The mother of slain five-year-old Harmony Montgomery has launched a new search for the child’s remains at a New Hampshire park nearly five years after she was killed.
Crystal Sorey and a group of volunteers gathered Monday at Mary O’Malley Park in Chelsea, Massachusetts – an area where the girl’s father Adam Montgomery reportedly dumped her body after killing her, according to prosecutors.
In May, Montgomery was sentenced to 56 years in prison after he was convicted of murdering his daughter and moving her corpse around for months before disposing of it in March 2020.
Police believe Harmony was killed by Montgomery nearly two years before she was reported missing in 2021. Her remains have never been found.
A 1,500-square-mile area from Manchester to Boston has been identified by investigators as a place where Adam Montgomery might have disposed of his daughter’s remains.
Several searches for the girl have taken place, but this is the first time this spot at the park has been searched.
Now, Sorey is asking more people to help as she vows to never give up the search for her daughter.
“If you love her or if she’s left an impact in your life in any way, you’re close enough and you’re not doing anything, come on down. Look for her,” Sorey said. “I’m never gonna give up.”
Another search is planned for October.
But Sorey told WCVB that she just wishes Montgomery would just tell her where Harmony is.
“He still has that one ounce of control left over Harmony, and I feel like to induce more pain on me, because he hates me so much, that he would tell me where she is,” she said.
The last time Sorey saw Harmony was during a video call in April 2019, she said.
She later went to police, who announced they were looking for the missing child on New Year’s Eve 2021.
At Adam Montgomery’s trial, Harmony’s stepmother Kayla Montgomery testified that her family, including her two young sons with Adam, had been evicted right before Thanksgiving in 2019 and were living in a car.
She said that on December 7, Adam Montgomery punched Harmony at several stop lights as they drove from a methadone clinic to a fast food restaurant because he was angry that she was having bathroom accidents in the car.
The couple later discovered the girl was dead after the car broke down, Kayla Montgomery testified. She said her husband put the body in a duffel bag. She described various places where the girl’s body was hidden, including the trunk of a car, a cooler, a homeless center ceiling vent and the walk-in freezer at her husband’s workplace.
Last month, Sorey filed a negligence lawsuit claiming that New Hampshire’s Division for Children, Youth and Families ignored a litany of warning signs that Harmony was being physically abused by her father before her death.
The agency also received concerning reports about the household from neighbors and other people, according to the lawsuit, but failed to take appropriate action.
As a result of the negligence by the agency, the lawsuit says, “Harmony was the subject of multiple separate single incidents of serious physical and emotional abuse and neglect, including, but not limited to, corporal punishment, verbal and mental abuse, beatings that caused serious injury, and death.”
The lawsuit seeks a jury trial and unspecified monetary damages.
Michael Garrity, a spokesperson for the state’s Attorney General, said it would review the complaint and “respond as appropriate.”
