Harmony Montgomery

Case background and investigation

Harmony Montgomery was born in June 2014 and spent parts of her early childhood in foster care in Massachusetts. According to NHPR, she moved several times between her mother's home and foster parents before a Massachusetts judge awarded custody to her father, Adam Montgomery, in February 2019. He took her to Manchester, New Hampshire, where he lived with his wife, Kayla Montgomery, and their two young sons.

Her mother, Crystal Sorey, said she last saw Harmony in a video call around Easter 2019. After months of trying to find her, Sorey contacted Manchester police in November 2021, and police announced a public search on December 31, 2021. The attorney general's office said in January 2022 that the family had been evicted on November 27, 2019, and that investigators believed Harmony disappeared between November 28 and December 10, 2019.

Adam Montgomery was first charged with offences relating to Harmony's welfare, and in October 2022 he was arrested on a charge of second-degree murder, along with falsifying physical evidence, abuse of a corpse and witness tampering. Kayla Montgomery pleaded guilty to perjury, agreed to cooperate with prosecutors, and served an 18-month sentence.

At the trial in February 2024, Kayla Montgomery testified that on December 7, 2019, while the family was living in a car, her husband repeatedly struck Harmony during a drive, and that they later found the child had died. She described the body being hidden in several places over the following months. The defence acknowledged his guilt on the abuse of a corpse and falsifying evidence charges but denied that he killed his daughter, and suggested that Kayla Montgomery was the last person to see her alive. Adam Montgomery did not attend the trial.

On February 22, 2024, the jury found him guilty of second-degree murder, second-degree assault and witness tampering. On May 9, 2024, he was sentenced to a minimum of 56 years on all charges, to follow a sentence of at least 32 years for unrelated firearms convictions. In May 2026 a judge entered a default judgment of about $15.5 million against him in a wrongful death suit brought by Sorey.

On June 11, 2026, the New Hampshire Supreme Court reversed the murder conviction, ruling that trying the murder and assault charges together had jeopardised his right to a fair trial. NHPR reported that the convictions for second-degree assault, falsifying physical evidence, witness tampering and abuse of a corpse were upheld. The attorney general's office said it would retry him, and in September 2026 both sides agreed to an October 2027 start date. Adam Montgomery has maintained that he did not kill his daughter. Prosecutors said searches for Harmony's remains are continuing.