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Father of missing 7-year-old girl arrested in United States

2022-01-06T07:14:07.991Z


Adam Montgomery was charged with the disappearance of his daughter Harmony, to whom he caused bodily injury, according to New Hampshire authorities.


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(CNN) -

Harmony Montgomery's father, a missing 7-year-old girl, has been arrested and charged in connection with her disappearance, according to court documents filed Wednesday.

Adam Montgomery, 31, has been charged with a felony assault, two misdemeanors of endangering the welfare of a child and a misdemeanor interference with custody, according to the complaint.

New Hampshire prosecutors allege that Montgomery knowingly caused Harmony bodily injury by "punching her in the face" sometime in July 2019;

knowingly withheld it from the state Division of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF);

and "refused to provide the Manchester Police Department with information leading to the whereabouts" of Harmony, according to the complaint.

Montgomery gave Harmony Montgomery a black eye in July 2019 and gave conflicting accounts of the last time he saw her, according to an edited police affidavit filed Wednesday.

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Montgomery waived his scheduled court appearance in New Hampshire on Wednesday and remains in custody, according to bond documents filed Wednesday.

He has been ordered not to have contact with Crystal Sorey, Harmony's biological mother, and his wife.

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Montgomery is represented by an attorney appointed by a state court.

A message left for the state's public defender's office in Manchester was not immediately returned.

CNN has also made several attempts to reach Harmony's two parents, but has received no response.

Manchester police officers began searching for Montgomery after Sorey informed police on November 18 that Harmony was missing and had not seen her in over six months.

Police say they contacted DCYF and verified the addresses associated with Montgomery, but were unable to locate him or Harmony, according to the affidavit filed in Hillsborough Superior Court.

Sorey told police that he lost custody of Harmony in July 2018 due, in part, to substance abuse issues and attempted to locate Harmony over the years by contacting various schools and driving for addresses associated with Adam Montgomery, but was unable to locate her, according to the affidavit.

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Police said more than five weeks after Sorey reported Harmony's disappearance to police, DCYF notified them on Dec. 27 that the agency could not locate Harmony.

Subsequently, the Manchester Police Department opened an investigation.

Sorey told police that she last saw Harmony during a FaceTime call with Montgomery around Easter 2019 and that Harmony "looked scared," the affidavit states.

DCYF has not responded to questions from CNN about when it was notified of Harmony's disappearance, but a spokesperson for the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) said in a statement that "they are limited in what [they] can say by federal authorities and state laws that require the confidentiality of child protection cases. "

"We can confirm that as soon as the state learned that Harmony was no longer with her caregiver, immediate action was taken and an investigation was launched. Finding Harmony remains our top priority," said DHHS Director of Communications Jake Lion.

Members of the Manchester Police Department contacted Montgomery's younger brother on 30 December, who "was concerned that Adam was physically abusive."

Officers also interviewed Montgomery's uncle, who said he had not seen his nephew or Harmony since late 2019. The uncle also told police that he saw Harmony with a black eye in July 2019 and notified DCYF .

He said Montgomery told him he caused the black eye by hitting Harmony, who was 5 years old at the time, police said in the affidavit.

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The affidavit also states that Montgomery's uncle called the police for other forms of "abusive discipline" against Harmony, including a "severe slap on the butt", which forced her to stand in a corner for hours and that her father ordered him to scrub a toilet with his toothbrush.

Since then, the uncle has started a GoFundMe to raise money as a reward for "anyone who can locate" Harmony.

Montgomery shares three minor children with his wife, Kayla Montgomery, all of whom have been accounted for. Kayla Montgomery told police on December 31 that she last saw Harmony around November or December 2019, that Adam told her he would take her back to her mother in Massachusetts and that he had not seen or heard of Harmony. since then. He also added that he had not been in contact with Adam Montgomery since November 2021 and that he was now living with another woman, according to the affidavit.

Later that day, the police affidavit indicates that officers found Adam and his girlfriend sleeping in a car in Manchester.

According to police, Adam initially said that Harmony was fine and had seen her "something recently."

However, she later said she hadn't seen her daughter since Crystal Sorey came to pick her up around Thanksgiving 2019. She subsequently stopped responding to police questions and "didn't show much emotion or reaction" when she was asked. Police said they were concerned if Harmony was still alive, the affidavit says.

Sorey has "flatly denied" taking custody of Harmony or seeing her after the FaceTime call around Easter 2019, police said.

- CNN's Artemis Moshtaghian, Sahar Akbarzai and Leslie Holland contributed to this report.

JusticeNew Hampshire

Source: cnnespanol

All news articles on 2022-01-06

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