The father accused of killing his daughter, Harmony Montgomery, has attempted to exclude several pieces of evidence from his upcoming trial that prosecutors suggest may have been used to conceal Harmony’s body.
A defence filing obtained by Fox News indicated that the public defenders of Adam Montgomery, 33, have been trying to prevent evidence from being shown at his murder trial.
The Manchester, New Hampshire suspect stands accused of second-degree murder for allegedly killing his daughter by repeatedly hitting her on the head with a closed fist.
The evidence includes 80lb of lime, a diamond-edged blade, and a power grinder, which are alleged to have been bought at two Home Depot stores around a week before Mr Montgomery purportedly disposed of the corpse.
"There is no evidence that lime is such a unique purchase that would connect the purchases to the Montgomerys," the defence wrote, according to Fox News.
Kayla Montogomery told police that her husband allegedly had lime to decompose the body— (Manchester Police Department)
The defendant argued that the identity of the Home Depot customer(s) is unknown.
However, the prosecutors countered this on Tuesday and said that the purchases are key circumstantial evidence.
"The evidence of purchases from Home Depot is relevant because it is circumstantial evidence connecting the defendant to an ATM withdrawal and lime that he purchased to further conceal and dispose of Harmony Montgomery’s corpse," the prosecutors wrote in opposition, according to the document obtained by Fox News.
The purchases of lime were allegedly made in February 2020 at two different Home Depots.
Testimony in June from Mr Montgomery’s now-estranged wife and Harmony’s stepmother, Kayla Montgomery, supposedly backs up the purchases.
It is claimed that Mr Montgomery kept his daughter’s remains in a cooler and a duffle bag, carrying them along to different temporary housing accommodations before finally dumping them, Fox News reports.
Adam Montgomery is expected to face trial in February— (Manchester Police Department)
Mr Montgomery allegedly took Harmony’s frozen remains and put them in the bathroom shower to thaw.
Kayla Montogomery told authorities in an earlier interview that her husband believed lime would help to decompose the body, the court document stated on the Fox News website.
"While Kayla was not aware of whether the defendant used tools, she said that while the defendant was taking a break from his conduct in the bathroom, he disclosed to her that ‘he was going to try and like put her in pieces,’" prosecutors wrote.
"She also reported that the defendant was attempting to ‘squish’ and ‘bend’ the corpse to create additional space in the bag so he could add lime."
Prosecutors claimed that a day after he made the second purchase, he asked the landlord of his apartment to snake the drain of his bathtub.
It is thought he disposed of the corpse between 3 and 4 March 2020, five days after an ATM withdrawal of cash and purchase at Home Depot.
Harmony Montgomery was thought to have died in early December 2019— (Manchester Police Department)
He is also accused of falsifying physical evidence, second-degree assault, abuse of a corpse, and witness tampering when he allegedly attempted to coerce his wife into lying to investigators.
Ms Montgomery was also charged with lying to a grand jury and collecting benefits meant for Harmony after her suspected death.
As part of a plea deal, Ms Montgomery is expected to testify against her estranged husband at his upcoming trial.
Prosecutors believe Harmony could have been killed sometime around 7 December 2019, but the missing child was not reported until November 2021.
Mr Montgomery is scheduled to face his murder trial in early February.
