We've come full circle now.
The teacher's sudden change of occupation and location makes a
ton more sense now than when he first explained it. I hadn't made the connection between his psychiatric training period and the current incident.
That's actually pretty slick foreshadowing there.
@criver
IIRC, it's called "Hysterical Strength", a short period of time when people under extreme emotional stress can do things like lifting up a car (just lifting up one end a few inches, not holding it over their head or anything), because the body pumps adrenalin and other chemicals into the system along with releasing the unconscious limiters on how far we can push our muscles. Or so the theory goes. Due to the nature of these incidents, it's impossible to study them under controlled conditions, so nobody's really sure how it works. (Also, there's usually damage to the muscles afterward, since they aren't meant to be used that hard - the limiters are in place for a reason.)
Given that theory, I think it's actually quite plausible that 'Catharine' managed to choke her assailant, since she would have only have to compress both of his carotid arteries for 7-14 seconds for him to pass out, and a further 2-3 minutes for him to die (during which he wouldn't be resisting since he was unconscious). If she was just strong enough while hyped up in the moment to blood choke the guy for less than 20 seconds while he was trying to stop her, then all she'd have to do would be keep her grip after he passed out until he died, then knock his head against the wall a few times.
After doing some fast research, that seems pretty believable.