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It has been two years since Adam Montgomery was accused of killing his five-year-old daughter, Harmony. Finally, he is going to trial for this shocking case that caused outrage throughout the United States.
Harmony was last spotted in Manchester, New Hampshire in either October or November of 2019. However, despite two full years passing, no one reported her as missing.
Although extensive attempts were made to locate the missing child, who has partial blindness, investigators received limited progress when they sought information from the public about Harmony’s location in December 2021.
After only six months of searching for the missing girl, her father was taken into custody for allegedly committing second-degree murder, tampering with witnesses, falsifying evidence, and abusing a corpse.
In a sworn statement for the arrest of Adam Montgomery in 2022, authorities revealed that his wife, Kayla Montgomery, had come forward with the accusation that he caused the death of Harmony by striking her in the head after she had a bathroom accident in the car. Montgomery is said to have hidden Harmony’s body in a cooler, which he then secretly placed in a freezer at his workplace. The remains were reportedly disposed of at an unknown location in March 2020.
When Harmony went missing, she resided with her father, stepmother, and their two children. Harmony’s mother, Crystal Sorey, had lost custody of her daughter due to her ongoing issues with substance abuse.
Montgomery, who is 34 years old, has entered a plea of not guilty and continues to assert his innocence in relation to the charges.
This is all the information we have on the unsettling situation:
Who is Harmony Montgomery?
In June 2014, Harmony came into the world. During this period, her father was incarcerated and was not released until 2015.
According to WMUR, the young girl was taken away from her mother on three separate occasions within the first four years of her life.
In July of 2018, Harmony was placed in a foster home by the Department of Child Services after her mother lost custody due to her struggle with drug addiction.
In February of 2019, Montgomery was given custody of Harmony prior to the completion of a home review by the New Hampshire Division of Children, Youth, and Families. As Ms. Sorey resided in Massachusetts, the child was relocated to New Hampshire to live with Montgomery.
When was the last time Harmony was spotted?
The most recent sighting of Harmony by law enforcement was on September 11, 2019, when Manchester police responded to a call at her residence on 77 Gilford Street in Manchester.
At the time, Harmony resided with her father, his wife Kayla Montgomery, and their children at the property.
According to law enforcement, the most recent police visit to the property occurred in October 2019. However, it was later discovered that the individual had confused the dates.
It seems that this timeline is derived from police interrogations and accounts given by different members of the family.
Posters featuring the image of seven-year-old Harmony Montgomery, who is currently missing.
Ms. Sorey informed the authorities that she had been unable to reach her daughter since their video call in April 2019. She stated that Montgomery had severed all communication between her and their daughter.
At first, Montgomery told investigators that the last time he saw his daughter was during Thanksgiving in 2019. He claimed that Ms. Sorey had taken her from Manchester to live with her.
According to the criminal complaint, Montgomery stated that he believed his daughter was residing with his former partner and displayed little emotion or response when authorities expressed concerns about Harmony’s well-being during their contact with him in December 2021.
Kayla Montgomery’s testimony also contradicted his version of events. She claims to have seen Harmony on the day after Thanksgiving, when her husband supposedly drove her to visit Ms. Sorey. According to Kevin Montgomery, Harmony’s uncle, he has not seen Harmony or his nephew since late 2019, when Harmony was five years old.
Who is facing charges?
Harmony’s father, Adam, was accused of killing his daughter on Monday.
On Monday, Attorney General John Formella declared the news at the Manchester Police Department.
Mr. Formella stated that Adam Montgomery was taken into custody this morning for the 2019 homicide of Harmony Montgomery and additional associated offenses.
According to Mr. Formella, Mr. Montgomery is currently facing four additional charges on top of the previous ones that were filed against him at the beginning of 2022.
These charges include one charge of second-degree murder for causing Harmony’s death recklessly, altering, destroying, concealing, or removing evidence related to the crime, unlawfully removing, concealing, or destroying Harmony’s body, and attempting to manipulate witnesses or informants by pressuring his estranged wife, Kayla Montgomery, to lie to investigators.
“I would like to once again offer my sincerest condolences to Harmony’s family, friends, and loved ones,” stated Mr. Formella during the press conference in Manchester. “We are aware that today’s announcement, while important for the investigation, brings another challenging moment for those who cared for Harmony and those who have been following this case.”
Mr. Montgomery is facing charges for allegedly punching Harmony multiple times on or around December 7th, 2021.
According to the Department of Justice, his arraignment has been set for October 25.
In the beginning of January, the father and stepmother of Harmony were arrested and accused of involvement in the disappearance of the child.
On January 4th, Mr. Montgomery was taken into custody and accused of committing assault in the second degree, as well as two misdemeanors for endangering a child’s well-being and one misdemeanor for interfering with custody.
According to the criminal complaint, he has been accused of physically hitting Harmony in the face at some point in July 2019, resulting in a black eye.
During police interviews, other family members reported that Mr. Montgomery had been physically and verbally abusive towards his daughter. This included instances of giving her a black eye, making her clean the toilet with her own toothbrush, and punishing her by forcing her to stand in a corner for extended periods of time.
Michael Montgomery, the brother of Mr. Montgomery, has stated to investigators that he had suspicions of Adam being physically aggressive towards the child and that he was often impatient with her.
Adam Montgomery, Harmony’s father, seen in his mugshot.
According to the criminal complaint, Kevin Montgomery stated that he observed Harmony with a bruised eye in July 2019. He further revealed that his nephew had admitted to hitting her in the face and causing the injury.
He claimed that his nephew told him, “I roughed her up in this house.”
Kevin reported to DCYF at that point and observed Mr. Montgomery subjecting Harmony to additional forms of “abusive discipline,” such as making her clean a toilet with her toothbrush and physically punishing her with hard spanks on the buttocks.
Authorities stated that Mr. Montgomery was uncooperative with the probe regarding his daughter’s vanishing and has declined to disclose her whereabouts.
The day following her spouse’s detainment, Ms. Montgomery was also detained on a single felony count of welfare fraud. She is accused of falsely obtaining welfare benefits for the absent child from December 2019 to June 2021.
Mrs. Montgomery, who is married and has three kids, is being accused of deceitfully acquiring $1,500 in food stamp assistance intended for Harmony. This occurred between December 2019 and June 2021, despite the fact that the child was not residing with them.
The prosecution has dismissed the previous accusation of welfare fraud and replaced it with three additional charges: one for theft through deception and two for misdemeanors related to welfare fraud.
Ms. Montgomery is being charged with deliberately making fraudulent statements about her stepdaughter’s location in February and March of 2021 in order to receive benefits.
She has denied responsibility for the accusations.
Mr Montgomery has a history of violence and a long criminal record including convictions for shooting a man in the head in a drug deal just six months before Harmony was born.
In 2010, he was found guilty of assaulting two women while holding them at gunpoint.
New information has revealed that Mr Montgomery is being investigated as a possible perpetrator in the unsolved homicide of a 28-year-old man in Lynn, New Hampshire in February 2008.
On the evening of February 10, 2008, Darlin Guzman was discovered with a gunshot wound to the chest in the parking lot of the former White Hen Convenience store located in Lynn’s Austin Square. He was later declared deceased at the hospital.
The mugshot of Kayla Montgomery is shown after she was arrested.
A source from law enforcement informed Boston 25 News that the individual in question, Mr. Montgomery, along with two unidentified family members, have been the primary suspects in the murder case since the beginning.
According to the source, the three relatives had interacted with the victim earlier in the day and had arranged to meet him at the convenience store. However, their meeting ended in gunfire.
The car belonging to the victim was discovered abandoned in the direction of Bedford, New Hampshire, where Mr. Montgomery resided at the time.
The murder of Mr. Guzman has never resulted in any charges, but the investigation continues to focus on Mr. Montgomery according to the source.
After nearly 14 years since the incident, Mr. Montgomery and his spouse have been accused of various charges related to the disappearance of his daughter. This includes his father being charged with her murder.
Why was her disappearance not reported until two years later?
There were concerns about why a young girl was not visible for over two years without any intervention from authorities.
Several relatives have expressed worries about Harmony’s well-being to the Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) in New Hampshire over the past two years.
Ms. Sorey blamed the authorities for not properly supporting her daughter. She stated that she tried several times to raise concerns to child services.
On November 18, she reached out to Manchester Police, expressing her concern that her daughter was not accounted for.
The police reached out to the New Hampshire Division for Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) regarding the whereabouts of the missing child. However, on December 27th, the DCYF stated that they were also unsuccessful in finding Harmony.
On December 31st, Manchester Police initiated a search.
Crystal Sorey, the mother of Harmony Montgomery, shares her thoughts at a vigil held in honor of her daughter.
Ms. Sorey strongly believed that her daughter was in danger and she reached out to the Manchester mayor’s office through email, pleading for assistance in locating her daughter.
On December 29th, the mother pleaded for assistance in locating her daughter.
According to Ms. Sorey, Mr. Montgomery never registered their daughter for school and as a result, she has missed crucial doctor’s appointments related to a disability in her eye that she has had since infancy.
The emails were transmitted a mere 48 hours prior to the police officially declaring Harmony as missing.
The family was familiar to child services due to multiple attempts to raise concerns.
On January 12th, released documents revealed that police had been summoned to the residence on Gilford Street no less than 10 times from February 2019, when Mr. Montgomery gained custody of Harmony, until her disappearance in the autumn.
There were various reports regarding domestic disagreements, animal treatment, and worries about the state of the residence.
The Department of Children, Youth, and Families received notification of several incidents.
A resident in the area informed The Independent that the property was in a “troublesome state,” with multiple individuals residing there at various times, grown-ups frequently arguing in public, debris accumulating in the yard, and the power being disconnected at one point.
The police chief provided an update on the Harmony Montgomery case, stating that officers spotted the 5-year-old who had been reported missing in September 2019.
She stated that we did not mix with them due to the unfavorable circumstances.
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There were numerous individuals residing there, with heaps of clutter in the driveway and scattered outside.
The power was shut off, so they used a generator throughout the summer and ran the wiring through the window.
According to the neighbor, the Montgomerys were essentially living in the home without permission when it went into foreclosure. Despite this, Mr. and Ms. Montgomery were unwilling to vacate the property.
In 2019, she stated that she left for Thanksgiving break and when she came back, she discovered that her family had finally completed their move and left.
This aligns with the time when Mr. and Ms. Montgomery reported their last sighting of the young girl.
On January 12, Governor Chris Sununu of New Hampshire revealed that the DCYF is conducting an internal examination of how it handled Harmony’s situation.
Nevertheless, the governor supported the efforts of the state by stating, “Once we were made aware that this child had been absent from school for an extended period of time, the issue was brought to our attention.”
The team promptly addressed the issue. There was no delay, and it was not left sitting on a desk.
In February 2019, after Harmony was transferred from Massachusetts to live with Mr. Montgomery in New Hampshire, the Massachusetts Office of the Child Advocate initiated an independent investigation.
Officials in Massachusetts and New Hampshire shifted the responsibility onto one another.
The governor of New Hampshire wrote a letter to Massachusetts court authorities criticizing a judge’s decision to place Harmony in the custody of her father, who has a history of violence and a lengthy criminal record.
Governor Charlie Baker of Massachusetts acknowledged the criticism and expressed empathy, but stated that he would like to await the findings of the independent assessment conducted by the Massachusetts Office of the Child Advocate.
In May, the report was published and it revealed that state agencies were at fault for not prioritizing Harmony’s needs over her parents’ rights to her custody.
According to the report, the most significant finding is that Harmony’s individual needs, wellbeing, and safety were not given equal importance as her parents’ rights in the decision-making process by state entities. Maria Mossaides, Director of the Office of the Child Advocate, stated that the child protection system fails to truly protect children when they are not prioritized in every aspect. The report highlights the consequences of miscalculating risks and placing more weight on parents’ rights over a child’s wellbeing.
Mr. Baker replied to the report the following day, stating that “everyone fell short in this situation.” He proposed a bill that allocated $50 million for hiring, training, and compensating guardian ad litems in the Massachusetts court system.
According to Mr. Baker, many attorneys were present for this case, but none of them had Harmony Montgomery’s best interest at heart.
Where is Harmony?
There is limited information from investigators regarding the potential circumstances surrounding Harmony’s disappearance. The victim’s body has not yet been located.
The Gilford Street residence garnered significant attention during the search, with investigators spotted inside the house and backyard for several days.
Manchester Police have announced that the search has ended, but it is unclear if any noteworthy items were found. No other areas have been designated for further searches.
The hunt is still on for Harmony Montgomery, who has been missing for the past two years.
As of now, approximately 300 tips have been submitted by the general public and the monetary reward for any information regarding Harmony’s disappearance has exceeded $150,000.
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Please call or text 603-203-6061 if you have any information.
The source is the Independent, a British online newspaper.
