Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / JURORS: Missing Tot Harmony Montgomery Dad Killed His Daughter
Transcript
- 0:05Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
- 0:12Speaker 2: Guilty. Adam Montgomery is guilty in the murder of five
- 0:19Speaker 2: year old Harmony Montgomery. When we first started this odyssey,
- 0:25Speaker 2: we were all looking for Harmony because she hadn't been
- 0:29Speaker 2: seen for about two years, and somehow the social services
- 0:36Speaker 2: network let her quote slip between the cracks translation, they
- 0:43Speaker 2: screwed up and now she's dead. Why because she ended
- 0:48Speaker 2: up with her abusive father, Adam Montgomery. May he rot
- 0:53Speaker 2: in hell. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank
- 0:57Speaker 2: you for being with us here at Crime Stories and
- 0:59Speaker 2: on Serious XM one eleven. This little girl, Harmony, just
- 1:06Speaker 2: for Pete's sake. She's five years old, five years old,
- 1:10Speaker 2: she's blind in one eye. She wears corrective glasses. She's cute, cute, cute,
- 1:18Speaker 2: always has a smile on her face. But apparently she
- 1:24Speaker 2: Teete soiled herself in dad's car, and he and his wife,
- 1:35Speaker 2: specifically him, she sat there while it happened. She's just
- 1:38Speaker 2: as guilty in my mind. He beat her brutally for
- 1:43Speaker 2: the quote bathroom accident and then left her to die
- 1:48Speaker 2: in the back seat as he and his wife did
- 1:53Speaker 2: drugs and ate fast food while she lied in the
- 1:58Speaker 2: back seat.
- 2:01Speaker 3: And dying.
- 2:03Speaker 2: Why did he have her repeatedly punching a helpless, half blind,
- 2:11Speaker 2: little five year old girl, beating her brutally in the
- 2:16Speaker 2: back seat. Put yourself in this child's position, caught in
- 2:20Speaker 2: the back seat, lying in the floor or on the
- 2:25Speaker 2: seat in the back as your dad beats you with
- 2:29Speaker 2: his fists until you die, lying back there, suffering, moaning
- 2:36Speaker 2: for help, as daddy uses drugs in the front seats,
- 2:41Speaker 2: the front seat with his new wife and they have
- 2:45Speaker 2: fast food while you die, helpless, moaning in pain. That's
- 2:52Speaker 2: what happened. How did the whole thing unfold? Why was
- 2:58Speaker 2: this little angel in this horrible, abusive home in the
- 3:03Speaker 2: first place?
- 3:04Speaker 4: When last scene, Harmony was about four feet tall. She
- 3:07Speaker 4: has blonde hair, blue eyes, and is blind in her
- 3:09Speaker 4: right eye, so she may be wearing glasses. Police say
- 3:12Speaker 4: she may have been going to school in Massachusetts when
- 3:15Speaker 4: last scene.
- 3:16Speaker 5: Don't care if you saw this young girl a year ago.
- 3:19Speaker 5: When you think it's irrelevant, call us and say I
- 3:22Speaker 5: saw her a year ago, I saw her eighteen months ago,
- 3:25Speaker 5: I saw her a week ago. Let's lessen that two
- 3:29Speaker 5: year window and keep bringing it, keep shrinking that two
- 3:32Speaker 5: year window to the present day today, and let's chase
- 3:35Speaker 5: down every possible avenue with the hopes of fighting harmony.
- 3:39Speaker 2: And we're hearing our friends at WMU are now's I
- 3:42Speaker 2: could listen to our cut thirteen Jackie, this.
- 3:45Speaker 3: Is Ray Brewer.
- 3:47Speaker 6: Neighbors can't believe it's taken this long to start an investigation.
- 3:51Speaker 7: I mean two years later, who waits two years ago
- 3:53Speaker 7: looking for a little kid like that.
- 3:56Speaker 6: Neighbors say they'd complained about living conditions at the home
- 3:59Speaker 6: to the officials, only to be told that nothing could
- 4:02Speaker 6: be done. As for whether a state investigation had been
- 4:05Speaker 6: launched or is underway, DCYF issued a statement saying state
- 4:10Speaker 6: and federal law requires us to protect the confidentiality of
- 4:14Speaker 6: the children and families served by individuals and engaged with DCYF.
- 4:20Speaker 6: Neighbors say at this point they just hope the little
- 4:22Speaker 6: girl is found and the situation is resolved.
- 4:25Speaker 3: It's kind of sad, because no kid deserves that.
- 4:29Speaker 2: Nobody does truer words or never spoken straight out to
- 4:32Speaker 2: Jessica Garth, the chief of the Special Victims and Family
- 4:35Speaker 2: Violence Unit in Prince George's County, defacts should be arrested
- 4:41Speaker 2: right along with Daddy Department of Family and Children Services,
- 4:46Speaker 2: it's called CPS in some places child protection.
- 4:50Speaker 3: They do anything but protect.
- 4:51Speaker 2: They knew that Harmony was being beaten and mistreated. They
- 4:56Speaker 2: had witnesses stated, neighbors said it, an uncle said it.
- 5:00Speaker 2: We left her there, and now we have confirmation she's dead.
- 5:04Speaker 2: She's dead, and daddy is a killer.
- 5:06Speaker 7: Yes, it's hard to understand how they couldn't be held
- 5:09Speaker 7: responsible in some way in this case. I mean, this
- 5:11Speaker 7: little girl was missing for two years and we knew
- 5:13Speaker 7: that she was being abused by her father. We knew it.
- 5:16Speaker 2: You know, I want to go straight out to our
- 5:18Speaker 2: cut number four. This is Manchester Police Chief Alan Aldenburgh listened.
- 5:24Speaker 5: Last time she was enrolled in any type of school.
- 5:27Speaker 5: From my understanding is you have to be confirmed as
- 5:30Speaker 5: down in Massachusetts. But again, she's seven right now, so
- 5:34Speaker 5: twenty nineteen five years old, probably right around that kindergarten timeframe. Again,
- 5:41Speaker 5: we've spoken with family members and we'll continue to do so.
- 5:44Speaker 5: I know I keep coming back to that, and that's
- 5:46Speaker 5: a fair question, right, did did we speak to mom?
- 5:48Speaker 5: Did we speak to dad? Did we speak to this bid.
- 5:50Speaker 5: We're speaking to any and all family members that come
- 5:54Speaker 5: to our attention and ones that we are seeking out
- 5:57Speaker 5: as well.
- 5:57Speaker 2: I've never heard such a CROs bs in my life.
- 6:01Speaker 2: I mean, but what else can the chief of police
- 6:04Speaker 2: say he didn't know the child was missing?
- 6:06Speaker 3: Why?
- 6:07Speaker 2: Because defects put the child back in the home, Knowing
- 6:11Speaker 2: she was beaten, knowing she was being forced to clean
- 6:14Speaker 2: the bathroom with her toothbrush, knowing she was getting black eyes,
- 6:19Speaker 2: knowing she wasn't getting fed, they put her back in there,
- 6:22Speaker 2: and then they didn't follow up. Now did you also
- 6:27Speaker 2: hear this to Michael Rui's joining me, investigative reporter with
- 6:31Speaker 2: Fox News Digital at Twitter at Mike Reports, Mike Our reports,
- 6:37Speaker 2: Michael Ruiz, thank you for being with us.
- 6:39Speaker 3: How come nobody noticed she wasn't in school?
- 6:42Speaker 2: Because even if my children are late, and that includes
- 6:46Speaker 2: if I take them to the orthodonosta or the doctor
- 6:48Speaker 2: during school hours, which I try not to do, I
- 6:50Speaker 2: get an immediate email Lucy's tarty.
- 6:55Speaker 3: I know immediately.
- 6:56Speaker 2: How come nobody knew Harmony wasn't in school?
- 7:00Speaker 8: Well, Aunte, it's only a couple months between the last
- 7:02Speaker 8: time she was seen and the start of the coronavirus pandemic,
- 7:05Speaker 8: and people weren't going to school, and that could be
- 7:07Speaker 8: a way to conceal the fact that a child is missing.
- 7:09Speaker 3: Oh I'm sorry, Michael Luiz. Do you have children.
- 7:12Speaker 9: I don't have children.
- 7:13Speaker 2: Oh okay, then you don't know about distance learning. All
- 7:18Speaker 2: we went through with the zooms and the face times.
- 7:21Speaker 2: Oh yes, Michael Luiz, there was school. People were going
- 7:26Speaker 2: to school. They were just doing it remote. She wasn't
- 7:29Speaker 2: even registered, Michael. And nobody raised a flag. Nobody not
- 7:37Speaker 2: a soul.
- 7:39Speaker 3: Guys.
- 7:40Speaker 2: And then you've got the father, Adam Montgomery, now murder defendant.
- 7:46Speaker 2: We had already adjudicated him as a POS. That's a
- 7:51Speaker 2: technical legal term. But I want you to hear our
- 7:53Speaker 2: cut thirty three. This is Mara Barrett at NBC.
- 7:56Speaker 3: Take a listen to this.
- 7:57Speaker 10: Adam Montgomery is charged with second degree assault, interference with custody,
- 8:01Speaker 10: and endangering the welfare of a child. One of those instances,
- 8:05Speaker 10: investigators say Adam struck Harmony in the face, causing a
- 8:09Speaker 10: black eye. In twenty nineteen, Kevin Montgomery, Adam's uncle, was
- 8:13Speaker 10: visiting the home.
- 8:14Speaker 2: Around that time.
- 8:15Speaker 4: I walked in the.
- 8:15Speaker 11: House in Hanmone had a black guy like you see
- 8:18Speaker 11: in a box match between two men. He bashed her
- 8:21Speaker 11: around the apartment kind of with her with his exact words.
- 8:25Speaker 10: According to court documents, Kevin says he and other family
- 8:28Speaker 10: members made multiple reports to New Hampshire's Division for Children,
- 8:32Speaker 10: Youth and Families.
- 8:33Speaker 11: And I don't know how they missed the black guy
- 8:36Speaker 11: that I saw.
- 8:37Speaker 10: Police say they found Adam sleeping in his car with
- 8:39Speaker 10: his new girlfriend on New Year's Eve. He told police
- 8:42Speaker 10: he'd given Harmony back to her biological mother around Thanksgiving
- 8:46Speaker 10: back in twenty nineteen. Her mother, Crystal Sorry, disputes this.
- 8:49Speaker 10: According to the court documents, police say he made some
- 8:52Speaker 10: contradictory statements and did not exhibit much emotion or reaction
- 8:56Speaker 10: to the fact that Harmony hadn't been seen in two years.
- 9:00Speaker 2: Got a special guest joining us, Blair Miller. Blair is
- 9:04Speaker 2: the adoptive father of Harmony's little brother, Jamison, also news
- 9:10Speaker 2: anchor with Cox Media Group in the Washington News Bureau,
- 9:13Speaker 2: and you can find him on Twitter, Facebook and instag
- 9:16Speaker 2: at Blair Miller TV. I am so sorry that Jamison.
- 9:23Speaker 2: Your son is going to grow up and when people
- 9:26Speaker 2: say tell me about your family, he'll say, oh, well,
- 9:29Speaker 2: my sister Harmony was murdered.
- 9:31Speaker 3: I mean that's how that's going to kick off.
- 9:34Speaker 2: And I'm just wondering, how, now that we know Harmony
- 9:38Speaker 2: is in fact dead, how do you tell that?
- 9:42Speaker 3: How do you explain that to Jameson?
- 9:44Speaker 12: Yeah, I mean we struggle with the same thing. Is
- 9:47Speaker 12: this is now part of his story. Now you know,
- 9:50Speaker 12: Harmony and Jamison had the same mom but different dads.
- 9:54Speaker 12: And you know, we struggle with that, and we struggle
- 9:58Speaker 12: you know, what, what are we going to him? And
- 10:00Speaker 12: you know we've told him some bits and pieces. I mean,
- 10:03Speaker 12: he talks about Harmony weekly. He was just talking about
- 10:06Speaker 12: her yesterday and brings her up on his own. But
- 10:11Speaker 12: this is a little boy who yearns to see her,
- 10:14Speaker 12: has been wanting to see her again, has wanted to
- 10:16Speaker 12: hug her, I has wanted to celebrate her, and you know,
- 10:20Speaker 12: here recently we had to tell him that she's now
- 10:24Speaker 12: in heaven and an angel looking down on him, and
- 10:27Speaker 12: that was very difficult for him. It's still very difficult
- 10:31Speaker 12: for him and brings up a lot of questions, innocent
- 10:34Speaker 12: questions that he asks, and you know, it is unfortunate
- 10:39Speaker 12: part of his story and as his dad's you know,
- 10:43Speaker 12: my husband and I have to protect them the best
- 10:45Speaker 12: we can and be there for him and help him
- 10:48Speaker 12: get through.
- 10:48Speaker 3: And you tried to get her too, didn't you.
- 10:51Speaker 12: We certainly wanted a custody of her. Her case was
- 10:53Speaker 12: already had already been handled by the time we met Jameson,
- 10:55Speaker 12: but we knew he had a sister, and we were
- 10:58Speaker 12: very interested in figuring out what happened to her, and
- 11:03Speaker 12: if if they needed to come together, we would we
- 11:05Speaker 12: would do that. Listen, it haunts us now. We yes,
- 11:10Speaker 12: we are so blessed, so thank we'll have Jameson and
- 11:14Speaker 12: add him to our family, but we also wish we
- 11:18Speaker 12: had that opportunity with Harmony and wish that we had
- 11:21Speaker 12: a little girl in our family.
- 11:22Speaker 2: I wish Jameson didn't have to know right now that
- 11:25Speaker 2: Harmony's in heaven, But if he keeps asking directly, I
- 11:28Speaker 2: guess you have to tell.
- 11:29Speaker 4: Him, you know.
- 11:30Speaker 12: When we had that conversation with him and told him,
- 11:33Speaker 12: you know that she is in heaven. And Jamison has
- 11:37Speaker 12: always had a sixth sense to him as far as
- 11:41Speaker 12: you know, knowing things and having a really unique connection
- 11:45Speaker 12: connection with his sister and asking things about her on
- 11:48Speaker 12: just important days when things are going on that he
- 11:51Speaker 12: has no idea what's happening. But that day we had
- 11:53Speaker 12: a conversation with him. The first thing he asked us
- 11:56Speaker 12: was did someone hurt her? And that just broke our
- 12:00Speaker 12: heart because we kind of come from the same school
- 12:04Speaker 12: of you know, we're not going to offer out bad information.
- 12:09Speaker 12: We just there's there's plenty of time in life for that.
- 12:13Speaker 12: But we we just held on.
- 12:14Speaker 9: To him and and.
- 12:16Speaker 12: And sat with him for a good hour and he
- 12:19Speaker 12: was just, you know, sitting there trying to understand what
- 12:21Speaker 12: happened to his sister. And he's going to spend the
- 12:24Speaker 12: rest of his.
- 12:24Speaker 9: Life trying to understand that too, as we are as
- 12:27Speaker 9: us as well.
- 12:34Speaker 1: M Prime Stories with Nancy Grace Welcome Back.
- 12:43Speaker 2: I'm Nancy Grace. Adam Montgomery Guilty and the brutal bludgeoning
- 12:48Speaker 2: death of his own five year old little girl. As
- 12:53Speaker 2: the girls bio mom rips, they quote coward killer.
- 12:58Speaker 3: Listen, you're a coward.
- 13:00Speaker 13: He's a coward. He's always been a coward. That's why
- 13:03Speaker 13: he did what he did. He took away from the
- 13:06Speaker 13: people that loved her because he couldn't hack that.
- 13:09Speaker 2: He didn't have control.
- 13:11Speaker 13: That's all he cared about was controlled everything in his life.
- 13:16Speaker 2: She wasn't anything, then, why was this little girl in
- 13:19Speaker 2: Adam Montgomery's clutches to start with? I tell you what
- 13:25Speaker 2: it would be, through hell and over high water that
- 13:29Speaker 2: my mom would have left me alone with an abusive dad.
- 13:33Speaker 2: But you know what, not everybody is as blessed as
- 13:37Speaker 2: I've been with a wonderful dad and a wonderful mom.
- 13:40Speaker 2: This little girl never had a chance, and that is
- 13:43Speaker 2: for social Services. It's supposed to step in and save her,
- 13:47Speaker 2: not let her be tortured for years, drop off the
- 13:50Speaker 2: grid and end up dead. We also know now that
- 13:55Speaker 2: this callous father, hateful, hateful, hateful, I mean, he's the devil.
- 14:01Speaker 2: The devil is just rubbing his hands together in glee
- 14:05Speaker 2: right now. This dad, Adam Montgomery, after beating his five
- 14:11Speaker 2: year old half blind daughter dead, he concealed her body
- 14:14Speaker 2: for years in Duffel bags, in a walk in freezer,
- 14:19Speaker 2: and even the trunk of a friend's car. Michael Ruiz
- 14:24Speaker 2: joining me, Fox News Digital investigative reporter, Michael, I want
- 14:27Speaker 2: you to hear wmu R.
- 14:29Speaker 3: Take a listen.
- 14:29Speaker 14: These are the criminal complaints filed late this afternoon against
- 14:33Speaker 14: thirty two year old Kayla Montgomery, alledging between November thirtieth,
- 14:37Speaker 14: twenty nineteen and June Tewod twenty twenty one, Kayla fraudulently
- 14:42Speaker 14: represented to DHHS that Harmony Montgomery was a member of
- 14:46Speaker 14: her household. The purpose, prosecutors say, was to receive undeserved
- 14:50Speaker 14: food stamp benefits in excess of fifteen hundred dollars. The
- 14:54Speaker 14: police affidavit provides a timeline of Harmony's life in New Hampshire.
- 14:58Speaker 14: On February twenty fifth, twenty nine, Kayla allegedly filed a
- 15:02Speaker 14: report with Djjess.
- 15:03Speaker 2: There you hear, Michael Luiz that the new missus Montgomery,
- 15:10Speaker 2: I guess Adam Montgomery's second or third wife, was filing
- 15:15Speaker 2: for government benefits on a dead child.
- 15:18Speaker 8: Yeah, so that's one of the things she's accused of,
- 15:22Speaker 8: among others, in connection with Harmony's case.
- 15:25Speaker 2: Okay, we've got the stepmother who is fraudulently getting food
- 15:31Speaker 2: stamps and other government benefits for Harmony even though Harmony.
- 15:36Speaker 3: Doesn't live there, and you've got the dad.
- 15:39Speaker 2: You know, when I think about what has happened, Michael Luise,
- 15:45Speaker 2: could you please detail for our listeners and viewers what
- 15:49Speaker 2: Harmony What we know according to witnesses, she lived through before.
- 15:55Speaker 8: Her murder, you know, images from the house are pretty disturbing.
- 16:00Speaker 8: Family members have talked about how filthy the home was.
- 16:03Speaker 8: I mean, there are stories that they were powering the
- 16:06Speaker 8: house off of the generator for a period of time.
- 16:09Speaker 8: And we know that the mother and father are both
- 16:12Speaker 8: have history, you know, drug related histories and substance abuse problems.
- 16:17Speaker 8: So is that a home where children can be raised
- 16:20Speaker 8: healthily and happily.
- 16:21Speaker 12: It doesn't doesn't really sound like it.
- 16:24Speaker 2: Also, as I recall Josep Scott Morgan joining me, Professor forensics,
- 16:28Speaker 2: Jacksonville State University, author of Blood Beneath My Feet on
- 16:32Speaker 2: Amazon and star of a new hit series and I
- 16:35Speaker 2: mean a hit body backs with j Scott MORGANO Scott,
- 16:38Speaker 2: thank you for being with us. You know, when I
- 16:41Speaker 2: come to you, Joe Scott, I'm looking for forensic evidence.
- 16:47Speaker 3: This child, this little girl has been dead a long time.
- 16:52Speaker 2: She was dead when we started looking for her, and
- 16:57Speaker 2: she was reported missing after two years.
- 17:01Speaker 3: I'm not being seen. But do you.
- 17:04Speaker 2: Recall eyewitness testimony about how the father, Adam Montgomery, would
- 17:11Speaker 2: beat her and would give her black eyes and would
- 17:16Speaker 2: make her take her toothbrush that she will have to
- 17:20Speaker 2: use again and clean the floor and around the commode
- 17:25Speaker 2: in the bathroom.
- 17:26Speaker 15: Yes, yes I do, Nancy, I certainly do.
- 17:28Speaker 2: You know just about makes me sick. Joe Scott, I mean,
- 17:32Speaker 2: it's just very upsetting.
- 17:34Speaker 15: Yeah, it is. And here's something that came out to
- 17:39Speaker 15: me when I began to read yesterday. And I've been
- 17:41Speaker 15: following this case for a long time now, and going
- 17:46Speaker 15: back to actually what Michael said, you know, this place
- 17:49Speaker 15: was absolutely a pigpen. It was filthy. But you know,
- 17:55Speaker 15: therein lie is a bit of saving grace when it
- 17:58Speaker 15: comes to the evidence it was generated. According to what
- 18:02Speaker 15: they're saying, there apparently is or was a tremendous amount
- 18:07Speaker 15: of biological evidence. And this leads us back to this
- 18:10Speaker 15: idea of blood and she suffered, make no mistake about it,
- 18:14Speaker 15: because she was struck not with an open hand. We
- 18:16Speaker 15: think about a slap, and you know when you slap
- 18:19Speaker 15: somebody that energy disperses. Now, she was struck in the
- 18:23Speaker 15: head multiple times, and we have evidence of this with
- 18:26Speaker 15: the previous mentioned black eye. She was struck multiple times,
- 18:29Speaker 15: according to the police, in the head, not in her stomach,
- 18:33Speaker 15: but in the head, over and over and over again,
- 18:36Speaker 15: with a closed fist. That's directed energy, Nancy. That means
- 18:39Speaker 15: that that punch transferred the energy from that fist to
- 18:43Speaker 15: this precious little angel's face, maybe to the top of
- 18:46Speaker 15: her head, and maybe her head slammed into the ground
- 18:50Speaker 15: beneath it. If he's on top of her in an
- 18:52Speaker 15: asymmetrical position punching down on her, she would have bled,
- 18:56Speaker 15: probably copiously. That means a lot, a lot of blood.
- 19:00Speaker 15: And they probably made a half hearted attempt to clean
- 19:03Speaker 15: this up and they couldn't eradicate that. And you know,
- 19:06Speaker 15: not to wax biblical here, but you know what, her
- 19:09Speaker 15: blood was screaming out from the ground, because that blood
- 19:13Speaker 15: is going to bear witness against her in court against
- 19:15Speaker 15: this guy in court.
- 19:16Speaker 2: The hearing brings out evidence, as JOSCICTT. Morgan has just stated,
- 19:21Speaker 2: and I'm quoting, causing the death of his daughter by
- 19:25Speaker 2: repeatedly striking her with a closed fist.
- 19:30Speaker 3: Okay, I told you about the step mom, which.
- 19:33Speaker 2: Truly encompasses the phrase the description evil step mother. But
- 19:38Speaker 2: what about mommy bio mom. Let's take a listen to
- 19:41Speaker 2: hour cut twenty for our friends from k News NAKs.
- 19:44Speaker 15: What did she seem like when you saw her on FaceTime?
- 19:47Speaker 13: Terrified. She I would say, hey, you know what's going on?
- 19:52Speaker 13: You know, what'd you eat for lunch? What'd you do today?
- 19:54Speaker 13: You know, are you going to school yet? Like you
- 19:57Speaker 13: know how your brothers and sisters? You got any friends?
- 19:59Speaker 13: You know, little questions like I'm a mom, like I
- 20:02Speaker 13: want to know these things. I want to know she's happy.
- 20:04Speaker 2: And every time I ask these.
- 20:06Speaker 13: Things, he would pause it and he'd tell whatever you'd
- 20:09Speaker 13: say to her, I can't hear him. He mute it,
- 20:11Speaker 13: and she'd be like, don't tell her, Dada, and she'd
- 20:14Speaker 13: be like like you know, and I'm watching her, so
- 20:18Speaker 13: he'd unmute it, and I'm like, what's going on? Like
- 20:22Speaker 13: why are you muting it? Every time I ask her
- 20:24Speaker 13: a question? Why are you letting her talk to me?
- 20:26Speaker 13: Why are you answering for her? Like you're acting weird
- 20:28Speaker 13: at him? I'm like, what's going on? Like we're co parenting,
- 20:33Speaker 13: like we're you're letting me have.
- 20:34Speaker 3: Visits, Like what's going on?
- 20:36Speaker 13: He's like, He's like, I have soul, custody, sole decision making.
- 20:40Speaker 13: You don't get to ask me, and he hangs up
- 20:42Speaker 13: and blocks me.
- 20:43Speaker 2: Here you have the bio mom, Crystal. Sorry, Yes, I
- 20:47Speaker 2: know she had a drug problem, but she was given
- 20:51Speaker 2: free counseling, free drug treatment by the state so she
- 20:55Speaker 2: could get her child back. And I've got the name
- 20:58Speaker 2: of the judge that hands the baby over to the dad,
- 21:03Speaker 2: the dad that is beating her, Judge Mark Newman, who
- 21:09Speaker 2: quietly stepped down from the bench after all this came
- 21:12Speaker 2: to light, as he should have.
- 21:15Speaker 3: I mean, you know, Karen Stark joining me. We're now
- 21:17Speaker 3: in York.
- 21:17Speaker 2: Psychologist joining us from Manhattan. She's at Karenstark dot com.
- 21:21Speaker 2: It's Karen with a sea, Karen. Isn't there another choice
- 21:25Speaker 2: than giving her to the drug addicted mother Crystal Sory
- 21:30Speaker 2: or the abusive father that beats her, that makes her
- 21:35Speaker 2: use her toothbrush going from the commode to her mouth.
- 21:38Speaker 2: Isn't there a different alternative, possibly something like Blair Miller
- 21:44Speaker 2: who has her bio brother who is raising him and
- 21:48Speaker 2: a loving and carrying home. I mean, there's not just
- 21:51Speaker 2: two choices, Karen Stark.
- 21:54Speaker 16: It's really hard to understand why they didn't come up
- 21:58Speaker 16: with another choice. Why does judge did that? Nancy? Because
- 22:02Speaker 16: it's typical in situations like this, a philicide where there's
- 22:06Speaker 16: a father that kills a child or a mother where
- 22:09Speaker 16: there's a past history of violence, violence against the family,
- 22:14Speaker 16: and particularly in this little girl. Family members were reporting
- 22:18Speaker 16: that something was going on, that she was being injured.
- 22:22Speaker 16: And I have no idea what was going on in
- 22:25Speaker 16: his mind, because I don't understand the law or what
- 22:29Speaker 16: a judge would be thinking. But she should have, without
- 22:32Speaker 16: his doubts, been placed in foster care or a pre
- 22:36Speaker 16: adoptional with a.
- 22:37Speaker 2: Another well, I mean right there, wanting her, wanting to
- 22:44Speaker 2: reunite harmony with her biological brother Jamison.
- 22:48Speaker 3: And you don't see that a lot in this world.
- 22:52Speaker 2: A couple willing to take in children that are from
- 22:56Speaker 2: drug addict parents, abusive parents. But there but oh no, no, no,
- 23:02Speaker 2: that couldn't happen. I'm sou madic at you and Elle
- 23:05Speaker 2: and a half. I'm looking at a shot of Adam Montgomery,
- 23:09Speaker 2: who certainly has not had a lack of appetite behind
- 23:11Speaker 2: bars as he faces murder charges and the death, the
- 23:15Speaker 2: bludgeoning death of his little girl. He's certainly been faring
- 23:19Speaker 2: well behind bars. Here he is walking into the courtroom
- 23:22Speaker 2: with a big smile on his face. You know what,
- 23:24Speaker 2: and bite me. Now here's a picture of harmony. Oh
- 23:28Speaker 2: my stars, just so cute. A little pink too, two
- 23:33Speaker 2: and tights and little rain boots. There she is holding
- 23:38Speaker 2: her little Barbie doll. She's dead, and her father, a
- 23:43Speaker 2: violent felon previously jailed for shooting a drug dealer in
- 23:47Speaker 2: the face, has been found guilty in her murder. This
- 23:55Speaker 2: little girl last seen alive in twenty nineteen, and even
- 23:58Speaker 2: now her body has been recovered. During the trial of
- 24:02Speaker 2: Adam Montgomery, prosecutors described how the child killer would move
- 24:07Speaker 2: Harmony's little body from container to container, place to place
- 24:12Speaker 2: as her body rotted. The locations where he hid his
- 24:18Speaker 2: own five year old daughter's remains were the trunk of
- 24:22Speaker 2: a friend's car, a cooler in the hall at his
- 24:26Speaker 2: mother in law's apartment building that's bold, a ceiling vent
- 24:33Speaker 2: at a homeless shelter, and in an apartment freezer. And
- 24:40Speaker 2: you know who else is a pos technical legal term,
- 24:44Speaker 2: his wife, Killa, Harmony's stepmother, who said at one point
- 24:51Speaker 2: her little remains were kept in a toe back from
- 24:54Speaker 2: a hospital maternity ward. What is wrong with these people?
- 25:00Speaker 2: Then this so called stepmom, who is reported to have
- 25:06Speaker 2: been there when her husband murdered Harmony, said she actually
- 25:11Speaker 2: placed the tote bag between her own two young children
- 25:14Speaker 2: in a stroller and brought the remains to her husband's workplace. Well,
- 25:20Speaker 2: she's going to write in hell too, I hope, with
- 25:22Speaker 2: a nice, healthy stint in the penitentiary en route joining me.
- 25:27Speaker 2: Jessica Garth, who was the chief of the Special Victims
- 25:30Speaker 2: and Family Violence Unit in Prince George's County. Jessica Garth,
- 25:34Speaker 2: so you better have your ducks in a row, you
- 25:37Speaker 2: better have your evidence nailed down before you and died.
- 25:41Speaker 7: It sounds like what they was. They charged him initially
- 25:44Speaker 7: with the abuse and that allowed them, you know, to
- 25:47Speaker 7: hold him and to investigate him for the murder without
- 25:50Speaker 7: starting that speedy trial clock on the murder charges. I
- 25:54Speaker 7: suspect that's what they did by charging him with that,
- 25:56Speaker 7: you know, that black eye and abuse charge early on,
- 25:59Speaker 7: and then doing a further investigation on this.
- 26:02Speaker 2: I'm just wondering to Michael Ruis, are there any charges
- 26:07Speaker 2: against Adam Montgomery trying to get his wife to lie?
- 26:13Speaker 8: Yes, there are. Explain that that's some of the charges
- 26:17Speaker 8: that they announced that he was witness camper and pressuring
- 26:20Speaker 8: her to go along with his story allegedly.
- 26:22Speaker 2: Now are we talking about his then wife kill Montgomery.
- 26:27Speaker 8: We're talking about Kayla So who is now his estranged wife.
- 26:30Speaker 2: Oh, I bet she is, because remember she's charged with
- 26:33Speaker 2: faking the government benefits in order to get money, pretending
- 26:39Speaker 2: that Harmony is still alive.
- 26:40Speaker 3: That's Killer Montgomery, right, That is the same one. I
- 26:44Speaker 3: can tell you right now. They're going to plead her
- 26:46Speaker 3: down to.
- 26:49Speaker 2: Maybe misdemeanor or even less, give her time served in
- 26:55Speaker 2: exchange for her testimony against Adam Montgomery.
- 26:58Speaker 3: That's the way it goes. Would you agree or disagree, Jessica.
- 27:02Speaker 7: Garth, I would agree with one hundred percent. And I
- 27:04Speaker 7: suspect that that is how they've been able to determine
- 27:07Speaker 7: how Harmony died in this case.
- 27:09Speaker 3: But you know, let us think about this for a moment.
- 27:13Speaker 2: If she's only willing to talk about what really happened
- 27:18Speaker 2: to Harmony, how she was bludgeoned by her own dad.
- 27:22Speaker 2: This little five year old girl that's blind in one eye,
- 27:26Speaker 2: wears corrective glasses and a big, beautiful smile at all times.
- 27:31Speaker 2: Never seen a picture of her without just this audacious smile.
- 27:36Speaker 2: He beat a five year old little girl, half blind,
- 27:40Speaker 2: little girl dead, And I bet you anything, the Devil's
- 27:48Speaker 2: minion kill a Montgomery saw the whole thing. Yet it's
- 27:54Speaker 2: going to take a deal with the devil to get
- 27:58Speaker 2: her to say what how I mean, Blair Miller, this
- 28:02Speaker 2: is Harmony's brother, Jamieson's adoptive dad. To think she's known
- 28:10Speaker 2: all this time what happened to Harmony?
- 28:13Speaker 12: You know, it's just so much of this is left
- 28:17Speaker 12: us speechless. And to know that an adult did not
- 28:23Speaker 12: play a role in helping a child is just it's
- 28:26Speaker 12: just unbelievable, and it's just unfathomable. And I think for
- 28:31Speaker 12: us it's just, you know, really hard for us to
- 28:33Speaker 12: put into words for a way for us to make
- 28:36Speaker 12: sense to us as adults, but let alone, how we
- 28:39Speaker 12: ever explain this to a child? And I don't know
- 28:42Speaker 12: that that will ever make sense, And I don't think
- 28:46Speaker 12: a trial will help explain that. It just doesn't make
- 28:50Speaker 12: sense to us.
- 28:51Speaker 3: You know, Blair.
- 28:52Speaker 2: When my daughter Lucy gets upset about something and she cries,
- 28:58Speaker 2: I feel like my whole world is just getting torn
- 29:00Speaker 2: in half. It just hurts me so much. And she
- 29:04Speaker 2: is fourteen now. To hear her cry or be upset
- 29:11Speaker 2: or sad or can I tell you, Blair my son
- 29:15Speaker 2: John David is trying out for basketball this week, and
- 29:21Speaker 2: he has practiced and practiced and practiced all summer for
- 29:25Speaker 2: this moment. I think I'm going to be more hurt
- 29:29Speaker 2: than him if he doesn't make it, God forbid, because
- 29:32Speaker 2: he's trying so hard. And I think about just their feelings,
- 29:40Speaker 2: how I hate for their feelings to be hurt. And
- 29:43Speaker 2: then I think about this woman standing by and watching
- 29:52Speaker 2: as Harmony is beaten dead. I mean, did she ever
- 29:56Speaker 2: say stop it or jump in and try to save
- 30:00Speaker 2: the little girl?
- 30:01Speaker 3: I mean ever? And then she sat on the.
- 30:05Speaker 2: Evidence what she knows all this time, so what she
- 30:08Speaker 2: could work a deal on stealing from the government.
- 30:12Speaker 3: I mean it just and the mother.
- 30:15Speaker 2: I mean, I know you're not going to say anything
- 30:17Speaker 2: about the bio mom, because Jamison shares the bio mom.
- 30:21Speaker 3: But I'll tell you what I think.
- 30:23Speaker 2: I can just see the three of them around a fire,
- 30:27Speaker 2: like three witches, just conjuring up pure evil. Nobody did
- 30:33Speaker 2: a thing to help this little girl, That's what I'm saying, Blair.
- 30:37Speaker 12: Well, I think that's our frustration now, is that no
- 30:43Speaker 12: Harmony Montgomery was never a priority for anyone. And you
- 30:48Speaker 12: know it's been a year since we've been talking almost
- 30:50Speaker 12: a year since we've been talking about this publicly, and
- 30:54Speaker 12: no one has changed anything, and there could be another
- 30:57Speaker 12: Harmony Montgomery tomorrow and nothing has changed to stop this
- 31:04Speaker 12: from happening again. And I think that's one of our
- 31:07Speaker 12: biggest frustrations right now. She's still and people.
- 31:11Speaker 9: Say, oh, we failed her, Oh we care about.
- 31:17Speaker 12: Her, but yeah, no one's making her priority still, and
- 31:22Speaker 12: that really bothers us.
- 31:24Speaker 2: You know. That's why when I'm discussing the case with Jackie,
- 31:29Speaker 2: my executive producer, who's right here with me, and I say, okay,
- 31:33Speaker 2: let's talk about the very latest, and the first thing
- 31:36Speaker 2: she always says, God in Heaven help her, does a
- 31:40Speaker 2: candlelight vigil. You know, you can lie, And I appreciate
- 31:43Speaker 2: the sentiment. You can light all the candles you want to,
- 31:46Speaker 2: but until you make real change, it doesn't matter.
- 31:51Speaker 3: It doesn't matter. And I mean Blair. Of course.
- 31:56Speaker 2: Adam Montgomery is who the state says dart, this little
- 32:01Speaker 2: half blind, five year old girl, completely defenseless but defects apartment.
- 32:07Speaker 2: Family Children's Services was in that home. They knew what
- 32:10Speaker 2: was going on. The uncle called and made a nine
- 32:14Speaker 2: one one report about how Harmony was being beaten and
- 32:17Speaker 2: abused and mistreated, and they let her stay in the
- 32:21Speaker 2: home unless there is radical change.
- 32:27Speaker 3: You're right, Blair, this is going to happen again.
- 32:29Speaker 2: Probably is happening right now while we're talking, Blair, And
- 32:33Speaker 2: I think.
- 32:33Speaker 12: That's what concerns us, is that that radical change hasn't happened.
- 32:38Speaker 12: You know, when we adopted each one of our boys,
- 32:40Speaker 12: we went through extensive background checks. We had social workers
- 32:44Speaker 12: come into our house every month to make sure we
- 32:48Speaker 12: were doing the right things, making sure we are going
- 32:50Speaker 12: to pediatrician appointments, making sure we had kids in school,
- 32:53Speaker 12: making sure we were doing the right things. Harmony Montgomery needed,
- 32:57Speaker 12: you know, such care, such great special care with their
- 33:02Speaker 12: special needs, and who was making sure she was going
- 33:06Speaker 12: to get that? There have been there should have been
- 33:08Speaker 12: many checks in place to make sure that she was
- 33:11Speaker 12: in a good situation, let alone for red flags.
- 33:15Speaker 7: To go off.
- 33:16Speaker 12: And none of that happened, and it would still happen today.
- 33:20Speaker 12: And that's that bothers us.
- 33:34Speaker 2: Prime stories with Nancy Grace. What do we know about
- 33:39Speaker 2: the life and death of this little girl and will
- 33:44Speaker 2: her death be in vain? Will the child protective services
- 33:49Speaker 2: system change at all? As police searched Marshy areas near Revere, Massachusetts,
- 33:59Speaker 2: and other location, still no sign of Harmony's body. As
- 34:06Speaker 2: the prosecutor said, on the day of little Harmony's death,
- 34:11Speaker 2: he had his car, his rage, and his fists. He
- 34:17Speaker 2: took her life in a rage over a bathroom accident.
- 34:24Speaker 2: He reportedly told his wife, I think I really heard
- 34:27Speaker 2: her this time and said I felt something. Yeah, he
- 34:34Speaker 2: felt his little girl's life ebb away after he beat
- 34:40Speaker 2: her dead, wrought in hell Adam Montgomery.
- 34:44Speaker 17: As to charge I D one ninety three seven ninety four,
- 34:48Speaker 17: seventh C. Charging the defendant Adam Montgomery with the crime
- 34:51Speaker 17: of second to reassault, do you find the defendant guilty
- 34:54Speaker 17: or not guilty? Guilty you say that he's guilty, mister
- 34:57Speaker 17: fore person. That's correct, So say you, all, ladies and
- 34:59Speaker 17: john of the jury.
- 35:01Speaker 12: Yes.
- 35:02Speaker 17: As to charge ID to zero two seven one one
- 35:06Speaker 17: two C. Charging the defendant Adam Montgomery with a crime
- 35:09Speaker 17: of second degree murder? Do you find the defendant guilty
- 35:11Speaker 17: or not guilty?
- 35:12Speaker 2: Guilty?
- 35:13Speaker 17: Do you say that he's guilty, mister four person? That's correct,
- 35:16Speaker 17: So say you, all ladies and gentlemen of the jury.
- 35:17Speaker 13: Yes.
- 35:19Speaker 17: And as to charge I d two zero two seven
- 35:22Speaker 17: one three C Charging the defendant with a crime of
- 35:25Speaker 17: falsifying physical evidence. Do you find the defendant guilty or
- 35:28Speaker 17: not guilty? Guilty you say that he's guilty, mister four person.
- 35:31Speaker 17: That's correct, So say you, all, ladies and gentlemen of
- 35:34Speaker 17: the jury.
- 35:34Speaker 2: Yes, And as far as the Massachusetts welfare system, you
- 35:42Speaker 2: can walk straight to hell, hand in hand with Adam Montgomery. Goodbye, friend,