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How murdered Hollywood therapist Amie Harwick “testified” at her alleged killer’s trial
“Tonight I felt very scared. … It terrifies me that he’s been obsessed with me for nine years, thinks about me every day.” These are the words Amie Harwick, a successful family therapist in Hollywood, wrote in an email to herself after she ran into her ex-boyfriend, Gareth Pursehouse.
A month later, she was dead.
Prosecutors believe that a chance encounter at a red carpet event led Pursehouse to break into her home on Valentine’s Day 2020. They say he attacked Harwick and dropped her from her third-floor balcony. She later died from her injuries in the hospital. Harwick was 38 years old.
Pursehouse was arrested that same day.
Correspondent Erin Moriarty has been covering this case since Harwick’s murder on Feb. 15, 2020. Moriarty concludes her investigation in “Justice for Amie Harwick,” an all-new “48 Hours” airing Saturday, Feb. 10 at 10/9c on CBS and streaming on Paramount +.
Pursehouse went on trial for murder in a Los Angeles courtroom in August 2023.
“It became very clear to me that … [Pursehouse’s] obsession drove … his intent to kill her,” says Deputy District Attorney Catherine Mariano.
Prosecutors believe that obsession with Harwick was ignited when Pursehouse saw her at an awards show on Jan. 16, 2020 – about a month before her death. He was working the event as a photographer.
“Gareth came up behind me and started screaming, ‘Why are you here, why are you here?'” wrote Harwick hours after that red carpet incident. “He was sobbing, his head was in his hands, he was hyperventilating, he was distorting his face up and shaking violently.”
In an exclusive interview with “48 Hours,” Amie’s mother, Penny Harwick, recalls Amie telling her about that night and that she hadn’t seen Pursehouse in almost a decade.
“He called her a bitch and … he told her she ruined his life,” says Penny Harwick. “And she just told me how afraid she was. … And she said, ‘Mom, I went into therapist mode. I just tried to calm him.'”
After talking to Pursehouse for almost an hour, Amie Harwick left the event very worried and began looking into increased security measures, such as surveillance cameras, pepper spray, and sharing her location with her close friend, Robert Coshland.
Coshland says sharing her phone’s location was one of the few things Harwick felt she could do to feel safe. Harwick had received a restraining order against Pursehouse when they broke up years prior, but that had long expired.
Though Harwick found Pursehouse’s behavior at the awards show troubling, because he had not expressly threatened her, Coshland says she didn’t think going to police would help. Still, he says, Harwick was very concerned.
“That’s when she said, ‘Look, if something happens to me, he did it,'” recalls Coshland.
It was Coshland who came across the email two months after his friend’s death and shared it with investigators.
During the prosecution’s opening statements, Deputy District Attorney Victor Avila told the jury how Pursehouse had killed Harwick.
“He strangled her … lifted her up over the balcony and dropped her to her death.”
During the defense’s opening statement, Defense Attorney Evan Franzel told the jury that running into Harwick at that awards show had sent Pursehouse into “a deep debilitating depression” and the only way out of it was to talk to Amie on Valentine’s Day 2020.
“His only intention that night was to speak to her,” said Franzel.
Though the defense admitted to the jury that Pursehouse had broken into Harwick’s home, it denied that he had intended to kill Harwick that night. Instead, Franzel told the jury that Pursehouse had planned to kill himself that night.
Pool
During closing arguments, the defense presented a new theory of what happened in Harwick’s home: that Harwick may have attacked Pursehouse.
“We don’t know who initiated the physical confrontation,” said Defense Attorney Robin Bernstein-Lev.
But during the state’s closing arguments, it’s Harwick who had the last word — that email she had written to herself about encountering Pursehouse.
Before reading Harwick’s email to the jurors, Mariano told them:
“This email was written by Amie. Not only does it talk about her fear, but it talks about just how angry –not desperate – angry the defendant was.”
Reading excerpts from Amie’s email, Mariano continued:
“He couldn’t stop obsessing over me. He recited text messages that I had sent … about nine years ago. Recited the date, who they were to, and exactly what they said word-for-word. I couldn’t believe it. I was very scared. … I’m pretty nervous that I’m more on his radar now. … He’s focused on harming me. I’m hoping that this interaction and listening and giving him time, may cause a neutralization in his anger towards me.”
The lead homicide detective on Harwick’s case, Scott Masterson, now retired, said he had never seen anything like this before.
“That’s the closest we’ve ever had to a victim testifying in their murder. … I thought it was extremely devastating.”
But what would the jury think?
To see more of the case, watch “Justice for Amie Harwick,”an all-new “48 Hours” airing Saturday Feb. 10 at 10/9c on CBS and streaming on Paramount +.
Former President Donald Trump meandered Saturday through a list of grievances against Vice President Kamala Harris and other issues during an event intended to link his Democratic opponent to illegal border crossings.
A day after Harris discussed immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border, Trump spoke to a crowd in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, about immigration. He blamed Harris for migrants committing crimes after entering the U.S. illegally, alleging she was responsible for “erasing our border.”
“I will liberate Wisconsin from the mass migrant invasion,” he said. “We’re going to liberate the country.”
The Republican nominee also intensified his personal attacks against Harris, insulting her as “mentally impaired” and a “disaster.”
“Joe Biden became mentally impaired,” Trump said. “Kamala was born that way. She was born that way. And if you think about it, only a mentally disabled person could have allowed this to happen to our country. Anybody would know this.”
The personal attacks have been something of a trend for Trump since Harris entered the race. In July, Trump falsely questioned Harris’ racial identity during a panel with the National Association of Black Journalists.
“I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black and now she wants to be known as Black,” Trump said at the time. “So I don’t know, is she Indian, or is she Black?”
When asked in an interview with CBS News last month if he believes the personal attacks will hurt him with voters, he responded, “No, I don’t think so.”
Trump, meanwhile, hopes frustration over illegal immigration will translate to votes in Wisconsin and other crucial swing states. The Republican nominee has denounced people who cross the U.S.-Mexico border as “poisoning the blood of the country” and vowed to stage the largest deportation operation in American history if elected. And polls show Americans believe Trump would do a better job than Harris on handling immigration.
Trump shifted from topic to topic so quickly that it was hard to keep track of what he meant at times. He talked about the two assassination attempts against him and blamed the U.S. Secret Service for not being able to hold a large outdoor rally instead of an event in a smaller indoor space. But he also offered asides about climate change, Harris’ father, how his beach body was better than President Biden’s, and a fly that was buzzing near him.
“I wonder where the fly came from,” he said. “Two years ago, I wouldn’t have had a fly up here. You’re changing rapidly. But we can’t take it any longer. We can’t take it any longer.”
Trump repeatedly brought up Harris’ Friday event in Douglas, Arizona, where she announced a push to further restrict asylum claims beyond Biden’s executive order announced earlier this year. Harris denounced Trump’s handling of the border while president and his opposing a bipartisan border package earlier this year, saying Trump “prefers to run on a problem instead of fixing a problem.”
“I had to sit there and listen” to Harris last night Trump said, eliciting cheers. “And who puts it on? Fox News. They should not be allowed to put it on. It’s all lies. Everything she says is lies.”
Trump professed not to understand what Harris meant when she said he was responsible for taking children from their parents. Under his administration, border agents separated children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border in a policy that was condemned globally as inhumane and one that Trump himself ended under pressure from his own party.
Harris, at a rally in San Francisco, told supporters there were “two very different visions for our nation” and voters see it “every day on the campaign trail.”
“Donald Trump is the same old tired show,” she said. “The same tired playbook we have heard for years.”
She said Trump was “a very unserious man.”
“However the consequences of putting him back in the White House are extremely serious,” she said.
The Harris campaign Saturday again challenged Trump to a second debate, this time in the form of a football-themed television ad. Following his Wisconsin rally, Trump traveled to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, to attend the Alabama-Georgia football game Saturday evening, and the Harris campaign premiered the ad during the game.
“Champions know its anytime, anyplace, but losers, they whine and waffle,” the ad’s narrator said.
Kendy Howard was found dead in her bathtub. While dispatched as a suicide, clues at the scene made Kootenai County authorities suspicious. Here’s a look at the case:
A 26-year marriage
Brian Wilkins
Dan and Kendy Howard had been married since 1994. By 2021, Dan Howard had gone from working as an Idaho State Trooper to working in the Alaskan oil fields for three weeks at a time.
Kendy seeks divorce
Brian Wilkins
On Jan. 28, 2021, just five days before she died, Kendy Howard picked Dan Howard up from the airport and told him she wanted a divorce. She described Dan’s reaction to a friend as having been “not good.”
Dan Howard’s call to 911
Kootenai County Prosecuting Attorney
On the night of Feb. 2, 2021, at 10:43 p.m., Dan Howard called 911, screaming Kendy had shot herself. “She’s in the bathtub dead …”
The call was dispatched as a suicide.
Dan Howard at the scene
Kootenai County District Court
Kootenai County Sheriff’s Deputy Miranda Thomas was one of the first officers to arrive. Thomas said she witnessed Dan Howard screaming, crying and gagging.
Kendy Howard found in the bathtub
Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office
Caption: Kendy Howard was found dead, naked in the bathtub of her home, with a gunshot wound to her head. Kendy’s gun was submerged in the bathwater.
A packed duffle bag
Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office
Thomas noticed a duffle bag with what she said seemed to be women’s clothing packed inside.
A clue on the dryer
Kootenai County District Court
Kootenai County Sheriff’s Detective Jerry Northrup said that in the dryer he observed “bathmats and towels … and they were still somewhat warm,” which he said led him to question when the cycle had been started.
How did Kendy Howard really die?
Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office
Kendy Howard’s gun was found in the bathtub. Investigators said they would have expected to see a lot more blood in the bathtub if she had been alive when she was shot.
Kendy’s daughter accuses Dan Howard
CBS News
When Dan Howard called his stepdaughter Brooke Wilkins with the news of Kendy’s death, investigators said they could overhear Wi accuse Dan of killing her mother. Despite their suspicions, detectives said there was not enough evidence at the scene to arrest Dan.
Dan Howard arrested
Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office
It took two years for prosecutors to build their case. In July, 2023, Dan Howard was arrested and charged with Kendy Howard’s murder.
Dan Howard on trial
Pool
On March 4, 2024, the trial of Dan Howard began. The prosecution claimed Dan had killed Kendy by putting her in a carotid restraint hold – a maneuver he had learned in his law enforcement training. The defense maintained that Kendy’s death was a suicide. After 10 days of testimony, 62 witnesses, and just over eight hours of deliberations, a verdict was reached.
Dan Howard found guilty
On March 19, 2024, the jury found Dan Howard guilty of second-degree murder and domestic battery.
Life in prison
Pool
At Dan Howard’s sentencing hearing in May 2024, Judge Lamont Berecz told him, “You killed a mother. You killed a grandmother. You killed a sister … You snuffed that out because of your own pride, greed, and anger.” Dan Howard was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
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