It’s been two years since Adam Montgomery was charged with the murder of his five-year-old daughter Harmony, and now, he is finally headed to trial over the shocking case that sparked uproar across America.
Harmony was last seen in October or November 2019 in Manchester, New Hampshire, but for two entire years, nobody reported her missing.
Despite the delayed painstaking efforts to find the missing child, investigators made little headway when they eventually asked the public for information about Harmony’s whereabouts in December 2021.
Then, just six months into the missing persons investigation, the little girl’s father was arrested and later charged with second-degree murder, tampering with witnesses, falsifying evidence and abuse of a corpse.
Authorities disclosed in an affidavit for Adam Montgomery’s 2022 arrest that his wife, Kayla Montgomery, had come forward alleging he fatally struck Harmony in the head when she had a bathroom incident in the car. Montgomery allegedly placed Harmony’s body in a cooler that he then snuck into his workplace freezer, before disposing of the remains in March 2020 at an unknown location.
At the time of Harmony’s disappearance, she lived with her father, stepmother and the couple’s two children. Harmony’s mother, Crystal Sorey, had lost custody of her daughter due to her then ongoing substance abuse problems.
Montgomery, 34, has pleaded not guilty to the charges and has maintained his innocence.
With jury selection in Montgomery’s trial set to begin this week, here’s everything we know about the disturbing case:
Who was Harmony Montgomery?
Harmony was born in June 2014. At the time, her father was in prison before his release in 2015.
The little girl was removed from her mother’s care at least three times in the first four years of her life, according to WMUR.
In July 2018, the Department of Child Services placed Harmony in a foster home after removing custody from her mother due to her drug addiction.
In February 2019, Montgomery was granted custody of Harmony before a review of his home was completed by the New Hampshire Division of Children, Youth and Families. Ms Sorey lived in Massachusetts so the child was moved to New Hampshire where Montgomery lived.
When was Harmony last seen?
The last confirmed sighting of Harmony by law enforcement was on 11 September 2019 when Manchester police officers were called to the home on 77 Gilford Street in Manchester where she lived.
Harmony was living with her father as well as his wife Kayla Montgomery and their children at the property at the time.
Law enforcement said the last police callout to the property was in October 2019 but later confirmed he had muddled the dates.
This timeline appears to be based on police interviews and statements from various family members.
Ms Sorey told police she had not been able to contact her since they spoke on a video call in April 2019. After that, she said Montgomery cut off all contact between her and her daughter.
Montgomery first claimed to investigators he last saw his daughter around Thanksgiving 2019, claiming that Ms Sorey had picked her up from Manchester to take her to live with her.
The criminal complaint says that Montgomery claimed to believe his daughter was living with his ex and did “not show much emotion or reaction” when officers said they were concerned whether Harmony was alive when they contacted him in December 2021.
His story was also contradicted by Kayla Montgomery’s account, who said she last saw Harmony the day after Thanksgiving when her husband said he was driving her to see Ms Sorey. Montgomery’s uncle Kevin Montgomery told investigators he has not seen Harmony or his nephew since late 2019 when she was five years old.
Relatives had alerted police of abuse
Police interviews with other family members revealed Montgomery was allegedly abusive toward his daughter, including giving her a black eye, forcing her to clean the toilet with her own toothbrush and making her stand in a corner for hours as a punishment.
Montgomery’s brother Michael Montgomery told investigators he “had concerns that Adam was physically abusive” to the child and was “super short” with her.
Kevin Montgomery said he noticed Harmony had a black eye in July 2019, which his nephew confessed to causing by hitting her in the face, according to the criminal complaint.
“I bashed her around this house,” he said his nephew told him.
Kevin said he contacted DCYF that time and had also noticed Mr Montgomery subject Harmony to other forms of “abusive discipline” including scrubbing a toilet with her toothbrush and her being “spanked hard on the butt”.
Who has been charged?
In early January 2019, Harmony’s father and his wife were both arrested and charged on counts related to the missing child.
Montgomery was initially charged with second-degree felony assault, two misdemeanour counts of endangering the welfare of a child, and one misdemeanour count of interference with custody. The day after her husband’s arrest, Kayla Montgomery was arrested on one felony charge of welfare fraud for allegedly fraudulently collecting welfare benefits for the missing child between December 2019 and June 2021.
Kayla Montgomery, who has three children with her estranged husband, fraudulently obtained $1,500 in food stamp benefits meant for Harmony between December 2019 and June 2021 even though the girl was not living with them.
Prosecutors later dropped that welfare fraud charge and added three new charges – one count of theft by deception and two misdemeanour charges of welfare fraud. She pleaded guilty to two of those charges in November 2022 and reached a plea deal with the prosecution in exchange for her testimony against Montgomery.
Then in October 2022, Attorney General John Formella announced new charges of second-degree murder against Montgomery in the death of Harmony. Documents released at this time also show that Kayla Montgomery, who was charged with unrelated theft charges, came forward with information that led to her estranged husband’s arrest.
Montgomery was charged with one count of second-degree murder for recklessly causing the death of Harmony; falsifying physical evidence for altering, destroying, concealing or removing the girl’s body; abuse of a corpse for unlawfully removing, concealing or destroying Harmony’s body; and tampering with witnesses or informants, which he allegedly did by attempting to coerce Kayla Montgomery, to lie to investigators.
“I do want to again express my deepest sympathies to Harmony’s family, friends and loved ones,” Mr Formella said at the news conference in Manchester. “We understand that today’s news, while significant for purposes of this investigation, is yet another difficult moment for those who loved Harmony and those who have followed this case.”
Affidavit details Harmony’s tragic death
During an interview with police detectives, Kayla Montgomery said Montgomery repeatedly punched Harmony in the face on 7 December 2019, after becoming upset with her for having bathroom accidents in the car their family was staying in.
The family had been evicted from their home in November 2019.
The 48-page affidavit of probable cause was submitted with an arrest warrant for Montgomery. According to the document, Kayla described how Montgomery allegedly “delivered sets of three-to-four blows with a closed fist to Harmony’s face/head on three separate occasions over the course of a few minutes” on the December morning when she died.
After the final blow, Adam reportedly said “I think I really hurt her this time. I think I did something”, Kayla recalled, adding Harmony made a “moaning type noise” for approximately five minutes “and then stopped”.
No one checked on Harmony or stopped to get her medical attention, Kayla told investigating officers, as the family continued their ride to a Burger King before returning to the apartment complex where they usually parked their car since.
They remained in the parking lot for 20 minutes before driving off again. In a second interview, Kayla admitted she and Adam used heroin and fentanyl during this interval. It was only when their car, a Chrysler Sebring, broke down that Kayla and Adam discovered “Harmony was not breathing” and had died.
Montgomery then allegedly placed Harmony’s lifeless body in a red duffel bag. While living in the parking lot, Kayla claimed Adam would occasionally leave Harmony’s body out in the snow to slow the rate of decomposition.
When the family moved in with Kayla’s mother and her boyfriend, Montgomery placed the duffel bag in a red cooler in the common hallway of their apartment building.
After that, the Montgomerys moved into a shelter house, where the bag began to leak. Montgomery reportedly put the duffel bag into a trash bag, and stowed it inside a vent shaft in the ceiling of their room.
Police officers later removed the entire section of the ceiling, including the vent, and found stains consistent with signs of decomposition.
Kayla gave detectives two different versions of how Montgomery transferred Harmony’s body to a much smaller, maternity tote bag which “would not likely fit Harmony’s body unless it was dismembered or grossly distorted”.
In spring 2020, Kayla said Montgomery rented a U-haul truck to dispose of Harmony’s body during the middle of the night. When he returned the next morning, he allegedly “said words to the effect of ‘it’s done’”.
Montgomery’s past criminal history
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. He was also convicted in 2010 for attacking two women at gunpoint.
It has also emerged that Montgomery is a suspect in the cold case murder of a 28-year-old man in Lynn, New Hampshire, back in February 2008.
Darlin Guzman was found shot in the chest in the parking lot of the former White Hen Convenience store in Lynn’s Austin Square on the night of 10 February 2008. He was pronounced dead in hospital.
A law enforcement source told Boston 25 News that Montgomery, who was 18 at the time, and two members of his family, who were not named, have been the focus of the murder investigation since day one.
The three family members had been in contact with the victim earlier that day and planned to meet with him at the convenience store, before the meeting culminated in gunfire, according to the source.
The victim’s car was later found abandoned in the direction of Bedford, New Hampshire, where Mr Montgomery lived at the time.
No one has ever been charged with Guzman’s murder but the source said Montgomery remains the focus of the investigation to this day.
In June 2023, Montgomery was found guilty of all counts in his trial relating to stolen weapons in 2019. He was sentenced to 32-and-a-half to 75 years in prison.
Why was Harmony not reported missing for two years?
Questions arose over how a little girl could not be seen for more than two years without any action being taken by authorities.
Multiple family members have said they raised concerns for Harmony’s safety with New Hampshire’s Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) over the last two years.
Ms Sorey accused the authorities of “failing” her daughter. She said she made multiple attempts to report concerns to child services.
On November 18 2021 she contacted Manchester Police saying she believed her daughter was missing.
Police officers contacted the New Hampshire Division for Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) about the location of the missing child. Then, on 27 December of that year, the DCYF reported that it was also unable to locate Harmony.
Manchester Police announced a search was launched on 31 December 2021.
Ms Sorey was so convinced that her daughter was in trouble that she sent emails to the Manchester mayor’s office, begging for help in finding the girl.
“Please, I’m begging for help in finding my daughter,” she wrote on 29 December 2021.
Ms Sorey said Montgomery had never enrolled their daughter in school and that she has missed “important doctor’s appointments she’s had since a baby due to a disability in her eye”.
The emails were sent just two days before police finally reported Harmony missing.
As well as the repeated attempts to raise the alarm, the family was well-known to child services.
Records released showed that police officers were called to the Gilford Street home at least 10 times between February 2019 – when Mr Montgomery got custody of Harmony – and when she was last seen in the fall.
Reports ranged from claims of domestic disturbances to animal welfare and concerns about the living conditions in the home.
The DCYF was notified about some of the incidents.
A neighbour told The Independent in 2022 that it was a “bad situation” at the property, describing lots of people living there at different times, adults seen arguing in the street, junk left piled up in the yard, and the electricity being switched off at one point.
Officers saw missing 5-year-old in Sept 2019′: Police chief on Harmony Montgomery case
“We didn’t intermingle with them as it was a bad situation,” she said.
“There was lots of different people living there, piles of junk in the driveway, junk outside.
“The electricity was turned off and they ran the generator all summer with the wiring running through the window.”
The neighbour said the Montgomerys were “basically squatting” at the home when it had fallen into foreclosure and Mr and Ms Montgomery were refusing to leave.
She said she went away for the Thanksgiving holidays in 2019 and returned to find the family had finally packed up and moved out.
This coincides with when Mr and Ms Montgomery claimed they last saw the little girl.
An independent investigation was launched by the Massachusetts Office of the Child Advocate after Harmony was moved from Massachusetts into the custody of Montgomery in New Hampshire in February 2019.
Officials in New Hampshire and Massachusetts passed the blame between each other.
The New Hampshire governor sent a letter to Massachusetts court officials slamming a judge for placing Harmony in the care of her “monster” father, given his violent past and long rap sheet.
Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker responded to the criticism saying he “felt his pain” but said he wanted to wait to see the results of the independent review by the Massachusetts Office of the Child Advocate.
The report, released in May, found placed the blame on state agencies for failing to consider Harmony’s needs above her parent’s rights to her custody.
“The central and most important finding in this investigation and report is that Harmony’s individual needs, well-being, and safety were not prioritized or considered on an equal footing with the assertion of her parents’ rights to care for her in any aspect of the decision making by any state entity,” Maria Mossaides, Director, Office of the Child Advocate, said in the report. “When children are not at the centre of every aspect of the child protection system, then the system cannot truly protect them. This report describes the ripple effect of miscalculations of risk and an unequal weight placed on parents’ rights versus a child’s wellbeing.”
Mr Baker responded to the report a day later by saying “everybody failed in this case,” and pushed a bill that included $50 million to recruit, train and pay guardian ad litems within the Massachusetts court system.
“There are a lot of lawyers who are in the room on this case, and none of them at the end of the day had just Harmony Montgomery’s interest as a primary concern,” Mr Baker said.
Where is Harmony?
The girl’s remains have still not been found.
The Gilford Street property was the focus of much of the search with investigators seen in the home and the backyard for multiple days.
However, Manchester Police said the search concluded there. It is not clear if anything of interest was uncovered and no other locations for searches have been identified.
The reward for information about Harmony’s disappearance has topped $150,000.
Anyone with information is asked to call or text 603-203-606