The stepmother of long-missing Harmony Montgomery, a girl who disappeared in New Hampshire at the age of five in 2019 but who was not reported missing until 2021, has been arrested for the third time since the investigation into her stepdaughter’s whereabouts began.
According to the New Hampshire Department of Justice, Kayla Montgomery, 31, was arrested Friday, June 3, on perjury charges, independent Boston, Mass. TV station WHDH reported.
According to Manchester, N.H. ABC affiliate WMUR, those charges are based on allegations that Kayla Montgomery lied to grand jurors.
She was reportedly arrested in the lobby of the Manchester Police Department by Manchester police officers, Manchester Police Chief Allen Aldenberg told WMUR reporter Amy Coveno.
The step-mother of #harmonymontgomery is back in jail. Kayla Montgomery was arrested Fri. morning in the lobby of the #MANCHESTER police department when she arrived for her daily check in…she is now accused of perjury according to officials…for lying to the grand jury. #WMUR
— Amy Coveno (@amyWMUR) June 4, 2022
“The arrest of Kayla Montgomery is another step in the investigation into the whereabouts of Harmony Montgomery,” Aldenberg told WMUR. “We will continue to do everything in our power to bring this case to a resolution.”
As Law&Crime previously reported, the girl’s missing status was not reported until late 2021 by her mother, Crystal Sorey, who lost custody of her daughter soon after she was born due to substance abuse issues. In 2014, the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families took custody of the girl and placed her in foster care. Between 2014 and 2018, Sorey repeatedly regained custody of her daughter. But, on each occasion, the state took Harmony Montgomery back and away from her mother and eventually gave her father, Adam Montgomery, custody in February 2019. The girl went missing in November or December 2019. She’ll be eight years old next week.
“Karma is real,” Sorey told WMUR. “I knew she [Kayla] wouldn’t last long, and I hope this only brings us closer to bringing Harmony home.”
In January of this year, Kayla Montgomery was arrested “pursuant to an arrest warrant for one charge of Welfare Fraud, a class A felony.” She stands accused of unlawfully obtaining $1,500 in food stamp benefits through a period spanning December 2019 and June 2021 “by failing to remove Harmony Montgomery from [her] family account” with the agency that provides public assistance and by “continuing to collect food stamp benefits for Harmony, despite the fact that Harmony was no longer living with Kayla and Kayla’s husband, Adam Montgomery.” A formal indictment soon followed.
She was later offered a plea deal on that fraud charge.
In April of this year, Kayla Montgomery was arrested and charged with two counts of receiving stolen property in connection with firearms theft allegedly committed by Adam Montgomery. He was charged a week before her in that case. The missing girl’s father was previously indicted for hitting his daughter in the face in July 2019 — after allegedly admitting to another relative that he had been “bashing” the little girl around the house.
Sorey also addressed the latest developments in comments to Boston NBC affiliate WBTS.
“It’s clear that she doesn’t care about Harmony,” she told that TV station on Friday. “She doesn’t care to let anybody know where Harmony is.”
[images via Manchester Police Department]
