Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, breaking news, sweepstakes, and more!
Father Of Missing Girl Harmony Montgomery Is Facing New Felony Gun Charges
As the search for missing Harmony Montgomery continues, assistant Attorney General Jesse O’Neill told Oxygen.com that detectives had received a tip in the case last week that they consider "to be very important."
The father of missing New Hampshire girl Harmony Montgomery was slapped with new gun-related charges.
New Hampshire Attorney General John M. Formella announced eight new charges Monday against 32-year-old Adam Montgomery after authorities said he stole a rifle and shotgun from an individual sometime between Sept. 29, 2019 and October 3, 2019.
The charges include two counts of theft by unauthorized taking for stealing the rifle and shotgun, two charges of receiving stolen property, two counts of felon in possession and two charges of armed career criminal.
The armed criminal charges are a special felony carrying a mandatory prison sentence of at least 10 years and up to 40 years in state prison for each count.
In Adam’s case, assistant Attorney General Jesse O’Neill told Oxygen.com the special felony charges were triggered because of Adam’s past criminal history. Under state law, the armed criminal charges require a minimum of three felony convictions for specifically defined crimes, O’Neill said.
Authorities have said there is “no evidence of any connection” between the stolen firearms and the disappearance of Harmony Montgomery, who was last seen in late 2019 while in her father’s custody.
However, O’Neill told Oxygen.com that the firearms charges resulted from interviews and information received during the ongoing investigation to find Harmony.
“The two investigations share a common nexus in that the Manchester Police Department and the other agencies involved are speaking to dozens of different witnesses, lots of different people, following every lead they can on the Harmony Montgomery investigation, but as they are speaking to these people other information is being relayed,” he said.
O’Neill said investigators are “keeping all options open” in the search to find Harmony and are still treating it “like a rescue mission.”
“There are still people out there who have relevant information who maybe don’t even realize it. Just last week detectives talked to an individual who had information that we consider to be very important,” he said.
O’Neill urged anyone who may have information about the case or interacted with the Montgomery family in late 2019 to contact investigators as the search for Harmony continues.
Adam is already behind bars on charges of second-degree assault, interference with custody and two charges of endangering the welfare of a child in connection with allegations that he gave Harmony a black eye in 2019.
Adam has pleaded not guilty to those charges, The Associated Press reports.
According to an affidavit in the case previously obtained by Oxygen.com, Adam’s uncle Kevin Montgomery told investigators that he returned home from a trip in July of 2019 and noticed that Harmony had a black eye. When he questioned Adam about the injury, Adam allegedly told him he had “bashed her around this house” giving her the black eye as punishment after he had asked Harmony—who was then 5 years old—to watch her baby brother while he went to the bathroom.
While he was gone, the baby began to cry and he returned to find Harmony with her “hand over the child’s mouth to stop him from crying,” which enraged Adam, who had full custody, according to the affidavit.
Kevin also told authorities he had seen Harmony “being spanked hard on the butt,” “being forced to stand in the corner for hours” and being forced to clean the toilet with her toothbrush.
Harmony disappeared in late 2019, but she wasn’t reported missing until late last year by her mother Crystal Sorey.
Sorey, who had lost custody of her daughter in 2018, told police she hadn’t spoken to her daughter since April of 2019, according to the affidavit. She has alleged that Adam cut off all contact she had with her child after that and although she called local schools and drove to past residences where she believed the family could be living, she was unable to find her daughter.
Police launched the investigation to find Harmony in December after the New Hampshire Division for Children, Youth and Families also couldn’t find the child.
Adam has told authorities he had not seen Harmony since around Thanksgiving of 2019 when he said Sorey came to pick her up, according to the affidavit.
Harmony’s stepmother, Kayla Montgomery, was also arrested in January on allegations of welfare fraud after she was accused of collecting food stamps on behalf of Harmony even though the young girl was no longer living with the family.
Adam is slated to be arraigned on the latest charges against him on Wednesday, authorities said.
