The Misery Machine - Update: The Case of Harmony Montgomery - What We Know Now...

Starting point is 00:00:00 This case took place not far from where we are, and it has been the most talked about case in our area since it was first reported in 2021. Recently, a huge breakthrough has been made, but let's quickly cover what we know so far. On November 18, 2021, Crystal Sory contacted the Manchester, New Hampshire Police Department with regard to the whereabouts of her five-year-old daughter, Harmony Montgomery. The little girl had been in the custody of her ex, Adam Montgomery, and she hadn't seen or heard from her in six months. The last contact Crystal had with her daughter was around Easter of 2019 via FaceTime. She said that Adam was visible in the background of the video call and that Harmony seemed

Starting point is 00:00:41 frightened. Harmony was a beautiful little girl with blonde hair and blue eyes. She stood at around four feet tall and weighed roughly 50 pounds. She was blind in her right eye, which caused to cross ever so slightly. She also wore glasses to aid in her vision. In 2019, she was in her. enrolled in school in Massachusetts, but later stopped attending. Harmony had a brother named Jamison, who was adopted by Washington, D.C. television anchor Blair

Starting point is 00:01:07 Miller and his husband in November of 2019. The couple shared a close relationship with Crystal Sory, and sadly, they were unable to adopt Harmony and her brother together, as she had already been placed in the care of Adam. An employee of the Manchester Police Department contacted the Division for Children, youth and families to obtain a list of known addresses for Adam. When they went to perform a wellness check, they were unable to find Harmony or her father. On December 27th of the same year, DCYF notified the Manchester PD that they were unable to make contact with the family.

Starting point is 00:01:41 In turn, the police initiated an investigation into the whereabouts of Harmony. Harmony's case was subsequently assigned to Detective John Dunleavy of the Manchester Police Department. During a follow-up interview with Crystal, she explained she had lost custody of Harmony in July of 2018 to the state of Massachusetts, in part due to substance use issues. Crystal shared that both she and Adam had passed issues with illicit substances. According to Crystal, she had since gotten clean, after which she made attempts throughout 2021 to locate Adam in harmony. Now allegedly, Adam and his subsequent partner, Kayla Montgomery, were making this impossible. The pair blocked Crystal's

Starting point is 00:02:18 phone number as well as her social media accounts. Crystal told the detective that since losing custody, she made several attempts to locate Harmony by contacting various schools and driving by addresses associated with Adam, but she could not make any progress. It should also be noted that after the Manchester PD were already involved in Harmony's case, Crystal reached out to the mayor's office

Starting point is 00:02:38 and threatened to go to the press if they didn't do anything. Members of the Manchester PD actively made attempts to track down Adam and to talk to involve family members to establish the last time that Harmony was physically observed and known to be safe. Officers and investigators were initially unable to make any sort of contact with Adam via phone.

Starting point is 00:02:56 However, investigators were able to connect with various family members, including those associated with Adam in Florida. Through these family members, investigators received information that Adam previously admitted to giving Harmony a black eye in approximately July of 2019. The following day, Detective Dunleavy spoke with Adam's estranged wife, Kayla Montgomery, who shared three children of her own with the missing father. He asked Kayla about the last time she had physically seen Harmony. Kayla said that sometime in the early winter of 2019, she saw the little girl one morning prior

Starting point is 00:03:27 to going to work. Adam said he was returning Harmony back to Crystal who was living in Massachusetts at the time. According to Kayla, she believed Harmony had been returned to her mother's care at that point. Kayla claimed she never saw or heard about Harmony after that day. In addition, Kayla had not seen Adam since late October of 2021 and hadn't spoken with him since around mid-November of 2021. Kayla claimed that Adam was living in a sober house and had left the area to live in Maine with his new girlfriend. That new girlfriend was Kelsey Small of Carmel, Maine.

Starting point is 00:04:00 At the time of our story, Adam and Kelsey were found sleeping in a vehicle on Harvelle Street in Manchester on December 31st of 2021. Kelsey claimed that she had been romantically involved with Adam for over a year. She said that she was aware that Adam had four children, three with Kayla and one with Crystal. However, Kelsey claimed Adam was an intent. touch with any of his children from his previous relationships. In addition, Adam had never discussed Harmony with her, and she had no information that could help with the investigation. During the detective's interaction with Adam, he did not exhibit much emotion or reaction over the fact that Harmony hadn't been seen in over two years. Kelsey Small was later found dead in a hotel

Starting point is 00:04:42 room on March 13, 2022. A cause of death has not been given, but police have stated that her death was not suspicious. Kelsey had been arrested five days before she passed away on a DUI charge. A police affidavit mentioned that she had been residing in a sober living home at the time. The same day as Adam's interview, Kayla Montgomery also participated in a voluntary interview with detectives Dunleavy and Riley. During this interview, she spoke about the last time she saw Harmony, which would have been two days after Thanksgiving of 2019.

Starting point is 00:05:14 According to Kayla, Adam had taken her to work for her 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. shift. at the Dunkin' Donuts on Eddie Road in Manchester, New Hampshire. When she was being dropped off, Adam allegedly told her he was bringing Harmony to her mother's house in Massachusetts. Kayla said later that day, Adam picked her up and he no longer had Harmony. At the time of our story, Crystal was living at 39 Chapel Street in Lowell, Mass, with her boyfriend Joseph Eckert. However, when detectives later questioned him, he claimed he had never met Harmony in person.

Starting point is 00:05:46 New Year's Eve 2021 proved to be a busy, day for the Manchester PD. The 9th Circuit Family Division, Manchester, granted protective supervision of Harmony to DCYF from Adam. Now, per the order, Adam was to cooperate with the Manchester Police Department and assist with locating Harmony. However, he refused to do so. Instead, he told the authorities either arrest me or I'm leaving. On January 4th of 2022, the Manchester Police Department did just that. Adam was arrested on charges related to Harmony and was formally a reign the following day. He was charged with second-degree assault stemming from an incident in July of 2019, where he gave the little girl a black eye. He was also charged with custodial interference

Starting point is 00:06:28 and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child. Since the date of his arrest, Adam has been detained at the Hillsborough County House of Corrections. On May 20th of 2022, Kayla Montgomery testified before the grand jury for Hillsborough County Northern District as part of the grand jury's investigation into the disappearance of Harmony Montgomery. Kayla was under oath for her testimony She was asked about the last time she saw Harmony. Kayla repeated her story about Adam dropping her off at work, but this time, the location changed from Eddie Street in Manchester to the Dunkin' Donuts in Gothstown.

Starting point is 00:07:01 However, Kayla never worked at either of these locations. Kayla had been fired from the Dunkin' Donuts in Hooks at New Hampshire on November 23rd of 2019. So not only did she lie to Detective Dunlevy, but she had lied to a grand jury as well. As a result, an arrest warrant was issued for Kayla on two counts of perjury, and she was arrested on June 3rd. She was also charged with welfare benefits fraud after failing to remove Harmony from her family's social services account.

Starting point is 00:07:25 It's alleged that Kayla illegally collected over $1,500 in food stamps. That same day, Kayla participated in an interview at the Manchester Police Department with her attorney present. During that interview, Kayla admitted that she had lied during her grand jury testimony. She indeed had information related to Harmony Montgomery. She said the family had been evicted from their Guilford Street home the day before Thanksgiving of 2019. and they were living in their Chrysler Sebring. During this time, they stayed in the parking lot of the Colonial Village on River Road in Manchester, where their friend Anthony Bordero lived.

Starting point is 00:07:59 Warrants were served to Facebook and Google, which later confirmed Kayla's account that the family had actually been living out of a vehicle in the apartment complex. Now, Kayla claimed from Thanksgiving up until the beginning of December, Anthony saw Harmony and her two other boys and would wave to them. She also stated that Anthony brought them Thanksgiving leftovers while they were living out of the Sebring. On December 7, 2019, Adam had become upset with Harmony because she was having trouble with bathroom accidents. Now, keep in mind, Harmony was just five years old

Starting point is 00:08:29 and the family of five was living out of a car in the New England winter. Now, Adam had been pretty vocal about his agitation with his daughter due to these accidents and shared with his friends Adam Garcia and Courtney O'Brien that he couldn't take her behavior any longer. He shared that he had gave Harmony back to her mother Crystal, but of course, we know that's not true. Here's what actually happens. According to Kayla,

Starting point is 00:08:54 while driving to Burger King on Route 3 in Manchester, Adam took his frustrations out on his daughter. He struck Harmony, a five-year-old little girl with a closed fist on the face and head on three separate occasions over the course of just a few minutes. After the final blow, Adam allegedly stated to Kayla, I think I really hurt her this time. I think I did something.

Starting point is 00:09:17 According to Kayla, Harmony began making moaning noises which went on for about a few minutes, and then abruptly stopped. At no time did anyone attempt to help Harmony or seek medical attention for her. Afterward, they returned to the Colonial Village parking lot for about 20 minutes and then left again. Shortly after, the Sebring broke down at the intersection of Elm and Webster Street. It was then that the couple discovered that Harmony wasn't breathing. She was dead. Rather than call for help, Adam went to the trunk of the car, removed clothing from a black and red underarmored duffel bag, and placed Harmony's body inside of it.

Starting point is 00:09:54 The family then walked her back to the parking lot of the colonial village apartments where they lived out of Anthony's Audi for the weekends. During this time, Harmony's body was kept in the trunk, as well as in the snow to slow decomposition. On January 1, 2022, the Manchester police were able to track down Adam's Sebring. After it had broken down, Adam had abandoned it on the streets of Manchester and it was towed away. It eventually ended up at Herbert's used auto parts in Goughstown, New Hampshire. The vehicle was seized by the authorities and processed for evidence.

Starting point is 00:10:26 Inside, investigators found a pink troll's electric toothbrush, which later tested positive for Harmony's DNA. On March 21, 2022, Anthony Bodero testified before the grand jury for Hillsborough County Northern District as part of the grand jury's investigation into the disappearance. of Harmony Montgomery. During his testimony, Anthony confirmed much of what Kayla shared in her interview and added that while the family was staying in his outy, he had only seen Kayla's two boys. Harmony was not there. On May 20th of 2022, Anthony's girlfriend Donna Deemers gave her testimony to the grand jury as well and confirmed what Anthony and Kayla had shared. In a later interview

Starting point is 00:11:06 on September 22nd, 2022, Anthony confessed that he sold crack and fentanyal to the couple and would buy their food stamps off them. Skipping back a little bit, Caleb was interviewed again on June 3, 2020, where she confessed to police that Harmony's body was moved to multiple different locations over the span of several months. After staying in Anthony's Audi,

Starting point is 00:11:27 the family moved in with her mother, Christina Lubin, and her mother's boyfriend, John Galleon. When they arrived at their apartment located 258 to Buck Street, Harmony's body was still in the duffel bag, but they had placed the bag into a red cooler with a white top.

Starting point is 00:11:41 That cooler was then stored in the common hallway of the apartment building. The family stayed with Kayla's parents until the end of December of 2019, and at no time did anyone question the cooler's content. Later, Christina was interviewed and confirmed the cooler's presence in the apartment. It was then seized as evidence. When tested for blood, it did come back negative. Around December 30th of 2019, Adam, Kayla, and their two children left Kayla's mother's apartment and moved into the families in transition shelter,

Starting point is 00:12:10 located at 177 Lake Avenue in Manchester. According to Kayla, they took Harmony's body with them in the duffel bag, but by now, a liquid associated with decomposition began leaking from the bag, and it began to smell. To try to remedy this situation, Adam placed a trash bag around the duffel bag to keep it from leaking. But this did not address the odor. While the family was staying at the shelter,

Starting point is 00:12:33 Kayla claimed that Adam hid Harmony's body in the ceiling vent in the bedroom. So detectives conducted a search of the shelter in June 5th,000, 4th, 2022. During the search of the unit the family had stayed in, detectives located a ceiling vent in the bedroom, which will put up on the screen for you. This vent was removed in order to check the top side of the ceiling sheet rock. There, next to the opening of the ceiling vent, detectives located a large area of staining, and it had a smell consistent with decomposition. This ceiling vent, along with a large section of the sheetrock and frame were removed, seized as evidence, and sent to the state lab for serology, DNA, and latent fingerprint processing.

Starting point is 00:13:10 10 identifiable fingerprints were found, nine that matched Adam Montgomery. Fingerprints found in the metal framing matched those of the man responsible for installing the drywall at the shelter. Although fluid testing from the sheetrock initially came back inconclusive, further samples taken from underneath the frame

Starting point is 00:13:27 were sent to the Labs International in Florida. Those samples came back positive for Harmony's DNA. On June 23rd of 2023, Kayla participated in yet another interview with police. During this interview, she told police that during their stay at the shelter, maintenance came to check the vent in their unit after the lady in Unit 5 filed a complaint of an odor. In response, Adam doubled up the trash bags and hid Harmony's body in the closet. When the maintenance worker checked the vent,

Starting point is 00:13:55 he said it must have been a dead animal or something because he didn't see anything up there. The neighbor that made the complaint was Paula Maldonado Fabrice, who was later interviewed by Detective Dunlevy over the telephone. She told the detective she moved into the shelter two to three weeks, prior to the Montgomery family. When asked about the complaint, Paula claimed that it was her friend Mandy who made the call. Mandy was the nickname for a woman named Amanda Crosby, who is now deceased. According to Kayla, the family left the shelter and moved into an apartment on February 20th, 2020.

Starting point is 00:14:26 The second floor unit was located at 644 Union Street in Manchester. Apparently, Harmony's body came with them, this time stuffed inside a plastic storage container, which they moved with a stroller. This storage bin was first stored in a bedroom closet. But after Harmony's body continued to leak fluids, it was wrapped in yet another trash bag. This time, Adam moved her body to the refrigerator. During her June 3rd interview,

Starting point is 00:14:52 Kayla claimed that at some point, Adam spent four to six hours in the bathroom transferring Harmony's body to a new bag. Apparently, the shower was running during the whole ordeal. Adam allegedly transferred Harmony to a Catholic Medical Center maternity bag. This was essentially a canvas tote bag, similar to the ones that you can purchase from LL Bean. It was a much smaller bag than the underarmored duffel bag, and Harmony's body couldn't fit inside unless it had been dismembered or grossly distorted. According to Kayla, she smelled a terrible odor coming from the bathroom

Starting point is 00:15:25 and steam pouring out each time Adam opened the door. She then recalled the smell of cleaning supplies after Adam finished up. Kayla claimed that afterward, Adam placed the maternity bag inside of their freezer. However, during her June 23rd interview, Kayla changed her story. She claimed that Harmony was actually moved into the maternity bag while they were still living at the shelter, and Adam later kept the bag in the walk-in cooler at a main-based pizza place called Portland Pie Company where he worked. It's only going to get worse from here on out. Now, according to Kayla, she pushed her two boys on one of those front and back strollers

Starting point is 00:16:03 with this maternity bag plopped between them. Detective Dunleavy later spoke with both Cameron Gibney and Emily Thompson, who were two former Portland Pie Company employees. Cameron recalled seeing the maternity bag in the cooler on a couple of occasions on both the floor and the shelf. He never questioned Adam about it since he knew he had children. He described the bag as a tote with straps and said it was possibly white with red or pink. Emily also vaguely recalled Adam tucking a bag into the cooler, but could not remember the details of it. Adam worked as a dishwasher and a cook at the restaurant from January 14th to February 22nd of 2020. The Manchester location closed its doors on March 1st of the same year.

Starting point is 00:16:45 Kayla later told detectives that while she was living at their Union Street apartment, Adam took Harmony out of the maternity bag so that he could add lime to aid in her decomposition. Kayla explained that Adam dumped Harmony's body out of the maternity bag and into the shower. Apparently Harmony had not been skeletonized. She still had skin, teeth, and hair. Kayla could still tell that it was her. She said Adam put about half of the bag of lime into the bag. Allegedly, Adam had a difficult time fitting Harmony's body into the maternity bag

Starting point is 00:17:18 as she was still essentially frozen. Kayla saw Adam run the hot water in the shower, and as she put it, tried to squish Harmony's flesh to thaw it and make it easier to fit into the bag. She went on to describe Adam eventually pushing and pushing on Harmony's body, after which she heard what she described as a banging sound, but she was not able to elaborate on what exactly this banging was. Adam did slam the maternity bag on the floor while zipping it.

Starting point is 00:17:47 Kayla said that she also helped zip the bag closed, after which it was placed into the apartment freezer. Adam then cleaned up the bathroom with ammonia. Five days after Adam quit his job at Portland Pie, a service request was placed at his apartment. Apparently the tub needed to be snaked and a lever needed to be fixed. Kayla said the maternity bag

Starting point is 00:18:07 stayed in the couple's freezer until sometime in the spring of 2020 when Adam rented a U-Haul during the overnight hours and made a trip to an unknown destination to dispose of Harmony's body. She said that she did not know the location where Adam disposed of Harmony's remains

Starting point is 00:18:22 and stated that he returned in the early morning hours but could not recall an exact time. Kayla said that around the time Adam disposed of Harmony's body, they had moved out of their apartment and were staying in the Ocano Lodge or Comfort Inn in Manchester. She apparently couldn't remember which. According to Kayla, Adam brought the maternity bag with Harmony's body to the hotel and placed it in the mini fridge. Kayla said that they were accompanied by Travis Beach and his girlfriend, Brittany Bedard.

Starting point is 00:18:49 Kayla recalled that Adam went to rent the U-Haul with either Travis, Brittany, or both. Kayla saw the U-Haul from the hotel window and she described it as a very very. van with a large 1999 on the back, which is consistent with the lettering and numbering on a a U-Haul rental vehicle. The van in question had actually been rented from the South Willow Street facility in Manchester by a man by the name of Brendan Middleton, who thought he was helping Travis and Brittany move furniture. Kayla said that after the U-Haul was rented, Adam left between midnight and 1 a.m.

Starting point is 00:19:21 He told her he was leaving and he would be back, while taking the maternity back with him. She didn't see him have anything else with him. Kayla said Adam didn't want her to know where he was going in case something like this happened, which apparently was in reference to Kayla providing this information to the police. Kayla then said Adam returned at approximately 5 or 6 a.m. When he returned, he seemed very tired and he said words to the effect of it's done. According to Kayla, she never saw the maternity back again after that day. Around the time that Manchester police began looking into the whereabouts of harmony,

Starting point is 00:19:54 the department established a 24-7 tip line so members of the public could call in with any information. One of those tips came in from an anonymous tipster who corroborated Kayla's version of events. The tipster pointed the authorities in the directions of Travis Beach, Brittany Bedard, and Travis's new girlfriend, Jenny Lee Paris. Apparently, Travis was extremely loose and was telling everyone who would listen about the U-Haul incident, including a man named Bobby Johnson, who later became an inmate at the Hillsborough County House of Corrections, and subsequently came forward after his incarceration. All parties were interviewed, including Brittany, who was now living in Florida.

Starting point is 00:20:30 Much like the anonymous tipster, they corroborated Kayla's version of events. As this portion of the story is a bit long and fairly repetitive, we'll have a copy of the full 54-page affidavit linked in our show notes for you if you're interested in reading more about those interviews. You can find them on pages 33 through 44. One of the most chilling parts of the story is when Travis, who was uncooperative with authorities allegedly admitted to Bobby Johnson that he and Adam drove around the county for the next few days getting rid of what he referred to as stuff wrapped in plastic or plastic bags.

Starting point is 00:21:03 However, Bobby claimed that Travis never said that they were body parts. Still, where was Harmony? According to U-Haul records, the van had been driven over 130 miles during the less than 24 hours that had been rented. According to the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, the van incurred three toll violations on the Tobin Bridge between 4.44 a.m. and 525 a.m. on March 4th, 2020. For those who are not local to the New England area, the Tobin Bridge is a massive double-decker bridge along Route 1 that spans more than two miles from Chelsea to Boston over the Mystic River. It makes me really worried that police might have been searching in the wrong places for Harmony all along.

Starting point is 00:21:47 The van in question was later sold at auction on May 14, 2021 to Bob and Joshua Wood of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The father-son duo used the van for their business, Woods Cleaning Services. On September 11th of 2022, detectives traveled to Lancaster to process the van with Blue Star, a chemical agent used to detect hemoglobin on surfaces where it may not be visible to the naked eye. There appeared to be a reaction on the right side of the interior step on the driver's side, a faint reaction on the passenger's side floorboard, and two reactions approximately halfway up the back of the passenger's seat, along the side of the seat closest to the door. Each of these areas were swabbed, and the swabs are pending further forensic testing.

Starting point is 00:22:30 As a result of Kayla's June 3rd interview, several items of evidentiary value, including the refrigerators, were removed from the couple's former Union Street apartment and room 21st of the Econa Lodge in Manchester. On October 21st, 2022, Detective Dunleavy filed this affidavit stating that there was probable cause to believe that Adam Montgomery committed the crimes of second-degree homicide, tampering with witnesses and informants, falsifying physical evidence, and abuse of a corpse. Adam, who was still in jail, later pled not guilty to those charges. So where does this case stand now? On June 8th of 2023, Adam Montgomery was convicted on unrelated gun charges. He'd been

Starting point is 00:23:09 accused of having a shotgun and a rifle, even though he has multiple felony convictions in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. A jury found him guilty of two counts each of being an armed career criminal, receiving stolen property and theft. A sentencing date has not been set. Kayla Montgomery is serving an 18-month prison sentence. She pled guilty to charges that she lied to a grand jury about where she was working the day she last saw Harmony. As of the date of this recording, Harmony's body has yet to be recovered, and I'm not sure that it ever will be. Thus far, Adam hasn't been talking, and if he has, that information has not been made public yet. Now, I have to be totally honest with you guys.

Starting point is 00:23:49 I didn't want to redo Harmony's case until it was resolved, and I have been very vocal about this fact. We originally discussed her disappearance in the details surrounding it in an episode in January of 2022. However, Harmony's case is very important to us. As I've said before, Maine is just one big small town. In New England as a whole is just one big state. She is one of us, and I want her to be treated with the love and respect that she deserves. After reviewing the probable cause affidavit, I am very scared. I am worried that Harmony will never get to have a proper burial,

Starting point is 00:24:27 and that the only resolution that we're going to get is Adam's conviction. And I certainly hope to God that I am wrong.

The Misery Machine - Update: The Case of Harmony Montgomery - What We Know Now...

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