For Drew Carey, Valentine's Day is a painful reminder of the suspicious death of his former fiancée, Amie Harwick
More than two-and-a-half years after the death of his former fiancée Amie Harwick, Drew Carey, host of CBS' "The Price is Right," tells "48 Hours" that Valentine's Day will never be the same for him.
"I don't know if I'll ever want to celebrate Valentine's Day with a dinner. You know? I just don't wanna do anything," an emotional Carey told correspondent Erin Moriarty.
Carey's interview and new information about the case will be featured in "The Final Hours of Amie Harwick," reairing Saturday, September 3 at 9/8c on CBS and streaming on Paramount +. The broadcast features revealing interviews with Harwick's close friends Robert Coshland, Cleopatra Slough, Sharon Little, and Rudy Torres, as well as forensic psychologist Kris Mohandie.
The report marked the second anniversary of Harwick's death in the hours shortly after Valentine's Day 2020. "I think about her every single day," Carey told Moriarty.
Valentine's Day looms large for Drew Carey. In 2018, on a special Valentine's episode of "The Price Is Right," Carey introduced Harwick to the world as his fiancée. "I fell so hard for her," Carey said. "She was really smart."
He said the Ph.D. therapist made him feel good about himself. "You want an intimate relationship where you can open up to somebody completely and be yourself. And she was that for me," Carey said.
But the couple eventually broke up. Carey said one of the reasons was the demands of his career. "It was so painful," he told Moriarty.
In the early morning hours of February 15, 2020, Los Angeles police officers responding to a call for a "woman screaming" found Harwick, 38, lying on the ground battered and unresponsive beneath the third-floor balcony of her Hollywood Hills home. Harwick later died from blunt-force injuries. The medical examiner also found evidence of strangulation. A trail of evidence led investigators to Harwick's ex-boyfriend, photographer Gareth Pursehouse. Pursehouse was arrested and charged with murder. He has pleaded not guilty.
The broadcast includes the latest evidence authorities have collected against Harwick's suspected killer including a syringe that contained nicotine found on Harwick's balcony. Prosecutors believe the syringe is evidence of Pursehouse's intent to murder Harwick. Nicotine is a toxin that can cause death.
"She cared so much about helping people," said Carey. "That was her life's purpose. She just wanted to help people. Especially women."
Harwick, he said, cared deeply about domestic violence issues and helped many of her patients who were victims of sexual abuse. Carey spoke with "48 Hours" in the hopes of bringing awareness to the commonality of intimate partner violence.
"You can't be a person in this country and not know a woman who hasn't been a victim of domestic violence. You just can't," Carey said. "And it's really a problem that not enough people acknowledge."
As the anniversary of Harwick's death approaches, her loss continues to be difficult to her friends. "Valentine's Day sucks now," said Carey. "That's not a good day to remember."