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The evidence that helped convict Amie Harwick’s killer

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 Gareth Pursehouse was found guilty of murdering Hollywood therapist Amie Harwick and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Here’s a look at the evidence that led to his conviction.

Gareth Pursehouse arrested

Gareth Pursehouse arrest
An LAPD officer’s body camera captures the arrest of Gareth Pursehouse on Feb. 15, 2020.

Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office


In the afternoon of Feb. 15, 2020, Gareth Pursehouse was arrested near his home for the murder of his ex-girlfriend, Amie Harwick. The two hadn’t dated in almost a decade.

LAPD investigators gathered a trove of evidence released after Pursehouse’s trial in 2023.

A rush for help

Michael Herman seeking help
A security camera at a home next door shows Michael Herman knocking on the neighbor’s door.  No one answered.

Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles


Amie Harwick’s roommate, Michael Herman, said he was woken up in the early morning hours of Feb. 15, 2020 by a “bloodcurdling scream.” Herman says he could tell someone was upstairs attacking Harwick. He rushed to find his phone but was unable to. Herman made the difficult decision to leave to get help. He can be seen on a next-door neighbor’s Ring camera banging on their door, but no one responded. Herman found someone on the street and used their phone to dial 911.

Harwick’s parents, Penny and Tom Harwick, tell “48 Hours” that Herman “made all the right decisions.”

Police body camera video

Michael Herman bodycam video
LAPD bodycam video of Michael Heman talking to police outside the home he shared with Amie Harwick on Feb. 15, 2020

Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles


As police arrived at Harwick’s house, they tried to make sense of the chaotic scene. Michael Herman told police someone had attacked Harwick. He hadn’t seen the intruder, but he said he heard the attack.

First impressions inside Amie Harwick’s home

Amie Harwick crime scene evidence
Amie Harwick’s purses on the floor in her bedroom 

Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles


When officers first searched the residence that night, there was no tell-tale sign of a break-in, but Harwick’s belongings were scattered on the floor, including her purse.

Amie Harwick’s jacket

Amie Harwick's jacket
Amie Harwick’s jacket

Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles


Harwick’s jacket was found on the floor of her TV room.    

Amie Harwick’s broken necklace

Amie Harwick's rosary necklace
According to detectives, beads from Amie Harwick’s broken rosary necklace led from Harwick’s TV room, through her bedroom and out onto her bedroom balcony.

Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles


Harwick’s broken necklace was also found on the floor of her TV room.

LAPD officers discover a syringe

Amie Harwick evidence: syringe
A syringe found on Amie Harwick’s third-floor balcony.

Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles


As officers continued to search upstairs, they found a syringe which contained a mysterious yellowish-brown substance on the third floor balcony. Responding officers initially believed the syringe contained heroin, but LAPD Homicide Detective Scott Masterson said he knew it wasn’t. The syringe was sent out for testing by the FBI, and months later, it was revealed to contain a lethal dose of liquid nicotine.

Point of entry

Amie Harwick evidence
Michael Herman described for jurors how Amie Harwick had been concerned about the French doors that Gareth Pursehouse would later use to break into her home.

Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles


In the light of day, investigators spotted a broken glass panel on the French doors of Harwick’s home. “As soon as we saw that, OK … This is our point of entry,” Masterson said.

Blood on the floor

Harwick crime scene evidence
Blood was found on the floor near the broken French doors in Amie Harwick’s home.

Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles


Next to what investigators designated as their point of entry, they found a bloodstain on the floor. A sample of the blood was sent to the LAPD lab and the results revealed a match to Gareth Pursehouse’s DNA.

Amie Harwick’s unmade bed

Amie Harwick evidence
“I think (Gareth Pursehouse)  climbed in her bed … He was there waiting for her … for quite a while,” said Det. Scott Masterson.

Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles


While walking through Harwick’s house, something caught Masterson’s attention. “Everything was neat, clean, tidy and put away,” he said. Everything except Amie’s bed. The covers had been pulled back. “I think [Gareth Pursehouse] climbed in her bed,” said Masterson. He calls it, “very creepy.”

Caught on security camera

Gareth Pursehouse evidence
Gareth Pursehouse is seen on Amie Harwick’s neighbor’s security camera.

Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles


Detectives located security footage from the next-door neighbor’s security camera, which they say showed Pursehouse walking through Harwick’s neighbor’s yard and jumping over a fence into Harwick’s backyard.

Blocking the camera

Gareth Pursehouse evidence
Gareth Pursehouse’s gloved hand is seen covering Amie Harwick’s neighbor’s security camera. 

Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles


Pursehouse was also seen on security footage attempting to cover the neighbor’s security camera with his gloved hand. Prosecutors told “48 Hours,” “It’ll stop the motion and it’ll turn off the camera.”

Michael Herman’s police interview

Michael Herman talks to detectives
Michael Herman being interviewed by detectives on Feb. 15, 2020.

Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles


Hours after Harwick was attacked, Herman went to the Hollywood police station for an interview. He says Harwick had an ex-boyfriend whom she had filed a restraining order against, but it had expired. He told them he couldn’t remember the ex-boyfriend’s name, but that another one of Harwick’s friends would know.

That friend gave police Gareth Pursehouse’s name.

Signs of a struggle

Gareth Pursehouse mugshot, bite on arm
Gareth Pursehouse appeared to have a black eye and a bite mark on his bicep.

Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles


Pursehouse was arrested. Police say he appeared to have a black eye and what looked like a bite mark on his bicep. “To us it was indicative of Amie fighting for her life,” Prosecutor Victor Avila told “48 Hours.” “But she was obviously up against a much bigger, stronger opponent.”

“How hard did Amie fight for her life?” asked “48 Hours” correspondent Erin Moriarty.

“I think she fought with everything she had,” said Masterson.



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Bela Karolyi, polarizing U.S. gymnastics coach, dies at 82

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Bela Karolyi, the charismatic if polarizing gymnastics coach who turned young women into champions and the United States into an international power, has died. He was 82.

A spokesperson for USA Gymnastics confirmed to CBS News by email that Karolyi died Friday. No cause of death was given.

Karolyi and wife Martha trained multiple Olympic gold medalists and world champions in the U.S. and Romania, including Nadia Comaneci and Mary Lou Retton.

Bela Karolyi
Legendary gymnastics coach Bela Karolyi speaks during a press conference to announce that AT&T Stadium will host the 2015 AT&T American Cup, on Feb. 26, 2014, in Arlington, Texas. 

Ron Jenkins/Fort Worth Star-Telegram/Tribune News Service via Getty Images


“A big impact and influence on my life,” Comaneci, who was just 14 when Karolyi coached her to gold for Romania at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, posted on Instagram.

The Karolyis defected to the United States in 1981 and over the next 30-plus years became a guiding force in American gymnastics, though not without controversy. Bela helped guide Retton — all of 16 — to the Olympic all-around title at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles and memorably helped an injured Kerri Strug off the floor at the 1996 Games in Atlanta after Strug’s vault secured the team gold for the Americans.

Karolyi briefly became the national team coordinator for USA Gymnastics women’s elite program in 1999 and incorporated a semi-centralized system that eventually turned the Americans into the sport’s gold standard. It did not come without a cost. He was pushed out after the 2000 Olympics after several athletes spoke out about his tactics.

It would not be the last time Karolyi was accused of grandstanding and pushing his athletes too far physically and mentally.

During the height of the Larry Nassar scandal in the late 2010s — when the disgraced former USA Gymnastics team doctor was effectively given a life sentence after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting gymnasts and other athletes with his hands under the guise of medical treatment — over a dozen former gymnasts came forward saying the Karolyis were part of a system that created an oppressive culture that allowed Nassar’s behavior to run unchecked for years.

Still, some of Karolyi’s most famous students were always among his staunchest defenders. When Strug got married, she and Karolyi took a photo recreating their famous scene from the 1996 Olympics, when he carried her onto the medals podium after she vaulted on a badly sprained ankle.



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Mike Tyson says he has “no regrets” after losing boxing match to Jake Paul

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Mike Tyson to take on Jake Paul


Mike Tyson returns to boxing ring to take on Jake Paul

03:57

Despite losing his boxing match to Jake Paul, Mike Tyson in a social media post Saturday said he had “no regrets” to getting “in ring one last time.” 

The boxing legend was defeated by social media star Jake Paul in a highly anticipated fight on Friday night with an age difference of over three decades between the two contenders. 

Netflix said Saturday that 60 million households worldwide tuned in to watch the match. The two fighters went eight full rounds, with each round two minutes long. Paul defeated Tyson by unanimous decision and the 27-year-old upset boxer and 58-year-old former heavyweight champion hugged afterward. 

Paul was expected to earn about $40 million from the fight, and Tyson was expected to take around $20 million for the fight, according to DraftKings and other online reports. 

Mike Tyson v Jake Paul
Jake Paul punches Mike Tyson during their heavyweight bout at AT&T Stadium on Nov. 15, 2024 in Arlington, Texas.

Getty Images


Tyson said on his social media that “this is one of those situations when you lost but still won. I’m grateful for last night.”

The fight almost didn’t happen after Tyson experienced an ulcer flare-up while on a plane in March. He addressed his illness Saturday, writing that he “almost died in June.” He said he had eight blood transfusions and “lost half my blood and 25lbs in hospital and had to fight to get healthy to fight so I won.”

Tyson retired from boxing in 2005 after a 20-year career. He last fought in a 2020 exhibition match against former four-division world champ Roy Jones Jr.

“To have my children see me stand toe to toe and finish 8 rounds with a talented fighter half my age in front of a packed Dallas Cowboy stadium is an experience that no man has the right to ask for. Thank you,” he said. 

and

contributed to this report.





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In their final meeting, Xi tells Biden he is “ready to work with a new administration”

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In their final meeting, China’s leader Xi Jinping told U.S. President Biden that his nation was “ready to work with a new administration,” as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take over.

The two leaders gathered Saturday on the sidelines of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. Mr. Biden was expected to urge Xi to dissuade North Korea from further deepening its support for Russia’s war on Ukraine. It marked their first in-person meeting since they met in Northern California last November.

Without mentioning Trump’s name, Xi appeared to signal his concern that the incoming president’s protectionist rhetoric on the campaign trail could send the U.S.-China relationship into another valley.

“China is ready to work with a new U.S. administration to maintain communication, expand cooperation and manage differences so as to strive for a steady transition of the China-U.S. relationship for the benefit of the two peoples,” Xi said through an interpreter.

Biden Xi
US President Biden shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Lima, Peru, on Nov. 16, 2024.

LEAH MILLIS/POOL/AFP via Getty Images


Mr. Biden, meanwhile, spoke in broader brushstrokes about where the relationship has gone and reflected not just on the past four years, but on their long relationship.

“Over the past four years, China-U.S. relations have experienced ups and downs, but with the two of us at the helm, we have also engaged in fruitful dialogues and cooperation, and generally achieved stability,” he said.

Mr. Biden and Xi, with top aides surrounding them, gathered around a long rectangle of tables in an expansive conference room at Lima’s Defines Hotel and Conference Center.

There’s much uncertainty about what lies ahead in the U.S.-China relationship under Trump, who campaigned promising to levy 60% tariffs on Chinese imports.

Bobby Djavaheri, president of Los Angeles-based Yedi Houseware Appliances — which manufactures its products in China — told CBS News in an interview this week that such tariffs “would decimate our business, but not only our business. It would decimate all small businesses that rely on importing.”

Trump has also proposed revoking China’s Most Favored Nation trade status, phasing out all imports of essential goods from China and banning China from buying U.S. farmland.

Already, many American companies, including Nike and eyewear retailer Warby Parker, have been diversifying their sourcing away from China. Shoe brand Steve Madden says it plans to cut imports from China by as much as 45% next year.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Biden administration officials will advise the Trump team that managing the intense competition with Beijing will likely be the most significant foreign policy challenge they will face.

It’s a big moment for Mr. Biden as he wraps up more than 50 years in politics. He saw his relationship with Xi as among the most consequential on the international stage and put much effort into cultivating that relationship.

Mr. Biden and Xi first got to know each other on travels across the U.S. and China when both were vice presidents, interactions that both have said left a lasting impression.

“For over a decade, you and I have spent many hours together, both here and in China and in between. And I think we’ve spent a long time dealing with these issues,” Mr. Biden said Saturday.

But the last four years have presented a steady stream of difficult moments.

The FBI this week offered new details of a federal investigation into Chinese government efforts to hack into U.S. telecommunications networks. The initial findings have revealed a “broad and significant” cyberespionage campaign aimed at stealing information from Americans who work in government and politics.

U.S. intelligence officials also have assessed China has surged sales to Russia of machine tools, microelectronics and other technology that Moscow is using to produce missiles, tanks, aircraft and other weaponry for use in its war against Ukraine.

And tensions flared last year after Mr. Biden ordered the shooting down of a Chinese spy balloon that traversed the United States.



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