Nurse, 51, strangles intruder in her home

Susan Kuhnhausen wins a deadly struggle against a convicted felon armed with a hammer
Friday, September 08, 2006
MAXINE BERNSTEIN

An emergency room nurse who arrived home Wednesday night to find a strange man inside her Southeast Portland house strangled him to death with her hands after a violent struggle.

Neighbors say Susan E. Kuhnhausen, 51, had just gotten off work at Providence Portland Medical Center and was still in her scrubs when she returned to her tidy home in the 7900 block of Southeast Alder Street shortly after 6 p.m.

Police say there was no obvious signs of forced entry in the front of the house. So Kuhnhausen was surprised to find an intruder inside. The stranger, neighbors say, was armed with a hammer. But the veteran emergency nurse went into crisis mode and escaped with only a few bruises and scrapes.

After the struggle, she ran to a neighboring house for help, and the neighbor called 9-1-1 at 6:51 p.m. By the time police arrived, 59-year-old Edward Dalton Haffey,, a convicted felon with a long record, lay dead in her home.

"Everyone that I've talked to today says 'Hurray' for Susan," said Anne Warnock, the neighbor who called 9-1-1. "She's a very brave and courageous woman. If they're picking teams, we want to be on her team."

Under state statute, a person can use a reasonable degree of deadly force when defending themselves against an intruder or someone who is burglarizing their home. But police said the case was unusual in that a homeowner acting in self-defense strangled an intruder, as opposed to using a weapon, such as a firearm or knife.

"But when you're fighting for your life, you will use whatever means is necessary," said Portland Officer Cathe Kent, a police spokeswoman. "In this case, the homeowner did what she had to do to get out safely."

A man who answered the phone at Kuhnhausen's home Thursday night declined to comment.

The neighbor said Kuhnhausen wasn't too shaken up when she fled to her house.

"You didn't need to calm her," Warnock said. "She's an emergency room nurse. She's used to dealing with crisis. She was very clear thinking and took care of the problem."