The stepmother of the murdered 5-year-old girl, Harmony Montgomery, was released from prison on parole, although she admitted to helping hide the girl’s body and cutting off her clothes.
Kayla Montgomery was released from the New Hampshire Department of Corrections on Wednesday after providing key testimony during her ex-husband Adam Montgomery’s murder trial.
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She was serving an 18-month sentence after lying to a grand jury about witnessing his death and having a role in hiding Harmony’s body.
“If I was honest from the beginning, they could have done their job sooner… to find Harmony, find out what happened to her,” she said, according to the ABC affiliate. WCVB.
In March, Kayla answered questions about what she planned to do if released during her parole hearing.
When asked what her goal was after discharge, she said, “My recovery is number one and continuing to do the right thing. That’s exactly what’s on my mind.”
She was released after completing managed prison programs but will be under intense supervision for 90 days.
VITAL TESTIMONY
Kayla testified for more than six hours in February during Montgomery’s murder trial.
She remembered the moment her stepdaughter died in the backseat of the family’s Chrysler Sebring.
Kayla sobbed as she described how her “evil” father had “crazy eyes” as he punched Harmony in the head and face after being in a car accident.
After the final blow, Kayla told the jury that Montgomery told her, “I think I really hurt her this time. I think I did something.”
Harmony moaned for five minutes before suddenly stopping.
The stepmother testified how she saw Montgomery pick up her daughter’s lifeless body, “fold her in half and crush her” inside a hospital bag at Catholic Medical Center.
She then said Montgomery placed the bag in a refrigerator and left it in the hallway of Kayla’s mother’s house.
“I saw him do it, she [Harmony] I stayed in the refrigerator for a few weeks,” Kayla said emotionally in the statement.
NEVER AT PEACE
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 contact her.
- February 2019: Adam Montgomery is granted custody of Harmony after her mother, Crystal Sorey, loses custody due to drug-related neglect.
- 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 services worker visits the Montgomery home and reports that the children seemed happy and healthy. The assessment concluded that the report of abuse was unfounded, but the family was at high risk of future child welfare concerns.
- November 2019: Montgomery, Harmony, Kayla and their other two children were evicted from their home and began living in a Chrysler Sebring.
- December 7, 2019: After several bathroom accidents, an irate Montgomery repeatedly hit 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 several 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.
As the family moved and worked, they took Harmony’s body with them.
When they moved to a family shelter, Montgomery took the bag with her daughter’s remains and placed it on the ceiling of the room where they lived.
The family lived at the shelter for more than a month while the body began to decompose.
“You could smell a horrible smell coming from the vent,” Kayla said, adding that residents began to complain about the smell.
“She [Harmony] It was starting to smell bad and leaking liquid,” Kayla recalled.
The stepmother added: “Adam said there was blood and fluid on the ceiling.”
Kayla also detailed to the jury that she would carry the bag in a stroller that also carried her other two children.
“It was a double stroller. I had a son in 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 Montgomery ordered her to deliver the bag to where he worked, at a restaurant called Portland Pie, so he could hide the bag in the freezer.
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‘SKIN AND BONES’
Perhaps the most graphic and horrific part of Kayla’s testimony was when she described helping Montgomery cut the clothes off of Harmony’s decomposing corpse.
“I saw it in the bathtub still folded, the same way it was in the bag when [he] I got her out of the car,” Kayla said.
“She looked like she had almost no skin. She was just layers of skin and bones, and she was bruised all over.”
Montgomery had “hot water running in the shower, in the bathroom” and was “cutting her clothes and just thawing them out” 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 out of fear.
“I was scared. I helped him take her clothes off,” she said, adding that Montgomery threw away Harmony’s sweater and leggings.
Kayla remembers Montgomery filling the bag Harmony was in with lemon and discarding it 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 rose, he no longer had the CMC bag with him.”
On May 9, Montgomery was sentenced to 45 years to life in prison 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 her disgraced father refuses to reveal where she is.
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This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
