Adam Montgomery sentenced for murder of daughter, Harmony

Father charged with murder in death of Harmony Montgomery

Adam Montgomery, 32, was charged with second-degree murder, in addition to other charges, in connection to the death of his 5-year-old daughter in late 2019. Authorities announced his arrest and charges in a press conference on Oct. 24, 2022.

Adam Montgomery was sentenced to 45 years to life in prison for the 2019 murder of his 5-year-old daughter, Harmony, according to a local news report.

Adam was ordered to be present during his sentencing after not attending his two-week trial.

New Hampshire law says that in second-degree murder cases, "The defendant shall personally appear in court when the victim or victim’s next of kin addresses the judge, unless excused by the court."

Adam Montgomery (L) and Harmony Montgomery (R). (Photos courtesy of Manchester Police)

What happened?

Investigators said that Harmony was killed in December 2019, though she was not reported missing for almost two years.

Adam and his now-estranged wife, Kayla, had custody of Harmony before she was reported missing.

The last time Harmony was seen by a family member outside of her father and stepmother was during a video call with her birth mother, Crystal Sorey, in April 2019.

Sorey reported the child missing in 2021 after she said she had not seen Harmony in two years.

Harmony’s stepmother, Kayla, later told police that Adam had killed Harmony on Dec. 7, 2019, while the family lived in their car.

The family were on their way to a fast food restaurant when Adam turned around and punched Harmony repeatedly in the face and head because he was angry that the child was having bathroom accidents in the car.

Kayla, 33, later testified that the child’s body was hidden in the trunk of a car, a cooler, a ceiling vent and a workplace freezer before Adam disposed of it.

Harmony’s body has still not been found.

Adam, 34, was found guilty of second-degree murder in February.

Kayla pleaded guilty in 2022 to perjury charges related to Harmony’s case and was sentenced to 18 months in prison and will be paroled this month.

Harmony’s tragic case

The case of Harmony Montgomery, who was born in Massachusetts to parents with a history of substance abuse, exposed weaknesses in child protection systems and provoked calls to prioritize the well-being of children over parents in custody matters.

She was blind in one eye and had behavioral needs, and was in the custody of child protective services since she was 2 months old.

Harmony was moved between the homes of her mother and her foster parents multiple times before her father received custody in 2019 and moved to New Hampshire.

With the exception of the attorneys for Massachusetts’ child services, all of the other attorneys in the case did not object to Harmony being returned to her father without a home study and didn’t have objections to the fact that he "had never had an overnight visit with her that we are aware of," said Maria Mossaides, head of Massachusetts’ Office of the Child Advocate. She said the child services’ attorney did not make a strong enough case, though, and was hampered by the inability to effectively assess Montgomery.

Harmony wasn’t made a priority in her own legal case, according to a review released in 2022 about how the child’s case was handled, with neither the judge nor the attorneys putting her medical, behavioral and educational needs or safety at the forefront of custody discussions.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. This story was reported from Los Angeles.