The search for Harmony Montgomery, who was last seen in 2019, heated up on Tuesday when authorities swarmed the former Manchester, New Hampshire home of the missing 8-year-old girl’s father.
Several law enforcement agencies were seen outside the Union Street apartment complex, where investigators were focused on the second-floor unit where Montgomery’s father, Adam Montgomery, and his estranged wife, Kayla, once lived. At around noon, the FBI was seen bringing a refrigerator inside an evidence tent.
Darcie Hambleton, who lives behind the apartment complex, told The Daily Beast that she briefly saw police enter the building on Monday, and “it seemed casual.”
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But by 9 a.m. Tuesday, Hambleton said she saw a full-scale investigation from her balcony, which included 6 to 7 officers behind the building at any given time. She added that she saw an individual in an “FBI T-shirt…and one man in a hazmat suit” and noted that the front of the complex is a “media circus.”
Investigators were later seen taking a refrigerator wrapped in biohazard tape from the apartment and loading it onto a truck. A camera was also used to search the sewer in front of the building.
“I knew about the case since 2021 when Harmony was initially reported missing. It’s all over Manchester on signs and billboards,” Hambleton said. “But I had no idea that her father had lived behind me.”
Noting that she has a 7-year-old daughter herself, Hambleton added that her “heart is in my stomach right now thinking that something could have happened to a little girl right here.”
Crystal Sorey, Montgomery’s mother, did not immediately respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment but told Boston25 the Tuesday investigation “is rough.”
“I know in my heart this is no longer a rescue mission. They’re looking for a body,” she added to the outlet.
Authorities say that Harmony was last seen between Nov. 28 and Dec. 10 of 2019 after her family was evicted from their home in Manchester, New Hampshire. At the time, police say that Harmony was living with her father, her stepmother, and their two children. (Kayla Montgomery has since been indicted for allegedly using Harmony’s food-stamp benefits even though she was not living with the child and is also facing perjury charges.)
Prior to her 2019 disappearance, Adam Montgomery allegedly abused Harmony. An arrest affidavit previously outlined a series of harrowing allegations against the father, including that he admitted to his uncle, Kevin, that he gave Harmony a black eye in July 2019 just months after child-protective services granted him custody.
“I bashed her around the house,” Montgomery allegedly told Kevin Montgomery, after stating he left Harmony “in charge of watching her infant brother while [he] was in the bathroom.”
Prosecutors allege the abuse was punishment after Harmony’s younger brother “started crying” and the child was found “holding her hand over the child’s mouth to stop him from crying.” Kevin Montgomery previously described witnessing the aftermath of abuse to The Daily Beast. (He declined to comment on Tuesday’s investigation.)
The abuse included Harmony being spanked “hard on the butt,” being forced “to stand in the corner for hours,” and being ordered, “to scrub the toilet with her toothbrush,” according to court documents.
Authorities say they were not informed that Harmony was missing until the end of November 2021, when Sorey told Manchester Police to report her daughter “was missing and that she hadn’t seen [her] in over six months.”
The call prompted an investigation that ultimately led authorities to discover that none of Harmony’s family had seen her in years.
Court documents state that investigators spoke to Adam Montgomery and his new girlfriend on New Year’s Eve 2021. At that point, the father “made contradictory statements,” including that his young daughter “was fine and that he had seen her somewhere recently” before later admitting he had not seen Harmony since November 2019, when her mother “came to pick her up.”
The affidavit added that eventually Adam Montgomery “stopped answering questions” and said, “If I’m not under arrest, I’m leaving.” (Montgomery’s girlfriend at the time, Kelsey Small, was found dead in March, though authorities do not believe there was any foul play.)
Read it at WCVB
