Hollywood sex therapist Amie Harwick, the former fiancee of comedian Drew Carey, is believed to have fought her killer in the moments before the was strangled and thrown from a third-floor balcony at her home.
An autopsy report released by the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner indicates how Harwick, 38, was found with wounds on her hands and fingers ‘consistent with a combination of defense and assault type wounds, suggestive of an altercation.’
It was previously announced by the medical examiner how Harwick had been killed after falling from the balcony of her home in the Hollywood Hills.
Hollywood sex therapist Amie Harwick (pictured), 38, fought for her life against her attacker on the night of her death, an autopsy report reveals
Former partner Gareth Pursehouse, 41, who met Harwick at a go-go dancing gig in early 2010, was arrested in February and charged with her murder and first-degree residential burglary
The coroner’s office ruled Harwick’s death a homicide and attributed the cause to blunt force injuries, according to its website
The more detailed autopsy report details injuries to Harwick’s hands and fingers
Pursehouse (pictured circled in red) allegedly harassed Dr Harwick at the XBiz Awards on January 16 where he worked as a photographer
She was found with blunt force injuries to the head and torso and had been strangled but this new report suggests that had been in a fight for a her life in the final seconds before her fatal fall.
Officers found evidence of a struggle and a forced entry to the home, police said.
Harwick’s ex-boyfriend Gareth Pursehouse, 41, has been charged with murder, residential burglary and lying in wait, a charge which makes him eligible for the death penalty.
The autopsy report which was first seen by The Blast also has a statement from a sheriff’s deputy describing how 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 [Amie] screaming.’
Dr Harwick had been attending a XBiz adult-industry awards ceremony on January 16 when she was allegedly harassed by her ex-boyfriend
Pursehouse (left and right) was arrested in Playa Del Rey and soon charged with murder and first-degree residential burglary
The report details Harwick ‘sustained severe injuries of her brain, liver, and pelvis in an apparent fall from a height. Injuries of her neck, particularly strap muscle hemorrhage, are consistent with manual strangulation.’
Pursehouse had dated Harwick ten years ago but had allegedly continued to stalk her in the years since.
She had filed two restraining orders against him but the final one had expired in 2015.
Pursehouse is currently jailed without bond.
Harwick’s website described her as a marriage and sex therapist. She appeared on TV and radio and wrote a book called The New Sex Bible for Women.
Dr Harwick was found unconscious after falling from a third-floor balcony in her home (pictured) after officers responded to a radio call of a ‘woman screaming’
The Playboy model-tuned sex therapist was formerly engaged to the Price is Right host Drew Carey (left) but the pair split in November 2018
Drew Carey dated Harwick for two years before the pair split in 2018, months after announcing their engagement.
‘I hope you´re lucky enough to have someone in your life that loves as much as she did,’ Carey said on Twitter upon learning of her death.
Harwick, who was a well-known sex therapist and former Playboy model, issued restraining orders against the photographer, Pursehouse, in 2011 and 2012 detailing a series of physical attacks.
Court documents reviewed by DailyMail.com earlier this year detailed how he once pushed her out of a car on the freeway, and in another incident forced her onto the ground and viciously kicked her in the face.
Harwick accused Pursehouse suffocated her in May 2011, saying he punched her, slammed her head onto the ground and covered her mouth to keep her from yelling after they got into a fight. He then kicked her leaving her covered in bruises and unable to walk.
‘There were multiple arguments in which Gareth Pursehouse choked me, suffocated me, pushed me against walls, kicked me, dropped me to the ground with force, force-restrained me, slammed my head into the ground and punched me with a closed fist,’ she wrote in court paperwork dated June 22, 2011.
On June 18, 2011 Pursehouse is said to have pushed her out of a car and left her on the freeway late at night.
Harwick obtained a temporary restraining order against Pursehouse in 2011 and was granted another one less than a year later, which expired in April 2015.
In California the maximum length of a restraining order is five years.
Harwick had seen Pursehouse in January this year at the XBiz adult-industry awards ceremony in downtown Los Angeles where he was working as a photographer.
She was a guest at the show, hosted by porn star Stormy Daniels, and was pictured posing on the red carpet.