How Gareth Pursehouse planned Amie Harwick’s murder

Amie Harwick A 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 down. I heard screams. I know she’s under attack. I heard her fall to the ground,” Michael Herman told 911 operators.

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

“She was, you know, kind of a celebrity,” former CBS reporter Leyna Nguyen said on A plan to killbroadcast on 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.”

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

“During our interviews with Amie’s friends, several of them told us that Amie had suspicions that Gareth was stalking her,” LAPD Homicide Detective Scott Masterson said in A plan to kill.

Gareth Pursehouse45 years old, was Harwick’s ex-boyfriend. Although the two separated eight years before her death, police said he terrorized Harwick before her murder and that she even predicted her own death.

“She was really worried at the time,” Harwick’s friend Robert Coshland said in A plan to kill. “She said, ‘If anything happens to me, it’s him.’”

Amie Harwick and Gareth Pursehouse’s romance turns into a nightmare

Amie Harwick and Gareth Pursehouse It dated from 2009 to 2012. They met at a Hollywood party while she was working as a hostess to pay for her studies.

“He was very loud, funny and smiling,” Harwick’s friend Grace Stanley said in A plan to kill. “He was one of the nightlife photographers. It was very clear that she had taken him. Because he would always want to take a lot of pictures of her.”

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

“Amie and Gareth lived together and he was very possessive of her,” Harwick’s friend Marcy Mendoza said in A plan to kill. “He wanted to know where she was, at all times. Who was she with? “He was always checking his phone.”

The relationship was also abusive. Harwick had filed a police report in May 2011 that Pursehouse strangled her, choked her, kicked her, punched her and pushed her, as well as banging her head on the floor.

“This relationship between Amie Harwick and Gareth Pursehouse ended when she obtained a restraining order against him,” Victor Avila, an assistant prosecutor with the Los Angeles County Prosecutor’s Office, said in A plan to kill.

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

“It was very specific. “The picture frames were smashed,” Stanley said. “And his laptop was wiped clean.”

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

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

A meeting between Harwick and Pursehouse pushes him to plan her murder.

A month before she was murdered, Harwick ran into Pursehouse while attending 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 pictures,” Coshland said. “When he saw her, he walked straight towards her and started screaming and screaming at the top of his lungs: ‘You ruined my life!’”

Although he had changed his phone number, the next day Pursehouse began communicating with Harwick again.

“He kept texting her. He left voicemails. Like just crying,” Stanley said. “And finally she had to block it. And again he feared for his safety.”

Police believe Harwick, by blocking Pursehouse, pushed him over the edge.

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

Police discover how Gareth Pursehouse murdered Amie Harwick

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

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

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

A neighbor’s backyard camera at the time also showed a man wearing gloves and a cap approaching and moving the camera. It matched Pursehouse’s general constitution.

“This shows his premeditation and his planning of the event,” Masterson said. “Have you been there before? Most likely. Because I knew exactly where I was going to jump the fence.”

Police then put together a theory about what happened.

“He laid down on his bed and waited for Amie to come home,” Masterson said.

Harmon told police he woke up a second time around 1 a.m. when he heard Harwick screaming and ran to get help. The unknown man was seen on camera jumping the Harwick fence and running away at the time.

“For me, this was the big moment,” Masterson said. “It is very likely that he targeted and planned his entry and exit.”

FBI analysis showed that the syringe found in Harwick’s home was filled with liquid nicotine, a poison that is 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 die, and no one would have noticed,” Masterson said.

But his autopsy showed that Harwick was never injected with poison.

“So now it looks like 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 suffocating her. She is fighting for her life. “I think he picks her up…he walked to the edge of the balcony and just dropped her at the back of the patio.”

Police gathered more evidence when Pursehouse was arrested just 14 hours after Harwick’s murder.

“He had scratches on his neck, chest and arms,” ​​Masterson said. “I had a large bruise on the inside of my biceps. “It looked like a bite mark to me.”

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

Watch new episodes of A plan to kill Sundays at 7/6 on Oxygen.