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New Hampshire officials will hand over $2.25m to the mother of Harmony Montgomery, a five-year-old girl who was murdered by her father in 2019.
Her mother, Crystal Sorey, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the state Division for Children, Youth and Families last year.
She claimed the agency failed to take action after several people reported concerns about her daughter’s welfare once the girl’s father, Adam Montgomery, 34, was given full custody in February 2019. Harmony had been placed in state custody earlier in her life and a judge determined she should live with her father, even though he had a violent criminal history.
One report claimed Harmony returned home with a black eye after the two went on a trip to Florida.
She disappeared in 2019 but wasn’t reported missing until 2021. Her body has still not been found.
Officials believe Adam Montgomery killed her, moved her body around for months and later disposed of it. He’s since refused to tell police what he did with his daughter’s remains.
During his criminal trial in 2024, Kayla Montgomery, Harmony’s stepmother, told the court she’d seen her husband violently beat the girl for soiling herself in the back of the car where they had been living. Shortly after, Harmony became unresponsive.
Adam Montgomery, she said, stuffed her body in a duffel bag and moved it around for several weeks, hiding it in different locations, including a restaurant freezer and the ceiling of a shelter.
In May 2024, he was sentenced to a minimum of 56 years in prison. In March of this year, Montgomery appealed his murder conviction. His attorneys claim there were issues with Kayla Montgomery’s testimony because her story had changed several times during the police investigation and she had a “history of dishonesty and misplaced trust.” The attorneys argued her testimony shouldn’t have been admitted.
The state’s settlement is not an admission of any wrongdoing or unlawful conduct, according to the terms of the agreement. Sorey will withdraw her suit and release the state from any liability, according to NBC 10 Boston.
In the same week, the state agreed to pay settlements to the parents of two other five-year-olds who had been murdered. Danielle Vaughan’s son, Dennis Vaughan, was allegedly killed by his grandmother, Sherry Connor, in 2019. The state will pay his mother $5.75m. In the other settlement, the state will pay $2.25m to Timothy Lewis, the father of Elijah Lewis. The child’s mother pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in his death.
“The state agreed to these settlements to avoid prolonged litigation and support closure for the families. We recognize their profound loss and hope this brings some measure of peace,” New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella said in a statement on Friday.
