Dr. Amie Harwick, a sex therapist and former fiancé of actor Drew Carey, is found unresponsive under a balcony in her Hollywood Hills home on the morning of February 15th, 2020. She is rushed to the hospital, but unfortunately, passes away. The evidence at the crime scene and on Harwick’s body indicated signs of a struggle and her having been thrown from the balcony.  

In this episode of Body Bags, forensics expert Joseph Scott Morgan and Jackie Howard discuss blunt force trauma, the difference between falling/being thrown from a great height, how to tell in what order injuries occur, and why a nicotine syringe became a major factor in this case.

Show Notes:

0:00 - Intro

1:25 - Background and overview of the case

3:45 - Where do you start with a case like this?

5:10 - Amie Harwick being thrown from her balcony

7:30 - How do we know she was thrown off the balcony?

15:45 - Do the injuries differ depending on whether you are thrown from a great height or fall from one?

19:00 - Blunt force trauma

20:10 -  How does the M.E. go about examining all the injuries?

25:50 - Is it possible that Amie was beaten and that caused the injuries to her liver, not the fall?

29:40 - How can you tell what order the injuries happened in?

32:00 - If Amie fell, and was not thrown, would her death still be considered blunt force trauma?

34:00 - Suspects in Amie’s case 

34:55 - How investigators suspect the murder played out

36:40 - Finding a nicotine filled syringe and what that signifies 

42:10 - Harwick’s ex-boyfriend, Gareth Pursehouse, becomes the prime suspect

44:45 - Pursehouse has been charged with murder, first degree residential burglary, and special circumstance allegation of lying in wait.