Amie Harwick death: Roommate of murdered Hollywood therapist opens up about the fateful night
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: High-profile therapist Amie Harwick was found unconscious but alive on her home patio about 20 feet beneath her third-floor Hollywood Hills apartment in the early morning hours of the day after Valentine's Day, on February 15, 2020.
She was then rushed to the hospital, where she died because of fatal blunt force injuries that she faced from the fall. On further examination, it was revealed that she had allegedly been in a physical altercation with an intruder, who first strangled her and then pushed her off the balcony.
Now, four years later, her roommate, Michael Herman, has opened up about what happened to his friend on the fateful night, as per CBS News.
Amie Harwick's roommate Michael Herman was awoken by a 'bloodcurdling scream' on the fateful night
Herman, Harwick's first-floor roommate, was sleeping when he heard what sounded like a dish breaking above him on the floor. At the time, the family and sex therapist was spending the evening out with her friends.
After he convinced himself it was Harwick's cat upstairs, he fell back asleep. Strange noises awakened Herman once more but this time it was his friend calling out for assistance.
Not being able to find his phone, he ran outside after screaming up the stairs to scare off the attacker.
Herman noted, "I remember thinking like this is so much worse than any horror movie I've ever seen. I just was, uh, woken up by screaming, like a bloodcurdling scream, And I yelled up, you know, 'Amie!' And I heard choking right after that."
"I just kind of panicked, you know, feeling like a lot of time had already passed," added the grief-stricken roommate, who then ran into someone on the street and used their phone to call 911.
Amie Harwick's roommate Michael Herman told police that the suspect might be an ex-boyfriend
Later, at the Hollywood police station, Herman told the lead detective, Scott Masterson, about the person who could have been a possible suspect.
He said, "I told them she had an ex-boyfriend that she had had a restraining order against, that had expired. … I don't know his name, but Robert would know his name."
Robert Coshland, one of Harwick's closest friends, then told the authorities about Gareth Pursehouse, with whom the therapist shared a troubled relationship ever since they dated almost 10 years ago in 2009.
Pursehouse was arrested on February 15, 2020, and charged with Harwick's murder on February 19, 2020. Authorities learned that the ex-boyfriend had been violent with the therapist on several instances, and she had obtained a restraining order against him in 2012.
In December 2023, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after a jury found him guilty of the first-degree murder of Harwick. Prosecutors argued that the ex-boyfriend planned to kill the therapist after becoming "obsessed" with her following their breakup.
He apparently broke into her home, waited for hours, attacked and strangled her before pushing her off the third-floor balcony.
