Harmony Montgomery appears in a picture released by the Manchester, N.H. Police Department.
Investigators say they are getting closer to pinpointing when a young girl went missing, but that still leaves an approximately two-week window of time in which she would have disappeared. The New Hampshire Department of Justice asked the public on Monday to come forward with any information about Harmony Montgomery, who was 5 when she vanished and would be 7 years old now.
Authorities previously said she had not been seen since October 2019. Now they shifted their timeline from Nov. 28 to Dec. 10 in 2019. Her family–including father Adam Michael Montgomery, 32, and stepmother Kayla Montgomery, 31–were evicted from their home on 77 Gilford Street in Manchester, New Hampshire, on Nov. 27, 2019.
“Multiple individuals have reported seeing Harmony with Adam and Kayla in the following days; however, by approximately December 6–10, 2019, Adam and Kayla apparently had only their two common children, and Harmony was no longer with them,” authorities said.
Investigators have searched that home on 77 Gilford Street, but now it seems that Harmony was already gone from there by the time she vanished. In any case, police have said they only learned about her disappearance in the end of 2021, about two years after she disappeared. Now they are trying to figure out what happened to her and who is responsible.
No one is currently charged with causing Harmony Montgomery’s disappearance or anything more sinister than that.
Adam Montgomery is accused of giving his daughter a black eye. He allegedly snubbed investigators trying to find Harmony and make sure she is safe.
“I have nothing else to say,” he said in an affidavit.
Harmony Montgomery (L) and Adam Montgomery (R) appear in images released by the Manchester, N.H. Police Department.
Meanwhile, authorities claim Kayla illegally picked up $1,500 in food stamp benefits from December 2019 to June 2021 because she left the missing Harmony on the family account.
The state DOJ is now saying that the family lived out of cars during the updated Nov. 28 to Dec. 10, 2019 timeline, and though the NH DOJ did not present pictures of the actual vehicles, they released representative images of both.
“Witnesses have reported that during that time, Adam, Kayla, and the children were homeless and living out of cars, possibly in the North End of Manchester,” investigators said. “One of the cars was a silver 2010 Chrysler Sebring, and the other was a dark blue 2006 Audi S4. Stock photos of these cars are attached to this release for reference; the actual condition of the cars in 2019 was worse than depicted in these photos. In addition, the Sebring’s rear license plate was askew.”
Representative photos of a silver 2010 Chrysler Sebring (left), and dark blue 2006 Audi S4 (right). These are not the actual Montgomery vehicles but are of the same make, model, and color, authorities say.
Authorities ask that anyone with information to call or text the dedicated 24-hour tip line at (603) 203-6060. This includes anyone who saw or interacted with Adam, Kayla Montgomery, and the children during that timeframe, or saw those vehicles.
“Any information, no matter how small or insignificant it may seem, may contribute to the overall investigation,” they said.
“Help us find this little girl,” Manchester Police Chief Allen D. Aldenberg has said. “Someone knows something. Do what is right and call in. I cannot emphasize this enough. Someone out there knows something. Somewhere out there, this little girl is in need of help. And I need your help in helping us to find her safe.”
Harmony is blind in her right eye, wears glasses, and has blonde hair and blue eyes. She is believed to be around four feet tall and to weigh about 50 pounds, cops said.
“I bashed her around this house,” Adam Montgomery allegedly told his uncle Kevin Montgomery about the black eye, which he gave her around June 2019.
In this account, he claimed to have gone to the bathroom when Harmony, then 5, was watching over her infant brother.
“Allegedly the younger brother started crying during that time,” a probable cause affidavit stated. “Adam told Kevin that he returned and found [Harmony] holding her hand over the child’s mouth to stop him from crying. Adam told Kevin that he responded by striking [Harmony] in the face and causing the black eye.”
Birth mother Crystal Sorey lost custody of her in July 2018 due to substance abuse. She said she last saw her daughter during a video chat around Easter 2019.
According to the affidavit against Adam, Crystal regained sobriety, but Adam and stepmother Kayla blocked Crystal on social media and phone.
“Crystal said over the years she made attempts to locate the child by contacting various schools, and driving by addresses associated with Adam, but was unable to make any progress,” they said.
Kayla allegedly told cops, however, that she was estranged from her husband and had not seen him since October 2021 and spoke to him a month later when he left a sober house to live in Maine with new girlfriend Kelsey Small.
Appearing to overlap with the new law enforcement timeline, Kayla allegedly said she last saw Harmony on a morning in November or December 2019 before going to work. She said she had occasionally seen her with a black eye, though she attributed it to one of the other children, which she shared with Adam, hitting Harmony with a toy.
The N.H. Division of Children, Youth, and Families is undergoing an internal review over how they failed to keep an eye on Harmony after all this time even though she was part of the child welfare system and they knew about problems at home.
Cops reportedly visited the Montgomery home about 13 times between June and November 2019.
Colin Kalmbacher contributed to this report.
[Image of Harmony Montgomery and booking photo of her father via the Manchester Police Department; images of the cars and booking photo of Kayla Montgomery via the New Hampshire Department of Justice]
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