A New Hampshire jury found 34-year-old Adam Montgomery guilty on all charges in connection with the murder of his 5-year-old daughter Harmony in 2019.
Montgomery was convicted of Second Degree Murder, Second Degree Assault, Falsifying Evidence, Witness Tampering, and Abuse of a Corpse of his 5-year-old daughter, Harmony Montgomery.
“This case has been a top priority for Manchester Police since the little girl was reported missing in December 2021. Since that time, a day hasn’t gone by that Manchester detectives didn’t work on this case. Many days and long hours have been spent conducting interviews, collecting evidence, and searching multiple locations,” said MPD.
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“Getting justice for this little girl has been paramount to everyone at the Manchester Police Department and we are so grateful for this outcome. We appreciate the dedication of the many detectives who worked this case, specifically those who led the charge; Juvenile Detective Jack Dunleavy and Detective Max Rahill. We would like to thank the prosecutors, Senior Assistant Attorney General Benjamin Agati and Assistant Attorney General Christopher Knowles, as well former Senior Assistant Attorney General Jesse O’Neill who worked tirelessly on this case, prior to leaving the New Hampshire Attorney General’s office,” said MPD.
Harmony was last seen in Manchester, New Hampshire, sometime in late 2019. In October, police were called to her home on Gilford Street for unspecified reasons. Harmony and her family were evicted from their home on Gilford Street on November 27.
Several people reported seeing Harmony with her father and stepmother in the days that followed, but between December 6 and December 10, the adults were only seen with their other children, not Harmony. She is thought to have disappeared sometime between November 28 and December 10.
Harmony’s mother, Crystal “Crys” Renee Sorey, alerted police in November 2021 that she was missing.
Crys lost custody of Harmony in 2014, when she was two months old, due to substance abuse. Adam was imprisoned at the time. Crys later lost custody of Harmony’s younger half-brother, and the two were placed in the same foster home.
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The initial goal was to reunite the child with her mother, and Harmony was returned to Crys three times over the next few years, but she was removed again and placed with the same foster family. Harmony’s foster family believed the unstable situation was causing trauma for her, as she developed behavioral issues that worsened each time she was removed from her placement.
Harmony was placed in therapeutic foster care several months after being removed from her mother’s custody for the third time. Her original foster family expressed their love for her but felt unable to meet her needs. Therapeutic foster care provides foster parents with training and additional resources to address significant behavioral, emotional, medical, and/or developmental issues in children.
Crys and the child welfare authorities wanted Harmony to remain in foster care, but in February 2019, a judge granted custody to her father, Adam Montgomery.
He had been incarcerated for Harmony’s first year of life and had since moved to New Hampshire, so they had only seen each other on rare occasions. Harmony had approximately 20 hours of supervised visits with Adam over a four-year period, during which it was noted that he was attentive to her but occasionally had inappropriate expectations of her behavior given her age, visual disability, and special education needs.
Harmony’s half-brother was adopted later in 2019 and now lives with his adoptive family, but he remains in contact with Crys. After going through recovery and becoming sober, Crys attempted to contact Harmony. She had a video call with Adam around Easter 2019 and noticed Harmony in the background, looking “frightened.” This is the last time her mother has seen her.
After Crys and Adam argued, Adam cut off all contact with Harmony, and Crys attempted to locate her daughter for months without success. She stated that she had “a gut feeling that something is not right.” She stated that she had repeatedly called authorities to express her concerns about Harmony’s well-being but had been ignored.
Adam remained missing for nearly six weeks after Crys reported her daughter’s disappearance to police. They eventually found him still in Manchester and living in his car. Harmony was not with him, and he claimed he gave her to Crys around Thanksgiving 2019. This was not true, and Adam quickly stopped cooperating with the investigation.
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Harmony’s uncle, Kevin Montgomery, said he saw Harmony with a black eye in the summer of 2019 and asked Adam about it. Adam told him he “bashed her around the apartment” after leaving her alone with her baby half-brother and returning to find her covering the infant’s mouth to stop crying.
Kevin claimed he had witnessed other abusive behaviors by Adam, such as forcing Harmony to stand in a corner for four hours and instructing her to scrub the toilet with her toothbrush. He stated that the family had made multiple reports to New Hampshire’s Division of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF), and Adam had cut off contact with them as a result. DCYF took no action in response to the reports.
Adam was arrested in January 2022 and charged with felony second-degree assault for abusing Harmony in the summer of 2019, as well as misdemeanor charges of interference with custody and endangering the welfare of a child for failing to report his missing daughter. He has a history of violence and was sentenced to 18 months in prison for shooting a man in the head during a 2014 robbery attempt. He is also suspected in the 2008 murder of a woman in Lynn, Massachusetts.
A day later, his wife, Harmony’s stepmother Kayla Montgomery, was charged with one count of welfare fraud for obtaining $1,500 in food stamps on Harmony’s behalf from December 2019 to June 2021, when Harmony was no longer living with her and Adam.
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While in jail awaiting trial on that charge, Kayla was charged in April 2022 with receiving stolen property, specifically a rifle and a shotgun, between September 29 and October 22, 2019, knowing or believing the property was stolen. This came just days after her father was arrested on similar charges.
Authorities stated that the firearms charges were unrelated to Harmony’s case. Kayla was released from jail in May on a $5,000 unsecured appearance bond, which does not require an upfront payment. If she completes a treatment program at the Cynthia Day Family Center, she will not be required to pay any bond. Other conditions include daily in-person check-ins at the Manchester Police Department, as well as being required to stay in New Hampshire and maintain no contact with Adam.
She was arrested twice more in June, though. She was charged with two counts of perjury and two counts of receiving stolen property. Authorities believe she lied to the grand jury investigating Harmony’s disappearance and kept a rifle and shotgun that Adam had stolen.
She has pleaded not guilty to these charges. The welfare fraud charge was dropped in July 2022 due to procedural issues, but Kayla is still awaiting trial for the remaining offenses. She was arrested again in September 2022 after failing to appear for a court date.
Kayla and Adam have three kids together. Kayla said she last saw Harmony in November or December 2019, when Adam told her he was taking her to Massachusetts, where Crys lived at the time. He returned alone, and Kayla never saw or heard about Harmony again, believing she was safe in her mother’s care.
Harmony’s body has never been found, and Manchester Police continue to monitor a dedicated tipline for any information leading to the whereabouts of Harmony. That number is 603-932-8997.
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