they really hadn’t known what had happened. He said that they had nothing to go on except for their feelings, and they were concerned that the police might think that they were overreacting.

According to her family, Kathy had been confiding in them for quite some time before her death that her relationship with Chaz Higgs had been a troubled one. He was irresponsible with their money, and had significantly overdrawn their bank account because of his spending habits.

“He was always broke,” Kay said. “He was always asking her for money.”

According to Phil Alfano, Higgs was also verbally abusive toward Kathy. Phil believed that Higgs had been unfaithful to his sister, an insinuation that Higgs would later deny.

As they continued waiting for an answer from the FBI, the question on everyone’s mind was, of course: what had happened to Kathy? The case received so much widespread attention that speculation over Kathy’s death continued to run rampant, in spite of requests from her family that only the facts should be dealt with. Some of the unwanted speculation continued to center around how Kathy and Higgs had met in the first place, and had decided to marry so quickly after the death of Kathy’s husband Charles. Many people chalked it up to Kathy being eccentric, while others seriously considered that there might be more to it because of the unusual connection between her two husbands.

“There are questions,” agreed Lieutenant Catalano.

At times, particularly during the first few months after Kathy’s death, it had all seemed so much like a television soap opera—the kind the public couldn’t get enough of.