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When a child is born, they not only require, but also deserve love & safety from their parents or caregivers in order to grow into healthy, well-balanced adults. Parents are a child’s first protectors, there to shield them from harm, neglect & instability while a safe home is a space where kids can explore, grow & make mistakes without fear.
Today, we’re covering the tragic case of Harmony Montgomery, a sweet, vibrant & innocent 5-year-old little girl who was sadly born to drug addicted parents. Her short life on this earth was shrouded in instability, chaos & violence & she sadly slipped through the cracks of those meant to protect her.
Studies from the American Psychological Association prove that children who receive consistent parental love & are raised in a secure environment boost brain development, emotional regulation & even improve physical health. Kids are not just mini-adults, they’re wired to depend on adults at the center of their lives for survival & stability.
Within the United States, the role of Child Protective Services (CPS) agencies are designed to safeguard children from abusive, neglectful homes, stepping in when parents or guardians fail to provide a safe environment. However, the system is not without faults due to the sheer volume of reports & strain placed on the system.
There are more than 7.5 million children referred to U.S. child welfare authorities annually & about 3 million of those cases trigger investigations. By age 18, roughly one in three children within the U.S. will face a CPS worker. With this overwhelming volume, caseworkers are oftentimes overworked & underpaid, juggling caseloads of upwards of 40 more families at a time, sometimes with minimal training. Turnover rates are often high, meaning that inexperienced staff may be thrust into making high-stakes decisions. Sadly, this can lead to oversights in real signs of danger or on the opposite end, removals that might unnecessarily tear families apart.
In 2017 alone, an estimated 1,720 children died from abuse while more than a quarter of those same children were previously known to CPS agencies. More than 550,000 children are known to U.S. authorities to be abused.
In the case of Harmony Montgomery, she was last seen alive toward the end of 2019, about ten months after being placed in her father’s care, yet she wasn’t reported missing for two entire years.
At the time of her disappearance, Harmony was living in a tumultuous, abusive, drug-laden environment with her father, her stepmother & the couple’s two sons, who were about 2 ½-years-old & 10 months old. This came after her mother, Crystal Sorey, lost custody of her in July 2018 due to issues with substance abuse.
At the time of Harmony’s birth on June 7, 2014, her father, Adam Montgomery, was incarcerated. The Massachusetts Department of Children & Families (DCF) within the Haverhill area got involved in Harmony’s care after they received reports from witnesses who were concerned for the safety & wellbeing of the baby girl.
DCF is the bigger umbrella that is tasked with not just investigating abuse, but also monitoring long-term outcomes such as foster care, adoption & transitioning a child back with their parent or parents.
Adam Montgomery had a violent past & has faced a number of charges over the years; when he was a teen he stabbed another boy in the leg & pushed him out of a moving car during a 2008 drug deal. During this incident, he tried to pass off aspirin as Percocet. He also had convictions for burglary, assault & stalking & was jailed for 383 days.
He was also convicted in 2010 for attacking two women at gunpoint & it later emerged that he was a suspect in a cold-case murder of a 28-year-old man in February 2008. Darlin Guzman was found shot in the chest in the parking lot of a former White Hen Pantry when Adam had been 18. No one has been charged in this case as of yet, but he remains the sole focus of the investigation.
When Crystal had been only three months pregnant with their daughter, Adam was charged with armed robbery, armed assault to murder & discharging an unlicensed firearm within 500 feet of a dwelling after he shot drug dealer Robert Jacobs in the chin, nearly killing him.
The January 2014 police report indicated that the bullet traveled up the left side of Robert’s face & exited near his temple. The man miraculously survived & was able to identify a 31-year-old Adam thanks to his distinctive tattoo that spanned across his back that was exposed as the two men struggled. Three months after Harmony was born he pleaded guilty to the charges in September 2014 & was sent to jail for 18 months. During his time in prison, Harmony was taken to visit her father twice.
Now a single parent to Harmony, Crystal continued to use drugs which led to the ongoing neglect of her infant child. Harmony was removed from her care three times between August 2014 to January 2018 & placed into foster care.
In September 2015 Adam Montgomery was released from prison & relocated to New Hampshire. In September 2016, one year after his release, Adam contacted the Massachusetts DCF for the first time in order to begin visits with Harmony. He established a routine of visiting his now 2-year-old daughter once a month for five months until he suddenly stopped responding to DCF requests for future meetings. Over the course of seven months, between February to September 2017, he had no contact.
In July 2018, shortly after Harmony turned four, Crystal Sorey officially lost custody of her daughter due to ongoing struggles with substance abuse. At this point, Harmony was placed in a foster home in Haverhill. It wasn’t until August 2018 that Adam saw his now 4-year-old daughter for the first time in 11 months which was only the ninth time he’d seen her in her life.
On December 19, 2018 Massachusetts DCF requested a home study by the New Hampshire Division of Children, Youth & Families (DCYF) at Adam’s home in Manchester, New Hampshire. However, according to New Hampshire officials, the request didn’t include the required information to initiate a home study, but regardless, & despite his violent past, Adam was granted legal custody of a not-yet 5-year-old Harmony by a family court judge in Lawrence, Massachusetts in February 2019.
The last time that Crystal Sorey spoke with her daughter was during a Facetime call on Easter, April 21, 2019, about two months after Harmony moved into her father’s home. She later indicated that during the call she could see Adam in the background & described Harmony as appearing frightened. After this call, Adam cut off all contact between Crystal & Harmony.
Three months later DCYF received an anonymous call that alleged that Harmony had a black eye. The call was placed by Harmony’s great uncle, Kevin Montgomery, who came back from a trip on July 22, 2019 & was horrified to see that Harmony had a full black eye that resembled a raccoon. When Kevin asked his niece how she hurt herself, Adam jumped in & said, She didn’t do anything, I bashed her around the f**king house.
After Kevin left, he contacted DCYF about the incident as well as Crystal. Sadly, Adam managed to avoid the case workers & by the time they made their visit at his Gilford Street home a week had gone by & the bruise had greatly faded. During their visit, they interviewed Harmony, Adam & her stepmother, Kayla Montgomery. When the case worker asked about the red mark in Harmony’s eye accompanied with faded bruising under her eyelid, Adam claimed she’d sustained the injury while playing with a sibling.
The last time a CPS worker ever visited the Montgomery home was on October 1, 2019. The case worker reported that Harmony & her siblings appeared happy & healthy & concluded that the report of abuse was unfounded. However, the family was deemed to be at high risk for future child welfare concerns.
Because Kevin, as well as Adam’s brother, Michael Montgomery, had previously accused Adam of being physically abusive toward Harmony, he cut off all contact with them. Later police interviews with other family members indicated that Adam forced his daughter to clean the toilet with her own toothbrush & made her stand in the corner for hours at a time as a form of punishment.
Crystal contacted the Manchester Police Department on November 18, 2021 to say that she had not seen her daughter since Easter 2019, more than 2.5 years earlier, when they spoke via Facetime. She elaborated that after she’d gotten sober, she’d been unable to make contact with Adam & Harmony since he & Kayla blocked all communication with her. She explained that over the years she tried to find her daughter by contacting various schools as well as driving by addresses that Adam was associated with, but she had made no progress.
The Manchester PD contacted DCYF & obtained a list of the previous addresses that Adam was connected to, but when officers went to those locations, they were unable to locate him or Harmony. A little over a month later on December 27, 2021, DCYF notified the Manchester police that they were also unable to locate Harmony & an official search for Adam Montgomery began in hopes that Harmony could be located. During the initial investigation, they learned that no one had physically seen Harmony since approximately October/November 2019.
On December 28 investigators were able to track down & speak with Harmony’s stepmother, Kayla Montgomery. During this interaction, they determined that the three children that she shared with Adam were present & accounted for. She said that she hadn’t seen Adam since late October 2021 & hadn’t spoken with him since mid-November 2021 as he was initially living in a sober house & then moved to Maine to live with another woman.
Meanwhile, on December 29 Crystal sent a letter to Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig begging for help to find her daughter. She mentioned that Harmony had missed important doctor’s appointments to address a disability in her eye that she had been born with.
Investigators weren’t able to track Adam down until days later on New Year’s Eve, December 31, 2021. He was living in his car with his new girlfriend, 27-year-old Kelsey Small. Authorities located the couple inside the car which was parked on Harvell Street, close to the home where the Montgomery family lived two years earlier.
During their interaction, police described Adam as uncooperative & unconcerned by the fact that his daughter was missing, refusing to provide any information about her whereabouts. Meanwhile, Kelsey Small told police that she had been romantically involved with Adam for more than a year. She was aware that he fathered four children from two previous relationships, but he wasn’t in touch with them. He never spoke of Harmony & she had no insight as to where she could be.
Sadly, two months later, Kelsey was found dead in a hotel room on March 13, 2022 & her death was not ruled as suspicious. This came days after she was arrested outside a sober home where she was living & charged with a DUI & released on bail. She never faced charges in connection with the case & her family wish her to be remembered for the kind & sweet soul that she embodied.
When police spoke with Kayla a second time on New Year’s Eve, she discussed the last time she saw Harmony which was two days after Thanksgiving 2019, November 30. According to Kayla, Adam & Harmony took her to work her shift at Dunkin Donuts at 6 am. As he was dropping her off, he told her that he was bringing Harmony back to Massachusetts to live with her mom. Kayla indicated that when he picked her up from work at 2 pm, Harmony was gone, she assumed she’d been dropped off at Crystal’s & she never saw or spoke of the little girl again.
Investigators were highly concerned by this version of events because they’d spoken with Crystal & were fully aware that she had not seen her daughter since April 2019. When they spoke with Crystal’s boyfriend who she was living with in November 2019, he confirmed that Harmony had never lived with them. It was very clear that this story was not the truth & either Adam and/or Kayla were lying.
Investigators learned that DCYF had received another referral regarding a concern about the Montgomery household on January 8, 2020, but when the caseworker arrived, Adam told them that Harmony had been living with her mom in Massachusetts since Thanksgiving 2019. With this, the caseworker left a voicemail for Crystal on January 21, a couple of weeks later to confirm Harmony’s address, but Crystal unfortunately never returned the call & nearly two years went by until the flag was raised regarding the little girl’s true whereabouts.
A press conference was held regarding Harmony’s disappearance & a tip line was created on January 3, 2022 for any information leading to the little girl’s whereabouts while a reward grew to $144,000. The following day, the FBI joined the Manchester police to search the home at 77 Gilford Street where Harmony was last known to be. According to investigative reports, between 2018 to 2021 officers had been called to this location 29 times while the New Hampshire DCYF had only been notified four of these 29 times.
A neighbor told investigators that it was a bad situation at the property as various people were moving in & out while Adam & Kayla lived there with their young children. Adults were seen arguing in the street, junk was piled in the yard. At one point, the electricity had been turned off & they ran a generator all summer with wiring running through the windows. They indicated that the family was basically squatting at the home when it fell into foreclosure & were refusing to leave. By the time the neighbor left for a trip near Thanksgiving 2019 & came back, the family had moved.
Adam Montgomery was arrested on January 4, 2022 & charged with second-degree assault, interference with custody & endangering the welfare of a child & he was held without bail.
Two days later his estranged wife, Kayla Montgomery, was arrested & charged with felony welfare fraud which was later dropped while a new felony charge of theft was filed & she was held on a $5,000 bail. Charges were connected to fraudulently collecting more than $1500 in food stamp benefits for Harmony despite the fact that Harmony hadn’t been there.
From speaking with those known to the Montgomery family in an attempt to narrow down the window in which Harmony was last seen, investigators learned that Adam, Kayla & the three children, including Harmony, were evicted from their Gilford Street home on November 27, 2019.
On May 20, 2022 Kayla testified under oath before a grand jury about the last time she ever saw Harmony. She stood by her original story that it was on November 30, 2019 when Adam dropped her off for work at Dunkin Donuts. However, this proved to be untrue when records were obtained which showed that she had not worked that day. With this, she was arrested for perjury on June 3, 2022.
During an interview with Kayla on this same day at the Manchester PD, she admitted to lying during her grand jury testimony. She said that she, Adam & the children were evicted from their home on Gilford Street on November 27, 2019, one day before Thanksgiving. From here, they began living in their Chrysler Sebring which was parked at the Colonial Village apartments where a friend, Anthony Bodero, lived.
According to Kayla, while they were driving on the morning of Saturday, December 7, 2019 in their Sebring from a methadone clinic to a local Burger King, Adam became enraged about Harmony having bathroom accidents in the car. While they were stopped at several stop lights, he struck his 5-year-old daughter in the face & head as she sat in the backseat on three separate occasions with his closed fist, punching her 3-4 times each time. It’s suggested that during this time, their two young sons were also in the car.
On the last set of blows, Adam told Kayla that he either felt or heard something that made him say, I think I really hurt her this time. I think I did something. Harmony began moaning for about five minutes until she grew quiet, yet neither Adam nor Kayla thought to check on her or get her medical attention.
After they got their food at Burger King, they handed the food back to the children without checking on Harmony & only placed a hamburger in her lap. They drove back to the parking lot where they’d been living in their car & both Adam & Kayla used heroin & fentanyl. During the 20 minutes they were there, neither adult checked on Harmony.
When they left again, their car broke down in an intersection & according to police records, this happened at 12:11 pm. According to Kayla, it was at this point that Adam realized Harmony wasn’t breathing & had died. He went to the trunk, got a red Under Armor duffle bag & placed his daughter’s lifeless body into the bag & walked back to the apartment building parking lot, leaving Kayla behind to tend to the broken down car.
After the car was towed away at about 1:30 pm & eventually sold, Anthony allowed the family to stay in his Audi in the parking lot over the weekend while Adam concealed Harmony’s remains in the trunk of the car, alternating with outside the car in the snow in order to slow decomposition.
No one attested to seeing the family with Harmony after Thanksgiving, a time when Adam began saying she went to live with her mom. He elaborated that it was for the best since she was constantly having accidents in the car which was driving him nuts.
Kayla told authorities that Adam moved Harmony’s body to various locations over the next several months. After spending a couple nights in Anthony’s Audi, the family moved in with Kayla’s mother, Christina Lubin, at her apartment in Manchester.
Throughout this time, Harmony’s body remained in the red duffle bag which Adam then stowed in a red cooler that was in the common hallway of the building. He left her body there during the weeks they lived there until the end of 2019 when they left on December 30 or 31. During this time, the couple told Christina that Harmony was living with her mom at a rehab facility in Massachusetts.
With this information, police seized the cooler from Christina’s apartment for processing, but samples were negative for the presence of blood.
From Christina’s apartment, the Montgomerys went to a Families in Transition shelter with the duffle bag which Adam concealed in the ceiling vent of their bedroom. Because odor & liquid was leaking from the bag, Adam placed a trash bag around it.
When detectives searched the room at the shelter in question in early June 2022, they removed the vent & found a large area of staining. Despite the passage of nearly 2.5 years, the distinct odor of decomposition lingered. Detectives removed a large portion of the ceiling sheetrock as well as the vent & metal framing & testing at the state lab proved that finger & palm impressions on these items belonged to Adam while the blood belonged to Harmony.
According to Kayla, after neighbors within the shelter began complaining about a terrible odor, a maintenance worker from the shelter came to check the vent in their unit. With this, Adam took the bag containing Harmony’s remains & placed them into a second trash bag which he then concealed in the closet. When the worker checked the vent, he deduced that an animal must have died in the ceiling as he didn’t see anything up there.
At some point, Adam transferred Harmony’s remains into another, much smaller bag which he began bringing with him to work at the Portland Pie Company where he worked as a dishwasher & cook. He stored the bag on the lower left side shelf of the walk-in cooler during his shifts, a location where the company stored condiments. When co-workers noticed him bringing the bag in & out, they took little notice, never imagining what it contained.
When the Montgomery family moved into an apartment on Union Street in Manchester in February 2020, they brought Harmony’s remains with them. Adam eventually wrapped another garbage bag around the remains & placed them into their freezer.
Between June 14-15, 2022 Adam & Kayla’s former apartment was searched by officials & a refrigerator was hauled away while investigators were assisted by a sewer plumbing team.
Kayla told investigators that in February 2020 Adam purchased $400 worth of limestone, a metal cutting diamond blade, a lithium-ion battery & a power grinder from a Home Depot. On this same day, $500 was withdrawn from Kayla’s account at Citizens Bank a mile away from the Home Depot, but the bank no longer had the footage available to prove who had withdrawn the money.
By August 2022, officials believed that Harmony had been murdered in December 2019 & the case was declared a homicide investigation. On October 24, 2022 it was announced that Adam had been charged with second-degree murder in his daughter’s death.
Early on in the trial, Kayla admitted that she helped Adam cut a Star Wars hoodie from Harmony’s frozen remains sometime during March 2020. This was when Adam placed his daughter’s frozen remains in the bathtub in an attempt to dispose of them down the drain.
Kayla walked into the bathroom & Adam asked for help, but she indicated that it was too much for her. She indicated that Harmony was not just bones, but still had teeth, hair & skin & she was able to tell that it was her. Together, they placed her remains back into a bag that was now filled with lime & then placed the bag back into the freezer.
In March 2020 Adam rented a U-Haul & left during the night to an unknown location to dispose of Harmony’s remains. When he came home early the next morning, he only told Kayla, It’s done. Based on U-Haul records, the truck was rented between March 3-4, 2020 & the total rental mileage was 133 miles.
When the U-Haul in question was tracked down, it was processed with Blue Star & there was a reaction inside indicating the presence of blood.
In June 2023, Adam Montgomery was found guilty in an unrelated case relating to stolen weapons & was sentenced to 32 ½ – 75 years in prison.
Adam did not attend his trial for Harmony’s murder which began on February 8, 2024. He maintained that he was innocent of his daughter’s murder, but admitted guilt for abuse of a corpse & falsifying evidence. His attorneys claimed that Harmony died while under Kayla’s care & he only went along with plans to help conceal her remains in order to protect their family.
Kayla testified for nearly ten hours over the course of two days, describing that her husband began to spiral after his daughter died & was fueled by rage & paranoia, often turning his rage on her. She indicated that she continued to lie about Harmony’s death to protect herself as she was afraid of Adam. When he became paranoid that she might go to the police, he began punching her resulting in black eyes until she eventually ran away in March 2021.
According to the prosecution, Harmony had always met all of the milestones for a child of her age & only began soiling herself after she was sent to live with her abusive father. According to Harmony’s foster mother, Michelle Raferty, she’d been potty trained since she was 2 ½. Michelle indicated that the sweet girl always wanted to be like the older kids in the home & she was so proud of herself when she was potty trained.
The defense called no witnesses forward & the jury began their deliberations on February 21, 2024. They returned the following day & found Adam Montgomery guilty of all charges.
On May 9, 2024 he was sentenced to 56 years to life in prison for murdering Harmony as well as other charges which were added on to the 32 ½ – 75 year sentence for the unrelated 2023 gun charges.
Adam’s attorneys filed an appeal for his murder conviction on March 3, 2025, arguing that he should have been tried separately on the assault & murder charges & Kayla Montgomery should not have been allowed to testify.
Kayla Montgomery was granted parole on March 7, 2024 after serving an 18 month sentence after she pleaded guilty to perjury charges during the investigation as part of her plea deal in testifying against her estranged husband.
After the trial, Crystal Sorey spoke with reporters & indicated that she didn’t want her daughter to be remembered by her father’s name saying, She’s no longer Harmony Montgomery, she’s Harmony Renee.
Harmony was a bright, sweet 5-year-old girl who was failed by those meant to protect her. After she was brutally murdered by her own father in December 2019, her body was hidden & has yet to be recovered. Adam Montgomery’s 2024 conviction brought some measure of justice, but can never undo the tragedy of Harmony’s stolen life.
This case highlights the failures of child welfare systems & the need for vigilance to protect the most vulnerable. Officials within Massachusetts & New Hampshire each pointed the finger at the other regarding why Harmony was placed into her father’s custody in the first place given his violent past.
It was clear that Harmony’s safety & wellbeing was not prioritized or considered & everyone failed the innocent child. The sweet little girl faced so many tragedies during her short life until she met her unimaginable end at the hands of her own father.
Many wondered how & why Harmony hadn’t been reported missing despite the fact that she hadn’t been seen for more than two years. Multiple family members indicated that they raised their concerns to New Hampshire’s DCYF in the two years that authorities weren’t searching for her.
The search continues so she can eventually have a proper burial. Anyone with any information is asked to call or text 603-932-8997.
References:
- CBS News: The disturbing, heartbreaking reality of Child Protective Services caseworkers
- WMUR 9 abc: ‘I’m begging for help,’ Harmony Montgomery’s mother wrote in emails to mayor’s office
- WMUR 9 abc: Stepmother of missing 7-year-old Harmony Montgomery faces new charges
- People: Harmony Montgomery update: Girlfriend of Missing N.H. girl’s father found dead
- New Hampshire Union Leader: Girlfriend of Adam Montgomery found dead; she told cops she never knew about Harmony
- YouTube: WMUR-TV: Adam Montgomery’s girlfriend found dead in hotel room
- New York Post: Girlfriend of missing 7-year-old Harmony Montgomery’s dad found dead
- Independent: Arrest warrant issued after stepmother of Harmony Montgomery misses court date
- Independent: Adam Montgomery accused of buying $400 in equipment to destroy Harmony’s body
- Independent: Harmony Montgomery trial shown blood-stained ceiling drywall where little girl’s remains were hidden
- Adam Montgomery murder affidavit
- Independent: Harmony Montgomery’s father kept her ‘rotting remains in restaurant freezer alongside ingredients,’ jury hears
- Independent: Harmony Montgomery was missing two years before anyone noticed. Now her father has been convicted of murder
- GBH: Adam Montgomery sentenced to minimum 56 years in prison for daughter’s death
- WMUR 9 abc: Review of Harmony Montgomery case timeline as murder case evolves
- National Children’s Alliance: National statistics on child abuse
