Audio to be released of custody hearing for a New Hampshire girl murdered by her father

Audio recordings can be released from the custody hearing of Harmony Montgomery, a 5-year-old New Hampshire girl who was murdered by her father and vanished in 2019 after being placed in his care, the highest court in Massachusetts ruled Wednesday.

The girl’s father, Adam Montgomery, was found guilty in her death last year and sentenced to 56 years in prison on murder and other charges. Police believe Harmony Montgomery was killed nearly two years before she was reported missing in 2021. Her body was never found.

An independent review in 2022 found the Massachusetts child protection system failed to prioritize the girl’s needs. Harmony Montgomery suffered from a ripple effect of “miscalculations of risk and unequal weight placed on parents’ rights versus a child’s wellbeing,” said Maria Mossaides, head of Massachusetts’ Office of the Child Advocate.

Harmony Montgomery wasn’t made a priority in her own legal case, the report said, with neither the judge nor the attorneys putting her medical, behavioral and educational needs or safety at the forefront of custody discussions. The report also said they did not enforce requirements that govern the placement of children from one state into another.

A filmmaker, with the support of several media outlets including The Associated Press, sued to gain access to recordings of the closed-door custody hearing to better understand how Adam Montgomery got custody of his daughter, despite having a long criminal record.

Normally, family court hearings are sealed due to privacy concerns.

“The journalist asserts that the reason for his request is to use the audio recordings of the custody hearings in connection with a documentary concerning the child welfare system,” the ruling from the Supreme Judicial Court said.

“Releasing these recordings to the journalist for purposes of the documentary he proposes may help to better inform the public both about what happened to this child specifically and whether there are steps the child welfare system generally can take to minimize the possibility of repeating this tragedy.”

Adam Montgomery’s estranged wife, Kayla Montgomery, testified that her family had been evicted right before Thanksgiving in 2019 and were living in a car. Adam Montgomery punched Harmony Montgomery at several stop lights as they drove from a methadone clinic to a fast food restaurant because he was angry that the child was having bathroom accidents in the car, she said.

After that, she said she handed food to the children in the car without checking on Harmony and that the couple later discovered she was dead after the car broke down. She testified that her husband put the body in a duffel bag. She described various places where the girl’s body was hidden, including the trunk of a car, a cooler, a homeless center ceiling vent and the walk-in freezer at her husband’s workplace.