MANCHESTER, N.H. (Court TV) — Five years after Harmony Montgomery was brutally murdered at the hands of her father, a state agency involved in her care says it shouldn’t face any legal liability for her death because she wasn’t in its care.
Harmony Montgomery is seen in an undated family photo. (Crystal Sorey)
Harmony was 5 when she was last seen alive in 2019, but she wasn’t reported missing for nearly two years. Her father, Adam Montgomery, was convicted of her murder and admitted to disposing of her body but has never revealed its location.
Harmony’s biological mother, Crystal Sorey, lost custody of the child before her death and has filed a lawsuit against the State of New Hampshire and its agencies for failing to protect her daughter. A second amended lawsuit, filed on Feb. 12, adds new details to the initial accusations.
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The updated lawsuit lists nearly 20 different calls to New Hampshire’s Department of Health and Human Services Division of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF), but notes that the case agent assigned to Harmony’s case failed to follow up or comply with the agency’s policies in reference to the case.
The calls, placed by a number of different sources, including Adam’s uncle, Kevin Montgomery, and a Manchester police officer who had contact with the family, paint an alarming picture of the home. A note from one of Kevin’s calls notes that he said, “This is why children die … this child was punched clear in the eye socket with full force.” Other reports alleged that Harmony was being molested, being made to clean a toilet with a toothbrush, standing in the corner for five to eight hours at a time and witnessing drug abuse.
In its motion to dismiss, DCYF acknowledges the alarming nature of the accusations but maintains that it had no fiduciary duty to Harmony at the time of her death. “Although the Second Amended Complaint contains numerous allegations that DCYF should have intervened on behalf of Harmony, it never alleges that Harmony was actually in the custody of DCYF or other New Hampshire officials.”
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Rather, the motion claims that DCYF was still in the “assessment phase” of the process. Under case law referenced in the motion, DCYF argues that “the act of opening an assessment into alleged abuse or neglect by DCYF does not create a special relationship that gives rise to a fiduciary duty.”
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court is still deciding whether to release audio recordings of the custody hearing that led to Harmony’s transfer into her father’s care in New Hampshire.
