Judge rules missing 5-year-old girl legally dead weeks after father convicted of killing her

By KATHY McCORMACK
Associated Press

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A judge has ruled that a 5-year-old New Hampshire girl missing since 2019 is legally dead and her mother can become administrator of her estate, just weeks after the child’s father was convicted of killing her. A probate judge says Crystal Sorey “has carried her burden to demonstrate” that her daughter, Harmony Montgomery, was killed “as a result of some catastrophic event” and that her body has not been found. Sorey is taking the first steps in preparation of a planned wrongful death lawsuit against the state regarding Harmony. Her father, Adam Montgomery, was convicted last month of second-degree murder, abuse of a corpse and falsifying physical evidence.