CONCORD, NH – Gov. Chris Sununu on Wednesday raised some enormous questions of importance in the ongoing case of Harmony Montgomery, a child who has been reported missing after no one could track her whereabouts for two years. He is seeking answers from Massachusetts’ top judge.
In a letter addressed to Massachusetts Supreme Court Chief Justice Kimberly Budd, Sununu said the decision to place Harmony in the custody of her father, a “monstrous drug dealer,” had a profoundly negative impact on Harmony. He also says that the Massachusetts court skirted a required home study (Interstate Compact for the Placement of Children) by NH DCYF of Adam and Kayla Montgomery, which should have happened prior to a final decision by Massachusetts as to her placement in New Hampshire.
Two months after the request for a home study, Adam Montgomery was granted full custody. Sununu wants to know how this could happen.
Wrote Sununu:
Harmony’s father Adam Montgomery is a monstrous drug dealer with previous convictions including shooting someone in the head and a separate armed attack on two women in Massachusetts.
This family was troubled, transient and originally engaged with the Massachusetts child protection system. Only as an unfortunate result of Harmony’s disappearance has New Hampshire come to learn the full extent of the family’s background and the type of upbringing Harmony faced prior to arriving in New Hampshire.
In fact, in December 2018, the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families (MA DCF) requested that New Hampshire DCYF conduct a home study of Adam Montgomery and his then wife Kayla Montgomery. NH’s DCYF Interstate Compact for the Placement of Children unit responded to MA DCF stating that in order to conduct the home study, additional information was needed regarding Adam Montgomery and his wife’s progress and their engagement of services with MA DCF. This is a standard request in such cross-border cases, but while NH DCYF was waiting for the necessary information, a court in Lawrence, Massachusetts abruptly gave sole custody of Harmony to her father in February of 2019.
Sununu is requesting Budd immediately review the determination of the court “and all events and evidence leading up to his decision and making that review public to assist in bringing Harmony Montgomery home safely.”
The full letter from Sununu is below:
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