The father of Harmony Montgomery, the New Hampshire child who vanished without a trace almost three years ago, was charged with her murder on Monday after a lengthy investigation that pointed to a twisted pattern of abuse and deceit.
And her biological mother is outraged—telling The Daily Beast that her five-year-old daughter could have been saved “if anybody had listened to me in the beginning.”
“It’s a relief but at the same time, it still doesn’t make anything any easier,” Crystal Sorey stressed after the news of the arrest. “Her life could’ve been saved.”
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The shocking update comes almost a year after the girl, who was five years old the last time she was seen, was reported missing in Dec. 2021, spurring national attention and a robust homicide investigation.
The New Hampshire Attorney General’s office announced that Adam Montgomery, 32, has been arrested and charged with four offenses, including second-degree murder and falsifying physical evidence, in connection with Harmony’s death. Attorney General John Formella said that prosecutors believe Harmony died after being repeatedly “struck” in the head with a closed fist in Dec. 2019—and that her corpse was abused.
Sorey, who first sounded the alarm about Harmony in 2019, stressed that if anyone had listened to her pleas about Montgomery—maybe authorities would have “never given him a chance to get custody of her.”
She added that she and her family “are taking this time to grieve together, we just ask for privacy and prayers.”
Since the investigation into her whereabouts began in late 2021, the child’s father, Adam Montgomery, has been charged with multiple crimes, including abusing Harmony and stealing guns just weeks before she was killed. Kayla Montgomery, the child’s stepmother, is also facing perjury charges after allegedly using Harmony’s food-stamp benefits even though she was missing.
Kayla Montgomery has not been charged in connection with Harmony’s death. Prosecutors allege that her husband attempted “to induce or otherwise cause Kayla Montgomery to testify or inform falsely, in Manchester between approximately Dec. 7, 2019, and Jan. 4, 2022.”
According to a 2021 arrest affidavit for Adam Montgomery, he gave Harmony a black eye in July 2019. That alleged abuse came just months after he was granted custody by child-protective services.
“I bashed her around the house,” Montgomery allegedly told his uncle, indicating that it was punishment after Harmony “was [left] in charge of watching her infant brother while [he] was in the bathroom” and the baby began to cry.
Harmony was also allegedly spanked “hard on the butt,” forced “to stand in the corner for hours,” and ordered “to scrub the toilet with her toothbrush” while she lived with her father, the affidavit stated.
Authorities say that Harmony was last seen between Nov. 28 and Dec. 10, 2019, after her dad and stepmother were evicted from their Manchester home. Police were first made aware of Harmony’s disappearance when Sorey called to say her daughter “was missing and that she hadn’t seen [her] in over six months.”
“We believe Harmony was murdered in Manchester in early December 2019,” Formella said in August.
Court documents say that police spoke to Adam Montgomery and his new girlfriend on Dec. 31, 2021. (Montgomery’s girlfriend at the time, Kelsey Small, was found dead in March, but police do not believe the death was suspicious.)
The affidavit states that the father “made contradictory statements” about Harmony during that conversation. At first, he indicated that she was fine, before later admitting he had not seen her in two years after her biological mother had picked her up. Eventually, Montgomery refused to answer questions if he was “not under arrest.”
