A California jury has found 44-year-old Gareth Pursehouse guilty of first-degree murder and burglary in the February 2020 death of North Penn alum and prominent Hollywood sex therapist Amie Harwick.
According to a report from Deadline.com, members of the Los Angeles Police Department were dispatched to Harwick’s home along the 2000 block of Mound Street on Feb. 15, 2020, at 1:16 a.m. for a report of a woman screaming. Upon arrival, police met with Harwick’s roommate, who stated that Harwick was being assaulted by her ex-boyfriend — identified as Pursehouse, the report states.
Police found Harwick critically injured on the ground beneath her third-story balcony, and she was rushed to an area hospital where she was later pronounced dead, the report states. Investigators said that they found possible evidence of a struggle and forced entry into the residence, according to the report.
Pursehouse was arrested around 4:30 p.m. the same day on suspicion of murder, police said. Harwick and Pursehouse had broken up from a relationship years ago, and afterwards, Harwick had filed a restraining order against him, reports indicate. Deadline.com reports that the restraining order had expired prior to the Feb. 15 incident, and Harwick and Pursehouse had been in contact with one another in the weeks prior to her death.
Harwick grew up in a home along Lansdale Avenue in Montgomery Township and graduated with North Penn High School’s Class of 1999. In the time since her graduation, she moved out to Hollywood and received her Masters of Arts in Clinical Psychology from Pepperdine University and her Doctorate of Human Sexuality from the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality.
According to a report on NewsNationNow.com, prosecutors successful proved that Pursehouse had strangled Harwick then pushed her off her balcony in a planned and premeditated attack. Pursehouse’s attorney’s rested without presenting a case to the jury, the report states.
Pursehouse faces a maximum of life in prison on the murder charge.
See also:
North Penn Grad Amie Harwick, Ex-Fiancée of Drew Carey, Killed in Hollywood, Police Say
Death of Amie Harwick Profiled by ’48 Hours’ as Accused Killer Awaits Trial
Obit: Amie Nicole Harwick, Therapist and Author, Dies at 38
