Harmony Montgomery trial thrown into confusion as mystery caller dials into tip line
Harmony Montgomery’s remains have never been found
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A mystery caller dialled into a tip line with information about the Harmony Montgomery case amid her father’s New Hampshire trial over the little girl’s alleged murder.
The developments were revealed by Adam Montgomery’s defence attorney at the end of his second week of trial in Manchester. Montgomery, who is accused of beating Harmony to death in December 2019, is facing a count of second-degree murder.
Last week, he conceded to two lesser charges of abuse of a corpse and falsifying information. Montgomery only appeared in court during the first day of jury selection and has not returned since.
The prosecution has argued throughout the two weeks of trial that Montgomery killed his daughter after he became enraged because she had a bathroom accident. Jurors have heard from more than a dozen witnesses about the horrific ways he worked to conceal, reduce, and destroy Harmony’s remains.
Montgomery then disposed of what was left of Harmony’s body at an unknown location in March 2020. Despite massive multi-state searches and a $150,000 reward for information, her remains have never been found.
On Friday, attorney Caroline Smith brought up a tip made by an unknown individual.
“During the course of the trial, apparently somebody contacted the tipline and was interviewed, gave information,” Ms Smith told Judge Amy Messer. “The state has given us a recording of the interview. I have not [gone through it.] We certainly have somebody trying to go through it. I don’t know, and I don’t need to name this person. I don’t know if we’ll be seeking to call this person [to testify].”
Senior Assistant Attorney General Ben Agati later explained that the call was placed by a woman on Tuesday after she had spent several days watching the trial. Manchester Police only notified the prosecution the following day.
“She came into the station to be interviewed and provided a statement,” Mr Agati said.
Mr Agati said that a written report and the taped interview were sent to his office and then forwarded to the defence. Judge Messer asked Ms Smith to expeditiously file a motion seeking to have the mystery called on her witness list if the defence wished to call her to the stand.
The judge also asked the prosecution to advise the individual against watching the remainder of the trial.
The prosecution’s case has largely hinged on testimony from Montgomery’s estranged wife, Kayla Montgomery. Kayla told jurors last week that she was in the car with Harmony, Montgomery, and the couple’s two infant sons when the little girl had a bathroom accident.
Montgomery reportedly became enraged and hit Harmony in the head several times between traffic stops. Kayla and Montgomery did not realise that Harmony had died until several hours later.
According to Kayla’s testimony, they usually kept the little girl under a blanket in order to hide her bruised and beaten body. The family stopped at a Burger King, with Kayla reportedly even placing a sandwich on the dead girl’s lap, before heading to buy drugs.
After Montgomery realised his daughter was dead, he placed the body inside a duffel bag that he buried in the snow for a few days. The remains were later crushed to fit inside a diaper bag and further manipulated with lime and different power tools, according to the prosecution, before Montgomery disposed of the body.
Harmony’s death went unreported for two years. In December 2021, her mother’s pleas to authorities were finally heard, prompting an investigation into the little girl’s disappearance.
Harmony, who was born in 2014 while her father was in prison, was removed from her mother’s home in Massachusetts due to the latter’s substance abuse problem. In 2018, DCFS sent Harmony to live with her father and stepmother in New Hampshire after failing to complete home studies to ensure she would be safe.
Last December, the Manchester Police Department established a new tip line (603-932-8997).