By DAMIEN FISHER, InDepthNH.org
MANCHESTER – There is no final resting place for Harmony Montgomery, age 5.
No grave stone to mark her sad life and violent death. No urn to hold her remains. No place the too few people who loved her can visit.
Instead, there are blood stains left in the hiding places her rotting corpse was stored. A red, Igloo cooler where she was interred for a few weeks. And the memory of the dreadful smell that lingered almost two years after her father, Adam Montgomery, allegedly murdered her in December of 2019.
Jurors heard testimony Wednesday from police detectives and state criminologists who searched in 2022, not for Harmony, but for evidence of her death. Adam Montgomery’s murder trial has been going for a week in the Hillsborough Superior Court — North in Manchester, and prosecutors focused on the physical evidence available in a case that does not have a body.
Compared to the emotional testimony that started the trial from witnesses like Crystal Sorey, Harmony’s biological mother, and Kayla Montgomery, Harmony’s step-mother, Wednesday’s proceedings were dry, if grim.
Martin Orlowicz, a latent print specialist with the New Hampshire State Police Forensic Laboratory, testified finding Adam Montgomery’s fingerprint and a palm print in Harmony’s blood stains that were found in the ceiling at the Families in Transition shelter.
Adam Montgomery allegedly kept Harmony’s corpse hidden in the ceiling while the family was living in the Manchester shelter in early 2020.
Initially, she had allegedly been in the duffle bag Adam Montgomery first put her in after she was killed. When neighboring families began to complain about the smell from the Montgomery unit, Adam wrapped Harmony’s body in a garbage bag, according to court records. But he didn’t act soon enough, and Harmony’s decomposing body left stains in the drywall ceiling panels.
Prosecutors brought a series of witnesses before the jury who handled the ceiling tiles. Testimony explained that Harmony’s blood was left in the ceiling, and that Adam Montgomery left his prints in the blood when he hid his daughter. Some of the witnesses, like Manchester Police Evidence Technician Rachel Radwich, testified about the smell still present on the panels in summer of 2022, when they were seized as evidence and tested.
Radwich testified it was the smell of a decomposing body.
The matter-of-fact testimony on Wednesday from witness after witness who worked on the case demonstrated the strength of the state’s case, and its weakness.
Harmony’s body has never been found, and there is no way to prove, exactly, how she died.
The state is relying on testimony from Kayla Montgomery, who claims Adam Montgomery beat Harmony to death on Dec. 7, 2019. The family was living in their car at the time, and Adam Montgomery allegedly became enraged when Harmony soiled herself.
Kayla Montgomery is currently serving prison time for perjury after lying to a grand jury convened in the case. Kayla Montgomery testified at the trial this week that she lied because she was terrified of Adam Montgomery, who subjected her to months of abuse and threats after Harmony’s murder.
Adam and Kayla Montgomery were evicted from their apartment in November of 2019, forcing them to live in their car with Harmony and her two step-brothers. Kayla and Adam Montgomery were both drug addicts at the time, and spent their days using drugs, according to court records. Kayla Montgomery testified the couple used whatever cash they could get, as well as their food stamp benefits, to buy drugs.
Adam Montgomery was again absent from court on Wednesday. He’s declined to appear at the trial since it began. Of the two missing people, Harmony and Adam Montgomery, it’s Harmony prosecutors hope jurors will think about when they finally get the case.