Deceased/Not Found NH - Harmony Montgomery, 7, Manchester, Oct 2019 *reported missing Dec 2021* Arrest* MEDIA ONLY

[PommyMommy]

Tim Callery on Twitter
New: @NH_DOJ now believes #HarmonyMontgomery disappeared between Nov. 28–Dec. 10, 2019. Multiple individuals have reported seeing Harmony with Adam & Kayla during that time. But by approx. Dec. 6–10, Adam & Kayla only had their two common children, and Harmony was not w/ them.
12:17 PM · Jan 24, 2022·Twitter for iPhone

JAN 24, 2022
NH v. Kayla Montgomery - Pretrial Hearing

Harmony Montgomery’s Stepmother ‘Knows What Law Enforcement Is Closing In On Learning,’ Prosecutors Say – CBS Boston (cbslocal.com)
Harmony has not been seen since sometime between November 29-December 10, 2019, but was only recently reported missing.

 

[PommyMommy]

JAN 24, 2022
Investigators Narrow Time Of Harmony Montgomery Disappearance To Late November, Early December 2019 – CBS Boston (cbslocal.com)
[...]

The window of when Harmony disappeared was likely sometime from November 28-December 10, 2019, investigators said. ...

[...]

Police said Harmony was living with her father, Adam Montgomery, and stepmother, Kayla Montgomery, along with two other children the couple shared. The family was evicted from their home on Gilford Street in Manchester on November 27, 2019.

Multiple people reported seeing Harmony with Adam and Kayla Montgomery the days that followed. By December 6-10 of that year, however, witnesses say Harmony was no longer with them.

Witnesses told police that during that time, the family was homeless and living out of two cars, possibly in the North End of Manchester.

One of the cars was a silver 2010 Chrysler Sebring and the other was a dark blue 2006 Audi S4.

On Monday, police released stock images of the make and model cars they were living in. Police noted that the actual condition of the cars in 2019 was worse than what is depicted in the photos.

[...]

 

[PommyMommy]

JAN 24, 2022
Harmony Montgomery Update: New Details in Search for Missing NH Girl – NBC Boston
Multiple people reported seeing Harmony with Adam and Kayla in the following days, but between Dec. 6 and Dec. 10 they had only their two common children with them and not Harmony.

"She knows what we are going to learn as the investigation continues," O'Neill said of Kayla Montgomery during her bail hearing Monday.

For this reason, investigators said they believe Harmony disappeared sometime between Nov. 28 and Dec. 10 of that year.

Harmony Montgomery seen with dad, stepmom after they claimed they last saw her, police say | Fox News
New Hampshire authorities now say missing 7-year-old Harmony Montgomery may have been last seen with her dad and stepmother up to two weeks after they claimed she moved back in with her biological mother, who lost custody in 2018.

[...]

"Multiple individuals have reported seeing Harmony with Adam and Kayla in the following days; however, by approximately Dec. 6–10, 2019, Adam and Kayla apparently had only their two common children, and Harmony was no longer with them," police said Monday.

The couple subsequently had another child, who is now 1.

[...]

 

[PommyMommy]

Jason Law on Twitter (video)
I just spoke with Harmony Montgomery's mother, Crystal Storey, about the developments from Kayla Montgomery's arraignment.

"I don’t think my daughter is dead. I think she is out there and people are too afraid to come forward," she said @boston25
6:58 PM · Jan 24, 2022·Twitter Web App

 

[PommyMommy]

JAN 24, 2022
Harmony Montgomery disappearance narrowed to 13-day window (newsnationnow.com)
Investigators have narrowed the window of the disappearance of a New Hampshire girl missing since late 2019 at age 5 to a 13-day period coinciding with the eviction of her father and stepmother from their home, with witness accounts of the family living in cars, the attorney general’s office said Monday.

Adam and Kayla Montgomery, together with their two children of their own and Adam’s daughter, Harmony Montgomery, were evicted from the Manchester home Nov. 27, 2019, the office said in a news release. ...

“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,” the news release said.

“This information leads police to believe that it was sometime during this window of approximately November 28–December 10, 2019, that Harmony Montgomery disappeared.”

[...]

 

[PommyMommy]

JAN 25, 2022
Harmony Montgomery’s Mom Seeks Answers From Court – NBC Boston
Harmony Montgomery's mom wants answers.

"It proves who dropped the ball," said Crystal Sorey, who went to the courthouse in Lawrence, Massachusetts, Tuesday to pursue the court records in her daughter's custody case. "I want to get the truth out."

She wants to know why a judge awarded custody of her daughter in 2019 to Harmony's father, Adam Montgomery, in Manchester, New Hampshire.

"I want to know the truth, what led to this, why they chose to give this monster my child," she said.

[...]

The court records in the custody case are confidential – even Sorey wasn't allowed access when she tried Tuesday.

"So I have to walk out of here with my head held high, even though I'm dying inside," said Sorey. "Every minute that she's gone."

Michael Rosenfield NBC10 Boston on Twitter
NEW: Harmony Montgomery’s mom at courthouse in Lawrence, asking for court records to find out why a judge placed Harmony with her father in 2019. Next at 5/6 @NBC10Boston @necn.


4:31 PM · Jan 25, 2022·Twitter for iPhone

 

[PommyMommy]

JAN 25, 2022
In Harmony Montgomery case, pictures only tell part of the story – Boston 25 News
[...]

Boston attorney Wendy Murphy, a child advocate and former prosecutor, says she has seen this too many times. Pictures only tell a fraction of the real story.

“Violence behind closed doors, especially child abuse, is done in secret for a reason,” Murphy said. “And abusers go out of their way to make sure people outside the home don’t know what’s going on. So, they are going to present the child in a favorable light, every chance they can. We should not be surprised to see photographs of Harmony looking happy and healthy, because it’s not inconsistent with the fact that she was clearly not happy and healthy behind closed doors.”

On May 22, 2017, Adam Montgomery posted a picture on Facebook of himself and Harmony on a trampoline with the caption, “My beautiful baby girl, I love you so much.”

At the time the photo was posted, Montgomery was already charged with shooting a man in the face in Massachusetts. And he was a suspect in the Guzman murder.

“I’ve been doing this work for a very long time. If I’ve learned one thing, it’s that you have no idea what kind of parent is capable of hurting a child,” Murphy said. “Make no mistake, there is no type of parent that you can reasonably predict is the type who is abusing a child behind closed doors.”

[...]

 

[PommyMommy]

JAN 25, 2022
NCMEC joins search for missing NH girl Harmony Montgomery (wmur.com)
[...]

The NCMEC brings decades of experience to the search for missing children. Its posters aim to get the word out about missing children as investigators say they're confident someone knows where Harmony is.

"We are an organization built on hope," said John Bischoff III, of the NCMEC. "Until proven otherwise, we will continue to look for this child."

For 38 years, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has assisted law enforcement across the country in finding children. It points to high-profile cases as a reason to stay positive about finding Harmony.

"There are too many cases out there, whether it be Jaycee Dugard or Elizabeth Smart — there are too many times that theory has been proven wrong to give up hope at this point," Bischoff said.

[...]

"In Harmony's case, someone out there knows something, and the whole thing is to get her image in front of that person, let them know that this young lady is missing, so they can come forward with the information that they know," Bischoff said.

[...]

 

[Seattle1]

NH police chief committed to keeping Harmony case in spotlight

Jan 26, 2022

MANCHESTER, N.H. —

The Manchester chief of police said Wednesday he shares the frustration many are feeling as they continue to look for missing 7-year-old Harmony Montgomery.

Chief Allen Aldenberg said detectives are working around the clock to find the girl, who hasn't been seen in two years.

"It takes time, and the frustration that the public may be having is shared by me," Aldenberg said.

In an exclusive interview with News 9, Aldenberg [see link] said the department is scrambling to make up for the time lost in the case. Police only learned late last year that Harmony was missing and now have to ask witnesses about memories from two years ago.

"Just good old-fashioned detective work," Aldenberg said. "We pounded the pavement talking with people."

Police have tracked down the Audi and the Chrysler that the Montgomery family was living in before Harmony disappeared and established a tighter timeline about her disappearance. They're little wins, but significant, Aldenberg said.

"Getting those vehicles into our possession was pretty seamless," he said. "The people that we dealt with on that were cooperative."

Cellphones often provide a road map for detectives, but reaching back two years is time-consuming.

"Complete the appropriate paperwork, search warrants and affidavits to get into devices that may fall into our possession that we may be aware of," Aldenberg said.

 

[PommyMommy]

Tim Callery on Twitter
Just In: Kimberly Budd, Chief Justice of the MA Supreme Judicial Court Responds to a letter sent by @GovChrisSununu regarding #HarmonyMontgomery. The MA Office of the Child advocate is reviewing Harmony’s case. Budd has also directed the Trial Court to conduct its own review.


JAN 27, 2022
MA chief justice orders review in Harmony Montgomery case – Boston News, Weather, Sports | WHDH 7News
The chief justice of Massachusetts’ highest court has ordered a review of the case of a missing New Hampshire girl who was last seen in 2019 at age 5, months after a Massachusetts judge gave custody of the child to her father.

Chief Justice Kimberly Budd pledged in a letter to New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu that the high court would take steps regarding the “heartbreaking situation involving Harmony Montgomery.” Budd’s letter was provided by Sununu’s office Thursday.

“I share your view that we need to learn as much as we can about what happened,” she wrote.

Her letter was in response to one sent by Sununu last week in which he harshly criticized a Massachusetts court for placing Harmony Montgomery with her father and stepmother before the state could complete a study of their home.

[...]

 

[PommyMommy]

JAN 27, 2022
Newly surfaced photos: Harmony Montgomery at younger age (wmur.com)
[...]

The photos of Harmony Montgomery were sent to WMUR by her mother, Crystal Sorey.

 

[PommyMommy]

FEB 1, 2022
Mother of Harmony Montgomery believes girl is still alive (wmur.com)
In an exclusive interview with News 9, Crystal Sorey said that her mother's intuition tells her that her daughter, Harmony Montgomery, is still alive.

Sorey sat in on a court hearing Tuesday about a custody issue concerning Harmony. It has been a month since Manchester police opened a missing person investigation on the 7-year-old.

 

[PommyMommy]

FEB 2, 2022
Harmony Montgomery’s Mom speak to Boston 25 a month after she was reported missing – Boston 25 News
[...]

On Tuesday CS was at a DCYF hearing in New Hampshire. So was Adam Montgomery who is Harmony’s father.

CS believes he knows where Harmony is and she made an outburst in court.

‘I kind of just blurted out, “Just tell them!” you know?’ And he stared forward and his face turned red and he didn’t respond obviously to it,’ said CS.

In the meantime, Manchester Police say they’ve now received 600 tips on their tip line.

[...]

 

[PommyMommy]

FEB 3, 2022
25 Investigates: Manchester PD Chief “frightened” by what Harmony Montgomery may be enduring – Boston 25 News
[...]

Investigative reporter and anchor Kerry Kavanaugh sat down for an exclusive interview with Chief Aldenberg about the case.

During a very emotional conversation, the chief said he’s not giving up hope of finding Harmony alive. He says he’s certain someone knows something that will completely change the course of the investigation and is pleading for them to come forward.

“If the people that don’t want to cooperate with us or don’t want to tell us things or don’t want to come forward, that’s not going to stop us,” he said.

[...]

“I just need somebody to just call in with that tip,” he said. “That right person with that right tip. Just pick up the phone and do it.”

[...]

Chief Aldenberg says the most frustrating thing about this case is the two-year reporting delay, something he says he’s never experienced in his 25-year career.

Upon learning that Harmony had been missing for so long before anyone reported the disappearance, the chief says his “heart sank”

[...]

Aldenberg says he’s hopeful Harmony is still alive but admits the thought of what she may have endured in the last two years scares him.

“That’s even more frightening. Who is she with? Who is taking care of her needs?,” said an emotional Aldenberg. “Somebody out there knows something and that’s what’s frustrating.”

 

[PommyMommy]

FEB 3, 2022
NH officials provide insight into review of Harmony Montgomery case
The Office of the Child Advocate is an independent agency that oversees DCYF. As pressure is mounting on several state agencies to explain how a 7-year-old girl can disappear for two years, the OCA is asking for patience from the public.

An internal DCYF investigation like the one currently happening in Harmony's case is not unusual, according to Moira O'Neill, head of the OCA. They're known as critical incident reviews.

[...]

But she added that strict federal and state laws prevent the release of specific details to not only protect the child, but also the integrity of the police investigation.

"When it's time and the police investigation is completed, if we find information that we think that the public would be in their interest to know, we'd certainly share that information," O'Neill said.

Police said Thursday there are no new updates on the search for Harmony. They said her case remains their No. 1 priority.

[...]

 

[PommyMommy]

FEB 5, 2022
For years, the mother of Harmony Montgomery rang the alarm about her missing daughter. Few listened. - The Boston Globe

• CS says her search for Harmony has spanned three years, two states, and numerous government agencies which has been met with indifference that she attributes to her past.
• She says she's always going to own the fact that she played a part in this, but she never gave up on Harmony; never washed her hands of her.
• Like Harmony, CS grew up in chaos and went through the system - child welfare, social services, and the courts.
• She is consumed by guilt and anger. She has endured personal attacks on the internet although she has been thoroughly investigated by LE.
• She attends group meetings twice a week to maintain her sobriety and has stayed clean for 2½ years.
• She says she still has to focus on her recovery and be a mom through all of this. She is raising her 1-year-old son on her own.
• Her older brother, TF Jr., compares their upbringing in Haverhill to that of the fictional Showtime series “Shameless,” - a dysfunctional and poverty-stricken family struggling to get by.
• As a teenager, he often raised CS and her twin sister (toddlers then) as their parents were in and out of jail and treatment programs, deep into addiction.
• CS later experienced the same - drugs, arrests, courtrooms, treatment programs.
• Some of her siblings struggled with addiction and she lost a brother to an overdose.
• CS met AM when she was 20, through a mutual friend in NH. Both were heavily involved in drugs. By the time she became pregnant with Harmony, AM was physically abusing her.
• But the birth of Harmony changed something in her.
• She named her Harmony, because it reminded her of music.
• She says that before she had Harmony, she didn't really have a reason to get clean and hated herself.
• AM was in jail at the time of Harmony’s birth, and not long after, CS and AM split up. She says she just didn't like him as a person once she got sober.
• Harmony left an impression in the sober living programs where she lived for two years with CS.
• A friend of CS's who lived with them at a sober house in Roxbury called Harmony a "little spitfire."
• A relapse in 2018 cost CS custody of Harmony, and the following year, a Lawrence juvenile court was to decide Harmony’s placement.
• CS says she pushed for Harmony to remain with the MA foster mother she was living with, at least until Sorey could regain custody. Instead, in Feb 2019 a judge granted custody of Harmony to AM.
• CS says she made a promise to Harmony that she would get better and that she would stay better.
• CS says she had three in-person visits with Harmony over the next three months. Then, during a video call shortly before Easter 2019, CS and AM got into an argument and AM cut off all contact.
• CS continued to try to reach Harmony but when she called NH's child welfare agency, she was told she sounded like a scorned ex.
• By the spring of 2019, she’d alerted New Hampshire’s child welfare agency.
• Later, she drove the streets of Manchester herself in search of the girl and turned to social media for help.
• When she lived in Lowell, she drove past NH schools where she thought her daughter might be enrolled and paid for online search tools to access addresses associated with AM.
• Last July, she posted photos of Harmony on TikTok, saying she’d never stop looking for her daughter.
• When someone asked if Harmony was missing, she responded that AM has her and hasn't let her talk to her or see her in two years.
• Last November she called police in Manchester.
• Child welfare officials in MA and NH have declined to discuss any details about Harmony, including CS’s attempts to locate her.
• Not long ago, someone told CS they remember seeing AM panhandling in Manchester, with Harmony on his lap.

 

[PommyMommy]

FEB 9, 2022
NH Gov. says Harmony Montgomery’s case underscores need for better interstate communication – Boston 25 News
New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu says as The Department of Youth, Children and Families {DCYF} is working through the internal review of its handling of the Harmony Montgomery case with the state Attorney General to determine what they’ll be able to make public.

During a news conference in Concord on Wednesday, Sununu said some things will likely have to remain confidential, but he thinks there will be an opportunity to examine any potential failures and fix them. “We can talk publicly about as much else as we possibly can in the hopes that information can hopefully bring Harmony home safely. That’s the ultimate goal here,” Sununu said. “As well as making sure if there were system failures here, which clearly we can all agree there were here at some level, where they are, what we can do and what mitigation strategies.”

[...]

Sununu said he senses in the next ‘week or so’ more information will come to light about the agency’s [DYCF] involvement with the young girl and her family.

[...]

 

[PommyMommy]

FEB 10, 2022
Group meets to bring missing 7-year-old Harmony Montgomery home (wmur.com)
[...]

A small group of people who say they're part of "Harmony's Army" met at Kalivas park in Manchester on Thursday.

They say this gathering is something they hope to do every other week.

"We deserve to keep saying her name, and that's our job, to keep saying her name and to raise awareness. Where is Harmony Montgomery?” organizer LT said.

[...]

 

[PommyMommy]

FEB 12, 2022
Harmony Montgomery Case: Manchester Vigil Held – NBC Boston
[...]

A vigil was held Saturday night at Bass Island Park in Manchester. Event organizers say they don't want Harmony's name to be forgotten, so they brought out balloons -- pink and purple like Harmony's favorite colors -- and her picture to remind people of her story in hope that she will be found soon.

[...]

Harmony's mom, Crystal Sorey, told NBC10 Boston Saturday night that she appreciates the community's support through this difficult time and she holds onto hope that her daughter will be found.

Sorey, who hasn't seen her daughter in more than two years, wants answers as to how her little girl went missing.

"Why? Why did you fight for her? You never showed up for court in any one of those court cases...he never showed up," Sorey said. "He showed up to that one hearing and he gets custody of her just to beat and neglect her."

[...]

 

[PommyMommy]

FEB 12, 2022
Gathering for Harmony Montgomery held in Manchester (wmur.com)
[...]

"Even if you think of something weird that happened a year ago or two years ago that stick out in your head when you see my daughter on TV, just come forward," Sorey said. "It could be nothing, but it could be huge."

Sorey said she is asking people to focus on Harmony's face, especially her eyes, and that it is possible her child has been disguised.

"We thought of the hair being dyed. She could have brown hair, black hair, who knows," Sorey said.

[...]