By  Seamus McGraw

(Contined)

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Higg's alleged comments come back to haunt him

The drug is difficult to detect, and some of its by products can occur naturally, but authorities have linked the drug to as many as seven homicides in the United States, though in several cases the evidence was inconclusive. In one particular case, Dr. William Sybers ,   a former Medical Examiner in Panama City, Florida, was convicted of using an essentially identical compound to kill his wife in 1991. That conviction was reversed after questions were raised about the reliability of the drug testing conducted on his wife's body, though Sybers later pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

But according to published reports, authorities in Las Vegas had at least one other reason to suspect Higgs and to suspect that he used succinylcholine to kill his wife. According to those reports, Higgs had reportedly mentioned the drug himself during a particularly macabre conversation with a friend, had criticized Darren Mack, the Reno playboy pawnbroker who allegedly killed his own wife and then shot the family court judge who had presided over the couple's contentious divorce, saying that if Mack had wanted to get away with it, he should have simply injected her with succinylcholine. 

In September, Higgs, who traveled to Florida, — not to flee justice, his lawyer told reporters, but because he was overcome with grief over his wife's death — surrendered to authorities. Last week, he made a brief appearance in court at which he agreed to waive a speedy preliminary hearing and was ordered held without bail pending his court appearance on Dec. 7.

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