Harmony Montgomery: Everything We Know
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This is Murder, She Told. True crime stories from Maine, New England, and small town USA. I'm your host, Kristen Zevey. You can connect with me at MurderSheTold.com or on Instagram at MurderSheToldPodcast. The sharp staccato sound of a flashlight tapping on the glass of the driver's side window startled Adam Montgomery.

The beams from the flashlight swept across the front seats of the car, and the harsh light diffusing through the glass windshield blinded the occupants. Adam was no stranger to the law. He knew that those flashlights belonged to the police. The officers asked him to roll down the window. At first, he thought that it was about where he was parked.

It wasn't easy to be homeless. No matter where he landed, it seemed the police would always come by and check on him. He just wanted peace. He had a new girlfriend, Kelsey, who was in the car with him, and they were off the grid at the moment. Nothing but a car to call home.

They were parked on Harville Street, a short street just off 293 on the west side of the Merrimack River, and it was pretty quiet on a holiday in the winter. No one was out to occupy the baseball diamonds and tennis courts that flanked the road.

It was New Year's Eve, and although it wasn't much of a celebration, huddled together in a cold car in the midst of winter in Manchester, New Hampshire, it was enough for them to be together. 2022 was only hours away. He braced himself for the familiar questions. What are you doing here? We had a call about a suspicious vehicle. Have you been drinking? What he wasn't expecting was for the Manchester police officer to ask him about his daughter, Harmony.

He stiffened. They explained to Adam that they were looking for her. Her mother had reported her missing. Was she with him? When was the last time he saw her? What were the circumstances of their last time together? Adam shut down. He quickly said that the last time he'd seen her was when he returned her to her biological mother in November of 2019, about two years ago.

The police weren't satisfied with that. They explained that she didn't have her and hadn't seen her in over two years. Where is she, Adam? He had had enough. Am I under arrest? He inquired. They said no. Well, then leave me be. They asked how they might reach him and Adam admitted to police that he didn't even have a cell phone. The best way to reach him? Occasionally, he would have access to his email.

They left, and he breathed a sigh of relief. Adam Montgomery's encounters with law enforcement went back quite a ways.

In one incident, when he was 18 years old in 2008, he broke into an apartment in Malden, Massachusetts, a suburb on the north side of Boston, and demanded money from two women there at gunpoint. He held a gun to one of their necks, according to a police report. Officers arrived and detained Adam and his associate, at which point Adam pointed the gun at one of the officers. They

They wrestled him to the ground and took the gun away from him, and it was later determined the gun was a pellet gun. He pled guilty to armed robbery and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. Even when he was just a young teenager, he had a series of run-ins with the law. Court records indicate that he was involved with the court system at ages 12, 14, and 16, and his first criminal charge against him as an adult was filed when he was just 17 years old.

In 2014, when he was 24, he shot a man in the face in Haverhill, Massachusetts, on 8th Ave and Cedar Street during a drug deal. In the same incident, he got shot in the arm. Adam said that the shooting occurred during a struggle after the man he was supposed to buy heroin from tried to rob him. The man he shot survived. His name is Robert Jacobs, and he was 28 years old at the time.

When police found him, they discovered that he'd been shot on the left side of the chin and the bullet exited his skull at the left temple. According to Robert, Adam wanted to buy three grams of heroin, and after he showed it to him, Adam pulled out a gun and attempted to rob him.

Adam was shot in the arm by a third man, 22-year-old Cameron Vidaloni. The gun that Adam used to shoot Robert, a .38 caliber revolver, was used by the third man, Cameron, to shoot Adam, and it was found by the police on the sidewalk of 8th Avenue. Adam fled the scene and was discovered in Manchester by the U.S. Marshal's office when they went to arrest him on an unrelated probation violation.

When they found him, that's when they discovered the bullet wound in his right arm. Later that year, he pled guilty to several crimes arising from the incident, including assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and carrying a firearm without a license. And the judge sentenced him to 18 years suspended to be served concurrently with other offenses.

As recently as last year, he was charged with stalking his ex-wife, with whom he was separated as a result of domestic violence in March of 2021. After discovering a steak knife in the yard where Adam was snooping around the house, her mother filed a restraining order against him, but it was later dismissed because they couldn't find Adam to serve him with the papers.

Adam Montgomery has four kids. He had one child with his first wife, Crystal Sorey. Her name is Harmony Montgomery, the girl that the police were asking him about. She was born on June 7th, 2014, the same year as the shooting incident in Haverhill. Today, she would be seven years old.

His other three children are ages 4, 2, and 1 as of this recording, and they all share the same mother, Adam's second wife, Kayla Rivera Montgomery. She has custody of them. So of Adam's four known children, one is missing, and the other three are in custody of his ex-wife.

In addition to Harmony, Crystal had another child, Jameson, but he didn't share the same biological father as his sister, Harmony. I don't know the name of his father. Jameson was in the foster care system and the state was working to place him with adoptive parents. Blair and Jonathan Miller, a Washington, D.C. couple, adopted him in November of 2019 and have been outspoken about Harmony's case. He just turned five years old on December 2nd.

In 2019, Adam lived at 77 Guilford Street in Manchester, New Hampshire, with Kayla. The home was owned at the time by Adam's grandmother, Helen Montgomery, and although I don't know the details of the arrangement, it appears that they moved in upstairs at the small Cape Cod home with their three children as well as Harmony, whom Adam was given custody of in February of 2019.

Helen may have lived there with them at the time, but at some point she went to Florida and then never ended up moving back in. Adam was paying rent to her. All hell broke loose at this house throughout 2019. Police received and responded to 29 calls at 77 Guilford Street, 13 of which were in the five-month span between June and November.

The calls ran the gamut. Domestic violence, animal-related, building complaints, and child welfare. I have police reports from 11 of those calls on the website. In July, there was an incident of a friend who dropped by and overstayed his welcome, getting high and refusing to leave.

Also in July, there was a violent episode between presumably Adam and Kayla that was overheard by someone walking by who called the cops. In August, another neighbor called the police because they were worried about the welfare of the children.

They didn't believe that the house had electricity, and they saw an awful lot of trash. A couple of months prior, around June of 2019, the power to the house was shut off, so Adam put a generator in the front yard to run the bare necessities for the family of six.

Police responded, but according to the report, there was food in the house, and everyone appeared to be healthy. Also in August, Adam picked up the phone to call the cops and report his uncle, Kevin Montgomery, who he claimed was harassing him. He said that Kevin had moved out months prior and had come back while Adam was away from the house to retrieve his TV.

He also claimed that he was calling the Children's Services government organization in New Hampshire, called DCYF, and making false reports. By the end of August, it was noted in a report that Adam and his family were in the process of being evicted. Evidently, his grandmother had stopped making payments on the mortgage, and the house was going into foreclosure. More neighbors were calling about the condition of the property and referred to Adam and his family as squatters.

In September, there was a call about a dog. Evidently, they had a pet dog, and the caller said that she heard people inside yelling at the dog, and then the dog yelping and whimpering, more yelling, and then the dog being put outside, and that it was an ongoing problem. On September 11th, 2019, there was a big confrontation between Kevin Montgomery and his nephew, Adam.

Kevin was with Adam's grandmother and called the cops saying Adam wouldn't let him into the home. Once he finally got inside, pushing open a door that was held shut by a refrigerator, there was a lot of yelling and screaming. Evidently, Kevin flipped a bed over and was very hostile. About a week later, another neighbor called in a suspicious activity report.

She heard loud music at 3 a.m. the night prior and then noticed the next morning that one of the cars appeared to have been broken into. There were pry marks all over it. By early December, Adam, Kayla, and the kids left. The eviction process was at its final stop and they were about to be forced out by law enforcement. There are photos of the home on the website and you can see the rusty old generator that was used as their electrical source.

It was November of 2021, and Harmony's mother, Crystal, hadn't seen her in two and a half years. The last time that she had seen Harmony with her own eyes, in fact, was on Easter of 2019.

She had been getting nowhere with Adam. He had blocked her phone number and blocked her from contacting him on social media. Her only way of getting information about Adam were through intermediate parties. She later wrote that Adam never enrolled Harmony in school, and she had missed important doctor's appointments about her eye.

As time had passed, her concern about her daughter had grown. She started driving around to places she thought Adam was likely to be, trying to find her daughter. Finally, on November 18th, 2021, Crystal called the Manchester Police Department and reported her daughter missing.

Since a child services organization was involved, and since Crystal didn't have custody of Harmony, the police sent a report to DCYF and waited for their response. On December 27th, 2021, a little over a month later, they got their response. DCYF couldn't find Harmony either.

Two days later, on December 29th, Crystal, weary of waiting, sent out emails to everyone involved as well as the Manchester mayor's office expressing her frustration. She said that the next stop was taking her story to the media. Through either coincidence or the threat of exposure, police acted immediately.

On December 30th, police interviewed Adam's younger brother, Michael Montgomery, and on the same day, his uncle, Kevin Montgomery. Kevin told the cops about what he'd seen and heard at 77 Guilford. On December 31st, the Manchester Chief of Police held a press conference and made a big announcement.

At this time, I have dedicated all available resources and personnel to locating Harmony. I'm begging the community. I don't care if you saw this young girl a year ago and you think it's irrelevant. Call us. The first media coverage started to pick up on the 31st.

That same day, police interviewed Kayla Montgomery, Adam's ex-wife, and she too said she knew nothing about Harmony's whereabouts. She hadn't even seen Adam in a couple of months. Almost immediately, a reward fund for tips relating to her disappearance was raised. $2,500 were pledged by Manchester Crimeline, and an additional $10,000 were pledged by local business owners Dick Antignost and Arthur Sullivan.

It was at about this time that police started to piece together when they believed the last time Harmony was seen by anyone. Kayla recalled to police that around Thanksgiving of 2019, when they were getting evicted from 77 Guilford, Adam told her that he was returning Harmony to her mother in Lowell, Massachusetts. Kayla left for work that day, and when she got home, Harmony was gone. And as far as she knew,

That's where Harmony still was, with her biological mom.

Crystal, though, hadn't seen her since April 2019 and flatly denied that trip ever occurred. When they left 77 Guilford with their three kids, they needed a place to stay, and after living out of a car on the streets for about a week, Kayla's mom pitched in to help. She recalled that they stayed with her briefly in December, and that when they moved in, Harmony was not with them. The day they moved in? December 6th.

So sometime between November 28th and December 6th, 2019 was the last time that anyone had reported seeing Harmony. Weirdly, this window of time was just a short two weeks after her younger brother, Jameson, was adopted by the Miller family. Police were looking to exert some pressure on Adam and Kayla, and they had just the ammunition that they needed.

Adam's uncle, Kevin, walked the police through an incident that happened back at 77 Guilford. In July of 2019, Kevin said that Adam had given Harmony a black eye by hitting her in the face. He said that Adam's own words to him were, I bashed her around the house.

Evidently, Adam had asked Harmony to watch one of her younger half-siblings while he was out of the room. And when he returned and found the young boy crying with Harmony holding her hand over his mouth to silence him, he lashed out at her. At this point, she would have just turned five years old.

In addition to this nasty incident, Kevin said that Adam doled out cruel punishments, standing for hours in a corner, hard spankings, and cleaning a toilet with her toothbrush. Police were satisfied with the account about her black eye and took action.

On Tuesday, January 4th, 2022, just a couple weeks ago, police arrested Adam on several charges. Second-degree assault for the July 2019 strike to Harmony's face and a charge of endangering the welfare of a child arising from her Thanksgiving 2019 disappearance and interference with custody by concealing a child.

They locked him up and a judge denied him bail, explaining that the defendant's release will endanger the safety of the defendant or of the public. He still remains in jail. When Kayla's mother was asked about Adam, she said, "'He is pure evil. Adam can sweet-talk and swindle and talk up a storm, but he's actually the devil. For the first couple years, he was a sweet guy, but he's not. He is pure evil.'"

The following day, Wednesday, January 5th, as the judge ordered Adam to be held without bail, police arrested his ex-wife, Kayla Rivera, at the Families in Transition shelter on Class A felony welfare fraud charges. Her three young children were brought to Kayla's mother's place to stay. The

The charges stated that Kayla stole more than $1,500 worth of monthly food benefits from November 30, 2019 until June 2, 2021, about 18 months.

Kayla, on her paperwork with the state, claimed that during that time period, Harmony was a part of her household, despite the fact that she was not, and therefore collected extra benefits on Harmony's behalf, money that she wasn't entitled to. Kayla has said that she believed Harmony was with her mom during that time frame.

The following day, a judge set her bail at $5,000 and gave her these conditions. She was not to speak with Adam, she couldn't leave New Hampshire, and she had to sign an extradition waiver, which simplified means that if she did leave the state, she waived her right to an extradition hearing, and authorities would be able to bring her right back to New Hampshire right away.

Less than a week after she was charged, on Monday, January 10th, prosecutors substituted the Class A felony welfare charges against Kayla Rivera with nine other charges. Her lawyer also filed a motion to reduce her bail because he believed $5,000 was too high now that she was no longer being charged with a Class A felony. Kayla was arraigned on Tuesday the 12th with downgraded Class B felony charges of fraud.

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The weekend prior, Saturday, January 8th, to Monday, January 10th, the FBI joined the Manchester and New Hampshire State Police in the search for Harmony and searched Adams' former home at 77 Guilford. The house was sold to new owners in May 2020. The current homeowners, whose property is now entangled in the mess of an investigation, have no connection to the Montgomery's or to this case.

Police didn't disclose what they were searching for, but at 10.30 on the morning of Sunday, January 10th, officers were seen lugging sheets of insulation down the driveway into the back of a police truck. The truck left the residence 10 minutes later while the rest of the crew continued their work.

January in New England is never a warm time, but for the past two weeks, the Northeast has been especially cold. Temperatures have averaged below 20 degrees, dipping below zero at times with a wind chill that makes it feel much colder.

During the three-day search, much of the efforts were focused on the backyard. WHDH Boston showed drone footage from above Guilford Street, which was completely blocked off with police cars the entire length of the street. It also showed the backyard of 77 Guilford. Police had created a network of pipes designed to thaw the ground with hot water running through. Giant sheets of plastic and tarps can be seen,

as well as tents covering a majority of the backyard. Once the ground was soft enough, police began digging. While the police have been extensively searching for anything that might lead them to Harmony, the public has stayed vigilant. Internet and couch sleuths hopped on board, scouring the internet for any clues that could help.

Generous Samaritans have been continually increasing their reward fund for information. At this point, it was up to $94,000. There were vigils and news segments and Facebook groups popping up left and right. At a vigil that Saturday night, January 8th, the weekend of the dig at 77 Guilford,

Crystal Sori told the media, Speaking of internet sleuths, there's a group of awesome people following this case and digging for clues. And over the past weekend, they made an amazing discovery.

Though it has since been taken down, there was an active eBay listing for an automatic transmission and a power steering pump from a car that formerly belonged to Adam Montgomery. The car's license plate was visible in the listing and was confirmed to be the same license plate as one that appeared in one of the police reports from the many incidents at 77 Guilford. It's a gray 2010 Chrysler Sebring.

The car's VIN number was published as part of the listing on eBay, and sleuths ran a Carfax report to see what it would reveal, and what they found out is either a tremendous coincidence or a break in the case.

As a reminder, the key timeframe that we're keenly interested in is the period between November 28th and December 6th, 2019, and there are two reported incidents from this exact timeframe. I don't know the details of where Carfax gets its information, but I would suspect the primary sources are DMVs, insurance companies, and repair shops.

On November 29th, there was a report of damage to the front center of the car. On December 2nd, there was a report of damage to the front left of the car. There are no further details in the report, but this suggests a theory as to what may have happened to Harmony. What if Adam were involved in an accident and Harmony was killed or critically injured? Could he have made her disappear instead of facing the consequences for vehicular manslaughter?

There have been many loud critics blaming the state for failing to protect Harmony. A lot of the decisions about her are confidential, and we may never know the full circumstances to have an informed opinion about her treatment by the state. But here's an outline of what we do know.

In 2018, Harmony's mother, Crystal, lost custody due to her substance abuse issues. I believe that Harmony entered the foster care system at this point. By February of 2019, Adam had gotten custody of Harmony. When reporters asked Crystal about this outcome, she explained that she'd asked the judge for continuance and it was denied.

The reason for the delay? She had a conflicting hearing the same day at the same time for her son Jameson's adoption. Since she couldn't be in two places at once, the judge decided to give sole custody of Harmony to her father.

I suspect that it would have been possible for Crystal to get a court-blessed visitation agreement to see Harmony, but I don't believe that happened. So she was at the whim of Adam's generosity. At first, briefly, Adam allowed her to communicate with Harmony over the phone or virtually, but Crystal said that Easter of 2019 was the last time she had contact with her daughter.

By July of 2019, Adam's uncle, Kevin, had notified the state about Harmony, and he insists today that they could have acted then.

Adam later described to police that Kevin was harassing him by making untrue claims to Child Protective Services. Crystal's father, Harmony's maternal grandfather, told Boston 25 News that he or his family had called social workers 14 times in 2020 and 2021 about Harmony. He said, "...that poor girl has been through hell in the system, and the system has failed her."

Jamison's adopted parents also contacted the state and told them that they were willing to adopt Harmony as well, but they said that she'd been reunited with her father. Reporters have been trying to apply some pressure to the child service agencies, lawmakers, and governor's offices to review the secret decisions that were made by child services and the juvenile court system to see if they did, in fact, act in Harmony's best interest.

Prominent lawmaker and Massachusetts chairman of the Joint Committee on Children and Families has asked for the mayor of the Child Advocate to review the decisions made on Harmony's case. He said, this is on the permanent agenda until we get the answers we think we need. He estimated that pulling the case files will take two to three weeks, and then a review will be conducted after they're retrieved.

I learned that New Hampshire employs a total of 283 child protection workers, and since 2019, 196 have transferred out of their positions or quit. That's 69.2% turnover in just two years.

The Concord Monitor reported that a former Manchester child protection worker, Amber Bennett, said that she had cases for more than 200 children and was working 70 to 80 hours a week in the spring of 2019 trying to keep up. The mission statement of the organizations is to partner with families and communities to provide resources and support that lead to the safety and healthy development of children, youth, and the communities in which they live.

New Hampshire Governor Sununu ordered DCYF to immediately review Harmony's case, but said, Right now, I feel confident DCYF has done a good job of staying on top of the case and transmitting the information.

Crystal had this to say, I'm not gonna lie, I'm hostile at this point. I have a lot of hostility to a lot of people that failed my daughter, and I'm included. I'm always going to own the fact that I played my part on this. But I never gave up on her. She is so very, very loved by everyone who's ever met her.

But why did it take two and a half years since Crystal last saw her daughter in April of 2019 to take action?

Blair and Jonathan Miller, the adoptive fathers of Jameson, Harmony's little brother, spoke with Good Morning America this past Saturday, January 15th, pleading with the public to come forward with information. Jameson, who spent time in foster care with Harmony when he was about three, remembers his sister and asks about her frequently. He even looks for her when they go to the park, hoping that she might be there to play.

Jonathan said, It's a tragedy that Blair and Jonathan Miller weren't able to adopt Harmony. If they had succeeded, she would likely be living a happy life with her brother in a warm and loving home.

As of the release of this episode, January 18th, 2022, the reward for information leading to Harmony's whereabouts has climbed to more than $137,000. Hopefully, if somebody is holding on to pertinent information about Harmony's disappearance, it doesn't take additional money to do the right thing and come forward with what they know.

This case is still developing and will be constantly evolving every day. Police have received more than 300 tips and counting. I will keep you updated as this story develops. I believe this episode to be as accurate as possible at the time of release. But because new information is constantly coming in, some information might change in the future.

What remains, though, is the need for answers and the hope, no matter how small, that Harmony is safe and will be found.

Harmony Montgomery is currently seven years old with blonde hair and blue eyes. She's blind in her right eye and should be wearing glasses. She's around four feet tall and weighs about 50 pounds. If you have any relevant information to the investigation of Harmony Montgomery, please call the Manchester Police Department exclusive Harmony tip line at 603-203-6060.

I want to thank you so much for listening. I'm so grateful that you chose to tune in and I couldn't be here without you. Thank you. If you want to support and contribute to the show, there's a link in the show notes with options. Leaving a nice review or telling a friend is a great way to support too. You can connect with me on Facebook or Instagram at MurderSheToldPodcast.

A detailed list of sources can be found on the blog at MurderSheTold.com linked in the show notes. Thank you to Byron Willis for his research and writing support. If you would like to make a suggestion for a future episode or a correction, feel free to reach out to me at hello at MurderSheTold.com. If you are a friend or family member of the victim, please feel free to reach out to me. I would love to hear from you.

My only hope is that I've honored your stories and keeping the names of your family and friends alive. I'm Kristen Sevey, and this is Murder, She Told. Thank you for listening.