New Hampshire officials said Thursday they believe a five-year-old girl with Haverhill ties was murdered in 2019.
N.H. Attorney General John M. Formella, Manchester, N.H., Police Chief Allen D. Aldenberg, and U.S. Marshal Enoch F. Willard said in a joint statement that Harmony Montgomery was murdered in Manchester in early December, 2019.
“While Harmony’s remains have not yet been located, multiple sources of investigative information, including biological evidence, lead to this conclusion. As a result, this is now a homicide investigation. Investigators continue to look into the circumstances of Harmony’s murder and search for her remains,” they said.
Last January, officials said the girl likely disappeared sometime between Nov. 28 and Dec.10, 2019. They said Thursday they are not commenting on the evidence the investigation has uncovered.
Montgomery was first placed in foster care during August 2014 after the Haverhill office of the Department of Children and Families investigated three separate reports alleging “neglect.” She was born two months earlier to Crystal Sorey and Adam Montgomery, but was in Sorey’s care since Montgomery was in prison, charged in connection with shooting a man in the face Jan. 24, 2014 during a drug deal turned robbery in Haverhill.
The Office of the Child Advocate blamed the state Department of Children and Families, a Massachusetts court and several lawyers for failing Montgomery before her disappearance. A judge awarded custody across state lines to her father in February 2019.
Officials ask that anyone with information about the location of the girl’s remains or the circumstances of her murder call or text a 24-hour tip line at 603-203-6060.