Images of Harmony Montgomery and her father Adam, seen in a booking photo from Monday, Oct. 24, 2022, when he was charged with killing his daughter.
The Adam Montgomery murder trial resumed Wednesday morning in New Hampshire, with more testimony from a forensic expert who first took the stand on Tuesday afternoon.
Katie Lynn Swango, who works at the New Hampshire State Police Forensic Laboratory, testified Tuesday about DNA tests she ran on the pink Trolls toothbrush found in the trunk of Adam Montgomery's Sebring, which matched both Adam Montgomery and Crystal Sorey, Harmony's mother.
"Everything lined up perfectly as if it could have been from a child made by those two people," Swango said. She also said the gender of the child was female.
She continued her testimony about DNA testing on Wednesday morning and was then cross-examined by the defense.
Also taking the stand on Wednesday morning was former Manchester police Detective Scott Riley, who worked as a juvenile detective for nearly eight years and was directly involved in the investigation into the disappearance of Harmony Montgomery.
Riley spoke specifically about a search conducted at the Families In Transition shelter in Manchester, where Adam and Kayla Montgomery had stayed along with their two boys for about two months shortly after prosecutors say Harmony was killed.
Prosecutors focused on a Feb. 21, 2020 work order for the unit where the Montgomerys were staying, which included a note saying "weird smell coming from vents in unit come check it out." The work order was from the day after Adam and Kayla Montgomery and the two boys moved out of the unit.
Riley said investigators went to the shelter because they had developed information that Harmony's body might have been placed in the vent in the ceiling
"There was an odor," he said. "I could smell something. I couldn't tell what it was, but there was an odor in the room."
He said he removed the vent by pushing it up into the ceiling and moving it to the side.
"As soon as I removed the cover, I could smell what I knew was decomposition. I could smell a dead body, what I believed to be a dead body at the time... It's a smell that you just won't forget."
Riley said he could see a stain close to the edge of the vent, and the dust on the sheetrock had been "altered" as if something had been in that area.
Defense attorneys also asked Riley about an interview he conducted with Kayla Montgomery around that same time. Riley said at one point she was given some time to write down her thoughts. The interview ended when police returned because Kayla said she wanted to speak with an attorney.
He was also instruced to pick up a note Kayla had written from the Hillsborough County House of Corrections at a later date. The note had been seized from her cell and also referenced wanting to see her attorney.
Manchester police Detective Ray Lamy also testified Wednesday about his involvement in the Harmony Montgomery investigation. He spoke of testing conducted on an Audi once owned by Anthony Bodero that he had allowed the Montgomerys to live in for two nights around the time prosecutors believe Harmony died.
He also testified about tests conducted on the section of ceiling from the Families In Transition shelter that Riley had discussed earlier in the day. Lamy again pointed out the dark stains in the drywall ceiling, which appears to have come from some sort of fluid.
The staining was swabbed, and tests revealed that it was a likely positive for blood. Several pieces of the sheetrock were ultimately sent to a DNA lab in Florida for further testing.
Sections of the shelter ceiling were shown to the jury in court Wednesday.
Lamy also testified about several items police foud in the Audi, including two bath towels and a cash register receipt.
After the lunch break, the first witness to take the stand was Rachel Radwich, a supervisor in the Manchester Police Department's evidence division. Her role in the Harmony Montgomery case was working as an evidence specialist, assisting the detective division at the large-scale scenes and ensure the integrity of packaging of items.
She said she began working on the case in January of 2022, working on the intake and storage of items coming in, including interview disks and paperwork. She said about 900 pieces of evidence in all have been taken in.
Radwich also testified about the ceiling tiles from the shelter, including dark red crusted staining and a "pungent, rotted" smell that she associated with decomposition based on her experience at death scenes.
Jurors also heard briefly from Yared Lujano Mondrag, the drywall contractor who installed the drywall at the shelter and from Kevin McMahon and Martin Orlowicz of the New Hampshire State Police Forensic Laboratory.
During Tuesday's testimony, jurors heard from Montgomery's mother-in-law, Christina Lubin, who recalled the time she first met Harmony Montgomery in 2019. The little girl was just 5 years old at the time.
It was around the week after Thanksgiving, and Lubin testified that her daughter Kayla Montgomery, her husband Adam and Adam's daughter Harmony visited her Manchester home.
"She didn't talk much and they were there very briefly," Lubin said.
Prosecutors say Adam punched Harmony to death inside the family's car the following week before stuffing her body inside a duffel bag and then hiding it.
Lubin said when the couple returned to stay with her in December, Harmony wasn't with them.
Also in court Tuesday, prosecutors unwrapped a red cooler that was found in Lubin's home. Kayla Montgomery had previously testified that her husband stored Harmony's body in a red cooler while they were staying with Lubin.
Manchester Police Sgt. Brian O'Leary, a detective with the department at the time of Harmony's death, gave testimony, as did Joseph Tucker, a cybersecurity manager with Catholic Medical Center who was with the police department until 2022.
The law enforcement officials said a pink Trolls toothbrush found in the trunk of Adam Montgomery's Sebring matched DNA from Adam Montgomery and Crystal Sorey, Harmony's mother.
Anthony Bodero, who testified under immunity, told jurors he sold drugs to Adam and Kayla Montgomery in the past and let the couple stay in his Audi for a few days around Thanksgiving weekend, but there was no sign of Harmony. The defense questioned his credibility.
Matthew Gendron, a former coworker of Adam and his estranged wife Kayla Montgomery at the Dunkin' on Beech Street in Manchester, also testified, with prosecutors showing text messages between him and the couple from Dec. 8, 2019, the day after authorities believe Harmony was killed.
Adam Montgomery has not been attending his trial. He was convicted last year in an unrelated case involving gun theft and was sentenced to over 30 years in prison.
