DOUBLE HANGING IN PUBLIC SHOCKS WITNESSES IN PORTLAND

A Man And A Woman Apparently Commit Suicide Together By Throwing Themselves
Off The Steel Bridge

A man and woman apparently hanged themselves from the south side of
Portland's Steel Bridge Wednesday afternoon during rush-hour traffic and
potentially in full view of a passing Amtrak train.

The pair was identified as Michael Shannon Douglas, 29, and Mora Kathleen
McGowan, 25, both of Portland. Autopsies will be conducted this morning,
said Terry Sparks, deputy Multnomah County medical examiner.

The hangings were reported about 3 p.m. when passers-by saw the bodies
dangling from a rope beside the bridge, said Detective Sgt. Cheryl Kanzler,
a Portland Police Bureau spokeswoman.

The bodies hung in midair for more than an hour as police conducted an
investigation. The pair apparently hanged themselves with separate nooses
tied together.

Investigators found a handwritten 13-page suicide note in Douglas'
backpack, Sparks said.

In the letter, Douglas detailed his drug abuse problem and said he wanted
to die, Sparks said. Investigators said they found syringes in the backpack.

"I think I've decided on an old-fashioned public hanging. . . . Thirteen
loops in a hangman's noose," the letter said. It continued: "The Steel
Bridge shall be my gallows . . . Mora and I go together on the Steel Bridge."

Douglas wrote that he had sold most of his assets to finance his heroin habit.

McGowan did not have a suicide note with her, Sparks said.

Witnesses had seen the pair walking on the bridge about 2:30 p.m. and said
the couple seemed fine, Kanzler said.

Isaac Frankel was working at his computer terminal in an office building on
the west side of the Willamette River when he noticed someone suddenly jump
off the bridge.

"What caught my attention was someone flying over the edge," said Frankel,
an assistant analyst for NW Natural.

Although he was too far away to notice details about the two victims, he
said the sight made a powerful impression on him.

"It was a gruesome, gruesome sight," he said. "At first I thought it was a
mannequin, like it wasn't real, just dangling in the wind. But when the
police were there, you realized they were real humans."

Police closed one eastbound lane of traffic on the bridge for about an
hour. They also delayed an approaching Amtrak train for 17 minutes before
it reached the bridge.

Scott Hurd, an Amtrak station agent, said 411 passengers on the
Seattle-bound train were warned to close their curtains before the train
approached the bridge.

Amtrak did not offer counseling for passengers once the train reached Union
Station on the northwest side of the river, Hurd said.

"When they got off the train, I didn't hear anyone talking about it," Hurd
said.

McGowan, her red hair tied in a ponytail, was dressed in a red plaid shirt,
black shorts and black ankle boots. Douglas, with short black hair, was
dressed in a black sweatshirt, olive-green shorts and black Army-style
boots. He also had two tattoos on his lower left leg and a backpack slung
across his chest.

Members of the Portland Fire Bureau lowered the bodies about 4:10 p.m. into
a boat operated by members of the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office River
Patrol, Kanzler said.

Jan LeFlore, 28, watched as the bodies were lowered into the boat.

"Life is precious," LeFlore said. "I think about giving up sometimes, but I
have a wife and a baby, and life is precious."

Kanzler, who was a homicide detective for three years, said that usually it
is elderly couples who commit suicide together, especially if one is
terminally ill.

Dr. Michael G. Conner, a clinical and medical psychologist, said people who
commit suicide publicly usually are angry people determined to make a
public statement.

"Its intention is to inflict harm and to punish others," Conner said. "It's
also a way to end a painful emotional problem."

Connor said suicide pacts usually are between people who at one time
encouraged each other to live. "But eventually they lose hope, and the pain
and fear of living becomes worse than the fear of dying."

Checked-by: Richard Lake