How celeb sex therapist was thrown from balcony by jealous ex – and syringe filled with mysterious liquid was vital clue
POSING in front of the flashing cameras and showing off her Hollywood smile on the red carpet, Amie Harwick was having the time of her life at a glitzy awards bash.
Little did she know that that night IN January 2020? she would end up back in the clutches of her stalker ex-boyfriend who would go on to murder her in the most brutal way.
Just a month later Amie, 38, was thrown off her Hollywood Hills balcony by her former lover, Gareth Pursehold, 45,while her flatmate was downstairs sleeping.
Now four years on, her friends and family have spoken on Hayu’s A Plan To Kill how the celebrity sex therapist – who worked with a host of A-list clients – feared for her life before the savage attack – and how police did little to stop it.
“She always wanted to help people, that was ingrained in her very being,” a heartbroken friend of Amie’s, Grace Stanley, revealed.
Celebrity sexpert
Amie was born in Pennsylvania and was adopted at a young age to a ‘good family’ who she was very close to.
But friends say she always knew she was destined for bigger things than her small-town life and she headed off to LA working as an actress or any other gig she could get her hands on.
“She was just a go-getter,” said Grace.
While working acting jobs and hosting parties to pay bills, Amie went back to school to get her PHD to become a family and sex therapist.
With hard work and dedication Amie went on to open up her own practice, and became a celebrity in LA providing therapy for adult stars working in the area.
Amie Harwick and Gareth Pursehouse dated from 2009 until 2011. They met at a Hollywood party where she was working as a hostess to pay her way through school to become a therapist.
“He was very loud, fun, smiley,” said Grace. “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.”
He wanted to know where she was at, at all times. Who was she with? He was always checking her phone.
Marcy Mendoza
But red flags soon began to develop in their relationship with friends spotting he was possessive of the brunette beauty.
“Amie and Gareth lived together, and he was very possessive over her,” said Marcy Mendoza, Amie’s friend. “He wanted to know where she was at, at all times. Who was she with? He was always checking her phone.”
The relationship quickly turned abusive too, with Amie filing a police report in 2011 claiming Gareth had choked, suffocated, kicked, punched and pushed her, as well as slamming her head into the ground.
It wasn’t long until Amie had enough of the sick abuse by the hands of her partner and the relationship ended with the therapist obtaining a restraining order against him lasting for five years, said Victor Avila, deputy district attorney for the L.A. County DAs Office.
HOW YOU CAN GET HELP:
Women's Aid has this advice for victims and their families
- Always keep your phone nearby.
- Get in touch with charities for help, including the Women’s Aid live chat helpline and services such as SupportLine.
- If you are in danger, call 999.
- Familiarise yourself with the Silent Solution, reporting abuse without speaking down the phone, instead dialing “55”.
- Always keep some money on you, including change for a pay phone or bus fare.
- If you suspect your partner is about to attack you, try to go to a lower-risk area of the house – for example, where there is a way out and access to a telephone.
- Avoid the kitchen and garage, where there are likely to be knives or other weapons. Avoid rooms where you might become trapped, such as the bathroom, or where you might be shut into a cupboard or other small space.
If you are a victim of domestic abuse, SupportLine is open Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 6pm to 8pm on 01708 765200. The charity’s email support service is open weekdays and weekends during the crisis – messageinfo@supportline.org.uk.
Women’s Aid provides a live chat service – available weekdays from 8am-6pm and weekends 10am-6pm.
You can also call the freephone 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline on 0808 2000 247.
Amie did everything right – ending the relationship, switching her phone number and moving to a new apartment.
But his warning to stay away from Amie did little to deter him – and he soon broke into her new apartment just a month after she had moved in.
The attack was specific, smashing photo frames and wiping her laptop clean – filled with hard work to become a therapist and she knew exactly who was behind it.
Terrified, Amie went to the police but as there was no evidence he was behind the break-in, they could do nothing to protect her.
She warned her friends that if anything bad happened to her – it was probably her ex-boyfriend.
Amie had moved on with her life and things seemed normal again, she had a happy relationship with Drew Carey, presenter of The Price is Right until 2018 when they called off their engagement.
Eight years on from her relationship with Gareth, she went to the XBIZ 2020 awards ceremony, where adult stars gather to celebrate their profession.
Amie, who worked with a non-profit providing therapy for women in the industry, went along to support them and be recognised for her work.
Wearing a classic little black dress and old-hollywood style curls, Amie posed for the flashing cameras on the red carpet until her eyes met with Gareth, who was taking photos at the event in a bizarre chance encounter.
“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, Gareth began contacting Amie again.
“He kept texting her. He left voicemails. Like just crying,” Grace said. “And eventually she just had to block him. And again, she was fearful for her safety.”
It’s believed Amie blocking Gareth pushed him over the edge – making him snap and plot her murder.
“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,” revealed the LA detective Victor.
A COLD AND CALCULATED PLAN
CCTV from her neighbour’s house saw Gareth act out his violent plan – heading to the crime scene with gloves to cover his fingerprints and turning cameras away from the house and jumping over the fence in his premeditated attack on his ex lover.
After knocking on the door to get no answer, he kicked down the glass in the window and made his way into the home to confront Amie.
It was Valentine’s Day evening, and Amie had gone out with friends. Gareth sat on her bed and waited to plunge at her with a needle filled with liquid nicotine—a poison that’s difficult to detect.
When she entered the bedroom, Gareth tried to follow out his plan – but Amie wasn’t planning to go anywhere without a fight.
She left bruises, scratches and bite marks over his upper torso – but Gareth’s cold-blooded instincts fuelled his violent temper.
While Gareth carried out his cold-blooded attack and Amie struggled for her life, her flatmate Michael Herman, who had been asleep downstairs was awoken to her screams of terror as he ran out of the house and frantically called 911 off a passerby’s phone.
“Somebody just attacked my roommate,” he can be heard saying on the 911 call.
“I was downstairs, I heard screaming.
“I know she’s being attacked. I heard her going to the ground.
“You guys need to get a cop here quick.”
Seeking ‘revenge’
What is usually a sleepy neighbourhood quickly awakened with patrol cars swarming the flat to find a frantic Michael outside, also fearing for his life from the attacker.
When they made their way to the back of the house, Michael broke down as he saw Amie’s body lying on the ground below.
A picture of the pool of blood from the crime scene where Amie’s body lay was taken and detectives revealed her arms were covered in bruises and scratch marks – as she fought for her life with Gareth.
It didn’t take long for Amie’s friends to figure out who was behind her murder – Robert Coshland immediately told police it was probably her ex-boyfriend.
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Just 14 hours later, Gareth was arrested for the crime, detectives soon pieced together the crime that unfolded.
The syringe found at the crime scene matched ones found in Gareth’s house after detectives searched the place – proving he brought it to her house.
Police construed that his plan was to inject her with the poison that’s hard to detect in the body and nobody would know she was murdered.
Gareth’s plan to poison Amie had failed, an autopsy showed she wasn’t injected with the liquid, so he decided to strangle her then pick her up as she fought back at him and drop her off of the balcony.
Gareth was sentenced to a life sentence with 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 symbolises love and couples. And I think it was poetic justice in his opinion.”