True Crime with Kimbyr - Hollywood Therapist Thrown to Her Death | The Chilling Murder of Amie Harwick: Part 3

Episode Date: August 15, 2025

In Part 3, Kimbyrleigha follows the gripping courtroom battle for justice in the murder of Amie Harwick. Shocking testimony, expert analysis, and emotional statements from loved ones paint a devastating picture of loss. The defense’s chilling strategy and the prosecution’s fight to prove premeditation bring the case to its breaking point. As the verdict approaches, this episode asks: did the legal system finally deliver justice for Amie, or was it too little, too late? A powerful conclusion to a story of love, obsession, and tragedy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

10 minutes before the ex-Bisgala ended, Gareth came back. He stopped by Amy's table and he asked to talk to her again. I mean, what doesn't he understand? What does he have to say? It was almost a decade when they broke up. But he was begging her to please just let him talk. I mean, he ruined his chance in 2011 to have anything good with Amy again. But Amy did go back to the same bench with Gareth.

As the hotel cleared out, Hernando hung back waiting for Amy, texting her throughout her conversation. with Gareth checking in to make sure she was okay. Now, this talk lasted another 50 minutes or so. The cleaning crew was almost done when Hernando interrupted the conversation and said, they need to go home. Gareth had said when he needed to say in his opinion,

and he wanted Amy to leave. Amy and Hernandez then rushed out of there, and Hernandez said that she was looking behind her shoulder the whole time making sure Gareth hadn't followed them. Amy didn't want to talk until they got back to her car and locked the doors. That's how scary she was. She finally let out a sigh of relief and explained that Gareth was her ex

that she used to have a restraining order against, that he was obsessed with her. But she had no clue. He still had these feelings, and that really terrified her. Amy was supposed to go to another event after this where she would actually be the photographer taking photos of her friend's show. But Amy canceled. She was so shook up about what happened that she and Hernando just drove to a diner where they had a late-night meal and they figured out what Amy should do now.

Gareth was three years older than Amy born on July 4th of 1978, and he grew up in San Diego. Amy's friends described him as an L.A. Kendall who failed at becoming both an actor and a comedian. When Gareth and Amy first got together, her brother Chris met Gareth and thought that he was nice, but that his sister could do much better. But, Amy liked Gareth's attention at first. She was open with Hernando and her other friends about her abandonment and attachment wounds from being adopted. Of course, Amy was taking steps to heal. She was in school for therapy, and she had her own therapist.

She knew that healthy relationships required boundaries. But Gareth overstepped her boundaries all the time. And at first it was little ones in the relationship, but then it led to bigger ones until he showed his true colors. He was a jack-of-all-trades and a master of one. And that was manipulation. Amy was a loving, compassionate person who believed in making a relationship work.

But Gareth took advantage of her time. and time again, advantage of her kindness, asking her to forgive him for the most outrageous behaviors. And we only know what he was doing behind closed doors because Amy reported him. There could have been a lot more, and there probably was. Friends and family started to notice that as soon as Amy started dating Gareth, they weren't seeing her anymore. Gareth tried to sabotage her relationships and even her career. So Amy had to break up with him. She said things were over and for some time, Gareth just wouldn't get it into his head that they were really broken up. He was delusional. The restraining order did offer some distance and closure, but when it ended in

2015, Amy was really scared that she was going to see Gareth again. She thought if he saw her, his stalking behavior would re-escalate. She knows a lot about this because this is the field that she works in. If there's anything we know about stalking, it's that stalkers feed off of interactions, whether they're positive or negative. You can think a relationship has ended, but the moment they come back in contact, it triggers a downward spiral. Amy did not renew the restraining order because she didn't want to see him in court again. This is a very common thing. It happened the first time and it was happening again. All that time went by. If she were to see him again, she was scared he would get attached again. She didn't want

to make things worse. And she really thought it was over, but it wasn't over. Someone was out to get Amy. She was receiving all those nasty comments on Instagram online, the reviews on the clinical websites. And someone had hacked into her email. She couldn't prove. that it was Gareth, but all along she thought it was. And she had every reason to believe he was capable of this. But by 2016, Amy knew that it had to be Gareth because someone broke into her house, stole her photo albums, and completely wiped her computer.

They tried to erase her life. That was personal. And we know all of this information because Amy called Robert that day, and she told him she knew it was Gareth. She said her stalker knew where she lived, knew how to break her, break her down. Amy wanted to go to the police, but she didn't have cameras set up in her home,

so she couldn't prove it was Gareth. So instead, she moved. Then, it was radio silence for four years. Amy didn't hear from him until that run-in in January of 2020. That night at the diner, Hernandez told Amy she really needed to improve her security in her home. She talked about changing her locks, buying pepper spray or mace, and getting nest camera systems. Hernandez listened intendedly and he asked Amy if she would feel safer maybe coming back to his house that night. But Amy said she felt safe because her roommate Michael was at home. Hernando also asked Amy that night if she was thinking about possibly calling the police and filing another order. But Amy told him she would have to think about that, and they both

went their separate ways that night. For Detective's Masterson and Carranza, there was no doubt that Gareth was at Amy's house on the night of February 14th. Roberts had brought them even more evidence. had gone through Amy's possessions and discovered a day planner where Amy had written down all of her passwords to her accounts and Robert gained access to her Gmail. That's when they discovered an email that Amy had sent to herself on January 17th. That would be just after she got back home from talking to Hernando about what happened at the Ex-Biz Awards. It was at 309 a.m. The subject line was G.P. Which stands for Gareth Pursehouse, his initials. Amy wrote, quote, tonight, I felt very scared.

I went to the award show with Hernando. We arrived. We walked in a very long line to do the red carpet. As we were waiting, I saw Gareth walk by with a camera. Clearly he was working. I decided to ignore him and just not look in that direction. I thought maybe he would not notice me. Hernando went to the bar to get a drink, and I was waiting with his friend in line.

Gareth came up behind me and started screaming, Why are you here? He looked disregulated. His eyes looked out of control. He started screaming. You don't even like porn. You shouldn't be here. Why are you here?

And then he started to scream. He started looking like he was going to cry. He was breathing heavily and flailing his arms around. I didn't want to make a scene or scare anybody else. So I said, hey, do you need to talk? And we walked over to the side. We sat close by the bathrooms. I made sure to look and make sure there were both security people

and a lot of attendees very close by. He was sobbing. His head was in his hands. He was hyperventilating. He was distorting his face up. and shaking violently. I was scared and I felt I needed to neutralize the situation. I didn't think he was going to attack me in that moment, but this clearly showed me how obsessed he was. He told me he thinks about me every day and every day he cries. He told me he lost his job

when we broke up because he couldn't work. He told me no matter what he did, he couldn't stop obsessing over me. He told me I was a cheater and a liar because he thought we were still together when I believed we had broken up. He recited text messages that I sent him from the time frame of about nine years ago. He recited the date, who they were to, and exactly what was said, word for word. I couldn't believe it. I was very scared. He said he wasn't able to move on. He's dated, but nobody was me. He said he thinks about me constantly and he can't watch the TV shows that we watched together, hear the songs that we liked, the names we would call each other, or even the smell of vanilla, or he has panic attacks. I sat there with him for about 20 minutes or so.

In my mind, I wanted to neutralize the situation. I thought maybe I could make him see me as a neutral person, that maybe these things would stop. It terrifies me that he's been obsessed with me for nine years. Can't move on, cries and throws tantrums. He's malicious, highly intelligent, and focused on harming me." End quote. Amy was scared that Gareth's behavior would escalate,

and the evidence of her fear was in that email. Investigators also found text messages between Amy and Grace and Amy and Hernando. talking about buying pepper spray, installing security cameras. She said a handyman replaced the locks on her doors. Amy also texts Robert on January 18th and said, quote, I ran to my scariest ex last night of 10 years. He yelled at me in public and then acted really crazy and told me how obsessed with me he was.

I tried to de-escalate him. Things he said were very scary. I took safety measures today, but realistically scared for my safety. My anxiety isn't bad now. I just realistically think something could happen to me, end quote. She also messaged Ternando to say Gareth found her phone number and had reached out to her. Now, this was after they saw each other at the awards.

He has now found her number. Remember that Gareth had no messages to Amy on his phone? Well, Amy had several recent messages from Gareth on her phone. Literally the morning after that award show, January 17th, that 1151 a.m., Gareth texted Amy, quote, I internetted your number. I recognize it now that I see it, if I'm allowed to text. end quote. I was thinking in what world would he be allowed to text her, talk to her in any way.

This is not okay. Amy responded with what I call a but message, a butt text, you know, where you are not meaning to, but there's just a bunch of jumbled up letters and words that don't make sense because she was in the middle of another phone call when this happened. So it was just leaving like peas and O's and stuff like that. But Gareth responds to these random texts with a joke. And Amy finally sees what's going on. She says, oh wow, my text was left open and I'm on a call. Sorry. He continued to text as she was on the phone and he said, quote,

not sure if you're done because you said, how do we finish this now last night? But if we can meet again, end quote. And I'm thinking, let me get this straight. He wasn't sure if they were done. Amy had been trying to move on for almost a decade. What didn't he understand about the end of the relationship? He's asking her to meet again after all these years of mistreatment and two hours,

basically, of Amy speaking with him. at the award show. Amy finally put her foot down. She replied with a very strong boundary. She said, quote, I think it was really good that we were able to speak last night. I'm sure there's a lot more you want to process and say to me, but I think that was a lot for both of us. I hope you're able to hear me last night when I said that I was sorry for anything that caused you suffering and I forgive you for the things that you did to me. I think right now it's best to have some space and I don't mean that in a negative way. The past is sad and triggering for both of us. I think we ended our talk last night well. We can be civil from a distance,

respect each other, and move forward with our own lives." End quote. I think it's pretty clear. She wants nothing to do with him, but she's trying to remain so kind and not escalate the situation, but Gareth, of course, responded with, quote, so you're still just gone? That's exactly my nightmare. And sadly, what I expected, end quote. As if he wasn't solely responsible for Amy needing to set these boundaries. Amy obviously did not reply to that message. Gareth texted her again at 2 p.m. but she didn't answer. He texted her again at 6.45 and she didn't reply that time either. On Sunday, the next day, he called her and he left a voice message. And in that message, he sounds like he's been crying. He sounds unstable and he's begging Amy to let him say what he

needs to say. But what else does he need to say? I mean, he couldn't take rejection. So Amy blocked him back then, got a restraining order, and now she blocks him again because she doesn't want calls or messages or these voice messages. She didn't want any of this. She also knew that continuing to engage with this behavior would only make things worse. And she was doing everything in her power to keep her distance and stay safe while living her life. That's a lot. It's a lot to think about, and it's what so many other women go through. And you never really know what someone's capable of, but we know what he's done before. I have to tell you that that on February 18th at 10.25 p.m., Gareth actually gets bailed out of jail. He posted the $200,000, probably from a bail's bond menu, he got a loan, and he walked free on Wednesday morning. So he was just in jail for what? 24 hours? I don't know, but people were terrified. They couldn't believe. Amy's friends and family were like, how? How does he just walk out of fear after murdering our friend? The day that Gareth is let out of jail, one of Amy's ex-boyfriends, he's the guitarist from Red Hot Chili Pepper.

His name is Dave Navarro. I think he's now in Jane's Addiction, but he posted on Instagram that he just called the police to tell them to please re-arrest Gareth because he is dangerous. Now, there was a rumor circulating that Dave heard

through one of Gareth's friends, actually, that Gareth believed Amy cheated on him with Dave in 2011. Gareth was still blaming Dave for ruining their relationship. He's thinking that this is why him and Amy's not together when that is not what happened. So now Garris out of jail, capable of revenge, and Dave knew that Gareth was

Gareth dated around and he was actually scared that Gareth might hurt another woman. Dave wasn't the only one of Amy's friends to call the LAPD and lucky for them, Gareth was found near the airport, which is a violation of his bond. So the police were already requesting another warrant in this time with no bail. Gareth was finally rearrested and charged with first-degree murder, first-degree burglary, and special circumstances of lying in wait, which meant he was eligible for either life in prison or the death penalty at the time. Amy's funeral was held on February 27th in Lansdale, Pennsylvania.

She got the funeral that she always wanted. I know that sounds weird, but just bear with me. Beautiful elaborate headstone and an open casket. She was buried with a picture of her cat marquee. Her parents said that Amy actually called them at the end of January to let them know how she wanted her end of life to be celebrated. Yeah. She was that scared of Gareth that she was convinced he was going to end her life. I mean, that is terrifying. It also breaks my heart that Amy's final moments, her final month, were spent in fear and with this man. After the service, friends and family gathered to talk about Amy to share their memories, and they were so glad that Amy loved to take pictures and captured so many happy moments on camera.

I think it is a good reminder. I'm sure we all do it anyway, but to take photos whenever you can of yourself too, because you never know how much the people in your life will cherish those photos. All funeral donations went to Rock to Recovery, which was an organization that uses music to treat addiction and trauma. Back in L.A., Amy's friends were planning a memorial of Amy and her favorite cemetery, where Amy loved to go on walks around the beautiful lake. And Tom and Penny said they were grateful for everyone's support, and the world had lost a champion of women. But they had lost their daughter. They wanted Amy to be remembered for her love of music and helping people.

And they didn't want Amy's murder to be a statistic. In the following months, a hashtag, Justice for Amy was created to improve laws around stalking and DV. A petition. Proposed several changes. First, California could give the option for restraining order without an expiration date so that people

would not have to face these people in court multiple times. Why should you have to face the person that mistreated you in person, ever? Second, the creation of an online stalker registry so that people can make sure their partner doesn't have a history of obsessive behavior. And third,

early intervention options for victims of stalking. And fourth, mandatory long-term therapy for anyone convicted of these crimes. Stalking cases are some of the worst cases that I cover. And Amy's murder made me very angry. I'm angry for a lot of reasons. I'm angry that the world is not a safer place for women. We shouldn't have to take extreme measures to protect ourselves. And I could count to many, and I'm sure you know what they are.

Everywhere we go, we're thinking about it. Gareth Pursehouse's trial was delayed due to COVID, and was finally held on August 29th of 2023. Despite his motive, he pleaded not guilty. California had recently ruled that the death penalty was no longer an option, so Gareth faced life in prison without parole. Amy's family and friends were confident that prosecutor Victor Avila had a solid case.

In opening statements, the prosecution read Gareth's text to Amy. They said that he had a compulsion to pursue Amy, and when Amy agreed to speak with him at the awards event, it fueled his delusions and his attachment. When she blocked him, he took her life. Avila said that Gareth broke into Amy's home at 8.50 p.m. hours before she got home from the nomad. He waited in her bedroom, possibly even under the covers in her bed for her to return.

There was a struggle in the TV room. Gareth pulled off Amy's jacket and broke her necklace as they were struggling all over the room and knocked over a curtain rods. He strangled Amy as she screamed for help. Avela speculated that once she was unconscious, Gareth heard Michael leaving the house for help and lifted Amy over the balcony, before making his escape out the kitchen door. Now the defense attorneys, Robin Bernstein Love

and Evan Franzal, had a different story to tell. They said Gareth broke in Amy's home, but not for the reasons the prosecution said. It was because he was depressed and wanted reassurance from the woman that he still loved. He didn't intend to kill her. He wanted to have a simple conversation. But Amy wasn't interested, and that conversation escalated.

They admitted that Gareth did strangle Amy in the heat of the moment, and to get away, Amy decided to climb down from the balcony, and in the process, she slipped and fell. To make a strong argument for this, the defense showed a picture of Amy where she's posing on a balcony railing. She's got this beautiful landscape of trees in the background. She's comfortable posing on this balcony railing, although there was no date on this photo, but they were saying, if Amy's comfortable posing on a balcony railing, she must be comfortable climbing down from the balcony. But I got to ask, if she's comfortable, she was able to break free from this man, why wouldn't she escaped down the stairs? It seems so far-fetched

and very convenient for the defense to say this. She knew her home better than anyone else. Why would she risk going down a balcony in if she did? It was because she was so terrified by this monster, who by the way was way bigger than she was. Amy was only around 5'5 and 118 pounds. Gareth was 6'4 and over 230 pounds. She was no match for him. So, even, Either way, it is still his fault, no matter how she ended up on the ground below. The prosecution brought forward Michael Herman, who seemed very nervous to testify. Michael had some new information from the night of February 14th that he had remembered on February 20th.

Michael was sleeping in his bedroom, and he woke up to the sound of glass crashing to the floor. He didn't check the time, but it was dark outside. Michael thought that Amy was just back from her show, and he heard the sound of footsteps leading from the living room to the kitchen, and he thought that somebody was was just cleaning up the glass and then walking up the stairs and going to sleep. He figured it was probably marquee that had knocked something over and Amy cleaning it up. Michael turned on the TV and for a while he was awake and then he drifted back to sleep without a second thought about someone else being in his home. This memory lined up with the nest footage. We know that the intruder broke in

Amy's home at 8.53 p.m. And that was probably the sound of Gareth damaging the French doors. It wasn't a plate that crashed. It wasn't Amy picking it up. It was Gareth walking through the house. Now, apart from the DNA, there was no hairs or fingerprints pinning Gareth to the crime scene, but we know that he had those husky gloves. We also know from the video that the person who came into the home was wearing gloves. They were also wearing black and they were wearing black and white shoes and dark shorts with a white stripe on them and a white drawstring. But I'm sure you're curious because I just said DNA.

While the DNA results were in, the blood on the patio ground, where Amy fell belonged to her, and so did the blood on her balcony door. But when it came to the blood on the front door and in the living room, there was a one in one septillion chance that it was anyone other than Gareth Purse house. And that is a number with 24 zeros. Gareth definitely broke in through that door.

And what's more, he strangled Amy. The clippings of Amy's fingernails showed that Amy was the major contributor for DNA, but Gareth was a 14% minor contributor for her left fingernails and 6% for the right fingernails. Why else would this man's skin or his cells or his sweat or whatever was under her fingernails be anywhere near this woman? And then there was the syringe.

Forens examiner Maureen Bradley testified that when the crime scene lab did an age screening for the amber liquid, it wasn't heroin. In fact, it wasn't even a controlled substance. They sent it to the FBI lab for even more comprehensive testing, and it ended up being nicotine. I know many of you've probably tried nicotine in your life, but not injected it. And please don't. It can be lethal. Nicotine is usually absorbed through the skin,

through the mouth by smoking it through the lungs. This means nicotine absorption takes time. But when it comes to pure nicotine, one liter of 99.9 pure nicotine can be purchased online for just $100. Concentrated nicotine is sometimes used in vapes. But Dr. Allen Wu found that the amber liquid was 86.9% nicotine in its injectable form,

especially at the concentration it was at, this was deadly. Whether you injected it under your skin into a muscle or even into a vein, it's poison. It will only take a few minutes to cause someone to die. Why would Gareth bring a needle full of a poison to Amy's house if he didn't plan to kill her? Well, on cross-examination, the defense argued that Gareth brought the syringe to end his own life.

Still, they didn't make a solid case for Gareth's mental health or his present history of thoughts of this, but there was a chance that Gareth brought the syringe to manipulate Amy. He might have threatened to end his life with the syringe if she didn't take him back, for example. But that was just speculation. I think the important thing to note is that self-injected, you know, self-harm is very rare. There are a lot of ways to administer poison, and injection is not usually associated with taking your own life, but is associated with murder. Also, the defense question the integrity of the DNA testing, and the reason the curtain rods are in the

TV room. They had excuses for everything. They said, oh, well, her friend Cleopatra was like redesigning and putting up new curtains. And they called no witnesses. They did not have a compelling case. The facts are that Gareth Pursehouse premeditated this murder. He wore gloves and all black. He brought a syringe full of a poison to a crime scene and waited for Amy to arrive with the sole intention of hurting her. He probably wanted it to look like she had done this to herself, but everyone around her knew she wouldn't. The jury found him guilty and he was convicted on September 29th of 2023 and sentenced in December, and he will rot in prison for the rest of his life.

I can't even look at his face. And speaking of face, he looked entirely different when he was in court than he did when he was out in Hollywood trying to make it big in comedy. But who's laughing now, Gareth? You're a monster. Chris said that his sister Amy's murder was like a chapter of a book that he could never close,

and the sentencing allowed him to move past to the next chapter. The past years have been very very, tough for Amy's family, especially for her parents. They've tried to be very strong, but most importantly, they've tried to keep Amy's story alive. And now I'm going to ask a favor from all of you, if you can. Her friend Robert has created a GoFundMe to raise funds for Amy's memorial. One of Amy's friends is a sculpture artist and she wants to construct a bronze statue featuring Amy and her cat marquee. It'll be modeled off the Greek goddess Aphrodite with a bronze garland featuring the symbols of love,

Underneath, there will be two plaques, one talking about Amy's life and the other about intimate partner violence. This memorial will be put up in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery once they finally reached their goal. This is a huge project. They've only raised $11,000, which I was actually very surprised about, and the goal is $175,000. I want this dream to come true for Amy, so if you can spare anything. And thank you so much for being here for Amy's story. Like I had said, this case, it affected me. I wanted to do even more.

But so many times when I sat down to tell this story, I couldn't. I recorded this whole video last week, and I just couldn't get through it. And I had to rewrite some things to make it a little easier for me. But I want to leave you with something that Robert said on his Instagram last year. He posted a photo with Amy, and this is what the caption said. It said, quote, you had this photo of us propped up on your makeup table. I have it now. I have your handsome man, Marquis, and you would be happy to know he's healthy and well.

In fact, he's put on a few extra pounds, so I fat-shame him as part of his breakfast routine. You insisted that he loves being fat-shamed and given a little spank on the butt before he eats. I have all of the memories of meals, parties, the nights on the couch watching movies, crying intentionally for hours by watching Thai insurance commercials, endless discussions about decorating oddities, relationships, and the nature of life. You were always there for me when I needed advice, and I too took your calls even at 3 a.m. when you were upset about something. I miss our daily conversations.

It's my hope and mission to ensure others know about you even after I'm not around to tell stories of you. I know that you still inspire your many friends in their daily lives, and I also know that you've touched countless strangers too." I personally hope that Amy's story has moved you in the way that it's moved me, and my heart goes out to all of her friends, and family. And thank you so much for being here. I will see you in my next video. Bye.