Crazy nurse story get crazier.

I noted this story earlier where a nurse strangled an intruder in her home. Well, apparently, things are getting interesting: Intruder killed by nurse was hit man, police say

PORTLAND, Oregon (AP) -- When Susan Kuhnhausen returned home from work one day earlier this month, she encountered an intruder wielding a claw hammer. After a struggle, the 51-year-old nurse fended off her attacker by strangling him with her bare hands.

Neighbors praised the woman for her bravery, and investigators said they believed the dead man -- Edward Dalton Haffey -- was burglarizing Kuhnhausen's home.

But after an investigation, police now say the intruder Kuhnhausen strangled was apparently a hit man hired by her estranged husband -- Michael James Kuhnhausen Sr. -- to kill her.

Apparently, she didn't have the hammer as reported in the original story. In fact, more details are out now about the incident:

n emergency room nurse who lives in a southeast Portland neighborhood, Susan Kuhnhausen arrived home on the evening of September 6 to find Haffey coming at her with a claw hammer.

She was struck in the head and wrested the weapon away, but the struggle continued and Haffey bit the nurse, according to police. A large woman, she was eventually able to get the slight Haffey into a chokehold and police later found him dead in a hallway. An autopsy revealed the cause of death as strangulation.

Police say she acted in self-defense.

There was no sign of forced entry into the home, but according to the affidavit, Susan Kuhnhausen offered an explanation for the lack of evidence of a break-in: Her estranged husband had the security codes for the home's alarm system, and would have been able to disarm it.

Now, I know Nate felt that this should be treated as a homicide. I have an explaination that may demonstrate why it may have not been homicide. It is completely possible to collapse the trachea in a strangle hold. If she collapsed his trachea in the fight and he lost concisousness, she may have run away to the phone/neighbors/whatever. With the lack of air he would simply asphyxiate while she removed herself from the scene. Now, this is purely conjecture and the story will continue to fill out.

In the end, I suspect that I would generally give the benefit of the doubt to the side of the homeowner in most self-defense cases.