Five years after Harmony Montgomery vanished without a trace, the New Hampshire 5-year-old’s father is on trial for allegedly beating the child to death—and then disposing of her body.
The trial was off to a somewhat chaotic start on Wednesday, with Adam Montgomery failing to show up to court, where he faces several charges, including second-degree murder, in connection with Harmony’s December 2019 death.
While opening statements were set to begin Wednesday, WCVB reported that Montgomery agreed at the last minute to cop to two charges: falsifying evidence and abuse of a corpse.
Jurors on Wednesday will be transported to various locations relevant to the trial and opening statements are now expected to begin on Thursday. Prosecutors allege that Montgomery punched his daughter with a closed fist after she had a bathroom accident in the car where her family was living.
After the fatal beating, which occurred as the family was on their way to Burger King, Montgomery allegedly told his now-estranged wife Kayla, “I think I really hurt her this time,” a 2023 police affidavit states. Over the next three months, prosecutors allege that Montmongery moved his daughter’s body multiple times—including to a restaurant fridge and the ceiling vent of a family homeless shelter—before he disposed of it.
It took two years for authorities to learn that Harmony was missing when the girl’s biological mother reported that she hadn’t seen her daughter in over six months. T
