Hundreds of people watched in horror as a man and a woman hung themselves on a Portland bridge Wednesday afternoon. It took police an hour to cut their lifeless bodies from the span.
"This was well planned," Terry Sparks, deputy medical examiner for Multnomah County said Wednesday. "The young man left a lengthy suicide note."The woman, 25-year-old Mora McGowan, and her unidentified 28-year-old boyfriend were staying with friends in an apartment near the bridge, Sparks said.
The two had been evicted from their apartment about two weeks earlier, Sparks said. He added that the man, an artist, was in despair over drug use and a resulting plunge into poverty.
The two young people tied nooses around their necks, tied the 40-foot rope to Portland's Steel Bridge and jumped off around 3:00 p.m. Wednesday. The Steel Bridge spans the Willamette River and runs into downtown Portland.