Amie Harwick, the Hollwood sex therapist killed in February who was once engaged to Drew Carey, likely fought for her life before she was strangled and pushed off the third-story balcony of her Hollywood Hills home, her autopsy report details. The report from the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, first obtained by The Blast, says Harwick sustained wounds on her fingers and hands “consistent with a combination of defense and assault type wounds, suggestive of an altercation.”
The medical examiner had previously announced that Harwick, 38, died in a homicide from blunt force injuries to the head and torso she suffered by falling from her balcony, as well as manual strangulation. Her ex-boyfriend, Gareth Pursehouse, 41, is the suspect in the case and is charged with murder and residential burglary with the special circumstance allegation of lying in wait. In the autopsy report is a statement from a sheriff’s deputy saying that Harwick’s roommate “was awoken by sounds of a female screaming. He was able to tell the screaming was coming from up above his residence and could hear sounds of some type of physical fight; he then realized that it was [Harwick] screaming.”
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Harwick “sustained severe injuries of her brain, liver and pelvis in an apparent fall from a height,” the report details. “Injuries of her neck, particularly strap muscle hemorrhage, are consistent with manual strangulation.” Pursehouse is jailed without bond. It’s unclear if he has yet entered a plea.
Pursehouse and Harwick dated 10 years ago, but Pursehouse allegedly began stalking and harassing her after she broke off the relationship, with led to her filing two restraining orders against him, the last of which expired in 2015. “He kept finding her, kept seeking her out,” Harwick’s friend Hernando Chaves told PEOPLE in February. “He didn’t respect the end of the relationship.”
Following their breakup, Harwick became a licensed marriage and family therapist with a thriving practice in West Hollywood. She also authored the 2014 book, The Sex Bible for Women.
After her death, Carey wept while paying tribute to her on his Sirius XM show Drew Carey’s Friday Night Freak-Out. “She was a sex therapist and a mental health advocate. She had a PhD and a master’s degree, and she was beautiful and fun, and cared deeply about people and improving their lives and was just a joy to be around. I was so in love with her,” he said.
