Michmutters

To “sweet and innocent” New Hampshire girl who has been missing for nearly three years is a homicide victim, though her remains have yet to be found, authorities said Thursday.

Harmony Montgomery was likely killed in Manchester early December 2019, New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella told reporters. She was 5 years old at that time.

The state’s top prosecutor said investigators have uncovered “biological evidence” that have “led us to this difficult and tragic conclusion.”

“This is now officially a homicide investigation,” Formella said. “Our investigators will continue to seek justice and look into the circumstances of Harmony’s murder of her and search for her remains of her.”

The prosecutor and Manchester Police Chief Allen Aldenberg did not take question or elaborate on the evidence that lead them to declare the little girl’s death.

Thursday’s development comes more than seven months after police in Manchester, New Hampshire, said that they first learned Harmony hadn’t been seen for two years.

The girl hasn’t been seen since late 2019, but police said they only learned she was missing in December.

Aldenberg called the victim a “sweet and innocent 8-year-old girl.”

Authorities appealed for the public’s help in finding the girl’s remains and identifying her killer.

“The time is now. Time to step up and do the right thing and make the call to that tip line,” Aldenberg said.

“Harmony’s a sweet and innocent child who deserves to be brought home to her family and friends.”

Harmony was in the custody of her father, Adam Montgomery, when she was last seen in late November 2019, New Hampshire law enforcement officials have said.

Adam Montgomery and his wife Kayla, who is not Harmony’s mother, have both been arrested and charged but not in direct connection with the girl’s disappearance. Both have pleaded not guilty.

Adam Montgomery was charged with assault after he allegedly told an uncle he’d given Harmony a black eye in June 2019, according to court documents.

Kayla Montgomery has been accused of welfare fraud and collecting more than $1,500 in food stamp benefits for Harmony, even though the girl was no longer living at their home.

Harmony was born in Massachusetts but spent much of her life in the custody of that state’s Department of Children and Families, according to a report from the state Office of the Child Advocate.

Harmony’s mother, Crystal Sorey, and father had substance abuse issues, according to the child advocate agency. In February 2019, a court awarded Adam Montgomery, who lived in New Hampshire, custody.

Sorey contacted Manchester police in November 2021 and said that she was sober but that Adam Montgomery had been blocking all her attempts at communication, and that the last time she had seen her daughter was on video call in April 2019, according to a police affidavit.

Harmony, Adam and Kayla Montgomery, and the couple’s two other children were evicted from a Manchester home Nov. 27, 2019, and people reported seeing Harmony with them in the following days, the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office has said.

But by early December, it appeared Harmony was no longer with them, the office said.

According to court documents, Kayla Montgomery told investigators that Adam Montgomery informed her in late 2019 that Harmony was going to live with her mother.

Adam Montgomery allegedly told police that Sorey picked the girl up in Manchester, according to a police affidavit filed in his case.

Sorey has said that she had been trying to find her daughter since April 2019 and that she reached out to nearby schools and the New Hampshire Division of Children, Youth and Families. She is not accused of any wrongdoing.

Since late December, police and others have pleaded for information, a reward of $60,000 was offered and volunteers joined in looking for any clues.

Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday afternoon spoke for the first time since FBI agents raided former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida.

Citing “the substantial public interest in this matter,” Garland said the government had filed a motion to unseal the warrant authorizing Monday’s search, which Trump has sharply criticized as a partisan attack.

It was not immediately clear how quickly the judge in the case may release the warrant and federal prosecutors noted in their request, filed Thursday, that it should be granted only “absent objection by former President Trump.”

Garland said that Trump’s attorney had been provided on Monday with a copy of both the warrant and a list of what was taken from Mar-a-Lago by the agents — contradicting past statements by Trump’s son Eric.

In his four-minute remarks, Garland did not discuss any specifics of law enforcement’s work or the larger investigation related to Trump.

“Faithful adherence to the rule of law is the bedrock principle of the Justice Department and of our democracy. Upholding the rule of law means applying the law evenly without fear or favor,” he said. “Under my watch, that is precisely what the Justice Department is doing.”

Sources previously told ABC News that Monday’s search was in connection to documents that Trump took with him when he departed Washington, including some records the National Archives said were marked classified.

Garland said Thursday he “personally approved” the unprecedented decision to seek a search warrant against a former president but stressed that “the department does not take such a decision lightly.”

“Where possible, it is standard practice to seek less intrusive means as an alternative to a search and to narrowly scope any search,” he said.

ABC News reported earlier Thursday that, according to sources, Trump previously received a subpoena in the spring for documents related to what he is believed to have failed to turn over to the National Archives, which had recovered 15 boxes of material from Mar-a- Lake in January.

Garland acknowledged there was still much he could not say — given longstanding department policy not to comment on ongoing investigations and unduly harm those caught in law enforcement’s wake before charges, if ever, are brought.

The search for Trump’s home marked a significant development in one of several legal issues that Trump faces. (He denies wrongdoing in each.)

“All Americans are rightly entitled to the even-handed application of the law, to due process of the law and to the presumption of innocence,” Garland said. “Much of our work is by necessity conducted out of the public eye. We do that to protect the constitutional rights of all Americans and to protect the integrity of our investigations.”

Finally, he said, he wanted to “address recent unfounded attacks on the professionalism of the FBI and Justice Department agents and prosecutors.”

The search for Mar-a-Lago drew a resounding chorus of criticism from Republicans and some others over what the detractors said was a lack of clarity about why such a move was necessary.

“The American people want transparency when you are raiding the home of a former president,” Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said Wednesday. “The FBI is raiding the home of a former president. The American people deserve to know why.”

Speaking at a separate event Wednesday, FBI Director Christopher Wray said of the search, “I’m sure you can appreciate that’s not something I can talk about.”

As Trump has many times before, he and his allies cast the federal investigation as a partisan sham. Trump said the search was “not necessary or appropriate”; he has not released any information about the court-authorized search warrant.

“These are dark times for our Nation. … It is prosecutorial misconduct, the weaponization of the Justice System, and an attack by Radical Left Democrats who desperately don’t want me to run for President in 2024,” Trump said in a statement on Monday night, in the first public confirmation of a search that Garland said Thursday officials had worked to keep out of view.

He also pushed back on the denunciation of law enforcement.

“The men and women of the FBI and the Justice Department are dedicated, patriotic public servants, every day,” Garland said. He would “not stand by silently when their integrity is unfairly attacked.”

“They protect the American people from violent crime, terrorism and other threats to their safety while safeguarding our civil rights,” Garland said. “They do so at great personal sacrifice and risk to themselves. I am honored to work alongside them.”

“This is all I can say right now,” Garland concluded, rebuffing questions from journalists in the room. “More information will be made available in the appropriate way and at the appropriate time.”

In its request to unseal the search warrant, filed Thursday in federal court in Florida, the Justice Department wrote that its decision was made in light of “the public’s clear and powerful interest in understanding what occurred under these circumstances.”

The government’s filing notes the warrant was signed on Friday and also requests the unsealing of a redacted inventory of what was taken by agents at Mar-a-Lago.

Prosecutors wrote that Trump “should have an opportunity to respond to this motion and lodge objections, including with regards to any ‘legitimate privacy interests’ or the potential for other ‘injury’ if these materials are made public.”

Court records show that responses will be due in the matter by Aug. 25.

About an hour after Garland spoke, the judge in the case ordered prosecutors to confer with Trump’s lawyers and report back at or before 3 pm ET Thursday as to whether Trump opposes the motion to unseal the warrant.

The head of the Department of Justice’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section, Jay Bratt, is one of two DOJ officials who signed off on the request to unseal — along with US Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Juan Gonzalez.

The head of DOJ’s national security division, Matt Olsen, was also present in the room for Garland’s remarks Thursday, a reflection of the NSD’s prominent role in the investigation.

ABC News’ Luke Barr, Jack Date, Katherine Faulders, Alexander Mallin, Isabella Murray and John Santucci contributed to this report.