John Katsilometes on ‘48 Hours Mystery’s‘ interest in the death of Kathy Augustine

Monday, Dec. 4, 2006 | 7:24 a.m.

The Kathy Augustine case seems ripe for any news magazine show, and jumping to an early break on the tragically fascinating saga is CBS' "48 Hours Mystery." Reps from the show have been poking around Las Vegas (and northern Nevada) over the past several days, interviewing friends, family and colleagues of the late state controller, who died suddenly and mysteriously July 11 in Reno.

A CBS News spokeswoman confirmed that producers of the hourlong program, which airs at 10 p.m. Saturdays, have been investigating the story.

"We are looking into dozens of cases around the country," CBS News' "48 Hours" Press Officer Jen Farley said during a phone interview Thursday from her office in New York. "The Augustine case is among them."

Chaz Higgs, Augustine's husband at the time of her death, was arrested in late September and accused of killing Augustine with an injection of succinylcholine, a powerful paralytic drug. Higgs was arrested in Hampton, Va., and was extradited to Washoe County, where he once worked as a critical care nurse at Carson-Tahoe Regional Medical Center.

The body of Augustine's previous husband, Charles Augustine, has since been exhumed, as Higgs was a critical care nurse in the Sunrise Medical Center unit where he died in August 2003.

"48 Hours" producers typically track a case until it reaches trial before deciding on when (or even if) to run it. A hearing is set for Thursday in Reno to determine whether Higgs should be tried for the murder of Kathy Augustine.

NoteMart

The Bellagio Botanical Gardens and Conservatory is again lavishly decorated for the holiday season. But on Saturday night dozens of visitors to the hotel seemed more interested in a glass-encased model of Project CityCenter, which is on display near the Conservatory entrance. A small sign with a confusing message in front of the structure informs oglers that the model is a mere artist's rendering of what CityCenter might look like upon completion and "NEED NOT BE BUILT." So we're really just looking at a nice model ...

On Friday the Aladdin Theatre for the Performing Arts held its final show before finishing renovations that will allow for a more flexible seating capacity (4,000 for some shows and the current 7,000 for others). During the concert by the dependably quirky Barenaked Ladies, vocalist/guitarist Ed Robertson told the crowd he was excited to see the message light on the phone in his suite when he arrived at his room Thursday night. He thought it might be a message from one of his bandmates or maybe a family member. Instead, it was the canned hotel announcement, "Catch Barenaked Ladies tonight at the Aladdin Theatre for the Performing Arts ... They are rockin'! They are funny!" (The venue reopens Dec. 23 with the "Night To Remember" concert ...

The imaginative management team at Art Bar on Main Street and Wyoming Avenue is pushing French Connection United Kingdom as the business that inches as close as legally permitted to using the F-word on public signage. The sign promoting the Art Bar happy hour uses just a well-placed number sign (or pound sign, #) between the U and K to prevent full disclosure ...

Gold rush: Vanity plate on a black Mitsubishi Sport SUV reads RUN4 AU.