Harmony Montgomery trial hears father put ‘dead rotting girl in a bag’ in opening statements: Live

Mr Brooks went on to say that Kayla Montgomery had created a web of lies to blame her husband and that Adam Montgomery had merely agreed to destroy evidence to “protect” his wife and keep custody of their young children.

“He’s not innocent here. He and Kayla moved the body to keep it hidden. You should find him guilty on those charges,” Mr Brooks told jurors. “Adam Montgomery did not kill Harmony … Kayla Montgomery was the last person to see Harmony alive and knows how Harmony died.”

Mr Montgomery said Harmony, Adam Montgomery, Kayla Montgomery and the couple’s two infants had been living in a car after being evicted from their home in December 2019. The family was living in their car and Montgomery was doing odd work in order to earn quick money, Mr Brooks claimed.

It was during one of those instances in which Kayla Montgomery was left alone with the children in the car that Harmony died, Mr Brooks alleged. The prosecution had previously suggested during their opening statements that Harmony died after her father repeatedly hit her in the head because she had soiled herself.

The state argued that Kayla Montgomery didn’t come forward with information sooner because she was being abused and “terrorised” by her husband.

“Harmony did not die in that intersection you saw yesterday,” Mr Brooks told the court. “Both Adam Montgomery and Kayla found Harmony’s body in the middle of the night after he returned from work at Colonia Village Apartments.”

The defence said Kayla Montgomery did not tell Adam Montgomery how Harmony died, but that he went on with a plan to destroy Harmony’s remains in order to “protect” his family. The couple then put off the decision to dispose of the body because they didn’t know what to do, Mr Brooks said.

“He had to protect [Kayla]. He had to protect their children,” Mr Brooks said. “If anyone found out, her children would be taken.”

The girl’s remains have still never been found.

The Gilford Street property was the focus of much of the search with investigators seen in the home and the backyard for multiple days.

However, Manchester Police said the search concluded there.

It is not clear if anything of interest was uncovered and no other locations for searches have been identified.

Prior to the alleged murder of his daughter, Adam Montgomery has a history of violence and a long criminal record including convictions for shooting a man in the head in a drug deal just six months before Harmony was born.

He was also convicted in 2010 for attacking two women at gunpoint.

It has also emerged that Montgomery is a suspect in the cold case murder of a 28-year-old man in Lynn, New Hampshire, back in February 2008.

Darlin Guzman was found shot in the chest in the parking lot of the former White Hen Convenience store in Lynn’s Austin Square on the night of 10 February 2008. He was pronounced dead in hospital.

A law enforcement source told Boston 25 News that Mr Montgomery, who was 18 at the time, and two members of his family, who were not named, have been the focus of the murder investigation since day one.

The three family members had been in contact with the victim earlier that day and planned to meet with him at the convenience store, before the meeting culminated in gunfire, according to the source.

No one has ever been charged with Guzman’s murder but the source said Mr Montgomery remains the focus of the investigation to this day.

In June 2023, Mr Montgomery was found guilty of all counts in his trial relating to stolen weapons in 2019. He was sentenced to 32-and-a-half to 75 years in prison.

Following complaints by other residents at the shelter where he lived and hid Harmony’s body, Montgomery decided to bring the bag with Harmony’s remains to work with him every day.

At the time, Montgomery worked as a cook and dish washer at a since-closed restaurant.

“[The bag] stood out to people, because he placed it in the freezer during his shifts,” a prosecutor said. “He brought it with him regularly to work and he stored it in a freezer where the company kept food, ingredients. People saw him bringing that in and out. They couldn’t have imagined what that bag contained.”

The last confirmed sighting of Harmony was on 11 September 2019 when Manchester police officers were called to her father’s home on 77 Gilford Street in Manchester.

Harmony was living with her father as well as his wife Kayla Montgomery and their children at the property at the time.

Law enforcement said the last police callout to the property was in October 2019 but later confirmed they had muddled the dates and it was actually September.

Police interviews and statements from various family members also offered a timeline for her last known sighting.

Ms Sorey told police she had not been able to contact her daughter since they spoke on a video call in April 2019. After that, she said Mr Montgomery cut off all contact between her and her daughter.

Mr Montgomery first claimed to investigators he last saw his daughter around Thanksgiving 2019, claiming that Ms Sorey had picked her up from Manchester to take her to live with her.

According to the criminal complaint, Mr Montgomery claimed to believe his daughter was living with his ex when officers contacted him in December 2021.

He also did “not show much emotion or reaction” when officers said they were concerned whether Harmony was alive, the complaint alleges.

His story was also contradicted by Ms Montgomery, who told police she last saw Harmony the day after Thanksgiving when her husband said he was driving her to see Ms Sorey.

Mr Montgomery’s uncle Kevin Montgomery told investigators he had not seen Harmony or his nephew since late 2019 when she was five years old.

Harmony was born in June 2014. At the time, her father was in prison before his release in 2015.

The little girl was removed from her mother’s care at least three times in the first four years of her life, according to WMUR.

In July 2018, the Department of Child Services removed her from her mother’s custody, due to her drug addiction, and placed Harmony in a foster home.

Then, in February 2019, Mr Montgomery was granted custody of Harmony before a review of his home was completed by the New Hampshire Division of Children, Youth and Families.

While Ms Sorey lived in Massachusetts, Mr Montgomery lived in New Hampshire – so Harmony was moved to a new state to live with her father.

Harmony Montgomery, 5, was last seen in the fall of 2019, but authorities only started searching for her two years later. Now, her father Adam Montgomery is finally going on trial for her murder.

The Independent’s Rachel Sharp and Andrea Blanco report:

On Tuesday, Judge Amy Messer told the pool of jurors Wednesday morning that Adam Montgomery had a right to appear at his trial, but he also had a right not to.

“You are not to speculate on why he is not here today” nor draw any inferences, she said.

Montgomery also did not appear in court on Thursday.

After Harmony was killed on 7 December 2019, her father, stepmother Kayla Montgomery, and the couple’s two infant children moved in with Kayla’s mother. At that time, Montgomery reportedly kept Harmony’s remains inside a red freezer with a white lid.

The family later moved to a shelter, where Montgomery then hid Harmony’s body inside a ceiling vent.

“He compressed and contorted her body into this bag,” the prosecution said while showing a medium-sized tote bag.

The state said that when investigators returned to the room two years later, they saw deep blood stains in the ceiling vent and smelled decomposition.

“And surrounding Harmony’s blood, all that was left of her …. the defendant’s fingerprints and palm prints, froze in there for a time,” the prosecution said.

After neighbours began to complain about the smell, Montgomery reportedly brought the bag with Harmony’s remains to work with him every day. At the time, Montgomery worked as a cook and dishwasher at the since-closed Portland Pie Company.

“[The bag] stood out to people, because he placed it in the freezer during his shifts,” a prosecutor said. “He brought it with him regularly to work and he stored it in a freezer where the company kept food, and ingredients. People saw him bringing that in and out. They couldn’t have imagined what that bag contained.”

Montgomery began discussing ways to dispose of Harmony’s body in March 2020, after he and Kayla Montgomery moved to an apartment on Union Street with their children.

“He discussed using a saw to cut her up. He discussed using lime to further decompose her so she couldn’t be found,” the prosecution said. “Remember, he believed that if there was nobody there could be no evidence and he could get away with this.”

The state said that he compressed the sealed bag with Harmony’s remains and added lime to the bag.

“Thinking that it would eat away anything left of her,” the prosecution said. “He spent most of the day in that bathroom compressing Harmony.”

According to the prosecution, Montgomery took Harmony’s frozen remains and put them in the tub, running hot water to further manipulate what was left of the body. Kayla Montgomery then walked inside the bathroom and allegedly saw Montgomery

She saw that Harmony was largely skin, bones and fluid – and that Mr Montgomery was trying to dispose of her remains down the drain, the prosecutor said.