Ex-Boyfriend Fueled By “Obsession and Rage” Plotted Hollywood Sex Therapist’s Murder for a Month: "She Was Terrified"

Amie Harwick’s terrified roommate frantically called 911 late on Valentine’s Day 2020 to report she was being attacked in her Hollywood Hills home in Los Angeles.

“I was downstairs. I heard screaming. I know she’s being attacked. I heard her going to the ground,” Michael Herman told 911 dispatchers.

When officers got to her home around 1 a.m. on Feb. 15, they found Harwick, a popular Hollywood sex therapist, on the ground outside the house, under a third-floor balcony. She had defensive wounds on her hands and arms. The glass doors in the front yard were broken. Black beads from her crucifix necklace were scattered about her room. And a syringe filled with a mysterious liquid was found on her balcony. She died in the hospital hours later.

“She was, you know, somewhat of a celebrity,” former CBS reporter Leyna Nguyen said on A Plan To Kill, airing Sundays at 7/6c on Oxygen True Crime. “At one point she was engaged to Drew Carey, who was the host of The Price Is Right.”

As police spoke to the 38-year-old victim's family and friends, it quickly became clear who was the main suspect in her murder.

“During our interviews with Amie’s friends, several of them told us that Amie had suspicions that she was being stalked by Gareth,” said Scott Masterson, LAPD homicide detective, on A Plan To Kill.  

Gareth Pursehouse, 45, was Harwick’s ex-boyfriend. Even though the two broke up eight years before her death, police said he terrorized Harwick before her murder, and that she even predicted her own death.

“She really was worried at that point,” said Harwick’s friend, Robert Coshland, on A Plan To Kill. “She said, ‘If anything happens to me, it’s him.’”

Amie Harwick and Gareth Pursehouse dated from 2009 until 2012. They met at a Hollywood party as she worked as a hostess to pay her way through school.

“He was very loud, fun, smiley,” said Grace Stanley, Harwick’s friend, on A Plan To Kill. “He was one of the night life photographers. It was very clear that he was taken by her. Because he would always want to take a lot of pictures of her.”

Dr. Amie Harwick attends the "Rock To Recovery" benefit at The Fonda Theatre on October 2, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. Photo: Getty Images

But Harwick’s friends told police there were red flags in the relationship from the start.

“Amie and Gareth lived together, and he was very possessive over her,” said Marcy Mendoza, Harwick’s friend, on A Plan To Kill. “He wanted to know where she was at, at all times. Who was she with? He was always checking her phone.”

The relationship was also abusive. Harwick had filed a police report in May 2011 that Pursehouse choked, suffocated, kicked, punched and pushed her, as well as slammed her head into the ground.

“This relationship between Amie Harwick and Gareth Pursehouse ended with her obtaining a restraining order against him,” said Victor Avila, deputy district attorney for the L.A. County DAs Office, on A Plan To Kill.

But that restraining order did little to stop Pursehouse from continuing to terrorize Harwick. Within a month, she believed he'd broken into her new apartment.

“It was very specific. Photo frames were smashed,” Stanley said. “And her laptop was wiped clean.”

But there was no evidence to prove Harwick’s theory.

“She tried going to police, and they said, ‘Well, there’s no proof that it was him,’” Mendoza said. “She was terrified.”

One month before she was murdered, Harwick ran into Pursehouse as she attended the XBiz Awards in Los Angeles, and he was a red-carpet photographer.

“Amie hadn’t seen Gareth in eight years. And when she was on the red carpet, she noticed him taking photos,” Coshland said. “When he saw her, he made a beeline for her, and started yelling and screaming at the top of his lungs, ‘You ruined my life!’”

Even though she’d changed her phone number, the next day, Pursehouse began contacting Harwick again.

“He kept texting her. He left voicemails. Like just crying,” Stanley said. “And eventually she just had to block him. And again, she was fearful for her safety.”

Police believe Harwick blocking Pursehouse pushed him over the edge.

“The theory is that once Gareth Pursehouse was blocked, detectives believe he prepared and began planning her death,” Avila said. “All these actions show he was going to, in a way, punish her for rejecting him. And that he thought about how to do it.”

Harwick’s roommate, Michael Harmon, told police she went out with friends for Valentine’s Day. He remembered waking up around 9 p.m.

“Michael told us that he thought Amie came home and dropped a dish or a glass or a plate or something,” Masterson said. “He didn’t think much of it.”

But police believe that’s when Pursehouse broke the front doors and entered the home to wait for Harwick. Blood was found by the broken glass doors. An FBI analysis showed that blood matched Pursehouse's DNA.

A neighbor’s back patio camera at this time also showed a man wearing gloves and a cap come by and move the camera. He matched Pursehouse’s general build.

“It shows his premeditation and his planning the event,” Masterson said. “Has he been there before? Most likely. Because he knew exactly where he was going to hop the fence.”

Police then pieced together a theory as to what happened.

“He laid in her bed, and waited for Amie to come home,” Masterson said.

Harmon told police he woke up for a second time around 1 a.m. to the sound of Harwick screaming and ran to get help. The unknown man was seen on camera climbing back over Harwick’s fence and running away around that time.

“So to me, this was the big moment,” Masterson said. “It’s highly likely that he had targeted and planned his entrance and exit.”

FBI analysis showed the syringe found in Harwick’s home was filled with liquid nicotine—a poison that’s difficult to detect. A similar syringe was found in a search of Pursehouse’s home.

“Gareth’s overall plan would have been to inject her and have Amie pass away, and nobody would have been the wiser,” Masterson said.

But her autopsy showed Harwick was never injected with a poison.

“So now it appears he couldn’t inject her,” Nguyen said. “His plan failed. And he resorted to violence.”

“He grabs her and rips the necklace off her neck,” Masterson added. “Gareth is choking her. She’s fighting for her life. I believe he picks her up … he walked to the balcony edge and just dropped her to the bottom of the patio.”

Police collected more evidence when Pursehouse was arrested just 14 hours after Harwick was killed.

“He had scratches on his neck, chest, arms,” Masterson said. “He had a large bruise on the inside of his bicep. Looked like, to me, a bite mark.”

A jury agreed with the prosecution, and found Gareth Pursehouse guilty of the first-degree murder of Amie Harwick. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

“I think Gareth decided to do this on Valentine’s Day on purpose,” deputy district attorney Catherine Mariano said. “I think Gareth decided to kill Amie Harwick on a day that symbolized love and couples. And I think it was poetic justice in his opinion.”

Watch all-new episodes of A Plan To Kill on Sundays at 7/6 on Oxygen.