New Hampshire man convicted of killing daughter, 5, whose body has not been found

MANCHESTER, NH — A New Hampshire man was convicted Thursday of second-degree murder in the death of his 5-year-old daughter, who police believe was killed nearly two years before she was reported missing in 2021 and whose body was never found .

Adam Montgomery, 34, did not attend the trial and was not present when jurors delivered their verdict. He had proclaimed his innocence and said in court last year in an unrelated case that he loved Harmony Montgomery “unconditionally.”

“I am grateful to the judge, jury and the Department of Justice for delivering justice for Harmony,” New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu said in a statement. “Adam Montgomery is a monster and deserves to spend the rest of his life in prison. ”

Adam Montgomery’s lawyers previously admitted his guilt on two lesser charges, namely that he “intentionally and unlawfully removed, concealed or destroyed” her corpse and falsified physical evidence, but said he did not kill his daughter. The jury also convicted him of assaulting Harmony Montgomery in 2019 and tampering with the prosecution’s key witness, his estranged wife and stepmother of his daughter, Kayla Montgomery.

Investigators believe Harmony Montgomery was murdered in December 2019, even though she had not been reported missing for nearly two years. Kayla Montgomery testified that the body was hidden in the trunk of a car, a cooler, a ceiling fan and a freezer in the workplace before Adam Montgomery threw it away.

Attorney James Brooks deferred comment to Caroline Smith, the lead attorney representing Adam Montgomery. She did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Adam Montgomery had custody of the girl. Her mother, Crystal Sorey, who was no longer in a relationship with him, said the last time she saw Harmony Montgomery was during a video call in April 2019. She eventually went to police, who announced they were looking in New York to the missing child. Year’s Eve 2021.

Photos of the girl were widely circulated on social media. Police eventually determined that she had been murdered.

“I’m relieved that justice is being served,” Sorey told WMUR-TV on Thursday. “It’s clearly not over yet. I have some peace knowing that he is being held accountable because he thought he was so untouchable and that she didn’t matter, that no one would miss her. He was so wrong, he was so wrong.”

She said she still wants to find her daughter’s remains so she can finally bring her home.

“We have yet to find her,” Police Chief Allen Aldenberg said Thursday. “This girl deserves better than the life she had.”

Harmony Montgomery’s case has exposed weaknesses in child protection systems and prompted calls to prioritize the welfare of children over parents in custody cases. Harmony was moved between her mother’s and her foster parents’ homes several times before Adam Montgomery gained custody in 2019 and moved to New Hampshire.

“I still firmly believe that some people at other agencies should be held accountable. And that’s what I’m asking for,” Aldenberg said, referring to child welfare officials in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. “This little five-year-old girl deserves to have someone held accountable who failed along the way, because we wouldn’t be standing here today if other people had done their jobs.”

Kayla Montgomery is serving an 18-month prison sentence after pleading guilty to perjury in connection with the investigation into the child’s disappearance and agreeing to cooperate with prosecutors. She testified that her husband killed Harmony Montgomery on December 7, 2019, while the family was living in their car after being evicted from their home.

Kayla Montgomery testified that her husband repeatedly punched Harmony Montgomery in the face and head because he was angry that she was having bathroom accidents in the car.

The couple noticed that the girl was dead hours later when the car broke down. That’s when Adam Montgomery stuffed her body into a duffel bag, Kayla Montgomery testified.

Over the next three months, she testified, Adam Montgomery moved the body from container to container and place to place. According to his wife, the locations included the trunk of a friend’s car, a cooler in the hallway of his mother-in-law’s apartment building, the ceiling fan at a homeless shelter and a workplace freezer.

Lead Detective John Dunleavy said Thursday that while he considered the conviction a victory, it felt incomplete because Harmony Montgomery was still missing.

“We didn’t find her,” he said. “I’ll be working for a while, I still have about fifteen years left. And as long as I’m a police officer, I’ll keep looking for her.”

Prosecutor Benjamin Agati said at a news conference that the trial does not end the search for the girl. He said that after analyzing the miles Adam Montgomery drove to Massachusetts in the rental car, there is approximately 26 miles he could have traveled where her remains could be located.

“She’s somewhere along that route,” he said, pointing to previous searches in the Revere, Massachusetts, area. “Those are still our major search areas.”

Agati said when Adam Montgomery is sentenced in the coming months, he will face a minimum sentence of 35 years to life on the murder charge, a harsher sentence because of his daughter’s young age. He said this would join armed criminal charges for which he is already serving a minimum sentence of more than 33 years.

When asked if that meant Adam Montgomery would never get out of jail, the prosecutor said, “It’s a lot of time, and I hope I’m not practicing when that minimum date ever comes.”