About this episode

The episode discusses the tragic case of Harmony Montgomery, a missing child, and the systemic failures that contributed to her disappearance.

In October of 2021, the body of five-year-old Elijah Lewis was found buried in a Massachusetts park. And when Crystal Sorey heard what had happened to that little boy, something inside her panicked- because she had been trying, for months, to get people to listen to her about her own missing child. Her daughter, Harmony Montgomery. Harmony was supposed to be in first grade. She was supposed to be wearing her glasses. She was supposed to be getting medical care for the condition that left her blind in one eye. She was supposed to be protected. Instead, by the time anyone officially started looking for her, Harmony had not been seen in two years. Harmony did not disappear from a life where everything seemed fine. She disappeared after years of warning signs, reports, custody battles, missed appointments, police calls, allegations of abuse, unstable homes, substance abuse, homelessness, and adults pointing fingers at every other adult in the room. Her mother failed her. Her father failed her. Her stepmother failed her. The courts failed her. Child protective services failed her. The systems built specifically to catch a little girl before she fell through the cracks watched those…

Topics covered

• missing child
• child welfare
• family dynamics
• abuse
• systemic failure
• true crime

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Child protective services, courts

More episodes of Crime Weekly

• Harmony Montgomery | Her Killer’s Conviction Was Thrown Out (Part 4) · July 17, 2026 · 1h 51m
• Nolan Wells | What Happened on Horn Island? · July 15, 2026 · 1h 2m
• Harmony Montgomery | The U-Haul, the Freezer, and the Final Cover-Up (Part 3) · July 10, 2026 · 1h 54m
• A Long Island Woman Was Lured to Her Death - Her Brother-in-Law Is Accused · July 8, 2026 · 29 min
• The Harmon Family Tragedy | 6 Found Dead, A Custody Battle, And A Chilling Note · July 1, 2026 · 46 min
• Harmony Montgomery | The Custody Decision That Lead To Her Death (Part 1) · June 26, 2026 · 2h 17m

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