Adam Montgomery has a long history with police, drug addiction
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Jan. 20—In May 2017, Adam Montgomery updated his profile picture on Facebook. He and his young daughter Harmony were jumping on a trampoline. The almost-3-year-old had her blond hair tied up. She wore pink glasses and a matching T-shirt that read "LOVE."
The photograph captured the father-daughter moment with Harmony's little feet several inches in the air, her arms reaching toward the sky and her smile stretching ear to ear. Montgomery is beaming too.
"My beautiful baby girl I love you soooooooooooo much," Montgomery wrote in the post, dated May 22, 2017.
Records show Montgomery has a lengthy and violent criminal history. In a letter to Massachusetts court officials this week, Gov. Chris Sununu called Montgomery a "monstrous drug dealer" and "horrible individual."
On Dec. 31, 2021, police found Montgomery sleeping in his car in the area of Harvell Street in Manchester. They asked where Harmony was.
He first said he had seen her recently and she was fine. Then he contradicted himself, saying he hadn't seen her since Thanksgiving 2019 — more than two years earlier. He claimed Harmony was in Massachusetts with her mother, Crystal Sorey.
He refused to answer further questions, telling officers, "I have nothing else to say," and "not talking to you."
Sorey previously told police she hasn't seen her daughter since an Easter 2019 FaceTime call.
"Crystal stated that Adam was visible in the background of the video call," an affidavit read. "Crystal recalled that (Harmony) seemed frightened, and believes that was the last time she actually saw her daughter."
Sorey said she's frantically trying to find her daughter after becoming sober.
She said both she and Montgomery have had issues with substance abuse.
On Jan. 4, 2022, Montgomery, 31, was arrested at 8:34 p.m. on a warrant for one charge of felony second-degree assault arising from a blow to Harmony's face in 2019. He also was charged with a misdemeanor charge of interference with custody and two misdemeanor counts of endangering the welfare of a child.
The police log lists the Manchester police station's address as the place of arrest. Details on where he was located were not included.
Adam's uncle, Kevin, reported seeing Harmony with a black eye in 2019 and said his nephew claimed he "bashed her around this house."
It's a perplexing case. Where is Harmony? Why has she been missing for two years?
The search for the little girl, who would be 7, continues. A reward for information leading to her whereabouts has topped $144,000. A dedicated tip line — 603-203-6060 — is manned 24/7.
Major run-ins as a minor
Montgomery's run-ins with the law started as a minor. In 2006, when he was 16 and living on Donald Street in Bedford, he was charged with possession of a dangerous weapon on school grounds, according to the Union Leader's archives.
In July 2007, Montgomery was accused of following a 15-year-old girl into her home on Plainfield Street, after shouting that the girl had stolen his cell phone. He was charged with burglary and misdemeanor simple assault. The case was dismissed in January 2008.
In September 2007, Bedford police charged Montgomery with criminally threatening his 15-year-old former girlfriend from Manchester with a knife. He was sentenced to 110 days in jail, according to court documents.
In May 2008, Montgomery, who was 18 at the time, was charged with stabbing a youth in the leg and pushing him out of a moving vehicle near Bridge and Belmont streets in Manchester.
Police prosecutor Lt. Robert Cunha said the incident resulted from a drug ripoff, in which Montgomery believed he was sold fake drugs. Cunha called the combination of weapons and narcotics "a recipe for disaster," according to a Union Leader story.
Montgomery was sentenced to four years in prison. He served 383 days.
In New Hampshire alone, Montgomery has 21 items listed in his criminal case history.
Mayhem in the Bay State
His most violent crimes occurred in Massachusetts.
In 2014, Montgomery was charged with shooting a Haverhill, Mass., man in the head after coming over the state line to buy drugs, according to published reports.
In that case, Montgomery pleaded guilty to larceny from a person, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, carrying a firearm without a license and discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a building in September 2014, according to the Essex, Mass. District Attorney's Office. He was sentenced to 18 months in jail.
In 2008, Montgomery was convicted in a robbery where he burst into a Malden apartment and demanded money from two women at gunpoint, according to the Boston Globe. He also pointed a gun — later determined to be a pellet gun — at an officer's chest. He pleaded guilty to armed robbery and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, according to the Globe.
"Harmony's father Adam Montgomery is a monstrous drug dealer with previous convictions including shooting someone in the head and a separate armed attack on two women in Massachusetts," Sununu wrote in his Jan. 18 letter.
Restraining order
Harmony was born in June 2014.
Sorey lost custody of Harmony in 2018 because of drug addiction.
Montgomery also has three children with his estranged wife, Kayla Montgomery. Montgomery gained sole custody of Harmony in February 2019. Family members, including Kayla Montgomery, last reported seeing the little girl around Thanksgiving that year.
Kayla Montgomery was arrested the day after Adam Montgomery and charged with theft for allegedly collecting food stamps for Harmony even though the girl was not living with her.
Kayla Montgomery's mother, Christina Lubin, filed a restraining order against Montgomery after he showed up at her Dubuque Street address and lingered outside at 7:45 p.m. on July 2, 2021. Neighbors saw him knock on the window at the front of the home, according to the complaint.
On July 4, 2021, Lubin's boyfriend found a steak knife on the ground near where Montgomery was seen tapping on the glass.
Kayla Montgomery and her three children were temporarily staying at the home "due to domestic violence on her from her husband, Adam Montgomery," according to the complaint.
The four had been living with Lubin since March 21, 2021.
"Safety for all involved is our main concern," she wrote in the request for a restraining order.
The restraining order was dismissed on Sept. 8, 2021 because of failure to ask for an extension.
'Pure evil'
Lubin spoke with reporters at her home on Dubuque Street the day her daughter went before a judge.
"Adam for the first couple years was some sweet guy, and he's not," Lubin said. "He is pure evil. He is pure evil."
Kayla Montgomery told police Adam had been living in a sober home and left the area to live in Maine with another woman.
Adam Montgomery remains in jail without bail. Kayla Montgomery has a new bail hearing set for Monday.
A disposition conference is set for Adam Montgomery on March 4.
