Stepmother of missing Harmony Montgomery charged with fraud

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — The stepmother of a girl who disappeared in 2019 at age 5 has been charged with welfare fraud for collecting food stamps in her name, the New Hampshire attorney general’s office said Thursday.

Kayla Montgomery, 31, of Manchester, has been charged one with one count of welfare fraud on suspicion of obtaining $1,500 in food stamps from December 2019 to June 2021 for Harmony Montgomery, even though the girl was not living with Kayla and her husband, Adam Montgomery.

Kayla Montgomery pleaded not guilty in Hillsborough County Superior Court. Her lawyer asked that she be released on her own recognizance, while a prosecutor argued for $5,000 bail, citing a misdemeanor criminal record and saying she is a flight risk. The judge took the matter under advisement.

Adam Montgomery, 31, was charged Wednesday with several counts, including failing to have Harmony in his custody. His lawyer entered not guilty pleas on his behalf. He has been jailed without bail.

In an interview with police on New Year's Eve, Kayla Montgomery — who shares three children with her husband, ages 4, 2 and 1 — said she last saw Harmony in November or December 2019. She said her husband was driving Harmony to the child's mother in Massachusetts. She said she believed Harmony had been returned to the mother and never saw or heard about Harmony after that day, according to the police document.

Kayla Montgomery also told police she hadn’t seen Adam since October and had not spoken to him since November.

A “change report" submitted by Kayla Montgomery for food stamps on Feb. 25, 2019 — three days after her husband received legal custody of Harmony — said Harmony “is now currently living with us full-time. She is 4 years old and permanently blind in one eye, she was born like that,"...