A newly unsealed court document alleges a five-year-old girl with Haverhill ties died when punched in the head three to four times by her father while living in his car.
According to the affidavit, Harmony Montgomery’s father, Adam Montgomery; stepmother Kayla Montgomery; and three children had been evicted from their Manchester, N.H., apartment the day before Thanksgiving in 2019 and living in a Chrysler Sebring. The father, Adam Montgomery, became violent Dec. 7, 2019 when five-year-old Harmony had several bathroom accidents in the car.
Kayla Montgomery is reported to have told investigators, “…Harmony was in the rear seat on the passenger side, and while Adam was driving he turned his body and delivered sets of three-to-four blows with a closed fist to Harmony’s face/head on three separate occasions over the course of a few minutes…After the final blow, Adam said words to the effect of that he felt something or heard something when he hit Harmony, and, ‘I think I really hurt her this time. I think I did something.’”
The affidavit goes on to report the couple did not seek emergency care, later discovered the girl to be dead and placed her body into a duffle bag. The bag was kept in another car’s trunk, but occasionally placed in the snow to slow the decomposition of the body. The body was moved again over the next three months to different locations—including a restaurant freezer, above a ceiling vent at a shelter and in an apartment refrigerator—before being discarded the following March.
This past January, Montgomery was indicted by a New Hampshire grand jury on a second-degree murder charge.
Harmony 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.