NEW YORK (AP) – Psychologist Kathryn Faughey didn’t sound worried about her safety in the hours before she was butchered in her office, said a friend who exchanged e-mails with her that evening.

On her mind, though, was another member of their circle of guitar enthusiasts, a man she had offered to help with personal problems. Faughey mentioned him in her last message, sent only about a half-hour before she was killed, said the friend, Don Hurley.

Detectives interviewed the man, William Kunsman, in Pennsylvania on Thursday. He was not considered a suspect, but the development showed how determined investigators were to track down any clues into the killer.

An attacker slashed Faughey 15 times with a meat cleaver and a 9-inch knife in her Manhattan office Tuesday evening. A psychiatrist who worked in the building, Dr. Kent Shinbach, came to Faughey’s rescue and was badly injured.

Kunsman met Faughey, 56, at a guitar camp several years ago, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

Kunsman was found through Faughey’s recent e-mail records, which contained messages about his personal problems, the law enforcement official said. Pennsylvania state troopers picked him up at his home around 4:30 a.m., and he was let go 8½ hours later, after he asked for a lawyer, the official said.

“The reasons they had for questioning me were valid,” said Kunsman, of Coplay, Pa., adding that he was “extremely saddened” to hear of Faughey’s death. “I’ve been in more contact with Kathryn lately. I’ve been speaking to her a lot lately on the phone and by e-mail. I guess that’s what led them here.”

Kunsman, who is married with six children, last spoke to Faughey on Tuesday afternoon but declined to detail the conversation. “That’s personal. She was just being a friend,” he said.

Hurley, who knew Faughey through an online club for people interested in C.F. Martin & Co. guitars, said he and Faughey traded e-mails on the evening of her death about a variety of topics, including Kunsman. Hurley, a recently retired Sunday Times of London reporter, said Faughey had reached out to Kunsman after he “lost his way a little bit.”

In her last message, Faughey mentioned Kunsman but gave no indication that she was concerned about her safety or that she was expecting any visitors.

Hurley said he found it hard to believe Kunsman had anything to do with the attack, a view echoed by Faughey’s husband, Walter Adam. He told reporters Kunsman was a friend of the couple.

Kunsman said that when detectives arrived he hadn’t even heard about Faughey’s death. “It didn’t become clear to me until during the questioning what had happened,” he said.

The killer left behind several clues, dropping two bags near the basement door through which he escaped. The bags were filled with adult diapers, women’s clothing, rope, duct tape and eight knives apparently not used in the attack, police said.

Police also recovered three knives at the scene, including a 9-inch knife and a meat cleaver that were apparently bent from the force of the attack.

Investigators initially believed the killer may be a patient of Faughey, but were also questioning other acquaintances.

Detectives were trying to determine whether the killer was a patient of Faughey’s or Shinbach’s but have been unable to access medical records because of federal privacy laws.

Police were working with the Manhattan district attorney’s office to obtain subpoenas for the information in patient records, which are protected under the 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly wasn’t sure how long the effort would take.

Faughey, a licensed psychologist, described herself as a specialist in cognitive behavioral therapy. On her Web site, Faughey said she treated patients for relationship issues, coping with breakups, anxiety, panic attacks, stress over job changes and online intimacy, such as relationship issues arising from computer and text messaging.

Colleagues said she was unlikely to have knowingly seen a patient who had a problem with aggression or violence.

Faughey was an avid guitar player. In the past few years, she had attended several get-togethers in Pennsylvania and elsewhere with fellow Martin guitar enthusiasts and had become fast friends with some of them.

She named her six-string guitar Little Anna, which she adoringly described in one posting on the Unofficial Martin Guitar Forum as the “archetype of the trusted friend, sister, confidante.”