Volunteers searched several communities on the North Shore of Massachusetts Saturday as they hunted for the remains of Harmony Montgomery, the little girl who was brutally beaten to death by her father in 2019.
Crews combed the 600-acre Rumney Marsh Reservation as they tried to find Harmony Montgomery’s body, the location of which her killer dad has refused to reveal.
“That’s the acceptance I’ve had to come to terms with in my grief — just accepting the fact that he’s never going to do the right thing for her,” Crystal Sorey, Harmony’s heartbroken mom, told WCVB 5 in Boston.
Harmony’s dad, 34-year-old Adam Montgomery, was sentenced to 45 years to life in prison in May for murdering the 5-year-old girl, then hiding her body in a tote bag, a cooler and a freezer at the restaurant at which he worked.
Eventually, he disposed of her remains — but he’s never said where.
Prosecutors even offered him a lighter sentence that would have cut his jail time by 21 years in return for the information. But Adam Montgomery remained mum.
“I’ve had a lot of dreams and this area has been in my dreams,” Sorey said Saturday, according to the outlet.
“It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack, right?” added volunteer Thomas Seretta.
“I just wish that monster would have shared some dignity to help put her to rest,” said Susan Vandecasteele, who was also helping comb the area.
Authorities had narrowed their search to a 106-mile route between Manchester and the Tobin Bridge in Boston that Adam Montgomery had driven in a rented U-Haul in March 2020, according to the station.
“Harmony’s remains are likely somewhere along this route,” Senior Assistant Attorney General Ben Agati said.
Sorey plans to organize monthly searches as she continues to look for her vanished daughter. She encouraged anyone with information to call the case tip line at 603-932-8997.
“There’s no reason to be afraid anymore,” she told the network. “Even if you think it’s the tiniest of information, it can help in a huge way.”
At his trial, prosecutors said Adam Montgomery beat the girl to death in a fit of rage because she had bathroom accidents in their car. Then he went for fast food and did drugs — all while ignoring her final cries as she died in the backseat, the court was told.
Afterward, he lugged her decomposing body to the restaurant each day and left it in the freezer, keeping it next to food.
Eventually, he threw out the little girl “like yesterday’s trash,” prosecutors said.
During Adam Montgomery’s sentencing, Agati told Judge Amy Messer that Harmony’s family would get much-needed closure if her dad would reveal where he left the little girl’s body.
But Adam — who has maintained his innocence — refused to answer.
So Agati said the killer’s inability to repent was “yet another reason” why Judge Messer should throw the book at him.
The court sent him to jail for 45 years to life, a sentence to run consecutively to the decades-long term he was already serving for weapons charges.
“In light of the egregious nature of the crimes of which you have been convicted in this case, and taking into consideration your extremely violent criminal history, the court finds the only way to do this is to keep you off the streets,” the judge said.
Harmony disappeared in 2019, but cops didn’t learn about the disappearance until two years later.
