Aside from her family and closest friends, Kathy Marie Augustine, 50, was not well-liked, politically or otherwise. She was known to have an abrasive personality, was fond of yelling at people, especially her employees, and, politically at least, she knew how to play the game of dirty tricks almost as well as Richard Nixon. A lot of people, including her husband, Chaz Higgs, 42, frequently referred to her as a "b****." Confident and positive despite the many obstacles that she had faced, Kathy recognized that she was tough and was damned proud of it. Her story is one of power, ambition, and enemies, and ultimately, her own death. Kathy’s murder could have been the perfect crime had it not been for a single slip of the tongue.
Kathy’s passion for politics began back in high school, when she won a coveted internship that took her to Washington, D.C. According to her mother, it was the internship that had hooked her on politics. Her friends called her a classic Type A personality. Everything in her life, right down to her color-coordinated clothing, was organized. She was a perfectionist at everything—except at choosing husbands. She had two brief marriages when she was young, and bore a child, a daughter, before she reached age 30. Her third husband, Charles Augustine, an airline pilot and 16 years her senior, seemed to be a good fit—for awhile. Part of what made that relationship work for as long as it did was Charles’s attitude—he frequently referred to her as "she who must be obeyed." She owned two homes, one in Las Vegas and the other in Reno—the latter being close to Carson City, the state capitol, which was convenient for work.
Kathy’s political career eventually took off. Nevada assemblywoman, state senator, and finally, state controller. She wanted to become state treasurer, and she was a finalist for U.S. Treasurer at one point. Depending upon who was asked, Kathy was characterized as either a brilliant politician or a cold-blooded opportunist. Known for hitting below the belt, many people despised her for her tactics. She would do almost anything to win. If she had been a man, she likely would have been considered one of the brightest politicians to have walked the face of the earth. As her political ambitions continued to grow, so did tension at home with Charles. He made it clear to her that he did not want to be a part of her political limelight, and by 2003, after years of leading separate lives, they both realized that their marriage was over.
Before Kathy and Charles could finalize their divorce agreement, Charles suffered a stroke and was hospitalized. Spending weeks in the hospital, it seemed that Charles was getting better. Then, suddenly, he died, with Kathy by his side. Without telling any family members, Kathy, three weeks later, ran off to Hawaii and married Chaz Higgs, a former body builder-turned-critical care nurse 8 years her junior that she had met at the hospital when he had provided care for her husband. To many people he didn’t seem like her type at all, and they were frequently characterized as an unlikely couple.
