Many police calls, scant evidence of Harmony at Gilford Street house in 2019
Jan. 16—Police cruisers were a frequent sight at 77 Gilford St. in the summer of 2019, as the father and stepmother of Harmony Montgomery made their home in the street of modest Cape Cod-style houses not far from Wolfe Park on the West Side of Manchester.
Neighbors called the police to complain about trash and the Montgomery family squatting in the house. They worried about a child who lived there.
They called when the couple started arguing, or when disputes arose involving extended family members.
But records of three months of police calls and reports include little to suggest the presence of Harmony Montgomery — the 7-year-old girl who has been missing for two years and is now the subject of a search in its third week.
The information is contained in 34 documents that Manchester police generated about activity at the house, which at the time was owned by the grandmother of Adam Montgomery, Harmony's father. Police have released them to the Union Leader and other media through the New Hampshire Right-to-Know Law.
The documents show that police notified the state's child protection agency — the Division for Children, Youth and Families — about living conditions at the house. The documents also say that DCYF was involved with the family.
Harmony's mother, Crystal Sorey, has been critical about child protection agencies in both Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
"DCYF failed my child 100 percent & everyone in my family will vouch for that," she wrote to Mayor Joyce Craig on Jan. 2.
In a 12-minute interview with a News Nation reporter last week, Sorey detailed her frustration with the system.
She did not have custody of her daughter, and Adam Montgomery had cut her off from all communication with the girl after a FaceTime call around Easter 2019. He eventually cut off other family members when they made reports to DCYF, Sorey said.
Three times, Sorey said, DCYF was supposed to remove Harmony but did not. That's because, she said, the case worker assigned to the family had been a counselor of Adam's in the past and knew him personally.
When she first called Manchester police, they told her she couldn't file a missing-person report because she didn't have custody of Harmony, she said. Police suggested she go to family court to get custody, but family court wouldn't act because it was an open DCYF case, she said.
"They're running me around with busy work while they're trying to figure out how to cover their butt," Sorey said.
That's when she emailed Mayor Joyce Craig and threatened to go to the media. Shortly after, police told her they were involved and DCYF told her the case was suspicious.
In the interview, she talked about her shortcomings as a mother, her efforts to get sober and Adam Mongomery's violent tendencies. He has a criminal record that includes first-degree assault and criminal threatening charges.
She said he was awarded custody in Massachusetts because she was at another hearing for the adoption of her son that day. Once he had custody, he used it to his advantage.
"Anybody that questioned him about how he treated Harmony or what he was doing, he cut them off," she said.
Adam Montgomery has been in jail since his arrest on Jan. 5 on charges of child endangerment, interfering with custody and felony assault on Harmony. The assault allegedly took place July 2019 in Manchester.
Adam Montgomery's uncle, Kevin Montgomery, told police he saw the girl with the black eye and Adam told him "I bashed her around this house," according to a police affidavit that does not specify the house's location.
Last sighting unclear
Manchester police have said that they believe Harmony was last seen in October or November 2019. But police documents give only the slightest hint that Harmony could have been with the family in the summer of 2019.
Children are mentioned in only two reports. In September, police make note of three children and notify DCYF because of clutter and the lack of electrical power. The report identifies the three, but the identities are redacted.
Adam and Kayla Montgomery had three children between them. Harmony, who is not Kayla's biological daughter, would have been a fourth.
In early August, a neighbor called the police to complain about a young child at the house.
"She is concerned about the child and asked that we check the condition," read a call for service report.
The followup notes that police had been called several times and assisted DCYF in checking on the family.
"Everyone's home, generator is running, food in the house, they are healthy, all is well, still working with Demetrius from DCYF," the report reads.
By September, calls to police trailed off. In early September, the New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority foreclosed on the house. In a Sept. 11, 2019, police visit, Kevin Montgomery told police that Adam and Kayla were going to be evicted at the end of the month.
Last week, Gov. Chris Sununu called for an internal DCYF review of Harmony's case. At the time, he expressed confidence in the agency's work.
