Casino tycoon Ted Binion found dead in his luxury mansion, the scene looked like a drug overdose, but police do not believe so.

On September 17, 1998, officers from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) were dispatched to a residential area on Palomino Lane after a call from a woman named Sandy Murphy. “My husband is not breathing. He needs help,” Sandy told the 911 dispatcher in a panicked voice.

When paramedics arrived at the 6,000-square-foot mansion, they found Ted Binion, 55, dead on the floor. He was lying on his back on a sleeping bag with a blanket over him, surrounded by drug paraphernalia, a knife smeared with heroin, and an empty bottle of Xanax.

White foam from the victim’s mouth indicated drug use and a fatal overdose. However, police are still investigating the death because the victim was well known in the Vegas community. They do not rule out the possibility that Ted was murdered for his large fortune.

Ted comes from a long-standing wealthy family, heir to Binion’s Horseshoe casino, founded by his father. Ted’s fortune is estimated at $55 million. But he struggled with addiction to heroin and other drugs for more than 20 years.

Sandy, 26, used to work at the famous Cheetahs strip club and met Ted there. When they met in 1994, Ted was married and had children.

By September 1998, the couple, who were nearly 30 years apart in age, had been together for about three years. Ted gave Sandy a Mercedes, credit cards, and $10,000 a month.

Sandy said she came home on the afternoon of September 17, 1998, to find her husband dead. Sandy believes Ted may have taken his own life in despair. That summer, he lost his gambling license for drug use and was accused of criminal ties, and was not even allowed to set foot in the family casino. In the months that followed, Sandy said Ted’s drug use spiraled out of control.

But Ted’s sister Becky Behnen did not believe Sandy, believing that her brother had been murdered.

A year earlier, Ted’s close friend, notorious robber Herbert Blitzstein, had been killed in an execution-style attack. Rumors had spread throughout the city that robbers were out to kill Ted to take the 24 tons of silver he had hidden in his underground vault.

Through investigation, Ted amassed $8 million worth of silver bullion. He built a cement vault to store the silver in the desert of Pahrump, Nevada. Ted kept quite a bit of silver in his home. However, just one day after his death, the silver went missing.

Part of the silver hidden in Ted Binion’s underground vault. Photo: 8news

Becky suggested that investigators keep an eye on Sandy. A week before Ted died, he had confided that he planned to end his relationship with his younger lover. Sandy was having an affair with Rick Tabish, 33, a close friend who had helped Ted move the silver into the bunker.

On September 19, 1998, just 34 hours after Ted’s body was discovered, Rick was found by police trying to move the silver in the middle of the night after digging in the underground bunker. Rick claimed that he had been given permission to take the silver if anything happened to Ted, but investigators accused him of theft.

Police found that Sandy and Rick had lived together in Henderson, Nevada, before and after Ted’s death. Shortly after Ted’s death, the couple booked a vacation as husband and wife, staying at a luxury hotel in Beverly Hills, ordering wine and dozens of red roses.

In the midst of the investigation, Sandy tried to get a hold of Ted’s assets. She and her lawyer videotaped themselves going through the Las Vegas house, taking inventory of all the belongings, fearing that Ted’s family was trying to take some of the items. According to Ted’s will, in the event of his death, Sandy would receive $300,000, the house and everything inside, and the rest would go to his daughter. In the video, Sandy showed no signs of grief.

An autopsy found lethal amounts of heroin in Ted’s stomach, leading to speculation that he swallowed the drug instead of smoking it as he normally would. The coroner’s office left the cause of death as undetermined.

The case took a turn when a friend of Rick’s alleged that, before Ted died, Rick asked him to help kill a wealthy casino owner because he didn’t want to pay his debts. The two discussed and asked the pharmacist how much Xanax was needed to kill a man. The friend also said he overheard Sandy saying that her boyfriend had died of a drug overdose.

In June 1999, while shopping, the couple was arrested for theft, attempted murder and murder.

Sandy Murphy sits next to Rick Tabish in court on August 13, 1999. Sandy spray-painted the surveillance device from black to beige to match his clothes. Photo: Las Vegas Review-Journal

The trial began in late March 2000. Prosecutors presented evidence that Rick was in debt of nearly $700,000, which could have been a motive for killing Ted.

The Binion family’s lawyer said Ted called him the day before he died and asked him to remove Sandy from his will. “If Sandy doesn’t kill me, if I die, you’ll know what happened,” the lawyer said, recalling Ted’s cryptic words that “sent chills down his spine.”

Ted’s housekeeper testified that Sandy called her on the day of the incident and told her to stay home that day.

In the video of the home inventory, Sandy is seen taking a glass of wine from the kitchen and sneaking it into her bag. Prosecutors believe the glass may have been used to give Ted a fatal cocktail of heroin and Xanax.

The glass was never found, but Sandy adamantly denied killing Ted and said he took the glass because he had been drinking that day and didn’t want anyone to judge him.

After eight days of deliberation, the jury found Sandy and Rick guilty on all counts and sentenced them to life in prison.

But the case does not end there.

The couple appealed. Three years later, the Las Vegas Superior Court ruled that Sandy and Rick had not received a fair trial, in part because of hearsay evidence presented to the jury. The convictions were overturned.

During the retrial, Rick testified himself to prove his innocence.

On November 23, 2004, Sandy and Rick were found not guilty of any crime in Ted’s death, but both were convicted of the theft of silver. Sandy was sentenced to one to five years in prison and was released with credit for time served. Rick served several more years in prison before being released in 2010.

The money seized by authorities was returned to Ted’s daughter. Sandy never received any money from the casino tycoon’s estate.

Today, rumors still swirl around Ted’s death. Some believe it may have been organized crime-related, while others believe it was an accidental drug overdose, a suicide, or the result of a more sinister plot to take the life of the casino heir.