Stepmom of murdered Harmony Montgomery walks free from jail after just 2 years despite admitting to ‘hiding girl’s body’
THE stepmother of murdered 5-year-old Harmony Montgomery has been released from prison on parole despite admitting she helped hide her body and cut off her clothes.
Kayla Montgomery was released from the New Hampshire Department of Corrections on Wednesday after providing key testimony during the murder trial of her estranged husband Adam Montgomery.
APHarmony Montgomery’s stepmom Kayla was released from prison on parole after 18 months[/caption]
Kayla’s testimony in her estranged husband’s trial detailed the moment 5-year-old Harmony was killed and how her body was tampered with after
APHarmony’s father Adam Montgomery was sentenced to 56 years in prison for the crime of murdering his daughter[/caption]
She was serving an 18-month sentence after lying to a grand jury about witnessing Harmony’s death and helping to hide the young girl’s body.
“If I was honest from the beginning, (investigators) could have done their job sooner… to find Harmony, know what happened to her,” Kayla said, according to ABC affiliate WCVB.
In March, Kayla answered questions about what she planned to do if she was released during her parole hearing.
When asked what her goal was upon release, she said, “My recovery is number one and keep doing the right thing. That’s just what’s been in my mind.”
She was released after completing managed programs in prison but will be under intense supervision for 90 days.
VITAL TESTIMONY
Kayla testified for over six hours in February during Adam’s murder trial.
She recalled the moment her stepdaughter died in the backseat of the family’s Chrysler Sebring they had been living in.
Kayla sobbed as she described how the “evil” father had “crazy eyes” while he punched Harmony in the head and face after she had an accident in the car.
After the final hit, Kayla told the jury that Montgomery said, “I think I really hurt her this time. I think I did something.”
Harmony is said to have moaned for five minutes before she suddenly stopped breathing.
The stepmother testified how she saw Adam take his daughter’s lifeless body, “fold her in half, and squished” her inside a Catholic Medical Center hospital bag.
She then said Montgomery put the bag into a cooler and left it in the hallway of Kayla’s mother’s house.
“I saw him do it, she [Harmony] was in the cooler for a couple of weeks,” an emotional Kayla said on the stand.
NEVER AT PEACE
As the family moved and worked, they took Harmony’s body with them.
When they moved into a family shelter, Montgomery took the bag with his daughter’s remains and placed it in the ceiling of the room they were living in.
The family lived in the shelter for over a month as the body began to decompose.
Harmony Montgomery timeline
Harmony Montgomery was last seen alive on December 7, 2019. She was reported missing in December 2021 by her mother, Crystal Sorey, after being unable to get in contact with her.
February 2019: Adam Montgomery is granted custody of Harmony after her mother, Crystal Sorey, loses custody because of neglect related to drug use.
Easter 2019: After getting clean, Sorey said she spoke to Harmony via FaceTime. She said this was the last time she saw her daughter.
October 2019: After receiving several calls about child abuse, a child protective service worker visits Montgomery’s home and reports the children appeared happy and healthy. The assessment concludes that the report of abuse was unfounded, but the family was at high risk for future child welfare concerns.
November 2019: Montgomery, Harmony, Kayla, and their two other children were evicted from their home and began living in a Chrysler Sebring.
December 7, 2019: Following multiple bathroom accidents, an irate Montgomery repeatedly struck Harmony in the head and face with a closed fist, causing her death, investigators said.
December 2021: New Hampshire police report Harmony missing after Sorey tried to contact her daughter multiple times.
October 2022: Adam Montgomery is charged with second-degree murder, witness tampering, falsifying physical evidence, and abuse of a corpse.
February 2024: Adam Montgomery is convicted of second-degree murder in connection with the death of his daughter, Harmony.
“You could smell a horrible smell, and it was coming from the vent,” Kayla said, adding that residents began complaining.
“She [Harmony] was starting to smell, and fluid leaking,” Kayla remembered.
The stepmom added, “Adam said there was blood in the ceiling and fluid.”
Kayla also detailed to the jury that she would carry the tote around in a stroller which also held her other two children.
“It was a double stroller. I had one kid in the front and there was a basket underneath,” Kayla told the jury.
“I put the CMC [Catholic Medical Center] bag in the basket, and then the other kid was on the other side.”
She said Adam had given her orders to deliver the bag to his workplace, a restaurant named Portland Pie, so he could hide it in the walk-in freezer.
APDuring her testimony, Kayla detailed how Adam placed the little girl’s body in a hospital tote bag[/caption]
‘SKIN AND BONE’
Perhaps the most graphic and horrific part of Kayla’s testimony was when she described helping Adam cut the clothes off Harmony’s decaying corpse.
“I saw her in the bathtub still folded together, the same way that she was left in the bag when [he] got her out of the car,” Kayla said.
“She just looked like she had just barely any skin. She was just layers of skin and bone, and she was all bruised up.”
Adam had “hot water running in the shower, in the bathroom” and was “cutting off her clothes and just dethawing her” by pouring hot water over the girl’s corpse.
He wanted to speed up the decomposition process, according to Kayla.
When Montgomery asked for help, Kayla said she obeyed him out of fear.
“I was scared. I helped him take the clothes off her,” she said, adding that Adam threw away Harmony’s sweater and leggings.
Kayla recalled Adam filling the tote bag Harmony was in with lime and disposing of it early one morning,
“Where did he dump Harmony’s body?” prosecutors asked Kayla, who responded, “I don’t know.
“When he came back as the sun came up, he no longer had the CMC bag with him.”
On May 9, Adam was sentenced to 45 years to life for second-degree murder and three-and-a-half to seven years for falsifying evidence and tampering with a witness.
Harmony’s body has not been found and the disgraced father refuses to reveal where she is.
WBZ CBSHarmony’s body is still missing, but Adam refuses to give any clues on her whereabouts[/caption]
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