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As Manchester, New Hampshire, police were trying to track down a homeless, drug- addicted dad in a desperate search for his missing 7-year-old daughter, Harmony Montgomery, last month, the girl’s mother sent a heartbreaking plea for help to the city’s mayor.
"Her father Adam Montgomery has physical custody of her & he is currently homeless & under the influence," Harmony’s mom, Crystal Sorey, wrote in an email to Mayor Joyce Craig. "[New Hampshire’s Division of Children, Youth and Families] has had an open case for my daughter & didn’t remove her when they witnessed her bruises & the house at the time had now running water."
The Dec. 29 note, obtained through a public records request, bears the subject line, "My daughter is missing/in danger & dcyf wont help."
Harmony Montgomery was placed in her father's custody just months before she was last seen. He had served time in connection with a violent drug robbery and was later accused of domestic violence by her stepmom. (Manchester Police)
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"She's supposed to be in 1st grade, he NEVER enrolled her into school this whole time," Sorey wrote. "She's missed important doctors appointments shes had since a baby due to her disability in her eye."
Redacted Sorey Email by Fox News on Scribd
A city worker replied with the phone number for legal assistance and urged Sorey to call police if she believed Harmony was in danger or wanted to file a missing person report and offered to check on the case for her.
Sorey did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
Two days after the letter, Manchester police found Harmony’s dad, Adam Montgomery, asleep in a car on Harvell Street with his new girlfriend.
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They charged him with assault and child abuse last week, and his estranged wife, Harmony’s stepmother, Kayla Montgomery, is also accused of welfare fraud for collecting food stamps on the missing girl’s behalf for more than a year after she last saw her.
In court documents and other interviews, Sorey has maintained that she spent roughly two years trying to get in touch with her daughter through Adam Montgomery and received a cold shoulder the whole time.
According to a police affidavit, she last spoke to the girl around Easter in 2019, when she said her daughter "seemed frightened" about being on a call with her father present.
Harmony, now 7, was reported missing last week after last being seen two years ago. (Manchester Police Department)
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This past July, when Harmony’s great-grandmother heard that Adam Montgomery had checked into drug rehab, she said she reached out to child welfare services and tried to find the little girl. She told Fox News Digital that their response was blunt: Harmony wasn’t in their system, wasn’t in their custody, and that they didn’t have a case open.
When police asked Adam Montgomery where his daughter was on New Year’s Eve, he allegedly "did not exhibit much emotion or reaction" when police told him they were worried about Harmony’s safety and whereabouts. They arrested him on Jan. 4.
He’s being held without bail.
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New Hampshire’s Division of Children, Youth and Families has declined to comment on the case.
Fox News' Sarah Rumpf contributed to this report.
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