Mike Kuhnhausen promised Edward Dalton Haffey $50,000 to murder his estranged wife, but neither expected Susan to strangle Haffey to death instead.
On Sept. 6, 2006, Susan Kuhnhausen returned to her Portland home after a shift as an emergency room nurse to find a strange man in her bedroom. Around 15 minutes later, her neighbor called 911.
“She struck him, and she strangled him, and she thinks he’s dead,” Kuhnhausen’s neighbor related to the dispatcher on the other end of the line. The police arrived to find that Kuhnhausen had indeed killed the intruder, Edward Dalton Haffey. But why had he been in her house?
KGW News/YouTubePortland police gave Susan Kuhnhausen an award for “sheer determination” after she saved her own life from a hitman.
As the investigation continued, officers began to unravel a disturbing scheme. In Haffey’s backpack was an envelope with the phone number of Susan Kuhnhausen’s husband, Mike Kuhnhausen. He’d seemingly been hired by Mike to kill Susan. The couple had separated a year earlier, but they were still on friendly terms, which made the revelation all the more shocking to Susan.
Mike ultimately pleaded guilty to soliciting Susan’s murder, admitting that he’d wanted her dead because he had nowhere to live and knew that he would get their house if she were gone. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, but he died from cancer just months before his release.
After hearing Mike’s confession, Susan filed for divorce and changed her last name to Walters. She is now an outspoken advocate for domestic violence survivors, though she’s still haunted by the deadly decision she had to make to save her own life.
How Susan Kuhnhausen Killed The Hitman Sent To Murder Her
“We have an intruder in the house next door,” Anne Warnock, the neighbor of Susan Kuhnhausen, told a 911 dispatcher on the evening of Sept. 6, 2006, as reported by the Willamette Week. “The intruder was in the bedroom with a hammer. The woman who lives there thinks she may have strangled him.”
Kuhnhausen had returned to her home in southeast Portland from a shift as an emergency room nurse at Providence Portland Medical Center 15 minutes earlier. There, she found a note from her husband, Mike Kuhnhausen, who had moved out a year prior but still had access to the house. It read, “Sue, haven’t been sleeping. Had to get away — Went to the beach.”
Then, as Kuhnhausen walked toward her bedroom, a stranger appeared from behind the door. He was wielding a hammer and wearing yellow rubber gloves. He struck Kuhnhausen in the head — and was surprised when she began fighting back.
Portland Police DepartmentEdward Haffey had a previous criminal record that included arranging the murder of his ex-girlfriend.
“He was standing over me with the hammer. I looked at the floor and I thought, ‘I’m going to die today,'” Susan Kuhnhausen told the Willamette Week in 2016. However, Susan Kuhnhausen frequently practiced self-defense due to situations she encountered as an E.R. nurse. She was able to wrest the hammer from her attacker’s grasp, and a struggle ensued.
In the end, Kuhnhausen managed to get the man in a chokehold. She climbed on top of him and used her body weight to hold him down. When he eventually stopped moving, she ran next door to Warnock’s house and told her to call 911.
The police found Edward Haffey strangled to death in Kuhnhausen’s home. At first, it seemed like a burglary gone wrong — but then detectives found Mike Kuhnhausen’s phone number among Haffey’s belongings.
Inside The Hunt For Mike Kuhnhausen
After discovering the phone number of Susan Kuhnhausen’s husband on an envelope in Haffey’s backpack alongside a calendar entry that read “Call Mike” scheduled for two days before the attack, officers wanted to bring Mike Kuhnhausen in for questioning. There was only one problem: They couldn’t find him.
Investigators discovered that Mike had left a suicide note at his father’s house on Sept. 8, two days after the attack. It read, “All I ever wanted was to be loved and every time I had it — I f—ked it up.”
Five days later, on Sept. 13, officers tracked Mike to the parking lot of a medical center on the outskirts of Portland. He said he was planning to check himself in because he had “nothing to live for anymore.” Instead, he was arrested for conspiracy to commit murder.
KOIN 6/YouTubeMike Kuhnhausen in court in 2007. He was sentenced to 10 years behind bars for conspiring to kill his estranged wife.
“You’re not going to believe my side of the story,” Mike told detectives. “My side of the story is so f—king off the wall.” At the same time, he denied any involvement in the attempted murder and said that he didn’t even know Haffey.
However, investigators already knew that Mike Kuhnhausen had hired Haffey to clean floors at Fantasy Adult Video, where Mike was a janitorial supervisor. They also knew that Haffey had previously spent nine years behind bars for arranging the murder of his ex-girlfriend.
Then, another man who had known Haffey came forward to reveal that Haffey had contacted him just before the attack to ask if he wanted to help with an “insurance scam.” Slowly, the real story began to come out.
The Aftermath Of The Attempted Hit
Mike had lost his job and had nowhere to live. Because he and Susan had been married for over 17 years, he knew their house was paid off and that he would inherit it if she died. He promised Haffey $50,000 if he would kill Susan Kuhnhausen and make it seem like a burglary that had taken a dark turn when Susan came home in the middle of the crime.
Mike Kuhnhausen eventually pleaded guilty in exchange for a 10-year sentence. Susan filed for divorce the day after Mike was arrested, and she later sued him for $1 million for emotional distress. She didn’t need the money for herself — she just didn’t want Mike to have it so he couldn’t try to hire another hitman upon his release.
Mike never made it out of prison, though. He died from cancer in June 2014, just three months before his scheduled release.
KOIN 6/YouTubeSusan Kuhnhausen holds up a photo of her injuries after Edward Haffey tried to kill her with a hammer.
Susan Kuhnhausen, meanwhile, told The Oregonian in 2014, “I’ve got a life sentence.”
“I was forced to kill another man,” Kuhnhausen said. “Even though he was not a good man, that was the hardest part.”
Now going by Susan Walters, she struggles with paranoia and anxiety, even after her ex-husband’s death. She shares her experience with other victims of domestic violence and violent crimes and advocates for their rights.
“One minute you’re a regular person in the world,” Susan stated in 2016, “and then you’re not.”
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