New Hampshire A.G. says search for girl missing since 2019 is 'now a homicide investigation'

The attorney general of New Hampshire said a long-running search for a missing girl in that state has been reclassified as a homicide investigation based on a review of the evidence of the case. 

Attorney General John Formella's office said in a press release on Thursday that "the ongoing investigation into the disappearance of Harmony Montgomery in 2019" is "now a homicide investigation." 

"While Harmony's remains have not yet been located, multiple sources of investigative information, including biological evidence, lead to this conclusion," the office said. 

Formella said that investigators believe Harmony Montgomery was murdered in December of 2019 and that "investigators continue to look into the circumstances of Harmony's murder and search for her remains."

The girl went missing in late 2019 when she was five years old, though investigators did not learn of her disappearance until 2021. Montgomery's father is currently being held on child abuse charges related to her disappearance, while her stepmother has been charged with fraud for collecting food stamps in the girl's name for months after she disappeared. 

Blair Miller, a Washington, D.C.-area journalist and the adoptive father of Harmony Montgomery's little brother, posted a statement to Twitter following the news in which he said it was "nearly impossible and unjust to use words to describe how our family feels on this very sad day."

“We will forever question why so many steps in the legal process were missed and ignored before decisions were made to reunite Harmony with her father,” Miller wrote.