Written in Granite: Even a ‘best state’ has its horrible side

New Hampshire landed on another top 10 list from US News & World Report last May. The annual ranking listed the Granite State as 6th on the “Best States 2023.”

That’s pretty darn good.

The publication used 71 metrics across eight categories to judge each of the 50 states. These included health care, education, economy, infrastructure, opportunity, fiscal stability, crime and corrections and natural environment.

New Hampshire scored No. 1 in the United States under corrections outcomes and No. 2 under public safety. The latter translates to a low violent crime rate and low property crime rate.

Yes, we have one of the safest states in the nation,  and we often score high on being a great place to live, but after listening to several days of testimony in NH v. Adam Montgomery: Murder of Harmony Montgomery, you may start thinking differently.

It’s a shocking case, and the details emerging in the courtroom are gruesome and tragic. Poor little Harmony Montgomery, her remains have never been found. Her father, Adam Montgomery, stands accused of murdering his 5-year-old daughter in 2019. He is also charged with abuse of a corpse and falsifying physical evidence and recently pleaded guilty to the lesser charges.

Manchester Police did not learn of Harmony’s disappearance until they received a call from the state’s Division for Children, Youth and Families  (DCYF) two years later. At the time, Moira O’Neill, the Child Advocate for the state, said that “It’s very rare that a child would not be accountable for two years.”

It’s a complicated issue that involved both agencies in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Crystal Sorey, Harmony’s biological mother, told reporters that in 2018, she “slipped up” and entered another drug recovery program in Lowell. She lost custody of her two children to the state of Massachusetts. They were placed in foster care. Eight months later, Adam Montgomery was granted full custody of Harmony. He was married to Kayla Montgomery at the time with whom he had three children.

Once Harmony left the state of Massachusetts, that ended DCF’s (Dept. Of Children and Families) involvement in her life. There was no legal agreement in place requiring any check-ins for her safety. Why, I don’t know.

Some would say that the system failed this adorable, young girl with the easy smile and good nature.

People from around the world are tuned into Court TV’s coverage of the trial. It plays weekdays on YouTube for example, and the many comments being left in the online Chat section are interesting. Some people wonder what kind of a violent state New Hampshire is, how extensive our drug problem reaches and how the Granite State could lose a young, vulnerable child and in essence, ghost her, etc.

Those are fair questions. And when you hear about a father who caused his young daughter’s death by allegedly punching the little girl in the head several times after she had a bathroom accident in the car they were living out of, it gives you pause.

Disturbing plots of trying to hide the little girl’s decomposing body are difficult to hear. And so far, Adam Montgomery has skipped being present for his trial. His defense attorneys are arguing that it was Kayla Montgomery, instead, who murdered Harmony.

Every state has its share of nightmare stories. And this is one of them that makes New Hampshire not look so pretty, after all.