48 Hours - Justice for Amie Harwick

Episode Date: February 12, 2024

Amie Harwick's roommate speaks out about trying to save her and helping to convict her killer. "48 Hours" correspondent Erin Moriarty reports.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial, and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.ca. It was 1989 in Titusville, Florida. Kim Hallig said she and her ex-boyfriend Chip Flynn were kidnapped and attacked at gunpoint. Kim fled the scene, but Chip didn't make it out alive. Did you kill Chip Flynn? No, ma'am. Crosley Green has lived more than half his life behind bars for a crime he says he didn't commit. I'm Erin Moriarty of 48 Hours, and of all the cases I've covered,

this is the one that troubles me most, involving an eyewitness account that doesn't quite make sense. A sister testified against a brother. They always say lies, You can't remember lies. A lack of physical evidence. And questions about whether Crosley Green was accused, arrested, and convicted because he's black. Just because a white female says a black man has committed a crime, we take that as gospel.

Listen to Murder in the Orange Grove, the Trouble Case Against Crosley Green, early and ad-free with a 48-hour plus subscription on Apple Podcasts. I don't think the grieving ever ends. It evolves. We've been wanting to tell Amy's story and just felt like we weren't ready before. But now we feel like we can do it. I'm so proud of her and what she's accomplished.

Oh, my goodness. Fire eater, dancer, photographer, model, therapist. She wanted to fix people. You might want to speak to this woman, Dr. Amy Harwick. As a licensed marriage and family therapist, I see all kinds of different things. Anxiety, depression, change of life stuff, breakups, moves, things like that. Amy helped me so much. I had gone to see Amy because I had dealt with a relationship that got very out of control and turned into a very serious stalking case. Jealousy can become dangerous and even lead to violence.

It can lead to death. I want to register to 434. Yeah, somebody just attacked my roommate. Please get a cop here. I just was woken up by screaming, like blood-curdling scream. And then I realized that the screaming wasn't stopping or slowing down,

and I yelled up, you know, Amy. And I heard choking right after that. I knew we were in trouble. This is for real. This is really happening. I knew we needed help, like I'm going to have to make a break for it. When the first responders first got that call, where did they go?

They came right here to this house. Hey, sir. Hi. How can I help you? My roommate was attacked. I know it. I heard it. She's screaming. She was thrown to the ground.

OK, hold on. OK. Michael Herman was out here. He's frantic. He's nervous. They didn't know what to think of this guy. Right. Right. They had no idea of who he was,

why he was involved in all this. They knew he was rambling on. They had some doubts about him originally. I think there's somebody... Okay, sir, do me a favor. Do me a favor. Calm down. Calm down. Other than your roommate, is there anybody else inside the house?

I don't know. I don't know. Thanks. And I'm walking them around to the back of the house. And it's dark back there. There's some light, but it's pretty dark back there. So when they get around to the back, now they can see a body on the ground. Sir.

Sir, come here. I remember not knowing what I was seeing, you know, and afterwards realizing it was Amy. Really what hit me was the way that she was killed. So heartbreaking that her, for all people, had to be taken in the way that she was. I said, I know who did it. I just knew it. It was the only person she was afraid of.

It's the only one she was ever afraid of. Aaron Moriarty reports justice for Amy Harwick. Take a seat. Take a seat. Oh, my God. We need it. We need it. What happened to you? In the early morning darkness of February 15, 2020, police body cameras were recording as Amy Harwick, barely clinging to life outside of her Hollywood Hills home, was taken to a hospital. If she says anything in the hospital, we need to know that. As EMTs tried to save Amy, officers from the Los Angeles Police Department tried to make sense of the scene. Amy's roommate, Michael Herman, appeared to be the only witness.

He told officers an intruder had attacked Amy. I swear to you, that was a struggle. But is there any sign of the intruder? There wasn't. There wasn't. Scott Masterson was the lead detective. All we knew when we showed up was that a female was found on the ground in the back of the house. We're wide open to what really went on.

Even open to the possibility that this wasn't foul play at all. When officers searched the three-story house, they found Amy's purse, jacket, and broken necklace on the floor. Not exactly telltale signs of a crime. And a discovery on Amy's balcony made them wonder if this could have been an accident or even suicide. On the deck of the balcony, we found a medium-sized syringe and it was loaded with a yellowish brown substance. Yeah it's heroin. When the officers first saw

that they thought what was this some kind of drug dealer incident? Yeah exactly or maybe she was using drugs and fell over they didn't know. Sir do you know her history of drug use? She's sober. She doesn't drink. She doesn't even drink. She doesn't drink. She doesn't even drink. She's sober. And when I first saw it, I said, that's not heroin. Not heroin. But he didn't know what it was.

But what did you think? Wasn't that odd? Very odd. Very strange. And very strange to investigators, says Masterson, was that Michael had blood on his shirt. And although he said he was a roommate, he didn't have his keys to the house when first responders arrived. They don't know if he's part of the problem, part of the solution. He might be a son, because he's got blood on his shirt. So, you know, they're thinking, was he in a fight with her? That was not true.

Michael Herman is telling his story publicly for the first time about the events on the night of Valentine's Day 2020 and into the early hours of the next day. The word nightmare isn't even a big enough word, is it? No, no. Amy had gone out with friends, and Michael was in his downstairs bedroom. I'd been mostly nodding on and off. I remember what sounded like a plate dropping,

being woken up by it. Thinking it was Amy's cat, he says he fell back asleep. He later woke up to Amy returning home, and that blood-curdling scream. He then heard what sounded like Amy being thrown to the floor and later choked. The sound made you feel that there was someone up with her. I knew for a fact there was somebody up there after that.

I'm trying to listen. You don't know for sure what's going on. Was he acting alone? Was there more than one person? I start rushing to look for my phone. But Michael says he couldn't find his phone. He then started yelling to scare the intruder. I remember thinking, like, this is so much worse than any horror movie I've ever seen. You're realizing that to save her,

like, you've got to make the decision to leave her. It was such a hard decision. Michael fled the house to get help, but when he got to the front gate, it was locked. He climbed over a fence, cutting himself on spiked rods. Frantically, he ran to the next door neighbor's house. That neighbor's surveillance camera shows Michael knocking on the door, but no one answers. I just kind of panicked, you know, feeling like a lot of time had already passed. He then ran into someone on the street

and used their phone to call 911. You guys need to get a cop here quick. Sir, the officers are on the way. After spending hours at the scene, investigators found something in the light of day that they had missed before. A broken window from a French door on the ground floor with blood nearby. And so as soon as we saw that, okay, this is our point of entry. We have a crime here. Somebody broke into this house

and did this. So this was the first piece of evidence that said to you, Mike Herman might be telling you the truth. Correct. Correct. Later at the Hollywood police station, Michael told Masterson about the person he believed was responsible. 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 is Robert Koshland, one of Amy's closest friends.

We first spoke to Robert in 2020. He told us what he told police. They were like, you know, do you know who might have, you know, could have done this? And I was like, yeah, Gareth. Gareth Pursehouse, an old boyfriend whom Amy had had a troubled relationship with

when they dated almost 10 years earlier. I was like, you need to go find this guy right away. Masterson then broke the news to Robert and Michael. Amy had died at the hospital. She was 38 years old. How difficult was it to hear that Amy didn't make it? It's still difficult to hear. As investigators worked to find Amy's ex-boyfriend,

they also tried to find Amy's parents, Penny and Tom Harwick in Pennsylvania. The Harwicks remember getting ready for bed when there was a knock at the door. It was the local police. And he said Amy's been murdered. It's a blur right now. I don't know how to describe it. Just devastated. Penny and Tom's life with Amy began when they adopted her as an 11-month-old baby. Do you remember the first time you saw your little girl?

Oh, I absolutely remember. Kind of like a fairy tale. It's like, here's this beautiful little girl sitting there. She's going to come home with us and be our daughter. It was wonderful. And believe it or not, she had a head full of curls. And her hair was honey-colored. By the time she was four, it was so dark.

Around that same time, the Harwicks adopted their son, Chris. And she was okay with it for a couple of weeks, and then she said, well, when is he going back? And I said, well, he's not. He's your brother. He's gonna be here forever. How would you describe your sister? Amy was a very interesting character. She was into heavy metal, into rock music, going to concerts.

And Amy got her parents in on the action, too. She turned Penny and I into metalheads. Her headbaggers. Seriously? Seriously. And she would always manage to get either backstage or to meet the performers. That's just who she was. After high school, Amy met Tommy Decker, a drummer from LA, at a local concert. The two began dating long distance. And then she said, I want to move out there. I want to move out to LA. In 2001, she headed west.

She was 20 years old. She needed to find out who she was. She needed to do that for herself. Soon, the couple tied the knot. But after a three-year marriage, Tommy and Amy divorced. It wasn't until 2009 that Amy would go on to meet Gareth Pursehouse, the man police suspected had killed her and whom they were now searching for. In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing.

The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military. And when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music. Have you ever wondered who created that bottle of sriracha that's living in your fridge? Or why nearly every house in America has at least one game of Monopoly?

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You can listen to The Best Idea Yet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus. It's just the best idea yet. It's just the best idea yet. Heartbreak for a local neighborhood after a well-known therapist was killed at her Hollywood Hills home. People have left flowers here for Amy Harwick and her friends and family are hoping for justice. I was very confident that, you know, Gareth Pursehouse was our guy. Within 13 hours of Amy Harwick's death on February 15, 2020, police descended on Gareth Pursehouse's beachside neighborhood to arrest him.

You could tell he was playing the old, what's this about? Why do you want to talk? Who? Oh, yeah, I know Amy. Sure, yeah. He basically was saying, I've been at home. Detectives weren't buying that story or the explanation Purse House gave for what appeared to be a fresh black eye. He blamed a home renovation. I said, I think you better get a contractor. If you get a hold of a power tool, you're

going to be in real trouble. Purse House was charged with Amy's murder on February 19, 2020. And detectives were learning about his troubled past beginning not long after he and Amy began dating in 2009. They seemed like a pretty fun couple and kind of nice to see, you know, friends get together. When we first spoke to Rudy Torres in 2020, he talked about how the couple met. Amy, then working as a model and dancer, would often run into Purse House, an events photographer, at flashy L.A. parties.

If you had met him, you would think he's charming, a little goofy, kind of dorky. He wasn't a musician like she normally dated. No, no, no. And she was trying to break that habit. Purse House was also a computer expert and an aspiring comedian. Here he is.

One more time for Gareth, everybody. Come on. I have bad news for the entertainers over there. The best day of your career is going to be the days after you die. But oddly, says Amy's mother, Penny, her daughter didn't share much else about him. And why do you think that is? Well, maybe she was already feeling like he wasn't who she thought he was. feeling like he wasn't who she thought he was.

And Penny says her daughter never shared how volatile the two-year relationship had become. She'd gone through quite a bit with Gareth. There was a number of police reports that were made. Detectives learned that Amy had called police to report several violent incidents over the years. She said that on multiple occasions, Gareth Pursehouse had choked, suffocated, and punched her with a closed fist. And she even documented her injuries with these photos. But Amy's father, Tom, says Amy didn't share just how bad things had gotten. She didn't go into details.

Do you think she just wanted to protect the two of you? Yes. After Amy ended the relationship, she took steps to protect herself, obtaining a restraining order against Pursehouse in 2012. But while she was trying to distance herself from him, Rudy says Pursehouse could not let her go. He always wanted to get a hold of her, and I used to tell him that he should just leave her alone. And he wouldn't take no for an answer. And then he cut me off.

In the years after their breakup, Amy told her parents that her home was broken into. On one occasion, strangely, the only things taken were personal photos. And on another, her computer was wiped clean. And did she think it was Gareth? She did. Yes. Oh, yes. But no way of proving. No way of proving anything.

Of course we were worried, but then we also felt like, well, she's done with him. It's over. And it was never over. And Penny says Amy was thriving, getting a degree to become a licensed therapist. Hi, this is Dr. Amy Harwick, licensed marriage and family therapist. Amy posted therapy videos on her social media.

You can seek therapy to address an issue like depression, anxiety, a breakup. You can also seek therapy to be a better you. But even as Amy focused on helping others, she couldn't quite shake the shadows from her past. She lost a job as a youth counselor, Penny says, after a prospective employer was anonymously sent nude photos of her. Amy believed Purse House was behind it. She was really upset about it and she wasn't sure what she was going to do. Despite that obstacle, Amy studied for a PhD in human sexuality, earning the title doctor. She took a special interest in marginalized groups, sex workers, and vulnerable women.

And she doesn't stop. She just... She bounced right back. I wrote a book called The New Sex Bible for Women. No, she didn't stop. She would work with these groups of people that she felt were underrepresented and needed help. What was Dr. Harwick's reputation? Dr. Amy Harwick had an amazing reputation. I had a lot of mutual friends that had seen her. Emily Sears, a model whose grace the cover of Maxim magazine, first started seeing Dr. Amy Harwick in 2017, in part to help her overcome anxiety she had around dating and intimacy.

I felt that she was relatable. I didn't know just exactly how relatable it was. Even when she opened up to Amy about an abusive ex-boyfriend who had stalked her, Emily says Amy never told her about her own similar experience. And that still is something that I am struggling to process, knowing that I was sitting across from her and she had been through so much that was similar. As Amy was helping Emily work through her issues around dating, Amy was taking a chance on a new man in her own life. dating, Amy was taking a chance on a new man in her own life. Drew Carey, comedian and host of The Price is Right on CBS. She was obviously really beautiful. She was really smart. She just wanted to help people, especially women. We spoke to Carey in 2022. He said it wasn't long after meeting Amy at a party that he decided she was the one. And I said, if this keeps going the way it's going, I'm going to marry her.

And what happened? What happened was he ended up taking her to Paris on New Year's Eve and proposing to her. She accepted. Drew and Amy shared the news on his show soon after. I'd like to introduce you to my brand new lovely fiance, Amy. How you doing, Amy? But instead of spending the rest of their lives together, later that year, the couple split up. How did she take the breakup? She was devastated. I mean, she broke it off. And I think that's because all fame was getting in the way that's

because says penny Amy feared that with the added public attention she was getting while on the arm of a celebrity she could be putting herself in danger you know who was watching and it made her worry. It hit home a lot after Amy passed in the way that she did. How dangerous it really is for women. Emily Sears, one of Amy Harwick's therapy clients, was shaken by the news of her death. The reality is we're not safe. Nobody is. In dealing with some domestic violence, because this was a bit different, because the way Gareth Pursehouse acted in this case

was more methodical. When Deputy District Attorney Victor Avila took on the case, he was particularly troubled by evidence that Pursehouse had broken into Amy's house, hoping to catch her off guard when she arrived home. And that's at the point that we decided to charge not only the murder charge, but also the special circumstance of lying in wait. These are the crime scene notes.

Avila, along with his co-counsel, Deputy District Attorney Catherine Mariano, reviewed surveillance and body camera video, interviews with Amy's family and friends, and compiled a timeline of the events leading up to the murder. It became very clear to me that his obsession drove his intent to kill her. They believe that Purse House's obsession with Amy was ignited when he saw her at this awards show about a month before her murder. It was a chance encounter.

Purse House working the gig as a photographer. Amy smiling for the cameras, enjoying the limelight. But moments earlier off camera, witnesses say an angry Purse House confronted her. Penny Harwick recalls Amy telling her she hadn't seen him in almost a decade. He called her a bitch and he told her she ruined his life. And she just told me how afraid she was because he was crying and causing a huge scene.

And she said, Mom, I went into therapist mode. I just tried to calm him. After talking to Garrett for almost an hour, Amy left the event very worried. What's your reaction, Penny, when she was telling you this? That's when we talked about security and she said she was going to get pepper spray. We decided to start sharing locations so I could track where she was. Her close friend, Robert Coshland, says that sharing her phone's location was one of the few things Amy felt she could do to feel safe. The restraining order against Purse House had long expired, and because Purse House hadn't expressly threatened her,

Robert says she didn't think going to police would help. Still, he says, Amy was very concerned. That's when she said, look, if something happens to me, he did it. She actually said that. She literally said that. She's thinking that he can cause me harm. And the very next day, he finds her phone on the internet and starts texting her. Gareth sent Amy a series of texts and later left her a tear-filled voicemail. I have so much I need to say. Please give me a chance to just say it. Please. Please.

That's when prosecutors say Amy decided to block his number. I believe up until that point, he was trying to manipulate his way back into her life at the point that she made the decision to block him. That was her choice, and she had that right to do that. Prosecutors say Purcell started to plan to kill Amy on Valentine's Day. Was that just a random date? Absolutely not. I think he wanted to make a statement by killing her on Valentine's Day. On February 14, 2020, Amy went out with a group of friends around 7 p.m. Two hours later, say prosecutors, surveillance cameras from her next-door neighbor's property were activated. You get those ring cameras that show a person that looks just like Gareth Purcells with gloves. When he first comes into view, he covers the camera.

And when the camera senses no more motion, it shuts off. And then he hops over the fence. Into Amy's yard. Soon after, around 9 p.m., they believe Purcells broke through that French door. And that's consistent with Michael Herman. He heard something breaking upstairs early in the evening. And I think he just got into the house, cut himself. I don't think he even realized he cut himself.

Leaving that blood police later found nearby. DNA testing would confirm it belonged to Purse House. And Detective Masterson says where purse house went next was revealed by Amy's unmade bed. I think he climbed in her bed. He was there waiting for her for quite a while. How creepy is that? Crazy creepy. That's where Masterson believes Amy found him four hours later when she arrived home a little after 1 a.m. She walks into her bedroom, and I think she just froze in shock and fear. And the one thing that was on the bed was her phone.

So I think she actually threw her phone at him and turned and started to run out of the bedroom. And she's screaming, and they're fighting and they're wrestling. How hard did Amy fight for her life? I think she fought with everything she had. He had something that appeared to look like a bite mark on his bicep. And Purcells also had that black eye. To us, it was indicative of Amy fighting for her life. But she was obviously up against a much bigger, stronger opponent.

Prosecutors believe Purse House started choking Amy. And that's when Michael Herman yelled, they believe, catching Purse House by surprise. And I think that plan was definitely thwarted by the unbeknownst presence of Michael Herman there. I just don't believe that he even knew that somebody was home. In his panic, they believe Purse House dropped that syringe police found on the balcony. It was months before lab tests revealed what it contained, liquid nicotine. A toxic poison that if injected into someone, it would kill them. Why kill her that way? I mean, with that lethal dose of nicotine, people may not know what killed her. It may not be detected.

With his original plan interrupted, prosecutors believe that Pursehouse carried Amy, barely conscious after being strangled, to the third-story balcony. He lifts her right over the rail and then drops her to kill her. Gareth Pursehouse is caught on the neighbor's camera hopping right over the rail and then drops her to kill her. Gareth Pursehouse is caught on the neighbor's camera hopping back over the fence. With their suspect and theory of the crime, the prosecutors were ready for trial. But they were surprised by Gareth Pursehouse's defense, blaming Amy for what happened that night. As a kid growing up in Chicago, there was one horror movie I was too scared to watch. It was called Candyman.

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In the Pitcairn Trials, I'll be uncovering a story of abuse and the fight for justice that has brought a unique, lonely Pacific island to the brink of extinction. Listen to the Pitcairn Trials exclusively on Wondery+. Join Wondery in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. In August 2023, more than three years after Amy Harwick's death, her accused killer, Gareth Pursehouse, went on trial. I almost didn't recognize him.

Right. I almost didn't recognize him. Right. In their opening statements, prosecutors Victor Avila and Catherine Mariano told jurors why and how they believe Purse House ended Amy's life in the early morning of February 15, 2020. Amy Harwood was murdered by defendant Garrett Pursehouse because he was obsessed with her. He strangled her, lifted her up over the balcony, and dropped her to her death. I just pray that Amy was unconscious when she went over the balcony.

Tom and Penny sat through every second of the trial, even the most graphic moments. I need to know what happened to my daughter. And we wanted to be there for Amy. Yeah. Through the whole ordeal. But the Harwicks were not alone. Also in the courtroom, a small army of Amy's friends, including Rudy Torres.

This is the last thing I could ever do for her. Rudy Torres. This is the last thing I could ever do for her. Although fortified by her friends, nothing could prepare the Harwicks to hear for the first time ever Gareth Pursehouse's explanation about what happened the night Amy died. Defense attorney Evan Franzel claims that running into Amy in January 2020 at that award show had sent Purse House into, quote, a deep debilitating depression, unquote. And the only way out of it was to talk to Amy on Valentine's Day 2020. His only intention that night was to speak to her. What was your reaction to that?

Bulls**t. To put it bluntly, they're making up stories because they have no defense. And as for that nicotine-filled syringe found at the crime scene, Purse House's defense attorney says it wasn't for Amy. He brought it intending to kill himself. Why didn't he? No, he was on a mission to kill her he was wearing gloves when he went there he covered up the cameras what's the purpose in doing all that if you're

gonna kill yourself there in front of her in this trial the defense tells the jurors they will hear from an accident reconstructionist who will show that amy fell on her own. Defense attorney Franzl then shows the jury two images, a screenshot of the reconstruction showing an animated figure hanging from the balcony and an undated photo of Amy posing on top of a balcony railing. You'll see that she had a certain comfort level with the balcony railing.

Beautiful young lady, wasn't she? She looked glorious. What was your reaction? Ridiculous. I couldn't take it seriously. It was just so far-fetched to me. She's been strangled. She's debilitated. So for her to then walk, climb over a three-foot rail, do all that, it doesn't seem reasonable. It seems actually

unreasonable. The defense's opening concludes with this damning admission. Yes, Garrett Burr's house was waiting in her home. He broke into her home. Had he not been dispute. He set a chain of actions into motion that led to her death. But the evidence will show that he never intended on killing her. Over the course of 10 days, the prosecution presented its evidence to prove that Gareth Purcell did intend to kill Amy Harwick. Dozens of witnesses testified for the state, including Detective Masterson, now retired, Robert Koshland,

You can call Michael Herman to the scene. and of course, Amy's roommate, Michael Herman, the man who heard it all. Michael described for the jury how after that incident on the red carpet, Amy had been concerned about those French doors that Purse House would later use to break into her home. Amy had met with a handyman.

I remember they were over by the glass doors, and Amy was pointing it out and telling him, we need to secure this. Prosecutors also played for the jury this taped jail conversation between Purse House and his friends after his arrest. I guess I'm officially a bad boy now, right? I've always been kind of... Just a couple of weeks after he's been arrested for murder,

he's laughing with his friends. You never hear any moment of concern for Amy during that call. Yeah, so, it's not great. I'm not getting out of here. Why was that important? I think that's one piece of evidence to show a consciousness of guilt. So he knows what's coming because the evidence shows what he did. It proves what he did.

When it was the defense's turn to present its case and call its expert witness to show how Amy's fall from the balcony was an accident, the defense suddenly rested without calling a single witness. Didn't that hurt the defense? I am sure some jurors were wondering what happened, so I don't think that helps. During closing arguments, defense attorney Robin Bernstein-Lev

presented a new theory of what happened that night, that Amy may have attacked Purse House. We don't know who initiated the physical confrontation. It is just as likely, if not likelier, she preemptively attacked Gareth Bursehouse in order to subdue him because she was afraid of him. You see that all the time, don't you? A 115-pound lady picking a fight with a 230-pound, 6'4 man, just preposterous on its face. Did that make you mad? Oh, it took all my willpower to stay in that seat, to keep my mouth shut.

During the state's closing arguments, it's Amy Harwick who has the last word. With prosecutor Mariano reading from an email Amy wrote to herself hours after her January 2020 encounter with Purcells. Tonight, I felt very scared. Derek came up behind me and started screaming. I'm pretty nervous that I'm more on his radar now. It terrifies me that he's obsessed with me for nine years, thinks about me every day.

He's focused on harming me. That's the closest we've ever had to a victim testifying in their murder. I thought it was extremely devastating. Jurors had three choices, murder in the first degree, murder in the second, or the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter. When it came time for deliberation, I think we all thought it would be rather quick. Day one went by, nothing. I started getting a little worried and thinking, what could they be debating about? Hot shot Australian attorney Nicola Gaba was born into legal royalty.

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Listen to Informant's Lawyer X exclusively on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. And listen to more Exhibit C true crime shows early and ad-free right now. I felt nervous. Yeah. Because you never know. As jurors met for a second day to decide Gareth Pursehouse's fate, the waiting for a verdict began to weigh heavily on the prosecution.

It's incredibly nerve-wracking. The wait is the worst part. And on Amy Harwick's friends and family. And all you hear is just like a symphony of anxious bellies just grrrr. So everybody's nervous. But as court was about to adjourn. We were walking out of the courthouse and Rudy called down and said, everybody get up here, there's a verdict. Was it correct that the jury has a verdict? You can have the verdict formed over at the bailiff, please.

We have a jury in the Bovey Town of Action, a fighting defendant, Gareth Purcell, guilty of a crime of murder in the first degree. Gareth Purcell's guilty of first degree murder with a special circumstance of lying in wait. What did you feel at that moment? A huge relief. Huge relief. I just started crying and I couldn't stop. It was like, phew, finally after all this time, he's going to be held accountable for what he did.

Two months later, Pursehouse was sentenced to life in prison without parole. He didn't say a word. Amy's friend Robert Coshland. Justice was rendered and that's good, but we shouldn't be here at all. This should never have happened to begin with. The hole in our lives remains. He's impacted so many people with his actions, so many people. He devastated our family.

A family that has grown. After the verdict, Tom gathered Amy's friends, the ones who have stood by them every step of this journey. I said, you're not our friends, you're family. You really have become our family. Could you have gotten through this without them? No. I don't think so. through this without them? No. I don't think so. It's a testament to the amazing life and community Amy Harwick created.

She was really happy. She was really happy that she had really gotten her life together. Man, we were all happy. Michael Herman says he still keeps replaying that night. She's gone. And I'm still here. You want a second chance.

I'm still trying to save her. Michael Herman has a lot of survivor's guilt. Oh, my goodness. He did the exact right thing. He made all the right decisions. Do you feel your sister got justice? I feel she did. Amy's brother, Chris.

We wish that she still could be here to continue to help people, because that's what she was all about. We lost a friend, but so many other people lost a healer. I think of Amy every day because she helped me so much. Emily Sears says she's struggling without Amy's guidance. It's just so hard to feel safe when this is the reality of what happened to her and what happens to so many people. Amy's loved ones are hoping to change that reality. After her death, a petition was created to rewrite California domestic violence laws, including a statute preventing restraining orders from expiring. And our biggest disappointment was it lost all its

impact when COVID shut everything down. Prosecutor Catherine Mariano acknowledges that there are limits to the legal system. By the time it gets to our table, we're in a position to act reactively rather than proactively. But as a society, I think we can always do better, right? After the trial, Amy's parents headed home to Pennsylvania, the place where they first became a family with their little girl, and watched her grow into the woman admired and now missed by so many. What's the hardest part? Just the absence.

The quiet. One huge void. One huge void. And I miss our adventures. Adventures remembered when they visit Amy's grave. And I couldn't get a brighter orange. I know orange was your favorite color, but this is the closest I could get. We're not the same people we were before, but we keep trying to be. We miss you Amy. Every day we think of you. Anything you wish you had been able to say to her? Just to tell her one more

time that I love her. I know she knew it but I wanted to be able to say it. If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence or stalking, the National Domestic Violence Hotline can be reached at 1-800-799-7233. If you like this podcast, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. 1-800-799-7233.