Reno, Nevada was their honeymoon. A glitter strip of casinos, handy because Mike Kuhnhausen liked playing the slots. His new wife Susan Kuhnhausen, an emergency room nurse in Portland, Oregon, was along for the ride.
She’d advertised for a husband in the newspaper. “If you are seeking a bright, funny lady who is adventurous enough to advertise, please apply,” the black-and-white box in the classified section read.
Mike applied and, in a 1988 version of online dating, the pair chatted on the phone several times before meeting in person. Within a year, after several romantic, outdoorsy dates, the pair were in Reno. Mike playing the slots. Susan happy to have a husband.
The post-nuptials glow was short-lived. “It wasn’t very long after we were married, that there was no more hiking, no more getting out,” Susan told Willamette Week last year.
Things deteriorated as the pair were sharing a house in Portland, Oregon. Susan knows now that Mike lied about serving in the Vietnam war. He started working for an adult entertainment company. He began questioning her movements whenever she would leave the house. He was monitoring and questioning her spending.
Susan realised her husband, who chain smoked and drank Diet Coke, was depressed: “He saw life as a shit sandwich,” she said.
Finally, in September 2005, Susan told Mike to leave. She said she “wanted to be happy again”. But, what she didn’t realise, is that the period after leaving a partner who has a tendency toward domestic violence and control, is the most dangerous. According to a Domestic Violence Prevention Centre in Queensland, fear of safety is one of the topmost barriers for leaving an abusive relationship.