Killing of Harmony Montgomery

Harmony Renee Montgomery was born on June 7, 2014, to parents who were no longer together. She was partially blind in one eye and had special needs. Her father, Adam Montgomery, was incarcerated when she was born, so her mother initially held sole custody, but within days there were multiple reports of alleged neglect to the Department of Children and Families (DCF), and Harmony was placed into foster care at two months old, spending the next four years in DCF custody. Her mother, a recovering drug addict, permanently lost custody of Harmony and another child in 2018. In 2019, a Massachusetts judge awarded Adam Montgomery full custody despite his having spent only 40 hours with Harmony during supervised visits; a later Office of the Child Advocate report found that the DCF had failed to adequately assess Adam Montgomery or present a strong case against placing Harmony in his care. Adam was living in Manchester, New Hampshire, with his wife Kayla Montgomery and their two sons; both had substance-abuse issues, using SNAP food stamps to pay a drug dealer, leaving the family without enough food.

Harmony was repeatedly beaten and abused by Adam Montgomery. A relative of Adam's noticed a black eye and reported the abuse to child protective agencies, but no action resulted. In late 2019 the family was evicted and began living in their car before moving to a homeless shelter; the abuse continued, and Harmony began having bathroom accidents that had not occurred before they became homeless. According to Kayla Montgomery's later trial testimony, Adam Montgomery beat Harmony to death in December 2019 during a rage while traveling to a methadone clinic. Adam and Kayla then concealed her remains for months, freezing the body and later cutting up and dissolving the remains in lye; Harmony's body has never been recovered.

Harmony's mother grew concerned when Adam did not bring Harmony for a Thanksgiving visit; after he blocked her on Facebook, she filed a missing-person report with New Hampshire police in late 2021, more than two years after Harmony's last reported sighting. Adam told investigators that Harmony was living with her mother. In December 2021, the Manchester Police Department held a press conference on the case while cooperating with New Hampshire authorities, and investigators interviewed a brother of Adam's, who described witnessing Adam's abusive behavior toward Harmony. On August 11, 2022, Manchester Police Chief Allen Aldenberg and New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella stated publicly that they believed Harmony was dead and that her father had killed her.

Adam Montgomery and Kayla Montgomery were charged with second-degree murder. Adam's trial began on February 8, 2024, in Superior Court in Hillsborough County; he was already serving a 30-year sentence for an unrelated gun conviction and refused to attend. Kayla Montgomery, separately convicted of perjury for lying to a grand jury about Harmony's death, testified against Adam, describing his physical and emotional abuse of her and Harmony. On February 22, 2024, a jury found Adam Montgomery guilty of second-degree murder and falsifying physical evidence. On March 12, 2024, a judge granted a request from Harmony's mother to have Harmony declared legally dead, citing Adam Montgomery's confession to abusing her corpse. He was sentenced on May 9, 2024, to 45 years to life, to run consecutively with his sentence for the weapons conviction. On June 11, 2026, the New Hampshire Supreme Court reversed the murder conviction, agreeing with Adam Montgomery's argument that the assault charge should have been tried separately, while leaving the other charges in place. The case prompted public outrage and calls to reform child protective systems.