Grim new details have emerged about a New Hampshire man who allegedly abused his young daughter before she disappeared two years ago–though her missing status was only just reported last week.
The information comes by way of redacted court documents obtained by Law&Crime. Adam Michael Montgomery, 31, allegedly admitted to violently abusing his daughter, 7-year-old Harmony Montgomery, sometime in July 2019. The alleged abuse resulted in a black eye for the young girl–who was only five years old at the time.
“I bashed her around this house,” Adam Montgomery allegedly told his uncle, Kevin Montgomery, after the latter returned to Manchester, N.H. from a trip to Florida–in order to account for his daughter’s injury.
Kevin Montgomery told police late last year that his nephew excused the black eye incident due to a brief babysitting situation gone wrong. That situation allegedly involved the 5-year-old girl watching over her infant baby brother while Adam Montgomery went to the bathroom.
“Allegedly the younger brother started crying during that time,” a probable cause affidavit filed in court says. “Adam told Kevin that he returned and found [Harmony] holding her hand over the child’s mouth to stop him from crying. Adam told Kevin that he responded by striking [Harmony] in the face and causing the black eye.”
Adam Montgomery’s brother, Michael Montgomery, is also cited in the document as having “concerns” for Harmony Montgomery’s welfare and recalled the girl’s father being “super short” with the child on the last time he saw them together–though no date is given for when that last contact occurred.
The affidavit contains additional allegations of abuse:
Kevin recalled other forms of abusive discipline during that time frame that raised his concerns. Kevin recalled [Harmony] being spanked hard on the butt, [Harmony] being forced to stand in the comer for hours, and Adam ordering [Harmony] to scrub the toilet with her toothbrush.
Three additional blocks of texts immediately following the uncle’s accusations are entirely blacked out in the document. The mother of the still-missing girl, Crystal Sorey, is cited as having last seen her daughter sometime around Easter 2019 during a video chat.
“Crystal recalled that [Harmony] seemed frightened, and believes that was the last time she actually saw her daughter,” the affidavit says.
Sorey lost custody of her daughter in July 2018 due to substance abuse issues when the girl became a ward of Massachusetts.
“Crystal said that both she and Adam had past issues with substance abuse,” the affidavit alleges. “Since then, Crystal has regained sobriety and unsuccessfully made attempts in [sic] throughout 2021 to locate Adam and [Harmony]. Adam and his subsequent partner Kayla Montgomery, had blocked all communication from Crystal through phone numbers and social media applications. Crystal said over the years she made attempts to locate the child by contacting various schools, and driving by addresses associated with Adam, but was unable to make any progress.”
In a police interview, Kayla Montgomery said she has not seen her estranged husband since October 2021 and spoke to him a month later when he left a sober house to live in Maine with his new girlfriend, Kelsey Small. During that interview, Kayla Montgomery said she had last seen Harmony Montgomery on a morning in November or December 2019 before going to work–and told police that she had occasionally seen the girl with a black eye but believed it was caused by one of the three children she has with Adam Montgomery “striking [Harmony] with a toy,” according to the affidavit.
Kayla Montgomery also told police that her husband told her he was driving Harmony Montgomery down to Lowell, Mass. around that last morning the child was seen.
Small, when questioned, said she was aware of her boyfriend’s four children but told police she had no information about them and added that Adam Montgomery had never spoken to her about his missing daughter.
Police offered the following account of the father’s interview:
During our roadside interview with Adam, he made some contradictory statements during our interaction which raised our suspicion and concern for [Harmony’s] well-being. Initially, Adam told Detective Dunleavy that [Harmony] was fine and he had seen her somewhat recently. However, as the conversation continued, Adam said that he had not sen [Harmony] since Crystal came to pick her up in Manchester, NH around Thanksgiving 2019, Adam claimed he does not presently have a traditional phone number, but he does have access to e-mail sporadically.We each emphasized that our primary concern is locating [Harmony] and establishing that she is safe, Adam stopped answering questions multiple times and stated, “I have nothing else to say.” During our interaction with Adam, we stressed my concern that [Harmony] had not been physically observed in over two years and that we had concern for whether or not she was still alive. Adam did not exhibit much emotion or reaction to this. Adam said that he believed [Harmony] was in MA with her mother. Adam claimed he did not know why Crystal would say anything to the contrary. Similarly, he told us, “I have nothing else to say.”
Sorey, for her part, “outright denied” ever taking custody of her missing daughter in 2019 or anytime after losing custody in 2018.
Adam Montgomery was arrested and charged with felony assault in the second degree on Tuesday over the black eye incident.
The girl’s father was also charged with several additional misdemeanors related to his alleged treatment of, and behavior towards, Harmony Montgomery, who is blind in one eye. Specifically, police charged him over his alleged failure to maintain custody of his daughter, for preventing child welfare agencies to take custody of her, and for not providing information about Harmony Montgomery’s whereabouts when interviewed by Manchester police.
The redacted affidavit can be viewed below:
[images via Manchester Police Department]