Harmony Montgomery’s Dad Found Guilty of 5-Year-Old’s Brutal Murder
Harmony Montgomery’s father was found guilty on Thursday of brutally beating the New Hampshire 5-year-old to death for having a bathroom accident in the car—and disposing of her body months later.
Adam Montgomery, 34, was convicted of all charges, including second-degree murder and second-degree assault, in connection with his daughter’s December 2019 death. At the start of the 10-day trial, defense lawyers said Montgomery would admit two charges, abuse of a corpse and falsifying physical evidence.
Montgomery, who is serving a 30-year prison sentence on an unrelated gun charge, never appeared in Hillsborough County Superior Court for his trial and was not present for the verdict. He will likely be sentenced in May, and he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Prosecutors allege that Montgomery punched his child with a closed fist multiple times after she had a bathroom accident while the family was on their way to Burger King. The beating was allegedly part of a pattern of abuse Harmony suffered at the hands of her father after she was placed to live with him in the summer of 2019.
Harmony Montgomery’s Dad Had ‘Evil’ Look as He Beat Little Girl, Stepmom Testifies
“I couldn’t stop him from hitting her. The look he gave me was scary. I was scared,” Montgomery’s estranged wife, Kayla, testified about the final beating. “He said, ‘I think I really hurt her. I felt something.’”
She said Montgomery stopped smacking his daughter as the family went through the drive-thru and ate in the parking lot, while Harmony moaned under a blanket. Later, when the family’s car broke down, Montgomery went to check on his daughter and realized she was dead.
“He took the duffle bag in the trunk and put her in the duffle bag,” said Kayla, who is currently in prison for lying about her whereabouts when Harmony went missing.
After the beating, Montgomery moved his daughter’s body multiple times, including to a ceiling vent of a family homeless shelter, before he ultimately disposed of it in March 2020. He allegedly “butchered her body” and used lime to accelerate the decomposition process, prosecutors said.
It would take two years for authorities to learn that Harmony was missing after her biological mother, Crystal Sorey, reported she had not seen the girl in over six months. The December 2021 report spurred an investigation that garnered national headlines, revealing a pattern of alleged abuse and spurring questions about New Hampshire child protective services.
Harmony’s body was never found, and Sorey has asked the court to declare the girl legally dead.
“She doesn’t get a headstone in the ground above the head that he battered,” prosecutor Benjamin Agati said during closing arguments. “She doesn’t get to be at peace and death because of what he did, because he can’t afford to tell anyone where she is.”
Montgomery’s defense lawyers argued that it was Kayla who was responsible for Harmony’s murder and that their client’s only crime was moving his daughter’s body in “a very misguided belief” he had to do so “to keep his family from being ripped apart.”
“She was an instigator and equal partner,” Smith said about Kayla. “He did not influence her. She influenced him, and most importantly, he did not kill his daughter.”
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