MANCHESTER, N.H. — The stepmother of 5-year-old Harmony Montgomery, who had last been seen in 2019, identified her husband as the young girl’s killer, according to prosecutors in New Hampshire.
During an interview in early June, Kayla Montgomery, 32, told Manchester police detectives that Adam Montgomery, Harmony’s father, had murdered his daughter in December 2019, court documents indicate.
Adam, 32, was arrested earlier this week on charges including second-degree murder, falsifying physical evidence, abuse of corpse, and tampering with witnesses in connection with the homicide investigation. He waived his arraignment, which had been scheduled for Tuesday.
Evidence uncovered during the course of an investigation indicated that Adam repeatedly struck Harmony in the head with a closed first, recklessly causing her death, according to Attorney General John M. Formella and Manchester Police Chief Allen D. Aldenberg. He then allegedly destroyed and disposed of Harmony’s body sometime between Dec. 7, 2019, and March 4, 2020, in an effort to hide evidence of the crime from law enforcement officials.
While speaking with detectives assigned to the investigation, Kayla also claimed that Adam had encouraged her to lie to investigators about how Harmony died.
“Kayla also said that the defendant had encouraged her on multiple occasions to lie to police about Harmony’s whereabouts, basically giving Kayla a ‘cover story’ and telling her that as long as she stuck to the cover story everything would be OK,” prosecutors stated in the documents.
In August, the missing person’s case shifted to a homicide investigation when authorities said they believed Harmony was killed in Manchester in early December 2019. Police say they first became aware that Harmony might be missing when they received a call from the girl’s mother in November.
Kayla was charged with theft by deception after police said she falsely claimed that her stepdaughter was living with her in order to collect welfare benefits. She is also charged with receiving firearms that Adam has been accused of stealing.
The court documents revealed that Kayla also discussed the stolen firearms with detectives while speaking about Harmony’s death.
“While interviewing Kayla on June 3, investigators attempted to keep separate the portion of the interview that focused on the defendant and firearms from the portion that focused on Harmony’s murder. However, despite investigators’ efforts, there was significant bleed-over between the topics,” prosecutors said.
Kayla’s lawyers are expected to discuss her legal case with prosecutors on Wednesday afternoon.
Adam has been in jail since January. He awaits trial next month on the weapons theft charges.
Court documents reveal Kayla Montgomery identified her husband as killer of young Harmony Montgomery by Fox Boston Staff on Scribd
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