Harmony Montgomery, Part 2: The Trial of Adam Montgomery
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I'm Kristen Sevey. This is Murder, She Told.

This is part two of Harmony Montgomery's story. If you haven't listened to part one, I suggest going back and starting with that one first. This episode discusses the death of a child, domestic violence, and child abuse, and includes descriptions that are graphic and upsetting in nature. It also includes profanity in both my dialogue and witness testimony that will not be censored. Please listen with care.

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, 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 parked. It wasn't easy being unhoused. No matter where he landed, it seemed like the police would always come by and check on him. He just wanted peace. He was with his girlfriend, Kelsey Small, and they were off the grid at the moment. Nothing but a car to call home.

They were parked on Harville Street in Manchester, 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 their cold car in the midst of winter, it was enough for them to be together. 2022 was only hours away.

Adam braced himself for the familiar questions. "What are you doing here?" "We had a call about a suspicious vehicle." "Have you two been drinking?" Etc. 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? Does he know where she is? What were the circumstances of their last time together? Adam shut down. He quickly said that the last time he had seen her was when he returned Harmony 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, leave me alone then. They asked him how they might reach him, and Adam admitted 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 Adam breathed a sigh of relief.

On that same day, December 31st, 2021, Manchester PD held a press conference, and the public learned of Harmony's disappearance. The chief said, At this time, I've dedicated all available resources and personnel to locating Harmony. I am begging the community. I don't care if you saw this little girl a year ago and you think it's irrelevant. Call us.

The case exploded. Every regional media outlet picked up the story, and many national outlets followed. We released the original episode on Harmony on January 18, 2022, about three weeks after the announcement. The juvenile court system granted DCYF protective supervision over Harmony, giving them greater power and control in looking for her. Adam was served with the order the same day.

On the 31st, police spoke with Kayla again. And again, she lied, saying that as far as she knew, Harmony was back with her mother.

Adam had a conversation with one of his friends this same day, Matt Garcia, and he seemed to open up a little bit, saying, The kid wouldn't stop pissing and shitting everywhere. She was driving me nuts. We were living in the car, so I let her... I had her mom come and get her. It was all the time. Every five minutes, I couldn't take it, and I had to give her to her mom.

On January 1, Manchester PD tracked down Adam's old car, the gray Chrysler Sebring, at Herbert's used auto parts. They found Harmony's pink Trolls electric toothbrush. In the days that followed, Manchester PD, joined by the FBI, searched 77 Guilford Street, the last home that Harmony was seen living at.

Within two days, there was a reward fund announced, $12,500, courtesy of Manchester Crimeline, who donated $10,000 and two local business owners who put in the rest. Police were looking to exert some pressure on Adam and Kayla, and they had just the ammunition they needed. Adam's uncle, Kevin, walked the police through the 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. In addition to this nasty incident, Kevin said that Adam doled out cruel punishments, standing for hours in a corner, hard spanking, and cleaning the toilet with her toothbrush. Police were satisfied with the account of her black eye and took action. Kevin later testified about this in court. When you got home,

Did you see Harmony there? I did. Where did you see her? I seen her standing in the kitchen. And when you saw her in the kitchen, how did she look to you? She had a black eye. Can you describe it for us? How did the black eye look? Full, like a raccoon's eye, black and blue. And when you say full, what do you mean by full?

Can you give us a good example? All the way around. All the way around. And I see just there you were pointing to your right eye. Did you see it on her right eye? I honestly can't recall, but I think the left. Okay, you think the left. You said you saw her in the kitchen with this black eye? Yes. Okay. So when you saw her in the kitchen with this black eye, what, if anything, did you say? It's okay. Take your time.

Something along the words of, oh my fucking God, what did you do, Harmony? And who answered that question? My nephew, Adam. Where was he? Standing right behind her. And what did Adam say? She didn't do anything. I bashed her around the fucking house. Did Harmony ever say anything in response to the question or just Adam saying, I bashed her around the fucking house? I think just Adam. How did Adam say this? Can you say it the way that he said it?

so that we understand. If I had to describe it to the best of my ability, it would be like a cocky son of a bitch. Did Adam tell you why he bashed her around the house and caused the black eye? He did. What did he say? He said he was in the bathroom. He put Harmony in charge to watch Declan. And when he came out, Harmony had her hands over his mouth.

And I guess his lips were supposedly blue. That's what was explained. That's what Adam explained to you? Correct. And after he explained that, how did he say he caused the black eye? I bashed her on the fucking house. Was there anybody else in the kitchen when Adam said this to you? Just the three of us. Just you, Adam, and Harmony? Harmony. When you heard this from Adam...

Who did you tell about what Adam told you and seeing the black eye? Who did you tell? You want names? Yes, please. I told my mom. I told my son's mother, Christina. I told my sister, Erin. My brothers, Sean, Michael, and Richard. I told one of Adam's friends, Nick and Erin. I told Harmony's mom, Crystal. I told Harmony's dad.

And so did a woman named Rebecca Maines, who was a friend of Adams in 2021.

So he told me that he was in the bathroom and he had walked out to find Harmony with her hands over the baby's mouth and nose and that the baby was not breathing and turning blue. And he said he saw red and he just backhanded her. On Tuesday, January 4th, police arrested Adam on several charges.

Second-degree assault for the July 2019 strike to Harmony's face, 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 the judge denied him bail, explaining that the defendant's release will endanger the safety of the defendant or of the public.

On January 5th, police arrested Kayla Montgomery at Fit Shelter. Kayla's mom, Chris, took temporary custody of her kids, ages 4, 2, and 1. She was charged with felony welfare fraud. Kayla, on her paperwork with the state, claimed that Harmony was a part of her household after Thanksgiving 2019, despite the fact that she was not, and therefore collected extra benefits on Harmony's behalf.

money that she wasn't entitled to. She received a total of $2,451 in benefits, or about $130 a month, for a period of 19 months, during which Harmony was, according to even Kayla, with Mom Crystal in Massachusetts. Because the amount exceeded $1,500, it was considered a felony-level offense.

A judge set her bail at $5,000, but Kayla couldn't make it, so she sat in jail awaiting her trial. Summer is here, which means more social events, more weddings to attend, more nights out on the town, and hopefully more vacations. That's why I'm thankful for today's sponsor, Honeylove, for covering us with the best shapewear. With Honeylove, you can feel your best, even when you're wearing less.

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The new homeowners, whose property was now entangled in a mess of an investigation, had no connection to the Montgomery's or to the case. Police didn't disclose what they were searching for, but at 10:30 a.m. the morning of Sunday, January 10th, officers were seen lugging sheets of insulation down the driveway into the back of a police truck. 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 with hot water running through them, designed to thaw the ground below. Giant sheets of plastic and tarps can be seen, as well as tents covering the majority of the backyard. Once the ground was soft enough, police began digging.

They were looking for a body. Generous Samaritans continually increased the reward fund for information. It rose to $94,000. There were vigils in news segments and Facebook groups popping up left and right. By the end of January, the reward was up to $137,000.

On March 13th, Adam's girlfriend, Kelsey Small, died of an overdose at the same Econolodge in Manchester, where Adam and Kayla stayed the night he disposed of Harmony's body. A few weeks later, on April 4th, Adam was arrested again, this time on more serious charges. The cops had evidently connected him to the firearm theft back in 2019. He was in prison when Harmony was born, and he was no stranger to the law.

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 the gun to one of their necks, according to a police report. Officers arrived and detained Adam and his associate, at which point Adam pointed a gun at one of the officers. Incredibly, he wasn't shot.

They wrestled him to the ground and took the gun away from him, and it was later determined that the gun was just a pellet gun. He pled guilty to armed robbery and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. Even when he was just a 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 17.

In 2014, at age 24, he shot a man in the face in Haverhill, Massachusetts during a drug deal. In the same incident, he got shot in the arm. Adams 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. When police found the man, they discovered that he'd been shot in the left side of the chin, and the bullet exited his skull at his left temple.

According to the man, 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 who used a .38 caliber revolver. The bullet was later found by 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 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. The judge sentenced him to 18 months to be served concurrently with other offenses. I'm not sure which of his crimes for which he was convicted were felony level, but there were probably multiple.

As a felon, he wasn't allowed to own a gun, so the prosecutor loaded him up with charges. Two counts of receiving stolen property, two counts of being a felon in possession, and two counts of, quote, armed career criminal. Kayla, too, was charged with some crimes relating to the same firearm theft incident, but those charges were later dropped.

In May of 2022, the Office of the Child Advocate in Massachusetts completed their review of Harmony's case and they issued their findings. Their 100-page report was a foundational document that was used in the research of this episode. It outlined Harmony's early life with great clarity.

On May 20th, Kayla was called to testify before a grand jury in Hillsborough County. She said that Adam brought her to work at Dunkin' Donuts on November 30th, 2019, at 6 a.m., and that Harmony was in the car with her. She said that after dropping her off, Adam said that he was taking Harmony to her mom. Adam picked Kayla up at work at 2 p.m. that afternoon, and she said that Harmony was gone. Following the hearing, Manchester PD fact-checked Kayla.

It turned out that Kayla hadn't worked at the Goffstown Dunkin' Donuts location at all in 2019. She had worked at a different location, 20 minutes away in Hooksett, but she'd been fired from that location a week prior on November 23rd. Cops had her in a clear lie, and they applied some pressure. Two weeks after her testimony, on June 3rd, they charged her with a count of felony-level perjury.

She was arrested and released three days later. But Kayla was buckling under the pressure. She hadn't even seen or spoken to Adam in six months. His hold over her was fading. She agreed to cooperate with the state and became the star witness for the prosecution. She sat down with the prosecutor and for the first time since law enforcement got involved, was honest about what happened to Harmony. She gave what became known as her first proffer interview.

A proper agreement is basically a deal with the state to get some kind of leniency in exchange for cooperation. In Kayla's case, though the agreement wouldn't be finalized and signed for months, she would ultimately escape being charged with anything relating to Harmony's death or the concealment of her body. She would have to plead guilty to the perjury charges, and she would ultimately serve 18 months in prison.

Immediately after Kayla told the cops what she knew, they sprung into action. Her mom consented to a search of her home, and the cops seized the red and white cooler. They searched their former apartment at 644 Union Street, hauling a fridge out. Investigators were assisted by a sewer plumbing team. Detectives searched the EconoLodge room 216, and they processed the mini-fridge. They got the toll records from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation.

They tracked down the U-Haul van, which was no longer part of the fleet and had been sold to a third party. They got other witnesses to turn state's evidence. They interviewed Kayla a second time. But the most crucial physical evidence was recovered from the Fitch shelter. This was outlined in an affidavit that would later be drafted by the lead detective. It's clear and well-written, so I'll read directly from the report.

Photos from the police file, none of which are graphic, can be viewed on the website at MurderSheTold.com. The affidavit reads: "Detectives removed the vent in order to check the top side of the ceiling sheetrock. There, next to the opening for the ceiling vent, detectives located a large area of staining. This area is directly next to the ceiling vent where Kayla described that Adam put Harmony's deceased body in the Under Armour bag.

Detectives noted that this area had a smell consistent with decomposition. A large section of the ceiling sheetrock was removed and seized, which included the stain, metal framing, and the hole for the ceiling vent. The ceiling vent itself was also seized. The ceiling sheetrock with the metal framing attached, together with the vent, were submitted for the state lab for blood, DNA, and fingerprint processing.

In a report dated June 10, 2022, a forensic analyst at the state lab wrote that 13 fingerprints were developed, six to the metal framing attached to the sheetrock and seven on the metal vent itself.

In all, Crime Techs analyzed 10 identifiable impressions, 9 from the metal vend and 1 from the metal framing. The fingerprint expert matched all 9 of the identifiable impressions from the metal vend to Adam Montgomery, fingerprints from both hands and a palm print. The sealing was tested for DNA, but nothing conclusive was determined initially. Then they decided to send the whole sealing section to the DNA lab.

As they were disassembling it, they discovered that between the sealing grid and the drywall, there were a lot of fluids that seemed preserved and smelled like decomp. They sent this to the lab, and the lab confirmed DNA that belonged to Harmony. In other words, Harmony's deceased body was scientifically proven to have been in the sealing of Fit Shelter above where Adam and Kayla were sleeping. This all matched Kayla's testimony.

On October 24, 2022, ten months after the alarm was raised publicly about Harmony's disappearance and four months after Kayla agreed to cooperate, Adam was officially charged with the murder of his daughter. The affidavit that laid out the state's reasoning for the charge was sealed for the time being.

Adam hadn't yet gone to trial for his weapons charges, and the state wanted to get that behind them before revealing to the public why they believed Adam was the killer. In June of 2023, Adam went to trial for his weapons charges. He was represented by public defender Carolyn Smith. The prosecution brought witnesses to the stand that said that Adam had bragged about having guns.

Kayla testified at trial. He was found guilty and became an armed career criminal, evidently a special designation in New Hampshire.

He was not sentenced immediately. In the interim between his trial and sentencing, the affidavit supporting his murder charge was unsealed and released to the public. And let me tell you, when I first read that affidavit, I couldn't get it out of my head for days. Everything in there was so much worse than what I thought it would be, and I didn't have a roses and rainbows outcome for this one. The fact that she'd been missing for two years before she was reported was a

was a pretty bleak start. But that affidavit, it haunted me. On August 7th, Judge Messer delivered one of the harshest sentences I have ever seen relating to possession of guns or theft. The defense requested 10 to 20 years. Judge Messer said, the stolen firearms in this case also have significant aggravating factors. Namely, there were children in the house.

Adam spoke before sentencing, addressing the elephant in the room. He said, You probably won't believe me when I tell you that I didn't wake up one morning and choose to become an addict. I don't want to be an addict. And I will, to my best ability, spend my time in prison changing things about myself.

I could have had a meaningful life, and I blew that opportunity through drugs. But I love my daughter unconditionally, and I did not kill her. The judge was unfazed. She gave him 15 to 30 years each for the armed career criminal charges to be served consecutively. So that's 30 to 60 right there.

After that, he was sentenced to 7 1⁄2 to 15 for the theft charges to be served concurrently. But after the 30 to 60 sentence, the judge said that five years of those sentences could be suspended for good time. So, discounting that, Adam's sentence for stealing two guns was 37 1⁄2 to 75 years. Essentially, the state of New Hampshire threw the book at him.

I can't help but think he was actually being sentenced for murder. This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp.

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Adam Montgomery was a prisoner waiting for his next trial. The big one. His murder trial.

Carolyn Smith represented him again. You might remember her from another high-profile double murder trial in New Hampshire, Stephen Wendy Reed. She represented Logan Clegg. On February 6, 2024, 17 jurors were picked. They started by going on a field trip at the beginning of the trial to key locations.

The first real day of the trial, where the attorneys presented their opening arguments and the state started calling witnesses, Adam was nowhere to be found. He had evidently, quote, waved his right to appear in court and left it up to his attorney to represent him without his presence. I had never heard of this. Honestly, I didn't even know such a thing was possible. Adam evidently was not required by law to be present at his own murder trial.

Adam told the judge via videoconference that his attorney, Carolyn, would acknowledge his guilt on two of the charges: falsifying physical evidence and abuse of a corpse. Carolyn argued that though Adam helped to hide Harmony's body, he said that it was Kayla who was the last person to see Harmony alive. He did not, however, plead guilty to the assault charge against Harmony for which he was being tried alongside the murder charge.

The state started calling witnesses, beginning with Harmony's foster mother and then her biological mother, Crystal Sorey. Adam's uncle testified, and so did Demetrios from DCYF. That concluded day one. On days two and three, Kayla took the stand. In total, she spent about nine hours answering questions from both attorneys. She revealed that it was not only the morning of Saturday, December 7th, the day of Harmony's death, that Adam had hit Harmony.

They were evicted from 77 Guilford the day before Thanksgiving, November 27, 2019. And over the next 10 days, during which they were living out of their car, the violence against Harmony escalated. Harmony had visible injuries that Adam worried would draw unwanted attention. The Montgomery's were very exposed, living in a glass box in a busy apartment complex parking lot.

This is Kayla's testimony about getting into a car accident during those two weeks. And can you just walk us through the accident, how it occurred? There was a stop sign and it was a four-way intersection and there was a truck that went through their stop sign and we already had stopped so we were going and ended up hitting that truck.

Did law enforcement respond to that accident? Yes. Did you see an officer? Yes. Were the officers able to see Harmony? No. Tell the jurors why not. Adam didn't want the officers to see her because she had black eyes, so she was covered with a blanket. Were there other people, specific individuals, that he would cover Harmony up and keep her hidden from? Yes. How often would he cover Harmony?

Kayla was the star witness for the prosecution. Without her testimony, it's not clear whether the state would have enough to charge Adam with murder. While they did have evidence that Harmony was deceased, there was nothing pointing a specific finger towards who may have done it. At least, nothing that could hold up in court.

Aside from her young sons, too little to understand, she was the only person who saw Adam kill his daughter. And though she did nothing to stop him, she spoke, at times through hot tears and choked sobs, about the pivotal moment when her help was most needed. I want to turn your attention to December 7th of 2019. Yeah. Does that day stand out to you? Yes. Why? Since the day that Harmony passed away.

The day that Harmony passed away? Yeah. Were you still living in the car at that point? Yes. Were you still sleeping in the Colonial Village parking lot? Yes. You mentioned Harmony having accidents and then becoming more frequent at that point. On December 7th, was she still having those accidents? Yes. And had they increased in frequency? Yes. Did Harmony have an accident first thing in the morning? Yes. And that would have been before you started your day? Yes.

What happened when she had that accident? Adam repetitively kept punching her in the head. Okay. So I want to break that up. That morning, where did you wake up? At Colonial Village. And what happened first thing in the morning that morning? We went to the methadone clinic. And before you left for the methadone clinic, did Harmony have an accident? Yes. Before you went to the methadone clinic, what did the defendant do to Harmony after that accident?

He was yelling and screaming at her and punching her in the head. How did she react to that? She was crying. And what did you do at the methadone clinic that morning? Got my dose of methadone, and Adam got his also. When Adam came back to the vehicle, he could smell urine, and he started yelling at Harmony and kept hitting her in the head repetitively.

Where were you when he smelt that accident? Where was the vehicle when he smelt that accident? In front of the methadone clinic. Did you discuss going somewhere with him at any point that morning? Going to get food? Yes. I asked to go to Burger King. What was Harmony doing at that point when he started driving the vehicle? She was crying a lot and she was making a weird noise. Was she saying anything? No.

And Kayla, I want you to walk the jurors through in as much detail as you can what happened on your route from Habitopko to that Burger King. Adam was getting really angry from Harmony peeing in the car, and he repetitively kept punching her on the way to Burger King. And there were a couple red lights flashing.

And when we were at red lights, he would, like, go over the driver's seat, like, in between the passenger seat, and he was just punching her repetitively in the head. How many lights did that car come to where he repetitively struck her? At least two or three. Between Habit Opco and the Burger King, did the defendant say anything to Harmony? Told her to shut the fuck up, stop crying.

You said she was making a weird noise. Yes. Can you describe it? It was like a moaning kind of noise, but crying. It was just weird. I can't explain it. Where was she in the vehicle? She was behind the passenger seat. And who was in front of her in that car? I was. You described the defendant almost coming over the seat. Yes. Was he still driving at that point?

like between the red lights. How was he striking her? By punching her in the head. Did you look back at Harmony at any point? No. Why not? Because I was scared. What were you scared of? If Adam was going to say something or if he hurt her really bad, it was going to look really bad. You were scared of what Harmony would look like? Did he say anything to you when he stopped? He said he thinks that he really hurt her.

When he felt something. When he said that he thinks he really hurt her, where was the vehicle at that point? At Burger King. At the Burger King? And what did the defendant do after he stopped hitting Harmony, after he said, I think I really hurt her? Nothing. Did you order food from Burger King? Yes. Where was Adam when you were ordering food from Burger King? In the driver's seat. Did he go through the drive-thru? Yes. And what did you do with the food that he had ordered?

Ate it, gave some to the kids. Where were you when you ate the food? In the parking lot of Burger King. The kids were behind you at that point? Yes. And who gave them food? I did. Did you see Harmony when you were giving them food? No. Why not? Because she was under the blanket. Who put her under the blanket? Adam. That's the same blanket that you mentioned earlier? Yes. The same blanket he would cover her with? Yes.

Where did you go from the Burger King parking lot, Kayla? Went back to Colonial Village. Was Harmony still under the blanket when you arrived at Colonial Village? Yes. And that moaning that you mentioned, that weird noise that she was making, was she still making it? No. How long did that noise that she was making last? I don't remember. It wasn't... I don't remember if it was after we were at Colonial Village for a little bit or if it was before.

At that moaning, did it eventually stop? Yes. Did you check on Harmony at any point after the moaning stopped? No. Did Adam? No. Why didn't you check on her? I was scared. When you arrived at the Colonial Village parking lot, when you arrived back there, what did you and the defendant do? We got drugs and got high. What drugs did you get? Heroin and crack. And how long did you use those drugs for in that parking lot?

We were there for probably 10 or 15 minutes. Where did you go from the Colonial Village parking lot? I don't remember where we were going, but I know we left. And what happened when you left the parking lot? We made it to the next street over going towards Elm Street.

And the car died. We got to the traffic light and it wouldn't start. So we were stuck without a vehicle. What was the defendant doing when the car died? Trying to get a jump and there was no jumping the vehicle. So we ended up having to leave it. And when we were getting the kids out of the car, Harmony had passed away. When did you realize that Harmony had passed away?

When Adam was trying to wake her up and she didn't reply or anything. Was he saying things to her to try to wake her up? Yeah, he said, he said, Harmony, and he kept saying baby girl, like, and trying to budge her, and there was nothing. What was he doing at that point? Trying to figure out what to do and getting all the kids out of the car and

He took the duffel bag that was in the trunk and put her in the duffel bag. Did you see him put Harmony in that duffel bag? Yes. How did he put her in there, Kayla? He, like, folded her in half and put her in the duffel bag. Did he call 911 at any point? No. Did you? No. And when you saw him put her in that duffel bag...

Did you attempt to get away, to run? No. Why not? Because they had the two other kids, and I was scared. Scared of? That something would happen to me or Adam and the kids. You said you saw him put her in that duffel bag, fold her up and put her in there. Yeah. What did her face look like when you saw her go into that bag? It was all black and blue, and her face was puffy. Her eyes were puffy.

She described Adam's spiral into rage and paranoia after Harmony's death. She said that his rage turned on her.

A photo of Kayla with two black eyes was shown to the jury as she explained that he started breaking everything in the house looking for hidden surveillance equipment. In her final proffer interview to police, she had said, quote, Every time that he would freak out, it was either, I was going to kill him, I was telling on him about Harmony, or I was cheating on him, or all three.

She said that the crack cocaine made everything worse, saying, Right after he took that hit, it was over. That was it. It was just like he was gone and, like, destroying everything. She talked about the material things that he destroyed as well. He was always breaking everything. He was breaking phones, anything we had, anything electronic. The TV, the phones, the tablets that the kids got for Christmas.

He broke every single one of them and destroyed them because he thought that the phones were tapped or the cameras were being used, that the cops were listening. And he broke the TV, accusing me of doing something sexual with some dude on TV, and that when we were intimate, someone was watching us through the TV somehow. And she reflected on the final time she saw Harmony alive.

She was fetal position, just covering herself, and she was crying.

Okay, you can do this. I know, I know. Carvana makes it so convenient to sell your car. It's just hard to let go. My car and I have been through so much together. But look, you already have a great offer from Carvana. That was fast. Well, I know my license plate and Vin by heart, and those questions were easy. You're almost there. Now to just accept the offer and schedule a pickup or drop-off. How'd you do it? How are you so strong in letting go of your car? Well, I already made up my mind, and Carvana's so easy. Yeah, true.

And sold. Go to Carvana.com to sell your car the convenient way. Over the next five days, the state called the rest of their 47 witnesses.

Twelve of those witnesses were previously close to Adam, including Katie Morin, who dated him, Anthony Badero, his drug dealer, and Kevin Montgomery, his uncle. Fourteen of those witnesses were cops. One was a DCYF worker, four were forensic experts, fourteen were bystanders to the whole situation. And one of those witnesses was Travis Beach, a close friend of Adam's. Travis was the one that Adam contacted to help him rent the U-Haul van.

None of the witnesses presented by the prosecution said that Adam had confessed to them that he had killed Harmony. But Travis was the closest. Myself and Brittany Bedard gave the keys to Adam Montgomery, which he was staying at the Econo Lodge on the first floor. After that, Adam Montgomery and myself went outside to smoke a cigarette. He was pacing back and forth.

He said he effed up and I asked him what he meant and all he could say and repeat was he effed up. And you said he repeated that? Yes, sir. How many times did he repeat? Four or five times. What did he say? I fucked up. Did you ask him to clarify? I did and he did not. Did he say anything when you asked him to clarify? All he kept saying was that I fucked up.

Where was Kayla during that conversation? Kayla was in the first floor at the Econo Lodge with Brittany. Another witness was Rebecca Maines, a woman who was a friend of Adam's in 2021. And it was through her testimony that the prosecution established a motive, albeit a thin one. Recall, his cover story to everyone but Kayla was that he had sent Harmony back to her mother.

What, if anything, did he say to you about her having any sort of bathroom issues before she went to live with her mother? He said she was constantly wetting her pants or using the bathroom. He put her in the corner in her soiled pants, but that when she'd get in the car, she'd have an accident. But he said it was on purpose. On purpose? Yes. That's what he said? Correct. Correct.

What did he say about why he decided to send Harmony back to her mother? Because she continually shit her pants. Finally, with regards to what the defendant stated to you about Harmony, who, if anyone, did he ever say Harmony reminded him of? Her mother. Her mother? Her mother. And did he tell you how that made him feel? He said he hated her right to his core.

After the state had finished their presentation, the defense called no witnesses. It seems that they made their case through opening and closing arguments and cross-examination of the state witnesses. These are some excerpts from Carolyn's closing arguments. In each of these clips, she's referring to Kayla's testimony. He was scared, she said. And this is what he does, she says. Her story is crazy. Wake up, baby girl. Baby girl, wake up.

This horrific story and they didn't know until that intersection. That story is crazy. But then her story even got worse. She also said that when they were going to the clinic, Armini didn't have any injuries that she knew of. But beating 10 to 15 times, 2 to 3 in the morning, and no sign of

No, that was a lie. It cannot happen. It could not be. And it makes no sense. It doesn't because it's a lie. In her rambling one-hour, 20-minute speech to the jury, she repeated a number of times, her story is crazy.

She also repeated, Wake up, baby girl, countless times. Words that Kayla said that Adam used to try and rouse Harmony after she had died, at the point that their car had broken down, presumably to show Adam's belief that Harmony was still alive and a moment of tenderness between them.

Finally, the prosecution had the last word with the jury, and Ben Agati did not hold back. He delivered a forceful condemnation of Adam Montgomery. Every one of us, whether you wear a badge or you don't, you seek to protect children, to put the next generation above your own. That's what a father does. That's not what the defendant wanted, because he is not Harmony's father.

He has forfeited that right to even claim that title or call himself her father. She was never a daughter to him. Not in July, not in December, not in that phone call, not from the moment of her death continuing up through this very day when he knows where she is. He killed somebody he didn't see as a daughter. He never saw her as a blessing. He beat down something he saw as a nuisance, that he saw as an inconvenience.

His behavior to the bathroom accidents shows you that in that moment when he killed her, she wasn't a person. She was an object, a thing. And he was mad at this thing that ruined his car. And he hit and he hit and he hit this thing to make it stop doing what he didn't want it to do, to teach it a lesson. Until he said to Kayla, I think I heard her this time.

I think I did something and he might as well have said, "I think I broke it." And that's what he did to her. Afterwards, only proves that his actions don't believe that he murdered his daughter. He broke one of his things. And like any broken thing that somebody never really loved, they throw it away. And that's what he did. He may have genetically donated half of his DNA to her, but he was not her father.

She was an object that he beat, stuffed, threw, shelved in a walk-in cooler. Cameron Gibney told you she was down next to the mustard. She was an object made even tinier from her 35 pounds when she was alive by defrosting and consolidating her down that he took to a hotel and he drove through some tolls and he threw it away.

Deliberations began on Wednesday, February 21st, and they concluded the next day. They found Adam guilty on all charges. Court adjourned and sentencing was scheduled for two months later. On March 7th, shortly after Adam was found guilty, Kayla went before the parole board to make her case to be released from prison. She told them that she was changed, saying, "It's better to tell the truth so that everything can come to light."

Though she was not released at the time, this put the wheels in motion. Four days later, on March 11th, Crystal filed a petition to declare Harmony legally dead. According to court documents, Crystal said that she planned to sue the state of New Hampshire for a wrongful death. One week later, a New Hampshire probate judge agreed, and Harmony was considered legally deceased.

Two days before the sentencing hearing, prosecutors submitted their recommendation. It totaled 56 years to life. On May 9th, 2024, the day had finally come for Adam to get his sentence, but he didn't want to attend. He wanted to have his lawyer go in his absence, just like the trial.

This is the day when people affected by the crime would have a chance to address Adam in court and express themselves in what's called a victim impact statement. People were outraged that he could duck such an important hearing, so he was legally ordered to attend. And attend he did.

Kayla was still incarcerated at the time of the hearing, and although it isn't clear whether or not she could have attended in person if she wanted to, a victim's advocate employed by the state spoke on her behalf. She wrote a letter. It feels more like a breakup letter.

Goodbye. I wanted to write a letter to you because it's the only way to tell you how I feel. I will forever have a place in my heart for you, whether you believe me or not. You were my best friend, my husband, the person I chose to spend the rest of my life with. You are the father of our children we have together, and I'm forever grateful for having them. I will never forget the birth of our first son we have. That was one of the many best days of my life.

We had just gotten married and started a family of our own. I'll never forget when your grandmother said to me, you're the best thing that has ever happened to my grandson. I'll always remember the births of all the children we have. Also, when you stepped up to be a father to Harmony. You worked so hard to get custody of her and it took a few years, but you got her. I won't forget the day we picked her up and brought her home. We were so excited. Then, during the summer, was when we both started to go downhill because of relapse.

After five years of sobriety, that was the beginning of the chaos. By the time Thanksgiving came around in the year 2019, we were losing everything. At the same time, Harmony dies because of your anger and hitting her so many times. During those years of having to keep quiet, you started physically and mentally abusing me. The first time that you really hurt me was when you accused me of cheating and had me on the living room floor against the corner of the wall telling me if I didn't tell you that I cheated on you that you were going to F me up.

When I never cheat on you and said that I didn't, you punched me right in the face a couple of times because you said I was lying and I wasn't. So then I said, yes, I cheated on you so you wouldn't hit me, but you still did anyway. You started getting crazy when we would get high on crack. I told you I did things that I really didn't do because you said if I told you that I did whatever you'd accuse me of that you wouldn't hit me and I was dumb enough to believe you.

No matter what I said or did, he would hit me, punch me, spit in my face, or would have me in a chokehold and cover my mouth so I couldn't scream. You are not the person I married, not the person who loved me and who never hurt me. It's like I married my father. I never would have thought I would have to run away from you until I knew I had to take our kids and leave you. I'll never forget that day either. It was one of the hardest things for me to do. The last couple of nights after you got arrested the first time, I was sleeping with a knife because I did not know what you were going to do to me.

After I found out that you got arrested, I went back to our apartment to grab a few things, and then I made the decision of not going back to live there anymore. I couldn't stay in the apartment after a year of chaos with you in there. Just all bad memories, barely any good ones. I'm so angry and hurt by you. I know you probably hate me because I had to do the right thing, but also because of all the bad, not only did you lose your rights to our children, but so did I. Now I'm going to have to keep fighting for them to at least be back in their lives.

You seem to forget you cheated, not me, and you just left the kids and I for some girl, packed your stuff, and left to another state. I called you out on your BS when you were on your way to Maine, and I also called you out for being with someone else months before you left to Maine. You accused me, but you were the one cheating. So I got to do all I can to get back on track with my life. You caused so much hurt and pain. I don't even know why I still care about you and actually feel bad for you.

Oh, maybe it's because I'm not a cold, heartless person and still have some care about you. I was in love with you once. Now I still love you because you're the father of our children. This is goodbye for now. Maybe I'll see you at the future in some point. Goodbye, Adam. And then she lists the day they started their relationship was October 8th, 2015. And the day they married was Harmony's birthday, June 4th, 2017.

The recap of the relationship, the highs and the lows, is a hallmark of a breakup letter. Though Kayla knew it would be read publicly, it feels so personal, like it was written to be read by Adam's eyes only. It feels like Kayla still loves Adam and, through passages of the letter, is trying to convince herself not to. And the ending feels like less of a period and more of an ellipsis.

which only serves to show the level of influence Adam had and still has over Kayla. Ben Agati spoke at the sentencing hearing, too. After condemning the crime and making his sentencing recommendation, he made a surprise offer to Adam. If the defendant will right now

Tell us where he hid her body, sufficient for us to find her, so that her family and the Manchester Police Department can recover her remains in the next seven days. Then the state would amend its recommendation to a minimum of 35 years to life and let the second-degree assault, falsifying physical evidence, abuse of a course, and witness tampering sentences be served concurrent. But right now, Your Honor.

If he tells us where we can recover her and we do so within the next seven days, we will change our recommendation to 35 years. Unsurprisingly, Adam did not take him up on the offer. Harmony's mother, Crystal, spoke, and Harmony's little brother, Jameson, spoke through his adoptive fathers, Blair and Jonathan Miller. If you have a tissue nearby, I recommend grabbing it.

Since learning about the death of innocent and beautiful Harmony, Jameson has suffered. Just a few weeks ago in school, his teacher asked him to draw a picture of his family. He drew a picture of his two dogs, his two brothers, his two dads, but then he put a heart above all of us, and inside that heart was the letter H. He said that was Harmony looking down on us. Jameson constantly asks us, who took my sister away? Adam.

You took away his best friend, his sister. You introduced murder into his life and forever created a void that can never be filled. We will never have the right answers for him on this and can only tell him Harmony is an angel now. Jameson will grow up forever wondering how this happened, how his sister, who looked over him in foster care, didn't have anyone looking over her. You chose Adam to take our little boy sister away.

You don't ever deserve another choice in a free society. Your Honor, we are asking you to impose the maximum sentence. He knows about this community. We've told him these were the people that helped his sister when she was hurting. I'd like to share with you a few words that Jameson, as we were talking to him, because he wanted to know, where are you guys going? What are you doing? And I said, we're going to speak for your sister and we're going to tell everyone how important she was to you.

And this is what he said: "Tell everyone my name is Jamison. I'm seven years old. My sister's Harmony. I love Harmony. I miss her. I hope I get to see her again. My sister had beautiful blue eyes and we smile alike. I liked having fun with her on the playground. She gave me a broken Elmo toy that was hers. I still have that. But I have the Minnie Mouse pillow and a new Elmo that's not broken. I keep it in my closet for her.

I'm really sad she's an angel. I miss her. She was my best friend. I hope she can see me playing basketball, being silly with my brothers, and I wish I could bring Harmony to my school to meet my friends and my teacher. She loves the color purple and Minnie Mouse. I made a heart for her in purple and red with mirrors so I can look for her in heaven. I hope she sees me.

The red is for my heart and the purple is for her. I love my sister. I miss her. I hope she's eating M&Ms in heaven. I hope her glasses are safe and not broken. And I miss you and I will always love you, big sister. Thank you, Your Honor. That is one of the most heartbreaking things that I have ever heard. Every time I hear it, it makes me cry.

Adam, though given the opportunity, made no statement. Carolyn said that he maintained his innocence relating to the murder charge and planned to appeal. The judge, after recapping Adam's criminal history, pronounced his sentence.

In 2008, you were convicted of criminal threatening after pointing a knife at a 15-year-old girl. In 2010, you were convicted of armed robbery and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon in a home invasion incident in which it was reported that you held up a woman at gunpoint, terrorizing her to the point that she lost control of her bodily functions.

In 2009, you were convicted of first-degree assault for stabbing another person. In 2014, you were convicted of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and larceny in a case in which it was reported that you shot a man in the face. In 2019, you were convicted of two counts of armed career criminal, two counts of theft, and two counts of receiving stolen property, all of the charges stemming from the thefts of firearms, exchanges of guns for drugs and money.

The court has to consider three primary goals of sentencing, punishment, deterrence, and rehabilitation. The focus today is on your convictions in this case. Second-degree murder, falsifying physical evidence, witness tampering, abuse of a corpse, and second-degree assault.

But the prior convictions are important, and they're important as well as each of them reflects not just your extensive criminal conduct, but each of them represents an opportunity after sentencing for you to have changed the trajectory of your life, to change how you were treating other people.

but you are either unwilling or unable to do so. And as a result, at this point, the court has the responsibility to impose a sentence that not only punishes you harshly for the crimes that you have committed, but considers deterrence, that is, how to keep you from hurting others.

In light of the egregious nature of the crimes of which you have been convicted in this case and taking into consideration your extremely violent criminal history, the court finds the only way to do this is to keep you off the streets. To the extent you seek to rehabilitate yourself, that will have to happen behind the prison walls.

Judge Amy Messer followed the prosecution's recommendation and gave Adam 56 years to life on top of his other sentence for the weapons charges. Even with reductions for good time served and parole, Adam won't stand to be released from prison until he is over 100 years old. And on May 15, 2024, a week after Adam's sentencing, Kayla was released from prison on parole.

There have been searches for Harmony's body in marshy areas north of Boston, but nothing has been recovered. Harmony could be anywhere between Manchester and Boston. Hope remains that she may someday be given a proper burial. Knowing that she's out there somewhere, dumped like trash, is heartbreaking. No one but Adam knows where she is.

Though there was incredible depravity shown in the way that Adam treated Harmony's body after her murder, I was worried that the prosecution might have a difficult task in proving Adam's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

There was conclusive physical evidence that proved that he had done terrible things to her body, but what proof was there that he had killed her? There was motive, if you would call it that. Harmony was, quote, I'll note that Harmony was potty trained and that this is a form of aggression that is common in children that are being abused.

There was Adam's history of violence against Harmony, having hit her and blackened her eye in July, four months prior to her death. There are other cases of abuse too. There was opportunity. Adam had no alibi. He was physically present in the car with his family. There were but two adults, him and Kayla, who had access to Harmony on the day of her death.

There was his quasi-confession to Travis Beach, his repeated words of, I fucked up, on the day that he was disposing of Harmony's body. And there was his wife's testimony. She was a witness to the murder.

Adam's only hope was to testify in his own defense, to point the finger at Kayla, to concoct a compelling yarn about how he covered up her crime. And that's honestly what I expected him to do. I feared that it might be enough to persuade one juror that there was enough reasonable doubt that Adam was the killer. But Adam made that decision for the jury easy, and Kayla's testimony was believable.

When Kayla's mother was asked about Adam, she said, "Adam, for the first couple of years, was a sweet guy. But he's not. He's pure evil. Adam can sweet talk and swindle and talks up a storm, but he's actually the devil." I am glad that the jury saw the Adam that she saw. But I'm left wondering what could have stopped this tragedy. At the point that it was Kayla and Adam, homeless and strung out, it was already too late.

There was nothing, except action from his abused wife, that could have prevented Harmony's death. But what about the series of events that transpired over Harmony's five and a half short years of life? Harmony, at the time of her death, had lived with two different foster families, her mother and her father for different stints of time. None more than her primary foster family, the Rafterys.

The report, published by the Massachusetts Office of the Child Advocate, read, in part, Delays in permanency for children, like Harmony, are traumatic in part because children experience time differently than adults do.

Much of Harmony's trauma was a result of the inconsistent planning about whether she was to go home to her mother or be adopted. The stress of that experience was so destabilizing for Harmony that her behavior significantly deteriorated and compromised her foster care placement, the only long-term, safe and stable home she had known since birth.

Every aspect of the child protective system needs to be evaluated for how it works to promote successful permanency for a child in a manner and timeframe that ensures their safety and well-being. I'll put it more bluntly: The system fucked up. There is a nationwide imbalance in the adoption market in the US. There are far more families interested in adoption than there are children who need to be adopted.

In a 2012 paper from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, they estimate that around 2 million couples are waiting to adopt a child, but only about 50,000 to 60,000 children a year are adopted from foster care.

The paper read, "Prospective adoptive parents outnumber waiting children by a ratio of more than 5 to 1." It also states, "Surveys indicate that there are more than enough interested families to adopt all children waiting in foster care to be adopted. The adoption gap is caused by barriers in the system."

For a very young, beautiful child like Harmony, there were probably hundreds of families that would have wanted to adopt her. For a year and a half between 2015 and 2017, Harmony's permanency goal was adoption. What is not answered in the report is why she wasn't adopted.

The system fucked up again when it closed the case on Harmony and awarded full custody to her completely unprepared and violent father, who had only been a fleeting presence in her life. And at that point, the die was cast. These stories are not easy to hear. They are ugly, and they make us face truths that we don't want to look at. But if we don't talk about these cases, more children like Harmony could die.

The biggest silver lining to this story is that it made people aware of the problems of the system in a much more visceral way than reading statistics in an article. Every problem in Harmony's story is glaring, and the outcome is even worse. Harmony Montgomery had a short and terrible life.

Despite the odds stacked against her, she managed to make a beautiful impression with her foster family, the Rafterys, with whom she spent more time than anyone. In every photo I've seen of Harmony, she has the biggest smile on her face. She looks like a happy kid, which makes her situation all the more sad.

Michelle Raftery said that Harmony was an independent toddler. She enjoyed playing with dolls and playing with her peers. She had a well-developed language, and she liked books. She was very active. She was empathetic and charming. She ate all kinds of foods, including fruits and vegetables, and even onions. She would sometimes play in the vegetable garden and pick cherry tomatoes and cucumbers. And despite her physical disability, she had a knack for overcoming challenges.

Harmony's death was senseless and preventable. Kayla could have stopped this. She had a front seat to the escalating abuse against her and the deterioration of her domestic situation. Hopefully, the mercy she received is something that she doesn't take for granted. The next time she's confronted with an ethical dilemma involving a child, I hope she chooses to protect that child.

It's a shame that Jameson's parents, who wanted to adopt Harmony too, were never given that chance. Somehow, the system chose Adam over them. But I hope that Harmony's death has created a path for lasting change. Her death caused a re-evaluation of the system, an inquiry of whether or not it's serving the children it is entrusted to protect. Harmony's death may make a difference for the next Harmony Montgomery.

That child may not know it until they're fully grown. But hopefully, 20 years from now, when they're adults and they look back on the reformed system that placed them with a supportive and loving adoptive family, that they have somebody to thank. They can thank Harmony.

If you have any information on the location of Harmony Montgomery's remains, please call the new Manchester Police tip line at 603-932-8997. Thank you so much for listening. If you haven't left a 5-star review, it would mean the world to me if you took a moment right now and did that. You can email me and I'll even send you a sticker.

All sources for this episode can be found at MurderSheTold.com. You can follow Murder She Told on social media on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook. Thank you to Byron Willis for his research and writing. If you have a story suggestion, you can reach out at HelloAtMurderSheTold.com anytime. I'm Kristen Sevey. Thank you for listening.