A look at “Search teams combing wetlands in Harmony Montgomery case” Police are conducting a search among the wetlands of Revere, Massachusetts, connected to the investigation of dead 5-year-old New Hampshire girl Harmony Montgomery, officials said Friday.
Massachusetts State Police are handling the search with assistance from law enforcement officials based in Manchester, New Hampshire.
Harmony Montgomery appears in a picture released by the Manchester, N.H. Police Department.Search teams combing wetlands in Harmony Montgomery case
“This search is being conducted as part of the investigation into the murder of then-five-year-old Harmony Montgomery in December 2019,” the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office said in a statement. “Due to the ongoing investigation, no additional information will be released at this time. Officials caution against any speculation related to the potential results of this search.”
“The search for Harmony continues and law enforcement is still requesting the public’s assistance in locating her remains,” the statement added.
Police in the Bay State shared a few additional details with Boston-based NBC affiliate WBTS.
The specific area being searched is along Route 107 in Revere. The search began just after 9 a.m. EST and was “prompted by information developed by investigators,” according to the MSP. The location is about an hour southeast of Harmony’s Manchester home.
The search is being conducted by roughly two dozen officers, including state police troopers, state police K9 teams, the state police drone unit, and Manchester police officers, WBTS reported.
Manchester-based ABC affiliate WMUR reporter Tim Callery offered some updates on the search early Friday afternoon:
Officials say information developed by investigators led them to this area. The search is being conducted by the @MassStatePolice Special Emergency Response Team. It’s trained in search operations in difficult terrain and environments.
— Tim Callery (@TimCalWMUR) April 7, 2023
A closer look at the scene where investigators are conducting a search in connection to the murder of #HarmonyMontgomery. https://t.co/fPylDnh3eg
— Tim Callery (@TimCalWMUR) April 7, 2023
As of late Friday afternoon, however, law enforcement has not released any additional information. A spokesperson for the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office initially said they were only able to share the earlier press release when asked by Law&Crime.
New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella later said that law enforcement would not be conducting a search in an area without a reason to do so, WMUR first reported and Law&Crime confirmed.
Harmony Montgomery went missing in late November or early December 2019. She was not reported missing until November 2021. The girl’s mother, Crystal Sorey, who had been dealing with substance abuse issues, believed she lived with her father the whole time.
Police believe Harmony Montgomery was killed in December 2019 and that her body was concealed by March 4, 2020.
In August 2022, after nearly eight months of investigation by various state, county, and federal law enforcement agencies, Harmony Montgomery was declared dead based on numerous leads, including biological evidence. In October 2022, her father, Adam Montgomery, was charged with one count of murder in the second degree for recklessly causing her death “by repeatedly striking Harmony in the head with a closed fist,” Formella said at the time. The girl’s father was also charged with falsifying physical evidence and abuse of a corpse. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges involving his daughter’s death.
A formal indictment on the charges related to the still-missing girl’s death was filed in January. Adam Montgomery was also indicted on one charge of witness tampering for allegedly coercing his estranged wife, Kayla Montgomery, to lie to a grand jury about the circumstances surrounding her stepdaughter’s death.
Kayla Montgomery was charged with two counts of perjury for those alleged lies. She initially pleaded not guilty but later accepted a plea deal, admitting legal culpability and agreeing to testify against her estranged husband. She is slated to formally confess in May and will serve consecutive sentences of 3 1/2 years, and seven years, in prison for each count. Five years of her sentence will be suspended for her cooperation against her husband and her confession. Additionally, prosecutors dropped charges that she lied about still having the girl in her care for several months in order to continue receiving additional food benefits, as well as charges that she received stolen firearms from her husband.
Late last month, Adam Montgomery was charged with gun crimes that are said to be unrelated to Harmony Montgomery’s case.
More Law&Crime coverage: Dead 6-year-old girl Harmony Montgomery’s father indicted on new gun charges in New Hampshire
In June 2022, New Hampshire and federal authorities also searched the father’s former residence on Union Street in Manchester in connection with the case.
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