Amie Harwick Murder Case: Evidence, Trial, and Sentence

The Amie Harwick murder case ended in September 2023 with the first-degree murder conviction of her ex-boyfriend, Gareth Pursehouse, who broke into her Hollywood Hills home on February 15, 2020, strangled her, and threw her from a third-floor balcony. He was sentenced that December to life in prison without the possibility of parole.¹

Who Amie Harwick Was

Harwick was a licensed marriage and family therapist who built a Los Angeles clinical practice specializing in sex and relationship therapy and appeared frequently on podcasts and in media discussing intimacy and sexual health.² She grew up in Lansdale, Pennsylvania, earned a master’s in clinical psychology from Pepperdine and a doctorate in human sexuality, and published a self-help book in 2014.³ She had been engaged to Price Is Right host Drew Carey; the two split amicably in late 2018.

What Happened the Night of the Murder

In the early hours of February 15, 2020, Pursehouse broke into Harwick’s home on Mound Street in the Hollywood Hills by shattering a glass panel on a set of French doors. Prosecutors later established that he waited inside for roughly four hours before she came home.⁴ A neighbor’s security camera caught him jumping over a fence into the backyard and attempting to cover the lens with a gloved hand.⁵

Harwick’s roommate, Michael Herman, was asleep downstairs when a crashing sound woke him. He then heard a scream and sounds of Harwick being thrown to the floor and choking. Unable to find his phone, he climbed over a fence, cutting himself on spiked rods, and flagged down a stranger to call 911.⁶

Hollywood patrol officers responded at about 1:16 a.m. to a report of a woman screaming and found Harwick unresponsive on the ground beneath her third-floor balcony.⁷ She was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and pronounced dead at 3:26 a.m. The Los Angeles Medical Examiner ruled the death a homicide caused by blunt-force injuries to the head and torso and manual strangulation.⁸

The Evidence Against Pursehouse

Blood on the broken French doors matched Pursehouse’s DNA. So did DNA taken from underneath Harwick’s fingernails.⁸ Beads from a rosary necklace Harwick had been wearing were scattered from her TV room, through her bedroom, and onto the balcony, indicating a struggle that moved through the home.⁹ When Pursehouse was arrested, he had a black eye and a bite mark on his bicep.⁵

On the balcony, investigators found a syringe containing a concentrated liquid nicotine solution that FBI analysis confirmed was capable of killing a person.¹⁰ A similar syringe was later found at Pursehouse’s home.⁹ LAPD homicide detective Scott Masterson testified that Pursehouse’s plan had been to inject Harwick with the poison so her death would not look suspicious; when that plan failed, prosecutors argued, he strangled her and threw her from the balcony. The autopsy confirmed she was never injected.

The Prior Relationship and Restraining Orders

Harwick and Pursehouse dated from roughly 2009 to 2012 after meeting at a Hollywood party. Friends described the relationship as abusive and controlling and said he tracked her location and checked her phone.¹⁰

In May 2011, Harwick filed a police report alleging that Pursehouse had choked, suffocated, kicked, and punched her, slammed her head into the ground, and pushed her out of a car on the freeway.¹¹ She obtained a temporary restraining order that year; it was dismissed after she missed a follow-up hearing. Nine months later she returned to court and secured a second restraining order, which was extended in 2012. That second order expired about two weeks before her murder.¹²

The XBIZ Awards Encounter One Month Before

On January 16, 2020, roughly a month before her death, Harwick and Pursehouse ran into each other at the XBIZ Awards at the JW Marriott in downtown Los Angeles. They had not seen each other in about eight years. Pursehouse became agitated and yelled that she had ruined his life.¹³ Harwick sat with him and tried to de-escalate the situation; her friend and fellow sex therapist Hernando Chaves eventually intervened. Pursehouse approached her a second time later that evening for another roughly 30-minute conversation. Chaves called it “one of the most difficult nights of her life.”¹⁴

In the weeks that followed, Harwick told friends she was afraid of him. She ordered pepper spray, hired a handyman to check her locks, and told multiple people that if anything happened to her, Pursehouse would be responsible.¹³ She wrote herself an email describing him as “obsessive and scary.”⁸ Because her restraining order had expired, she could not use it to bring in law enforcement.¹¹

Charges, Bond, and Path to Trial

Pursehouse, then 41 and living in Playa del Rey, was arrested the afternoon of February 15, 2020, by the FBI–LAPD Fugitive Task Force.⁷ He was charged with one count each of murder and first-degree residential burglary, with a special-circumstance allegation of lying in wait that made the case technically eligible for the death penalty.⁴

He posted a $2 million bond and was briefly released, then re-arrested four days later on a felony no-bail warrant and held from that point forward.¹⁵ He pleaded not guilty in April 2020.⁹

The Trial

Opening statements began on August 29, 2023, with Deputy District Attorneys Victor Avila and R.J. Dreiling prosecuting for Los Angeles County.¹⁶ Prosecutors argued Pursehouse was obsessed with Harwick, meticulously planned the attack, and lay in wait armed with the nicotine syringe. They walked jurors through the DNA, the surveillance footage, and Harwick’s documented fears.¹⁷ One friend testified that Harwick had told her, “If anything happens to me, it would be Gareth.”¹⁸

Defense attorney Evan Franzel conceded that Pursehouse broke into the home, but said his only intent was to talk. Franzel told jurors that the January awards-show encounter had thrown Pursehouse into a “deep, debilitating depression” and that the nicotine syringe was meant for his own suicide that night. Harwick, the defense argued, fell from the balcony while trying to get away. In closing, defense attorney Robin Bernstein-Lev told the jury it was unclear who started the physical confrontation.¹⁹ The defense also challenged the DNA, arguing samples could not be definitively dated to the night of the murder and raising possible contamination.¹⁷ Pursehouse did not testify.¹⁶

Verdict and Sentence

On September 27, 2023, the jury convicted Pursehouse of first-degree murder and first-degree burglary and found the special-circumstance allegation of murder while lying in wait to be true.¹⁵ Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón said “justice was served.”¹

On December 6, 2023, Pursehouse was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole and ordered to pay $7,500 in restitution.¹¹⁶ Although the lying-in-wait finding made the case eligible for the death penalty, prosecutors sought life without parole. Friends and family delivered victim impact statements before sentencing.¹⁸

What Came After

Drew Carey spoke publicly about the loss in a 48 Hours interview, describing his reaction to the news: “I just started crying. I couldn’t even stand up.” He also disclosed that Harwick had texted him two days before her death about forgiveness and reconnecting, and that he replied, “I would love to do that. I love you.”²⁰

Carey promoted a Change.org petition called “Justice 4 Amie” that called for eliminating expiration dates on restraining orders, mandating long-term counseling for abusers, allowing victims to testify without being in the same room as their abuser, and creating a national registry for individuals with a history of abuse.²¹ The petition gathered nearly 300,000 signatures.¹¹ A separate effort, the Dr. Amie Nicole Harwick Memorial Project, is raising funds for a permanent bronze memorial at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, with any surplus designated for a domestic violence charity in her name.²²

1
NBC News. Ex-Boyfriend of Celebrity Therapist Amie Harwick Sentenced to Life in Prison
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A&E. Hollywood Sex and Family Therapist Amie Harwick Murdered by Jilted Ex
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Patch. Services Set for Lansdale’s Amie Harwick, Hollywood Therapist
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Deadline. Amie Harwick Death Penalty, Ex-Boyfriend LA DA Murder Charge
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CBS News. Amie Harwick Killer Gareth Pursehouse Evidence
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CBS News. Amie Harwick Murder Gareth Pursehouse Trial
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LAPD. Family Therapist Murdered in Hollywood Hills, Former Boyfriend Arrested
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Oxygen. Gareth Pursehouse’s Lawyer Says Amie Harwick Fell Off Balcony
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CBS News. Amie Harwick Suspicious Death Timeline
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Oxygen. How Gareth Pursehouse Planned Amie Harwick’s Murder
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ABC News. Amie Harwick’s Loved Ones Hoping for Change as Domestic Violence Spikes
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People. Amie Harwick Restraining Orders Against Ex Suspected of Murdering Her
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Los Angeles Times. Amie Harwick Red Carpet Encounter With Gareth Pursehouse
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People. Amie Harwick Tried to Deescalate Terrifying Encounter With Ex Before Killing
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ABC7. Amie Harwick Gareth Pursehouse Murder Case Sentenced
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Court TV. Gareth Pursehouse to Be Sentenced for Ex-Girlfriend’s Murder
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Fox LA. Amie Harwick Case: Ex-Boyfriend Ordered to Stand Trial
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Court TV. Gareth Pursehouse
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CBS News. Amie Harwick Murder Hollywood Therapist Gareth Pursehouse Trial
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CBS News. Amie Harwick: Drew Carey Heard From Former Fiancée Before Untimely Death
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People. Drew Carey Calls for Change in Domestic Violence Laws Following Death of Ex-Fiancée
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Amie Harwick Memorial. Memorial Project News