Law&Crime Sidebar - The Disturbing Murder of Hollywood Sex Therapist Amie Harwick

Episode Date: August 29, 2023

Famed sex therapist Amie Harwick was found outside of her Hollywood Hills home struggling to hold onto life after allegedly being thrown off of a third-story balcony in 2020. Harwick died at a hospital shortly after the fall from blunt force injuries to her head and torso, along with evidence of strangulation. Authorities quickly zeroed in on her ex-boyfriend, Gareth Pursehouse, who had previous restraining orders filed against him by Harwick and was described as a “stalker” by many of the doctor’s friends. Pursehouse now faces trial in a California courtroom for Harwick’s murder. The Law&Crime Network’s Jesse Weber breaks down the disturbing murder case with Robert Coshland, one of Harwick’s best friends who organized a fundraising campaign after her death. PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW:Save 10% on your entire POM Pepper Spray order by using code LAWCRIME10 at https://bit.ly/3rkw6gnLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokePodcasting - Sam GoldbergWriting & Video Editing - Michael DeiningerGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa Bein & Kiera BronsonSUBSCRIBE TO OUR OTHER PODCASTS:Court JunkieThey Walk Among AmericaDevil In The DormThe Disturbing TruthSpeaking FreelyLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee 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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that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. So I like surprising people and even when I'm being introduced like with my current partner, people will say, oh, nice to meet you. Are you an actress trying to make it in L.A.? I'm like, oh, no, actually I do this. And they're like, oh, Oh, my gosh. An L.A. therapist was murdered inside of her home, and her suspected killer is about to go on trial. It's everything we know so far into the killing of Dr. Amy Harwick.

Plus, her good friend Robert Koshlin comes on to discuss some of the last exchanges he had with the doctor, including her final text. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. A new trial is beginning out in California this week, and we plan to cover it all. the Law and Crime Network. It is the trial of the person accused of murdering Hollywood therapist Dr. Amy Harwick back in 2020. And in anticipation of this case, we want to do a review of everything we know so far. So Dr. Amy Harwick was a 38-year-old family relationship and sex therapist originally from Pennsylvania. And she was quite high profile out in Los Angeles. She was

even engaged to comedian and Price's Right host Drew Carey at one point in time. Dr. Harwick appeared in magazines, podcasts, TV news programs. She was the author of the 2014 book, The New Sex Bible for Women, and she even had her own YouTube channel. Now, according to her memorial page, Dr. Harwick dedicated her career and personal life to helping women succeed, including forming a group called Foxy Feminists that helped women local to Los Angeles connect with each other for job opportunities and support. But sadly, she was killed shortly after Valentine's Day 2020. So here's a timeline of what we think happened based on the reporting, and obviously we will learn more during the course of this trial. Well, Dr. Harwick wakes up, and she goes for a walk with a friend and grabs a bite to eat on February 14th. Then later in the night, at around 7.30 p.m., the doctor meets up with some friends at a burlesque show, and then she goes home shortly after midnight. She sends a text at around 102 a.m. to one of her friends asking for photos from the show.

we believe she sends a text to her friend Robert Coshlin asking about a restaurant on an upcoming trip that they're going to go on. And shortly after that, that is when we believe and that is when investigators believe she was attacked in her home. Now, she didn't live by herself. No, Dr. Harwick was on the third floor and her roommate who was sleeping on the first floor awoke to screaming. Well, the roommate reportedly couldn't find his phone and he yelled at whoever had been attacking Dr. Harwick to stop. So then the roommate runs. outside to get help, tries knocking on doors, and then finally finds someone on the street with a phone and calls 911 at 1.14 a.m. And when police arrive, they find Dr. Harwick barely

able to breathe, and it was believed that she was thrown over the third-story balcony. Now, the medical examiner would determine her death a homicide, meaning that she was killed by somebody else, and that she died from a combination of manual strangulation and blunt force trauma. She's rushed to the hospital. She's pronounced dead at 3.30 a.m. Introducing the next generation of pepper spray. Meet Palm, a new maximum strength self-defense product with a patented modular design, revolutionizing the self-defense industry. Whether you're carrying the unit on your keys, snapping the unit on your backpack, your keychain, or carrying the unit in your pocket. Palm is the perfect everyday carry accessory. Palm's patented flip-top

safety prevents any accidental misfire and its maximum strength formula. provides you with the necessary range and capacity to bring peace of mind to you and your loved ones. Quality, safety, performance, peace of mind. Learn more at palm pepper spray.com. Investigators, they analyze the crime scene for any clues and evidence, and they determine that there is signs of forced entry and a struggle. They find blood on Dr. Harwick's bedroom door and beads from her necklace scattered around in her bedroom. In fact, that roommate that I had mentioned had told police that he heard a loud noise earlier in the night, but then went back to sleep.

And investigators believe that that noise was the killer breaking into the house and waiting there hours before the attack on Harwick. So now the question is, who did this? Who killed Dr. Amy Harwick? Well, that brings me back to the trial that I mentioned, the trial that is about to start up, because this is the murder trial of the man who was arrested less than. 24 hours after Harwick's killing. And that man is Gareth Hearse House, a software engineer, an occasional professional photographer, and even an aspiring comedian who appeared on the program, Kill Tony. Here he is.

One more time for Gareth, everybody. Come on. Hello, everybody. All right. Let me spin around this. There we go. Well, thank you very much. It's great to be here in all the best parts of entertainment.

We've got most of a band. I've got morning radio sound effects. Sometimes a full band when a toy kazoo comes from the ground, raises from the grave, takes over Tony and starts singing. It's a wonderful time. I think he froze.

Why are you a one-name comedian? Oh, my last name's long, so I just didn't bother. My last name's Purse House. It's too long to write. What is it? Purse House. Purse House?

Wow. Too long to write, huh? It's two words. we all know. Now, why did police arrest him? Who is he? Well, he was Dr. Harwick's ex-boyfriend from nine years earlier. And she had, in fact, filed two protective orders against him, accusing him of physically

assaulting her, including pulling her out of a car, suffocating her, punching her, slamming her head, kicking her. And she said that he would get so angry and that he refused to get help in their relationship. She accused him of previously breaking into her apartment, sending her unwanted gifts, watching her from inside her home, and when he was outside, and even sent her and her friends threatening texts and emails. In fact, one text to her from him allegedly read, things will get worse. And Dr. Harwick reportedly told her friends that Purse House was, quote, her stalker. Now that latest protection order from 2012, it actually expired in 2015. and it was our understanding that Dr. Harwick really hadn't seen Perse House in years

until a month before her death. And that is very important. Because a month before her death, that is when she ran into him at an event. And apparently he was working as a photographer. Well, Perse House allegedly called the doctor a derogatory term, said that she ruined his life. There was this whole altercation. Dr. Harwick reportedly tried to de-escalate the situation. Her friend who was there said that she went.

went into therapist mode, and it's kind of eerie to think about that this event happened just a month before she was killed. And we have to imagine that's going to be an important piece of evidence for prosecutors. So Perse House, he was ultimately charged with murder and burglary. The prosecution claims that the DNA collected from underneath Dr. Harwick's fingernails and one of the doors in her home matched Perthouse's DNA. But that's not all. Officers also found a syringe filmed with liquid at the crime scene, and they found an identical

syringe with the same liquid inside of Purse House's home. Lab techs confirmed that the liquid in the syringe was a lethal dose of nicotine. And by the way, friends have testified that they never saw Dr. Harwick smoke nicotine or cigarettes or vape or inject herself. Now, he has pleaded not guilty to the crimes. Now, his defense attorney in the past has claimed that there's not enough evidence tying Purse House to the murder. And if convicted, he could spend the rest of his life in prison.

And he'll technically be eligible for the death penalty because of the death penalty because of the lying in wait to murder component of the crime. That's a special circumstance. Although I should tell you, Governor Gavin Newsom has announced that he will be doing away with death row next year. I want to bring in right now one of Dr. Harwick's good friends, someone who may have been one of the last people to communicate with her before her death. Robert Coshland joined sidebar right now. Robert, thank you so much for taking the time to come here. You're welcome. I know this must be an incredibly difficult time with the trial starting. And I also know that there's a lot you can't say about it because I believe you're going to be a witness in the case. But I actually want to take a step

back and just talk a little bit about Dr. Harwick, who she was to you and how you two became friends. Amy Harwick was my closest friend. And we pretty much connected after doing a photo shoot. We met at a party, but we did this photo shoot, I want to say like six months to a year later. And at that photo shoot, we just found out we were just super like compatible. terms of like the way we thought about things, about our interests, the fact that we both literally worked at the same mall as teenagers, but at different time periods because I'm older than her. And so we had all these like crazy things in common. She was just super smart, super interesting, always on the go, super fun person just to be around and to do stuff with and

collaborate on kind of crazy ideas. As I was researching and learning a little bit more about her. I heard from people who said that she would always ask a ton of questions and she was really interested in knowing the person that she was speaking with and was so engaged, which, you know, obviously as a therapist, that makes sense, but it also shows her as a person how social she was and how much she was actually interested in people, right? Yeah, she was definitely, when she walked into a room, everybody was excited to see her because she was just such a cool person. And if you talk to her within minutes, you'd be like, oh my God, I love this person. I want to be friends with them because she was, yeah, she was genuinely interested in what you did, anything you had to say.

Now, you know, obviously some people are more interesting to her than others. And she's particularly like people that did weird jobs or had kind of unusual hobbies or things like that. Because then she would relentlessly question them about every detail of it to learn, just to learn because she was always interested in people. Do you remember the last time you saw her face to face? yeah i did um a couple of days before the murder she and my ex-wife and i went to see a movie we went to see a movie called the lodge which was like a horror movie and uh in hollywood and i recall um we went to the movie and then we had dinner afterwards and um i was thinking oh we should take photos because she loved to take photos every time you got together she was like let's take photos

but I just I didn't she had she had rushed over so I thought well you know she like is made up as she wants to be or whatever even though she wouldn't have cared so I just I thought about it while we were sitting there and then I didn't take it and then of course later I was like oh we should have taken photos but yeah that was like that was like Tuesday of that week was last time I saw her in person and when you found out what happened I mean after just seeing her my understanding is you might have sent one of the last text messages to her before she died. What was your reaction when you found out the news? Yeah. I think, you know, I had sent the text message sometime prior to that, but she responded

just before. Well, I mean, I was pretty devastated, obviously. I was in the police station when I found out, you know, the details. So, yeah, it was, you know, surreal, I guess. You know, I think when something like this that's huge happens, you don't process it. You just are like, no, everything's fine. You know, I don't, you know, you know, it's not, but like you just don't, it's hard to comprehend. I guess it's different for everybody. I mean, some people, obviously, when they heard the news really, you know, freaked out.

I was kind of a little stoic and definitely spaced out about it, you know, and I think I am to this day, to be honest. Well, the conversation that you had with are the text messages. What was it about, if you don't mind sharing? Yeah, we were messaging about going to, going on a trip. So we had tickets to go to London and then to Edinburgh, Scotland. So I had messaged her about a restaurant that I wanted to go to that I thought she would like called the witchery in Edinburgh. And she responded to her last text to me was like, that looks cool or something to that effect.

Because I knew she'd like it. And so obviously, we didn't go. It was going to be in April of 2020 and between the murder and the pandemic and everything. It didn't happen. So on New Year's day of this year, I actually flew up to Edinburgh from London just to go to that restaurant because I felt like it was kind of like a pilgrimage. I needed to go do it. And it's a cool restaurant. Yeah.

Yeah. And our understanding is based on the timeline, that message might have been the last communication she had with someone. before she was ultimately killed. Is that your understanding as well? Yeah, I believe it was a few minutes before. When it came out that Gareth Purshaus was the person suspected and ultimately arrested, were you surprised? No. I was the person that suggested he was involved.

So, no, it didn't surprise me at all. Though obviously when it happened in the beginning, we had no idea. I just suggested him as a possible person, as she had expressed concern about him prior and had had a run-in with him a few weeks prior. That run-in about a month before when he was working an event as a photographer and there was an altercation between the two of them, was she scared about what happened or was she more concerned about what happened? I mean, she was scared and she concerned.

So, you know, she called me and that did they after, I believe. and kind of gave me all the details and at that point she's like I'm going to start sharing my location or I think I suggested let's share locations so that you know I can see where you're at and she's like that's a good idea so we started sharing locations that day after yeah she expressed a lot of concern and fear I mean she had always been concerned about him and then after seeing him after so many years and the way he behaved according to her it really riled her up and and made her very fearful Did you ever meet him? No, never met him. And before that incident happened, about a month before, was she vocal about him in general, or was it that incident that kind of sparked her back in her life and a conversation about him? Or was she talking about him? You know, I have this guy in my life.

He stalks me, anything like that. She hadn't talked about him in a while, but she had previously talked about him years before, a couple times before. So over the years, yeah, she, he definitely came up, but it wasn't like she talked about him all the time. She wasn't really someone that dwelt in the past. But if she had kind of something weird happened or a concern that, like, he was, like, stalking her, whatever, periodically she would bring it up. So, like, I feel like in 2014 or 15 about she had some concerns.

And then later around 2018 or 19, she would periodically bring him up. So over the years, yeah. There's one thing I was hoping you can clarify. So I understand that the last protective order ended in 2015 after this incident happened, again, a month before she was killed. She had gone to the police, but it seems like they couldn't do anything. Are we understanding that correctly that police kind of didn't give her a lot for her to work with or no? No, no, no. That is misinformation.

That came out. So two days after the murder, so we sat on the information about what had happened for about a day because the police were in the process of trying to contact our parents and stuff. I knew, and I had told a couple people, but we hadn't, no one said anything to anyone else other than our close circle of friends. And I don't know how, but TMZ broke the news about two days later. And in their article, they said that, like, you know, there was a protective order had just expired right beforehand, which was not true. So I think in their rush to get out, that information, they did not provide the correct information. And then what happened was people

ran with it and then it kind of became a whisper down the lane situation. So there was no protective order. She did not go to the police a second time. I'd asked her if she would consider re-upping her restraining order. And she didn't feel like what had happened would be at a level where it would be granted because the bar for getting restraining order is pretty high. And he didn't make any direct threats when she saw him, though he did act, you know, unusual and in a disturbing way, she didn't think that it would make a difference, let alone, obviously, restraining order only works for people who have something to lose. And in this case, you know, didn't seem to care what's going on. What did he communicate to her, the best that you understand about

what happened at that event? Well, I wasn't there. So I only know what she said and what Other people have said who were there. But he did recite. What she told me is he recited some verbatim text messages that they had exchanged, like when they broke up like eight years prior and told her that she ruined his life and nothing was going well. And, you know, he blamed her for everything and, you know, things like that, which she thought to be very alarming because obviously she didn't feel like he had moved

on with his life since they broke up, which is. strange and concerning if that happened to anybody. I was reading an article, and it quoted you. I wanted to make sure this is right. You had said that Dr. Harwick had said to you that if anything should ever happen to her, it would be Gareth who did it. Is that something she said to you? Yeah, she told me that on that, Paul, when she was talking about running into him.

And that's when I brought up the sharing of location. So, yeah. It's chilling to think about. My understanding is you've started a fundraiser or memorial in her name. Can you tell us a little bit more about that? Yeah. So I started, well, I'm going to back up real quick. So she and I had had a conversation a few weeks prior to her death where we talked a lot about death and our own mortality, our mortality of our parents and friends. And just we had this big death conversation. And sometime after that, she actually called her parents and told them if a guy, I want to have an open casket funeral and a very elaborate headstone and all these strange details that. they you know ended up having to do a few weeks later and but where she's buried there can't be an elaborate headstone and then secondly it's in pennsylvania so a lot of her friends were out here so i thought well if she had her druthers and if she had will which was something we talked about a lot at that in that meaning then she would have probably wanted to be buried in hollywood forever which she liked to go spend time and you know we she knew a lot of musicians and stuff and some of the

people who were there So I thought, well, you know, what if we raise money to build a statue memorial in Hollywood forever? And then later I realized that maybe we could dedicate it to the victims of domestic violence because there's really any big memorial for it. So anyway, so I started a fundraiser to build like a bronze statue of her, like a life size, what may not be able to be life size based on the rules and raise money to actually put it there. Most of the money would go to actually getting the plot because it's very expensive to go there. And I started it during the pandemic.

We started getting traction, but then things kind of slowed down. So I'm going to get back to working on it. I actually have someone right now who's working on a 3D model of her. She actually had been 3D scanned at one point. So we have access to some digital data of her face and so forth. And the person that's working on the sculpture, he's actually like a very talented it affects a guy who's designed a lot of 3D creatures for films and stuff like that. So he's he's helping do the statue.

And a good friend of mine designed the statue as a kind of neoclassical. Amy as Aphrodite because she was a sex therapist and always talked a lot about love and stuff like that. You know, standing and then we're going to do a plaque. And then her beloved cat marquee would be associated with the statue too because she was always with her cat, who I have the cat now. and he just celebrated his third birthday. Robert, you're a really great friend. I mean, keeping her memory alive, doing this for the memorials,

going to the restaurant for a pilgrimage to her, taking care of her cat. It's really, it's very warm to see and keeping her memory alive in what she represented. As I mentioned at the top, I mean, the trial for Gareth Purse House is about to start. I know that you can't talk about it. But just if you can, how are you feeling right now about it? And what are you hoping the conclusion will be to this saga? Today is like the column before the storm of the trial. And the past, I'll say one thing that I've done a lot of things around Amy because I feel like it's a way for me to continue being her friend and to help, you know, even though she's gone.

And maybe it's a way for me to not deal with the fact that she's gone. So I can keep doing stuff around her like she's still around. But the trial, I've been talking to some people about it, and I describe it as my metaphor for it is it's like a very necessary painful surgery that you have to have, and you really want to be out the other side of it. And you know it has to be done, but you absolutely don't want to go through it, but you're going to. And I think once the trial starts, I'll be catatonic probably. I'll check out and I feel like a lot of people will. I as a witness can't attend the trial so I will not see or hear a lot of the stuff are going to go over which I guess for me in the end just getting up and talking about what

I know is going to be the easy part the people that sit through the trial her parents and her close friends and so forth they're going to hear a lot more than they may want to hear even though they feel like they'll need to hear it and it's going to be it's going to be really rough on everybody. Obviously, I hope he's convicted and put away for life. So I guess prior to the trial, though, he's just been in jail. So that's been fine by me. So, but now we'll kind of put an end to it. There's never closure, but at least we'll get that behind us and that will hopefully be the last thing. And have you mentally prepared for seeing him in the courtroom? I have seen him in the courtroom during the preliminary hearing.

So, yeah, that's fine. I don't really have any feelings one way or another about actually seeing him in person. Robert Coshlin, thank you so much for taking the time talking a little bit more about Dr. Amy Harwick. And we wish you and her family and her close friends, the best of luck moving forward. I know this is not an easy time, but it is the next chapter in this side. So thank you so much for taking the time, sir. You're welcome and thank you, too. And that's all we have for you here on Sidebar, everybody.

Thank you so much for joining us. Please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.