After the two-year anniversary of her daughter’s disappearance, the mother of Harmony Montgomery has spoken out. Crystal Sorey reached out to the media, and amidst criticism of how her daughter’s case was handled, let the public know that she believes her baby is still alive, “I don’t feel like she’s gone. I just don’t feel that in my heart…and a mother knows, a mother knows if your baby’s here or not. I know she’s here.”
The case of Harmony Montgomery faced the same issues that many missing person cases did around the time of the COVID-19 outbreak. Harmony was last seen by Manchester police when they answered a call to her home in October of 2019, according to the New Hampshire Union Leader. However, any missing person investigator will tell you that if the case is not resolved within the first week of the investigation, it’s crucial for the missing person’s face to stay in the media. The continued presence of a missing person’s face in the media raises the likelihood that someone will recognize the missing person and provide law enforcement with information they may have on their disappearance. This generates new leads, which raises the chance that the missing person will be found. However, in the case of Harmony Montgomery, just eight short weeks after her disappearance, the first news of the COVID-19 pandemic hit the media. As the virus spread, COVID-19 dominated the news cycle, and missing person cases that desperately needed the media exposure were all but forgotten by the public at large. Now two years later, Crystal Sorey is making sure the world hasn’t forgotten about her missing daughter.
Harmony Montgomery was only 5 years old when she disappeared in October 2019. Unfortunately, it had been months since Forey had seen Harmony, reportedly because the girl’s father, Adam Montgomery, had blocked all contact between Harmony and her mother, according to NBC. Last week, Adam Montgomery was arrested by authorities and formally charged with felony second-degree assault “connected to conduct against Harmony” back in 2019. The New Hampshire Police followed up to say that he may also face charges of interference with custody, and two charges of endangering the welfare of a child. Harmony’s stepmother, Kayla Montgomery, was also arrested because she fraudulently received food stamp benefits for Harmony even after her disappearance. According to police, between December 2019 and June 2021, Kayla Montgomery received $1,500 in benefits for the missing girl, even though she had not lived with her or Adam.
Despite the flurry of arrests that have taken place over the course of the investigation into Harmony Montgomery’s disappearance, little progress has actually been made in finding the now 7-year-old girl. Last Saturday, the house where Harmony Montgomery was last seen was formally searched by law enforcement, despite the fact that there are now new occupants who are not related to the case. Police have established a tip line dedicated to Harmony’s case and have offered a cash reward for information leading to Harmony’s location in the sum of $94,000.
On June 9, 1995, mother Colleen found herself facing the worst fear of any parent. Her daughter, Morgan Nick, was abducted from an Alma ballfield when only six years old. The only clue to how the child may have disappeared were witness descriptions of a red Ford pickup with a white camper parked nearby, that vanished at about the same time as Morgan.
While 26 years have passed since Morgan Nick became a missing child, a recent documentary has reawaken interest in the case. Read on to discover the story of Morgan Nick’s disappearance, and the crucial role that missing person assistance can play when a child is deemed missing and endangered.
With Friends at a Little League Ball Game
Morgan Nick’s mother had taken her daughter to attend a little league ball game in Alma, Arkansas in the evening of June 9. As the night set in, Morgan had joined friends in an innocent moment of fun as they tried to catch lightning bugs. At 10.45 pm, Morgan was seen standing close to her mother’s car. The young girl had stopped for a moment to empty sand from her shoes. The very next moment, she was gone.
In the hunt that ensued, witnesses revealed having noticed a man watching Morgan as she played with her friends. He was described as white, with a moustache and 1-inch beard, roughly 6 feet in height, with a medium to solid build, and estimated to be between 23 and 38 years of age. There were also reports of a red Ford pickup parked nearby that was mounted with a mismatched white camper. The truck was a short wheelbase vehicle with ageing paintwork, and the camper was said to be too short for the truck. While neither the vehicle nor man have ever been found or identified, the pickup and camper remain a central focus in associated missing person investigations today.
The Hope That Morgan Is Still Out There
At the time of her disappearance, Morgan was approximately 4 feet tall, weighing around 55 pounds, with blue eyes and blonde hair. Today, Morgan would be 24 years old, and while her appearance may have changed, visible silver caps on 5 of her molars may still remain as indicators to her identity. Over the course of each of the missing person investigations that have picked up the hunt for Morgan, thousands of leads have emerged, although none have brought the facts of what happened to the youngster to light.
A sizeable investigation conducted by both the FBI and local authorities continues, with a $60,000 reward offered to anyone with information that leads to the recovery of Morgan and the identification of those responsible for her abduction. Mother Colleen highlights that the authorities are still appealing for information about the truck, asking that anyone with recollection of the vehicle please “find the courage to call police and report anyone you might have known who drove a truck like that back in 1995.”
A Documentary Triggers New Leads
In April of this year, a documentary called Still Missing Morgan aired regionally. Following its debut, Colleen’s hope was reignited when 200 leads were called in, some of which had never been reported before. Morgan’s family are holding on to the belief that she may be alive and still out there, waiting to be found. The recent surge in interest following fresh publicity goes to show that it is never too late to uncover previously unseen clues. We can only hope that one may soon lead to the answers that Morgan Nick’s family so justly deserve.
Seeking Missing Person Assistance in Your Moment of Need
When a parent faces the stark reality of a missing child, there can be no doubt that they’ll want every pair of hands and every resource possible called into action. Beyond local and federal authorities, there are other places to which a family in the grips of such a crisis can turn for help. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children offer additional support—as continues to be the case in the search for Morgan Nick. Meanwhile, a specialist firm like Lauth Missing Persons is not only equipped to turn dedicated and focused expertise to the task of locating your loved one, but they are also highly experienced in creating effective fundraising campaigns with Go Fund Me, giving families the upper hand as they drop everything, offer rewards, and act from the heart. If you, or anyone you know, is concerned about a person who may be missing, contact our team today to discover how we can help.
This July, Police confirmed that an additional £350,000 has been allocated to continue the search for internationally missing person Madeleine McCann. Only two months earlier, parents Kate and Gerrie released a statement on the Find Madeleine website, marking the 18th birthday of their daughter. Thanking all who continue to send the family positive messages, the statement read: “We hang on to the hope, however small, that we will see Madeleine again. As we have said repeatedly, we need to know what has happened to our lovely daughter, no matter what. We are very grateful to the police for their continued efforts.”
Madeline, Missing Since 2007
More than fourteen years have passed since Madeleine “Maddie” McCann went missing from her family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz—a resort on the southern coast of Portugal. Madeleine and her siblings were sleeping while her parents dined with friends at a restaurant a couple of blocks away. The adults took turns going to check on the children, and when mother Kate McCann’s turn arrived, she found that her three-year-old daughter had vanished.
A sizeable and costly international missing person search has ensued in the years since Madeleine’s disappearance involving efforts from a number of European authorities spread across several countries. Speculation swirled around the case as police searched for a man seen carrying a child near the apartment—only to discover it was a false lead—and Portuguese police admitted that vital forensic clues may have been lost due to procedural failings at the scene of the disappearance. The missing girl’s parents were briefly named as suspects in the case, although their “arguido” status was lifted in 2008.
The Continuation of Operation Grange
In 2011, the UK Government launched Operation Grange in an effort to try to bring closure to the case. Two years later, British detectives announced that they had identified 41 potential suspects in the international missing person case, triggering the Portuguese police to reopen their investigation. The following year, in 2014, detectives travelled from England to Portugal to continue the search amid rumours of planned arrests, however no new developments were revealed.
Another “significant line of inquiry” was reported to have emerged in 2017, however no results were yielded. Authorities shared that Operation Grange had so far cost British taxpayers £12.5million. Three years later, in June of 2020—following yet another extension of funding—police identified convicted paedophile Christian Brueckner as a suspect in the case of Madeleine McCann. The 43-year-old German native is currently serving a sentence in his home country for drug related charges.
Those Hunting for Madeleine Hold Onto Hope
In what many consider to be the most widely known international missing person search of all time, rumours continue to cause confusion. Last year, Kate and Gerrie McCann issued a statement to address reports that the German authorities had informed them of proof that Madeleine was deceased. News of a letter containing such information turned out to be false, and the parents shared with their online following that the circulation of such misinformation had “caused unnecessary anxiety to friends and family and once again disrupted our lives.”
While the emergence of a new suspect in the case of Madeleine McCann is yet to provide clear answers to all who are closely following the case, an air of hope remains, and the international outpouring of public support for the McCann family continues to remind of humanity’s capacity for compassion—even in the face of such a terrible loss. Thomas Lauth and his team at Missing Persons Investigations Worldwide strive to bring you the latest insight on people missing abroad, as well as providing guidance on what to do when your loved one goes missing overseas. As an expert in missing children and adults worldwide, international private investigator Thomas Lauth offers assistance to those urgently looking for much needed answers. If you require support in locating a missing person, contact our team today.
On Tuesday, July 27, 2021, the community of Fruitland, Idaho has been impacted by the disappearance of a 5-year-old boy, Michael Vaughn. In a move that puzzled some citizens of Fruitland, Payette County opted to issue an endangered missing person alert for the missing boy rather than the more colloquially-known AMBER Alert. Michael is described as 3’7″ tall, 50 pounds, with blonde hair and blue eyes. He was last seen wearing a blue ‘minecraft’ shirt and dark blue boxer briefs with sandals.
Michael Vaughn was last seen on Tuesday in the area of SW 9th and Arizona around 6:30 p.m. It was only an hour before law enforcement was on the ground looking for Micahel, assisted by the fire department, EMS, helicopters, drones, and a throng of community volunteers. Despite their best efforts, these first searches yielded no answers for investigators. “The Fruitland Police Department would like to extend a sincere thanks to all of our partner first responders and our community for taking the time to help us thoroughly search the area,” Huff said, however, “I am asking citizen searchers to stay out of the area until the professional search crews are finished.”
Many wondered why investigators did not issue an AMBER Alert for Michael Vaughn when he was reported missing. After all, an Amber alert gives investigators the ability to send out a notification to all cell phones within a designated radius to increase the chances of discovering leads. However, law enforcement is typically very discerning when it comes to issuing AMBER Alerts. If AMBER Alerts are issued too liberally, their impact can be diminished as the notifications become part of the digital background noise in all of our lives. Therefore law enforcement adheres to strict critereia when it comes to AMBER Alerts, which is as follows:
A child is known by police to have been abducted.
The abduction occurred within 12 hours of initial rerport
Child is under 17
Investigators must suspect the child of being in immediate danger or loss of life.
There must be enough information regarding the disappearance to make the AMBER alert useful to public.
The missing child has been entered into NCIC.
In the event that a missing child case does not meet all of the above criteria, law enforcement is then able to issue an Endangered Missing Person Alert, which carries similar tools to that of the AMBER alert. These notifications are sent through email, text messages, social media posts, and the alerting program known as CodeRED. By 9:40 on the evening Michael Vaughn disappeared, investigators had expanded the notification of his disappearance nationwide.
St. Clair County authorities in Michigan have released very few details regarding the investigation into the disappearance and death of a teenager whose remains were discovered last Sunday following a missing person report from her family. Leah Conner, only 16 years old, was discovered by the state police’s canine unit beneath a bridge along a popular hiking trail approximately two miles from her home.
Leah Conner was reported missing last Saturday by her family around 4:45 in the afternoon after she failed to return home from a walk. Leah was a junior at Yale High School. She was a busy team with a diverse list of interests, including cross-country, playing the ukulele, singing, songwriting, and holding a spot on the school’s robotics team. “She had such a beautiful soul,” said Kayla Harris, a family friend, “and I want everyone to know, I want to scream it to the world. She would make you feel very special when she was little. She would give up her toys to another kid to play with. She would rather have you be happy. And that’s how she was with her sisters, too, and her mom. She would just walk through the kitchen and just hug them and say, ‘I love you,’ just because. That is who she was.”
Because the authorities have deemed her death as suspicious, they are not releasing many details regarding the discovery and condition of the body. There is an autopsy planned, according to a statement from the Michigan State Police. “Investigators are still at work on this,” said Lt. Lizabeth Rich of the MSPD. “We aren’t discussing or releasing other details until after an autopsy. Any death in this manner is considered suspicious until an autopsy is completed. But we don’t feel there is any reason for the community to be alarmed. At this time, law enforcement does not feel there is a threat to the public.”
Friends of Leah Conner have set of a Go Fund Me campaign as a memorial for Leah to help pay for costs associated with her funeral, garnering more than $19,000 in only a few short days. Conner is survived by her father, Ian, and four sisters, Hannah, Elizabeth, Keely and Kenzie.
Investigators asked anyone with information about the incident to call the Lapeer State Police post at (810) 664-2905.
