Forensic Files (HD) - Season 13, Episode 4 - Political Thriller - Full Episode | Forensic Files

[Music] up next a state politician mysteriously dies after her impeachment trial
experts don't know why i personally have not known a woman 50 years old dropped out of a heart
attack a microscopic clue points towards foul play no one could account for this puncture wound in her left hip
were her political enemies to blame or was it someone closer to home if you're asking me my opinion he hated
her the clean get cleaner and the dirty get dirtier kathy augustine was one of the most
colorful politicians in nevada state politics she was the state's first female controller
and she was on president bush's shortlist to become the secretary of the treasury
whether you agreed with her politics or not you could not doubt that this woman was a force of
nature but augustine's star fell as quickly as it rose not guilty madam president in 2004
her political enemies accused her of violating election laws and her case was brought before the
state legislature i think that we can finally get a fair and nonpartisan trial in the state senate but the trial didn't
go her way kathy augustine was convicted of using state personnel and equipment for her
campaign and was fined fifteen thousand dollars i think she felt the impeachment was a
joke i think kathy considered leaving politics after the impeachment um but she really wanted to clear her
name she was one of the top five elected officials in the state some people thought she was not very
nice and some people thought she was the greatest thing since cupcakes two years later
kathy augustine ran again for state treasurer but in the middle of that campaign kathy
fell ill something's wrong with my wife she's not breathing she's not breathing at all
not breathing at all oh i need some help when paramedics arrived kathy was barely alive they gave her two drugs to
assist her kind of jolt her back into into business and then they loaded her into the ambulance
and took her to the hospital doctors suspected a heart attack and performed an angiogram
but it showed no blockages and her condition continued to deteriorate she was in a coma and completely
unresponsive she was completely motionless and on a respirator there really was no
no chance of her recovering and living after three days the family had to make a difficult choice
we made the decision to withdraw life support it was a tough decision but it was a decision that was made a
little easier by the fact that kathy had clearly expressed that in her will after kathy's death
her husband chaz was able to provide some important details he said he awoke early that morning got
up did some chores and when he returned to the bedroom realized kathy was unresponsive
just checked her out she wasn't breathing she had no pulse so i started cpr chaz and other family members said that
in the days before her death kathy seemed her usual self i saw kathy about two weeks before her
death and she appeared to be in very good spirits in fact my wife and i commented that
we had never seen her so happy unfortunately kathy's autopsy provided few answers
there was no significant hardening of the arteries nor was there any evidence that a blood clot
had clogged or occluded the arteries nothing was found the medical examiner couldn't say cause of death couldn't say
man her death because she had no reason for her to die could she have had a brain aneurysm the
thing was the autopsy showed nothing that showed any evidence of a cause of death right off the top so
what caused kathy augustine's death the family wanted answers several days after kathy augustine died
emergency workers were called to her house yet again this is fire dispatch okay what are we going out
there for kathleen's augustine's husband's attempted suicide okay do you know what
message no he's at his wrist he's unconscious we've got a call from a neighbor that an ambulance was outside
kathy's home and they were wheeling jazz away chaz higgs left a suicide note saying
he couldn't live without his wife kathy he blamed her political enemies for her death
thank you for taking my wife away from me she was fighting for her life a life that was taken away by non-caring
politicians my wife's career was ruined by you i want to be buried beside my wife so we
can hold hands in the sunshine fortunately chas received medical attention in time
and he survived the next day kathy's funeral went ahead as planned friends and foes alike were there
it was a heartbreaking ceremony these people loved her and they missed her and they mourned her
but hanging over that whole funeral were so many questions about why she had died kathy augustine and
chaz higgs had been married for only three years and for kathy it was her fourth marriage
her previous husband charles augustine was an airline pilot he'd suffered a stroke and was
hospitalized and chas higgs was his nurse that's when kathy and chaz met they were seen together in the hospital
having meals together in the hospital cafeteria a relative of charles augustine was
quoted as saying he thought that was odd that kathy and the nurse were spending so much time together
charles augustine died in the hospital kathy married chaz just three weeks later
it was a relationship that evolved very quickly and certainly took all of kathy's
friends and family's family members off guard my wife and i were sort of gagging you know
it just seemed very naive and of course we didn't express that to her i mean we wished her well
and and hoped for the best but uh clearly and i think we've all learned a lesson from that
kathy was the beneficiary of charles augustine's one million dollar life insurance policy
investigators learned that kathy and charles were talking about a divorce before he
suffered the stroke it's unclear whether cathy would have remained the beneficiary had the two divorced
investigators now wondered if charles augustine had been a victim of foul play but their immediate concern was the
investigation of kathy's death very early in my career a very seasoned homicide detective shared with me
something that's always kind of stayed with me and he said that during the course of a
good investigation the clean get cleaner and the dirty get dirtier the medical examiner told police she saw
something suspicious during kathy augustine's autopsy two small bruises on kathy's left buttock there was
at least one injection if not two uh probable injection or needle puncture sites
identified in an unusual location for therapy and the puncture sites were not ever
accounted for with the record of medical therapy investigators now wondered if someone
had murdered kathy augustine as police investigated the death of kathy augustine
they had to consider the possibility that her husband chas higgs a registered nurse
was somehow involved jazz told everyone who would listen that their three-year marriage was a
happy one co-workers however disputed that he used to say some nasty things about his
wife a nurse would see that he's busy doing something walk over and say is there anything i can do to help and
his response usually was yeah get rid of my wife a search of chasis computer revealed
some surprising emails which proved chas was having affairs chaz higgs wrote to a woman a co-worker
and said i'm doing everything i can to make this blank crazy and it's working i want to be with
you i don't want to be with her you have my heart investigators were also suspicious when
they listened to his entire 9-1-1 call something's wrong with my wife she's not breathing i don't know what happened to
her it's not trauma or anything she's been really stressed you know over the last six months or so
hey i'm gonna do some more cpr okay yeah he does not sound like the panic stricken
grieving husband who is surprised to find his otherwise healthy wife unconscious unresponsive and
near death an ambulance worker said chaz didn't look very concerned either one of the things that the paramedics
reported was mr higgs's being seated in the passenger seat of the ambulance reading the newspaper as his wife was
being rushed to the hospital i don't care how tough you are if your wife's in the back end of that
ambulance and you don't know why and you're not certain she's going to survive i don't think you can read the macy's
ads one of kathy augustine's friends told police kathy called her the night before
she died she said her three-year marriage to chaz higgs was over chas higgs asked for a divorce
the night before he found his wife dead in their bed in reno kathy's estate was worth over a million
dollars investigators also learned that chas higgs made an incriminating statement to
a co-worker the night kathy was planning to end their marriage she was a nurse who worked with chaz
higgs and she said that on the night before kathy augustine fell ill that chas had said if you really
want to kill someone give them a shot of sucks they can't trace it post-mortem to this nurse sucks was a substance
called succinylcholine succinylcholine is a drug that is used to paralyze people it's a paralytic drug
it's typically used when an individual is under anesthesia for an operation in order to paralyze their muscles
succinylcholine is usually given in very small doses it's fast acting and leaves the body
quickly it has a half-life which means the time it takes for half of the drug to
disappear of about one minute in large doses it's fatal and as a critical care nurse it's a drug chas higgs would have
had access to but investigators were worried if chas higgs used succinyl choline
there would be no way to prove it since the drug leaves the body so quickly i was
concerned that that he might actually get away with murder but investigators remained hopeful that
if higgs did commit murder that he left some trace persons who break the law fortunately for me are not
always you know the brightest bulbs in the chandelier crooks make mistakes if they were smarter they wouldn't get
caught nearly as often then a week after kathy's death police got a break a nurse who worked in the hospital's
emergency room called police with some important information she said when kathy was first admitted to the
hospital she and a co-worker didn't believe kathy was having a heart attack instead they suspected she had been
poisoned so they immediately took samples of kathy's blood and urine and had them frozen if kathy had been
poisoned with succinyl choline freezing these samples might give investigators the evidence they needed the
succincoline survives longer in the urine because there are not enzymes in the urine
that break it down like there are in the blood sample investigators acted quickly there's only
two labs that i'm aware of in the country that can test for success one of them is the fbi lab in virginia
it was there that kathy's urine sample was subjected to liquid chromatography mass spectrometry
the analysis was a targeted analysis the instruments were set up specifically to
look for succinylcholine kathy's urine tested positive for trace amounts of succinylcholine
had the samples not been frozen immediately it would have been useless chaz higgs was arrested
and charged with his wife's murder in searching his car they found a stack of three by five cards very top card told
all of the uses and dosages for success investigators now wondered if kathy's previous husband
charles augustine had been murdered too kathy augustine's death was now ruled a homicide
her husband chaz higgs was arrested and charged with her murder he denied taking succinal choline from
work but his access to the drug and his public statements about his wife made him
the likely suspect everything pointed to suctional choline chas higgs had access to it that chas
higgs was angry with his wife the chas higgs had mentioned using that particular drug on someone in order to
kill them 12 hours before her body was found prosecutors believe chaz woke up before kathy on the morning of the
murder he filled a syringe with the succinal choline he had probably stolen from work and
injected her as she slept [Music] he called 9-1-1 to report finding his wife unconscious
to his surprise emergency technicians revived her and took her to the hospital there two nurses immediately suspected
some sort of poisoning they took blood and urine samples and froze them for later analysis
had that not been done the outcome may have been very different we're very fortunate in
our community that those medical professionals had the foresight to guard that sample to preserve it properly it
was quickly frozen and made available for forensic testing and those things all played our favor
and the motive if you're asking me my opinion is what the motive was he hated her
you know i've seen kids killed over tennis shoes over two or three dollars i've seen spouses kill each other
over the most moronic of arguments for a spouse to kill another spouse it doesn't have to be a good motive but
i think clearly the evidence showed that chaz did not want to be with kathy a year after kathy's murder chaz went on
trial the day before he was to take the stand he attempted suicide yet again i think it was another selfish
attempt for him to misdirect attention away from what he had done and to try and garner sympathy from the
jury when he recovered he testified in his own defense because i didn't do it i wouldn't do
that he was just as cold on the stand as he had been sitting in his chair bandages on his wrists didn't make him
any more likeable to the jury another prosecution witness used chas's own words against him
he said to me mary actually remember it because it was so vivid that if i didn't have a daughter in las
vegas i would kill my wife and throw her down a mine shaft after a 10-day trial chas higgs
faced the jury we the jury in the above entitled matter find the defendant chas higgs guilty
of first degree murder chaz higgs was sentenced to life in prison he'll be eligible for
parole after 20 years investigators have questioned whether higgs had anything to do
with the death of kathy's previous husband charles augustine jazz higgs first met the augustines when
charles augustine suffered a stroke higgs was one of his nurses at the hospital that's how he first met kathy
according to investigators kathy and charles had been talking about a divorce before his stroke so perhaps
it wasn't inappropriate for her to strike up a friendship with chaz higgs when charles augustine died in the
hospital as his wife kathy was the beneficiary of his one million dollar life insurance
policy three weeks later she married chaz higgs in 2007 charles augustine's body was
exhumed and tested for succinylcholine they did find the metabolite of sectional choline
succinyl monocholine a metabolite means it's a byproduct of succinylcholine if you don't look for it you don't find
it and that's not a condescending answer that is the truth there has never been a documented case
of succinal monocholine produced as a result of embalming fluid however in charles augustine's case there were
no records of which embalming fluids were used so this possibility however remote could
not be eliminated therefore the medical examiner did not change the manner of his death
to homicide i'm sure that there will always be some well-placed suspicions surrounding
mr augustine's death for now chas higgs is in prison because two emergency room nurses
made a split-second decision that foiled his well-laid plans but for the high-tech testing methods and the
forensics technology available i think this case would have been a mystery forever this whole case was based on
forensic evidence and had it not been for the hard work of the fbi and for the diligence of the
detectives involved and for the sharp eyes and ears of the medical professionals
he may have gotten away with it all i know is what the evidence showed that jury
and the evidence showed that jury that this guy was a murderer

In 2006, Nevada politician Kathy Augustine died mysteriously during a hard-fought re-election campaign and the medical examiner could neither isolate the cause of death, nor explain the tiny puncture wounds discovered during the autopsy.

Brief Summary

Kathy Augustine's death led to her husband's arrest for murder, revealing a web of political intrigue and personal betrayal.

Key points

Mysterious Death of Kathy Augustine. A state politician dies under suspicious circumstances, leaving many unanswered questions.
Chaz Higgs' Suicide Attempt. Kathy's husband attempts suicide after her death, blaming political enemies.
Chaz Higgs Arrested. Husband Chaz Higgs is arrested and charged with Kathy's murder after evidence surfaces.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

The clean get cleaner and the dirty get dirtier.

0:33WatchMar 5, 2021

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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