Episode Details

As always, thank you for hanging out and remembering Susan Walters with me today.
In September 2006, 51-year-old Portland emergency-room nurse Susan Kuhnhausen came home after work and walked into an ambush planned by the man she was divorcing. Hiding inside was Edward Dalton Haffey, a man Susan’s estranged husband, Michael Kuhnhausen, had allegedly promised $50,000 to kill her and make it look like a burglary. Haffey attacked Susan with a claw hammer, but she fought back, disarmed him, and strangled him during the struggle, a killing authorities ruled self-defense.

The evidence left behind tied the plot to Michael, who pleaded guilty to soliciting aggravated murder and received a 10-year prison sentence; he died in custody in 2014 before his planned release. Susan later won more than $1 million in a civil suit against him. What Michael intended as a murder-for-hire became a story of survival: the hitman did not leave Susan’s home alive, while the husband who arranged the attack died behind bars.