00:00:00
Hey sir, how can I help you? My roommate was attacked. I know it. I heard I heard
00:00:03
it. She's screaming. She was thrown to the ground. [laughter] Sir. [music] Sir, come here.
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This man just led police to a dead body. The victim, Amy Harwick, a celebrity therapist, was found lying unconscious
00:00:23
under her thirdstory balcony. Officers were immediately [music] suspicious of Amy's roommate, Michael Herman.
00:00:29
Hey, can I see your hands? Yeah, that's what I poked it on the climbing over the fence.
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Okay, got it. I don't know, dude. Something Something's off. He might be a blood.
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The blood on Michael's hands and the signs of struggle found inside Amy's bathroom made it clear that this was a
00:00:46
crime scene and Michael is the prime suspect. Do you still hear screaming? I still heard screaming when I was when
00:00:53
I was leaving. I yelled up there, "Hey, mother." Cuz I wanted her to think I was
00:00:57
coming upstairs that maybe he'd like stop and run. However, detectives began to have
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doubts. The further they investigated, the clearer it became that there was more to this crime than meets the eye.
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And as they dig deeper, they uncover that Amy had a history of troubled relationships. And many people had it
00:01:15
out for her. But one relationship stood out from the rest. One that was plagued with stalking, violence, and abuse,
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leaving disturbing clues that would lead detectives to one deranged killer. I have so much I need to say. Please
00:01:38
give me a chance to just say it, please. At 1:11 a.m. on February 15th, 2020, 911
00:01:45
received a harrowing call from Amy's roommate. I want to reduce 434. Yeah. Somebody just attacked my roommate.
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We're at 286 Street. Find out. How was he assaulted? What happened? I don't know. I was downstairs. I heard
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screaming. Uh, please get a cop. You're okay. Who's screaming inside? Um, can't think right now. Um, Amy Amy
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Carwick. I mean, who is she to you, sir? She's my roommate. Okay. Is she screaming for help?
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Yes. Okay. Did you see anything? No. Okay. No, I heard I heard her screaming and I
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heard her being All right. So, I'm going to find out that somebody's screaming. Okay. Since
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you didn't see anything, you don't know she's being attacked. You're not sure. Yes, I know she's being attacked. I
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heard it got thrown to the ground. With sirens blaring, multiple law enforcement agents rush to the scene.
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The information that they have as they arrive is limited. All they know is that there is a situation with a screaming
00:02:43
woman and that somebody appears to be in danger. As soon as they arrive, Michaelin, Amy's roommate, is the first
00:02:50
person to come into contact. Hey, sir. Hi. How can I help you? My roommate was attacked. I know it. I
00:02:56
heard I heard it. She's screaming. She was thrown to the ground. I I couldn't find my phone. I couldn't find anything
00:03:00
else. Okay, hold on. Okay, so you have access to here. Is there anybody else inside
00:03:04
the house? My roommate. Just your roommate by herself? Yes. You didn't check on her,
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dude? I heard screaming. I don't know if that guy had a guy a gun or a knife. I came running trying to I couldn't find
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my phone. Is there somebody else inside? I think there's Okay, sir. Do me a favor. Do me a favor.
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Calm down. Calm down. Other than your roommate, is there anybody else inside the house?
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I don't know. I don't know. So, you didn't see anyone? You just heard? No, I just heard her screaming. I found
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it. She got thrown to the ground. I've been calling for her through these windows. Nobody's answering. Nothing.
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So, you're Where's your key at? Inside. Downstairs. The back door is open. Hey, you're good. You're good. You're good.
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[groaning] Shoot. 6815 advises the responding unit that we had to hop the fence. We're going to be
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at the rear of the location. Sir, sir, come here. Relax. Take a seat. Take a seat.
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Oh my god. What was going on tonight? Yo, I'm asleep. I've been asleep all night.
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When officers move into the courtyard, there lies Amy Harwick, 20 ft beneath her third floor balcony, going into
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continuous seizures with glass surrounding her body, bro. She's having a seizure. Oh, Jesus.
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Amy lived in a relatively safe area in Hollywood Hills and was a well-known family and marriage therapist. So her
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home being broken into was unusual and whoever did it made sure she had a painful death. She was thrown off her
00:04:44
balcony resulting in several serious injuries. The trauma to the head was so severe that it had resulted in a subgal
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and a subdural hemorrhage sending her into continuous seizures. Not only that, but her neck showed signs that she had
00:04:59
been strangled before falling off her balcony. Even though Amy started receiving urgent care, this situation
00:05:05
was far from over. Not knowing whether the asalent is still in the house, officers began to breach and clear the
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ground floor. Do you know if there's anybody else inside the house? I don't. I don't.
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What happened to you? Anyone else inside? It's the LAPD. Come out with your hands up.
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Hey, somebody pat him down, please. He might be on my couch. Anyone else inside? This is
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LAPD. Come out with your hands up. Got you. My light. I got your light. Okay. All right. So, you guys can move up in
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unison. Ready? On you guys. Just hold it. They're going to move up in unison. You You're good.
00:05:44
Pause. Whenever you guys are ready. Go ahead. Go. Go. Go. Go. Go back in. All right. I got an open room. There's a
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There's a balcony to the top. Got couches. Looks like a kitchen to the right. Unfortunately, the one
00:06:00
responsible for Amy's condition has managed to escape. And [music] as cops make their way through the home, they
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notice that everything is organized and spotless besides a few areas of interest. It's sticky
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bees. This is urine. Urine, but not in the bathroom. Amy's bedroom was a mess with the covers
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thrown off and a pool of urine in the connecting bathroom. Often when a victim is strangled, it results in the
00:06:26
involuntary loss of bowel control. Moreover, officers would discover something strange. Right on the balcony
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from where Amy fell, a syringe filled with nicotine had fallen to the ground. Um, so there's a loaded syringe on this
00:06:41
right here. Extreme doses of nicotine like the one found in this syringe act as a poison causing organs in the body
00:06:49
to fail and slowly kill an individual as they suffer from vomiting, nausea, diarrhea, and severe abdominal pain.
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Strangely enough, these types of drugs were never even present in the home. And [music] even if they were, Amy would
00:07:03
never take them, as her roommate explains. Um, a lot of sarin. So sir, do you know her history of drug
00:07:10
use? No, she's sober. She doesn't drink and she doesn't even drink. She doesn't drink.
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She doesn't even drink. She's sober. Drugs. So no, nobody in this house is is doing
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drugs. Um I I smoke pot and stuff. Yeah. Okay. What do you mean stuff? Well, I smoke pot rooms every now and
00:07:24
then. Okay. So she's sober completely. She's sober completely. How how how sure of that are you?
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I'm positive. I'm absolutely sure. I don't know, dude. Something something's off.
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That rig is is loaded completely. Yeah. Hasn't been used yet. It hasn't been used.
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Hey, can I see your hands? Yeah, that's what I poked on the climbing over the fence.
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Okay, got it. What about this one here? I don't know what that is. Uh, I guess Can you Can you pull your uh Can you
00:07:51
pull your uh sleeve back on this one right here? Oh, no. On this one right here. This
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Can you flip it for me? Can you do me a favor? Look up. Can you pull your shirt down a little
00:08:04
bit? Sure. Really? So, this is really like shady shaky. This whole thing's very weird.
00:08:09
And then, did you see that? How it's wrapped around him? It's weird. Although Michael seems incredibly
00:08:14
suspicious, finding out whether he's guilty comes second. The first priority is to ensure Amy's survival, whose
00:08:21
condition was worsening by the second. Her pulse was nearly non-existent and she was rushed to a nearby hospital
00:08:28
where it was determined that she had sustained many serious injuries since dropping about 20 ft from the balcony,
00:08:34
including lacerations to her liver and brain damage. And despite [music] the best attempts from doctors, Amy Harwick
00:08:41
was soon pronounced dead. The syringe filled with nicotine, Amy's injuries before the fall, and no missing
00:08:48
items. These were all clues that this was not a burglary gone wrong, but a planned murder. For police, this would
00:08:55
make sense because working as a specialized sex therapist, and one that was very public with several shows and
00:09:01
media presence at the time was risky. There could have been too many people who had it out for her since therapists
00:09:08
often have to deal with emotionally problematic and sometimes obsessive individuals. For now though, Michael
00:09:14
Herman was the only person around Amy when she was murdered, making him the first suspect. Michael was already a
00:09:20
suspicious individual, as his frequent cannabis use led officers to believe that he had at least some knowledge of
00:09:27
drugs and could be behind the nicotine syringe. But more telling was the fact that his arms were covered in blood and
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scratches, which made him look even more guilty. So to get to the bottom of this,
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Michael was brought in for an interview where he would stay adamant about his innocence.
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Can you remember? Do you still hear screaming? I still heard screaming when I was still
00:09:46
hearing scream. And when we were at the house, you was when I was yelling cuz when I was
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leaving, I yelled up there. Hey, mother. Really loud. Cuz I wanted her to think I
00:09:54
was coming upstairs. So maybe he'd like stop and run, you know? That was You would know that he's not in the
00:09:59
house with two of them. Right. Right. Right. Right. And I didn't know if it was like, you know, I didn't
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know if it was multiple people. I, you know, I just didn't know. and and [music]
00:10:07
um I just hope that that would like that that would make the person flee. Michael claims that after returning
00:10:13
home, he heard screams from inside the house and then shouted loudly to scare off the potential attacker. He then
00:10:19
entered the home to find the front door open and Amy Harwick's body on the ground. He immediately called 911 and
00:10:26
attempted to provide aid while waiting for emergency responders. Not only does Michael fully cooperate with law
00:10:32
enforcement, but he also has a solid alibi and witness testimony supporting his account. Additionally, there is no
00:10:38
forensic evidence linking Michael to the crime. Still, detectives can't rule out
00:10:42
Michael just yet, [music] as there are no other suspects, and nobody had seen anyone outside of Michael enter or leave
00:10:49
the building. But this is when police received footage from a nearby Ring doorbell camera. A crucial piece of
00:10:56
evidence that would turn the entire case upside down. When the cops looked at the
00:11:01
footage, they saw Michael come running out of the home trying to wake up the neighbors and call for help. This was
00:11:06
exactly what he told them he had done, which confirms the fact that he was likely only a witness to all of this.
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But the camera also picks up someone else at the scene. A strange male figure wearing gloves, hopping fences, and
00:11:19
running through backyards. In many cases, this man can even be seen covering cameras with a gloved hand.
00:11:25
Undeniably, this masked individual was the one responsible for this murder. But finding out who this could be was
00:11:32
difficult. As they began looking into her life, there were very few people who wanted to hurt her. She was on good
00:11:38
terms with her family and friends and had almost no enemies. So, police began to believe that this may have been a
00:11:44
case of one of Amy's past relationships coming back to haunt her. But yet again,
00:11:49
almost all of her boyfriends came up clean. All but one of them, Gareth Purouse, a man who was reported by Amy's
00:11:57
friends to be an obsessive ex-lover and someone who had previously stalked her. But before officers look into Gareth,
00:12:04
they decide to consolidate all of the evidence they have first. Because of the presence of the syringe filled with pure
00:12:11
nicotine, detectives believe that whoever broke into Amy's apartment intended to kill her by injecting her
00:12:17
with the syringe, but that their plans somehow went arry. Amy began resisting, and a physical altercation occurred that
00:12:24
would be proven by a black rosary that Amy had been wearing around her neck. Beads of this rosary were found trailing
00:12:30
all the way from her bedroom to the balcony. Not only that, a black leather jacket that was turned inside out was
00:12:36
also discovered at the scene. It is likely that the attacker snuck up behind her, grabbed her by her jacket, and a
00:12:42
struggle ensued. The attacker then likely choked Amy, dragged her out to the balcony, and threw her over the top.
00:12:49
With all of this in mind, officers began looking for somebody who would want to hurt Amy in this manner. Undeniably, the
00:12:56
masked individual was responsible for the murder. However, identifying them could be challenging because despite
00:13:02
being a well-known public figure, Amy had no known enemies. Police start their investigation by questioning friends and
00:13:09
family of Amy, looking for any clues on who could have committed this heinous crime, and it wouldn't take long for
00:13:15
them to get a strong lead. Amy's friends revealed to police that about a month before her murder, they began receiving
00:13:22
concerning messages from Amy. She expressed fear for her life, mentioning that she had recently encountered a
00:13:28
stalker. A stalker which it would turn out she had an abusive relationship with a decade prior. 41-year-old photographer
00:13:37
Gareth Purse House. Amy and Gareth had met 10 years earlier in 2011 when Gareth had worked as a photographer on a
00:13:45
therapy event Amy attended. They dated briefly, but Amy's friends took note of the relationship being far from normal.
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In May of 2011, Amy tried to file a restraining order for the abuse she suffered in the relationship. Gareth
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often suffocated her, slamming her against the walls, dropped her on the ground, and punched her. Yet somehow,
00:14:06
this order was denied as authorities believed there was a lack of evidence. Of course, this meant a quick end to the
00:14:14
relationship, at least for Amy. This was unacceptable for Gareth as he started obsessing heavily over Amy and his
00:14:21
emotional state worsened. But Amy was the one who'd have to face the brunt of Gareth's mental decline. In the months
00:14:28
after the breakup, weird occurrences began happening at Amy's residence. She would walk into her home to find picture
00:14:34
frames were smashed. Sometimes there would be roses taped to her front door. And on other occasions, Gareth would
00:14:42
refuse to leave her doorstep for hours. A year later in 2012, Amy tried to file another restraining order against Gareth
00:14:50
because he had once again assaulted her and dragged her out of a car. Fortunately, this time the order would
00:14:57
be approved by a judge, barring Gareth from seeing Amy for 5 years. However, according to her closest friends,
00:15:04
Gareth's behavior became even more creepy and intense in the years after the restraining order was issued. If
00:15:10
Gareth couldn't see her physically, he'd tarnish her reputation on every one of Amy's social media pages. [music] Every
00:15:17
single time she posted, she would get derogatory comments, and all of her publications in her field as a therapist
00:15:23
would get bombarded with comments criticizing and degrading her work. But things would take a turn for the worst
00:15:30
one month before Amy's murder. On January 17th, 2020, Amy was attending the XBiz Awards, where she was a
00:15:37
panelist of an organization called Pineapple Support, which was meant to focus on therapy related to workers in
00:15:43
the sex industry. However, as Amy was having drinks before her segment began, she would hear a familiar voice,
00:15:51
Gareth's voice, who was working as a photographer at the event. At this point in time, Amy had not seen Gareth in
00:15:58
nearly a decade. Yet, he would approach Amy angry and upset, saying that she ruined his life. One of Amy's friends
00:16:04
would outline what the two talked about as Amy called him for help. The first phone call when she called, I couldn't
00:16:10
hear. It was a lot of loud commotion. It was chaotic. [music] So, I couldn't understand and I hung up. And then 30
00:16:19
seconds later, I received another phone call from from her as well. And all I could hear amongst the chaos or the
00:16:26
sounds that were sort of the the loud sounds was get the f over here. Initially seen them walk away. I first
00:16:34
checked in with my friend who called me and she told me this guy is freaking out
00:16:39
on your friend. So I then walked over to where the two of them had walked to. And as I was
00:16:45
walking towards them, the only words I heard was, "Ruin my life, you bitch." After this event, Amy was extremely
00:16:54
scared of Gareth and told friends and family that if anything happened to her, Gareth would be responsible. And he had
00:17:01
sent her voice messages after the event. I have so much I need to say. Please give me a chance to just say it,
00:17:11
please. and her concerns were proven to be true because when officers matched a picture of Gareth to the man seen on the
00:17:17
Ring doorbell footage on the night of the murder, it was an exact match. But for authorities to be sure that Gareth
00:17:24
is the same man they're looking for, they needed to search his home. Obtaining the warrant itself was not
00:17:29
hard because the sheer amount of evidence against Gareth gave officers reasonable suspicion to do so. However,
00:17:36
this suspicion would soon turn into shock as syringes filled with nicotine were discovered in Gareth's home,
00:17:42
exactly like the one found on Amy's balcony. Not only that, but Gareth himself had sustained injuries [music]
00:17:48
on his body and had bloody clothes scattered all over the home. But there was one piece of evidence that proved to
00:17:54
be a definitive breakthrough in this case. A DNA comparison between the fingernail scrapings of Amy's body and
00:18:01
Gareth would turn up an exact match. Detectives knew that this was exactly the man they were looking for. So by
00:18:08
about 5:00 p.m. the day after the murder, the cops locate and approach Gareth Pur House. In the face of
00:18:15
Gareth's history with Amy and him being caught on camera, officers decide to charge him with Amy's murder. While
00:18:21
sitting in jail awaiting a murder trial, Gareth doesn't show an ounce of remorse.
00:18:25
In fact, while on a jailhouse phone call with some of his buddies, he cracks jokes and makes light of the whole
00:18:31
situation. He even tells them that due to the public's interest in him, they could become millionaires by selling old
00:18:37
jokes he told while working as a stand-up comic. But this is far from the strangest thing he says. Turn those into
00:18:44
a book. Try to find try right now actually try to find a uh publisher that'll give you money ahead of time for
00:18:51
for that just based on my name because of the media. Like that could be a million bucks. I don't know. Uh but I I
00:18:57
do have a joke for you. Uh what's what's the most feminine candy bar? Huh? Hershey's. [snorts]
00:19:05
[laughter] At least you have your sense of humor. Yeah. You got your sense of humor.
00:19:09
You're making the best of it and everything. Yeah. Uh well, and also people are posting like crazy hate and there's like
00:19:15
why why bother? So So you you said you're not getting out. Correct. Ever. Is that what you're trying to say?
00:19:23
Yes. I've I've seen what's coming at me and it's not good. I'm not getting out. Super fun.
00:19:33
Gareth Pur House has made it very clear that he believes he is going down for Amy's murder and he has completely
00:19:40
accepted that. One could likely assume that if this man were not truly guilty of this horrific crime, he would not be
00:19:46
speaking this way. Despite this, Gareth was bonded out of jail before his trial began. But Gareth was certainly
00:19:53
panicking because right after he was released on bond, the first place he visited was Los Angeles International
00:19:59
Airport to escape the country. Normally, a person who has their bond posted is not allowed next to any airports or
00:20:06
borders to prevent them from leaving the country. And if they're found doing so,
00:20:10
they're arrested immediately and given no chance for a second bond. exactly what would happen to Gareth as he was
00:20:17
arrested once