Mother of 5-year-old girl killed by father takes first steps in planned wrongful death lawsuit

By KATHY McCORMACK
Associated Press

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — The mother of a 5-year-old girl who was killed in 2019 and whose body remains missing, has asked a probate judge to declare the girl legally dead and to be appointed as administrator of her estate. Crystal Sorey took the first steps in preparation of a planned wrongful death lawsuit regarding her daughter, Harmony Montgomery, more than two weeks after Harmony’s father, Adam Montgomery, was convicted of fatally beating her. Sorey’s lawyer told Judge Beth Kissinger in Nashua that Montgomery’s conviction, plus his admission of guilt to charges that he moved her body around for months and falsified evidence, was enough to result in a legal death declaration. Adam Montgomery declined to attend the hearing from prison via a Webex connection.