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MANCHESTER, NH – Harmony Montgomery, last seen more than two years ago when she was 5, endured abuse at the hands of her father, now under arrest for assaulting her in the summer of 2019 and concealing her whereabouts from both police and child protective services, according to court documents. (See court documents below).
Adam Montgomery, 31, who was living out of his car in Manchester when police located him on New Year’s Eve, is charged with second-degree assault, a felony, and three misdemeanors, two counts of endangering the welfare of a child and one charge of interference with custody.
Kevin Montgomery, 43, Adam’s uncle, told investigators in July 2019 Harmony had a black eye. He notified DCYF of the injury.
“I bashed her around this house,” Kevin Montgomery said his nephew told him. He also told police that Adam Montgomery said he left the 5-year-old Harmony in charge of her infant brother while he was in the bathroom. The infant started crying and, Montgomery told his uncle, that he returned and found Harmony holding her hand over the baby’s mouth to stop him from crying. Kevin Montgomery said Adam Montgomery told him he struck Harmony in the face, causing the black eye.
Kevin Montgomery also told police that Adam Montgomery used abusive discipline on the then 5-year-old Harmony including spanking her hard on the butt; forcing her to stand in the corner for hours, and ordering her to scrub a toilet with her toothbrush.
Adam Montgomery waived arraignment Wednesday in Hillsborough County Superior Court Northern District.
The New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office, which prosecutes homicide cases, is assigned to the prosecution. Police say the search for Harmony continues.
According to a police affidavit Harmony’s mother, Crystal Sorey, called police on Nov. 18, 2021, to report her child missing and that she hadn’t seen her in more than six months. Manchester police checked several addresses for Montgomery, who had custody of Harmony, but were unable to find him at that time. They notified the state Division of Children Youth and Families at that time.
On Dec. 27, 2021, DCYF notified police they couldn’t find Harmony. Police then began an investigation into her whereabouts, learning she hadn’t been seen since October/November 2019. Sorey, who lives in Massachusetts, notified authorities that she hadn’t seen Harmony since around Easter of 2019/April 21, 2019. At that time, Montgomery had legal custody of his daughter.
Detective John Dunleavy of the Juvenile Division interviewed Sorey who told him the state of Massachusetts took custody of Harmony from her in July 2018 in part because Sorey had a substance abuse issue. Montgomery as well, she said, had drug problems.
Since then, Sorey said she regained sobriety and tried throughout 2021 to locate Montgomery and Harmony. She said he and his subsequent partner, his wife Kayla Montgomery, 31, blocked all communication – phone numbers and social media – from her. Sorey tried to locate her daughter over the years by contacting schools and driving by addresses associated with Mongomery but couldn’t find her.
She said the last time she saw Harmony was in a Facetime video call with Montgomery around Easter 2019. She could see Montgomery in the background. Harmony, she said, seemed frightened.
On Dec. 27, 2021, police tried to track down Adam Montgomery and talk to family members to determine the last time Harmony was seen and known to be safe.
On Dec. 30, 2021, Detective Christopher Abele made contact with Michael Montgomery, 29, Adams’ brother, who raised concern for Harmony’s welfare. He said the last time he had physical contact with Harmony and her father, he had concerns that Adam Montgomery was physically abusive toward his niece. Adam Montgomery, he said, was “super short” with the child, and he learned through other family members Adam Montgomery had given Harmony a black eye.
Abele then learned more details in an interview with Kevin Montgomery, 43, Adam’s uncle
Detectives, on New Year’s Eve, spoke with Kayla Montgomery. She shares three young children with Adam Montgomery who, police said, are all accounted for. She said the last time she saw Harmony was sometime in November or December 2019. Adam Montgomery told her he was driving Harmony back to her mother, Sorey, who was living in Lowell, Mass., at the time. Kayla Montgomery believed the child was returned to Sorey. She said she never saw or heard about Harmony after that. She, too, said she had seen Harmony with a black eye in the past but, she said, Adam Montgomery told her it was caused by one of their other children striking Harmony with a toy.
She said she hasn’t seen Adam Montgomery since late October 2021 and has not talked to him since mid-November 2021. She said he was living in a sober house and had left the area to live in Maine with another woman.
However, on Dec 31, 2021, patrol officers located Adam Montgomery and his new girlfriend, Kelsey Small, sleeping in a vehicle in the area of Harvell Street in Manchester.
Small claimed she has been romantically involved with Adam Montgomery for more than a year. She said Adam Montgomery was not in touch with any child from his prior relationship and said he never talked about Harmony and she has no information on where she may be.
Police said Adam Montgomery made contradictory statements when talking with the officers, raising their suspicion and concern for Harmony’s well-being.
Initially, he told a detective Harmony was fine and he had seen her somewhat recently. Later, however, he said he hadn’t seen Harmony since Sorey came to pick her up in Manchester around Thanksgiving 2019, although Kayla Montgomery had already told police that he claimed to her that he had driven Harmony to her mother’s home in Massachusetts. On multiple occasions, Adam Montgomery stopped answering questions saying, “I have nothing else to say.”
Investigators told him they were concerned about whether Harmony was still alive. “Adam did not exhibit much emotion or reaction to this,” according to the police affidavit. Montgomery said he believed Harmony was with her mother and claimed he did not know why Sorey would say anything to the contrary.
“I have nothing else to say,” Montgomery told investigators.
On New Year’s Eve, Montgomery refused to provide any information on Harmony’s whereabouts, saying, “Not talking to you,” “I have nothing to say,” and “If I’m not under arrest, I’m leaving.”
Judge Diane Nicolosi ordered Montgomery placed in preventive detention. He also is to have no contact with Crystal Sorey and Kayla Montgomery.
A reward of more than $43,000 is being offered for information concerning the whereabouts of Harmony, a total that recently was increased with a donation from local businessman Peter Napoli. Anyone with information concerning Harmony is asked to call 603-203-6060.
Legal troubles for Montgomery since 2007
In New Hampshire in 2007, anyone age 17 and older was tried as an adult.
That year, Montgomery was 17 when he was arrested and charged with criminal threatening in Bedford, where he lived at the time, for pointing a knife at a girl and calling her a “little bitch.”
In 2008, when he still was 17, he was indicted in Hillsborough County Superior Court Northern Division on first-degree assault and reckless conduct. According to court records, he was accused of stabbing a youth in the thigh and tossing him out of a moving vehicle in Manchester.
The incident involved the alleged sale of Percocet. According to court records, the buyer, who was with Montgomery in the back seat of a moving vehicle, realized the pills Montgomery was selling him were aspirin and not Percocet and demanded his money back. Montgomery refused and a fight ensued with Montgomery stabbing the youth in the thigh with a pocket knife and pushing him out of the moving vehicle, according to court records.
The victim identified Montgomery as his assailant and noted he had a teardrop tattoo on his face.
Both the first-degree assault and reckless conduct charges were nol-prossed. He pleaded guilty to criminal threatening and a probation violation and ended up serving 383 days, the amount of time he was held pre-trial.
Six years later, in March 2014, when he was 24, Montgomery was arrested in Haverhill, Mass., accused of shooting a man in the head. He was charged with armed robbery, armed assault to murder, carrying a firearm without a license and discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a building.
The incident took place on Jan. 24, 2014. That night, police found Robert Jacobs shot in the left side of his chin. Police told the Lawrence-Eagle Tribune the bullet exited through his left temple and, at the time, he was expected to make a full recovery.
Another man, Cameron Vitalone, 22, Jacobs’ brother, was charged with shooting Montgomery in the arm.
The shootings were the result of a drug deal gone bad.
Montgomery told police he went to Haverhill to buy heroin. When he arrived at the apartment building to meet the seller, who he believed was Jacobs, there were four or five other people there who tried to rob him.
Witnesses told police Montgomery had a gun and, as he and Jacobs struggled, it went off, wounding Jacobs.
Montgomery said he was hit in the back of the head and, once outside, was punched, kicked and shot.
He ultimately pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced to 18 months in the house of corrections.
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Below: Court paperwork filed in this case as of Jan. 5, 2022
