On the evening of September 6, 2006, 51-year-old emergency room nurse Susan Kuhnhausen finished her 13-hour shift at the Providence Portland Medical Center, treated herself to a haircut, and headed home.
Still wearing her scrubs, Susan kicked off her Birkenstocks and went to a first-floor bedroom to change. Although she noticed the room appeared darker than usual since she would open the curtains every morning, she didn’t think much of it.
As Susan entered the bedroom, she was confronted by a stranger wielding a claw hammer who immediately struck her in the temple.
Minutes later, 911 received a call from Kuhnhausen’s neighbor, Anne Warnock.
“We have an intruder in the house next door. The intruder was in the bedroom with a hammer,” Warnock told the dispatcher.
The 911 operator asked the caller if an ambulance was needed.
“Call an ambulance for the guy. He may be dead,” Warnock replied.
After arriving at the scene, the police learned that the woman not only escaped her attacker but also strangled him to death.
They identified the intruder as Edward Dalton Haffey, a hitman who had received $50,000 from Susan’s husband to murder her.
Susan told the officers that the struggle went on for 15 minutes until she was able to flip Haffey onto his stomach and get a chokehold around his neck.
“Tell me who sent you here, and I will call you a fucking ambulance!” she yelled in his face.
Instead of answering, the hitman tried to struggle free, leaving the woman with no choice but to squeeze harder to save her life.
In 2007, Michael Kuhnhausen Sr., the victim’s husband of 17 years, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for soliciting aggravated murder.
After serving 7 years of his sentence, Kuhnhausen Sr. was granted an early release. In 2014, Susan told the press she was concerned he would come back to hurt her.
But the man wouldn’t live long enough to try.
Three months before his scheduled release, Kuhnhausen Sr. died of cancer.
In a 2014 interview with The Oregonian, Susan Kuhnhausen said she still tears up when thinking about the horrific fight for her life.
“I was forced to kill another man. Even though he was not a good man, that was the hardest part.”
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