In the months after the death of his 5-year-old daughter, Adam Montgomery is accused of toting Harmony’s body — in a red Under Armour duffel bag, tied up in trash bags — all over Manchester, N.H. He has pleaded not guilty to murder charges and is awaiting trial.
Authorities say he placed Harmony’s body in a cooler and stowed her over a vent in a shelter he shared with his wife and two sons. Then, police believe, he tossed Harmony’s body into a closet when neighbors complained of the smell, and then snuck her into his workplace freezer. Finally in the early morning hours of March 2020, police say he carted her away in a U-Haul to dump her remains at an undisclosed location.
New court records in Harmony’s murder case, which were unsealed by the New Hampshire court Tuesday and reviewed, outline a harrowing tale of alleged drug-riddled child abuse, Those records – 54 pages – sketch together for the first time some answers to a case that remains without final resolution: more than four years after Harmony’s death, her body has still never been found.
Harmony, who police believe was killed in December 2019, was reported missing almost two years later, when her biological mother, who had lost custody of her daughter because of drug use, reported her missing in November 2021, according to unsealed records. (Crystal Sorey, now 32, had not seen her daughter since a FaceTime call on Easter 2019, she told police, noting that her daughter seemed scared of her father at the time.)
Nearly a year passed between Sorey’s missing child report and Adam Montgomery’s arrest for murder in connection with his daughter’s death. In the interim, law enforcement pieced together the case – though they were allegedly stonewalled at every turn by Adam Montgomery, who refused to answer questions, as well as his wife, Kayla Montgomery, now 32, who allegedly lied about what she knew, according to the unsealed records.
Police interviews indicate that in the days leading up to Harmony’s disappearance, Adam Montgomery had become frustrated when the 5-year-old had bathroom accidents in the car where he, Kayla Montgomery and their two younger sons were living. In the unsealed court filings, John Dunleavy, the Manchester Police detective on the case, noted of law enforcement interviews with Kayla Montgomery: “Kayla stated that after each accident Adam would get upset and would strike Harmony in the face/ head with a closed fist.”
On the day of Harmony’s suspected murder – December 7, 2019 – Adam Montgomery turned around while driving to a local Burger King for breakfast and allegedly “delivered sets of three-to-four blows with a closed fist to Harmony’s face/ head on three separate occasions over the course of a few minutes.”
After the last blow, Adam Montgomery allegedly said: “I think I really hurt her this time. I think I did something,” Kayla Montgomery later recalled to police.
Harmony moaned in the backseat for five minutes. Then she became quiet. The family proceeded to the fast-food restaurant and then back to the parking lot, where they were living in their car. They never got Harmony medical attention, police records allege. Hours later, at about 12:15 p.m., the couple “discovered that Harmony was not breathing and was deceased.”
Realizing his daughter was dead, Adam Montgomery went to the trunk of the car and removed a red duffel bag, Kayla Montgomery later told police. He allegedly put his dead daughter inside.
Body Was Transported for Months in Attempt to Hide Crime: Police
In the months between Harmony’s December 2019 death and the disposal of her body in March 2020, the family moved from the parking lot to a family’s home, then to a shelter, then to another apartment and finally to a motel — and Harmony’s body allegedly went with them. In that time, Harmony’s body began to decompose, the duffel bag leaking, court records state.
At one point, Adam Montgomery allegedly removed his daughter from the duffel bag and spent four to six hours with the bathtub water running while he stuffed her into a smaller bag, per the documents. Police suspect that at this time Harmony was “dismembered or grossly distorted” by Adam Montgomery as he tried to hide his dead daughter during the early months of 2020, according to court documents.
Kayla Montgomery later told police that she smelled an odor coming from the bathroom. Harmony’s body was frozen, and so Adam Montgomery set the bathtub water hot to soften her, the documents allege.
The documents allege Kayla Montgomery told police Adam Montgomery placed Harmony’s body into the duffel bag, and that she had helped him close the bag. Then he allegedly cleared the room with ammonia, Kayla said, according to the documents.
Afterward, Kayla Montgomery told police that per Adam’s instructions, she transported the bag with Harmony’s body in it in a stroller to the Portland Pie Company, where Adam briefly worked. Once there, Adam allegedly stored his daughter’s body in the company freezer.
Kayla Montgomery, who pleaded guilty to charges that she lied to law enforcement to hinder their murder investigation, is serving an 18-month prison sentence, according to the Associated Press.
Adam Montgomery, now 33 and in jail awaiting trial, is charged with second degree murder, tampering with witnesses and informants, falsifying physical evidence and abuse of a corpse. He pleaded not guilty in October to second-degree murder, falsifying physical evidence and abuse of a corpse charges, according to the AP. Caroline L. Smith, a New Hampshire public defender representing Adam, could not be immediately reached for comment.
In a booking photograph provided by Manchester police, He is covered in neck tattoos, including one of a joker. What appears to be a teardrop tattoo — often used to commemorate the witnessing of a death, particularly one committed by the mourner — runs down one cheek.