Adam Montgomery Update (Sept. 2026): Harmony's Murder Retrial Is Set for October 2027
Adam Montgomery will be tried a second time for the death of his 5-year-old daughter, and the date is now on a calendar: October 2027. That is 21 months from this week, and nearly eight years after Harmony Montgomery was killed.
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| 2019 | Harmony Montgomery, 5, is killed. Her remains have never been found. |
| Feb. 22, 2024 | A Hillsborough County jury convicts her father of second-degree murder, along with second-degree assault, falsifying physical evidence, witness tampering and abuse of a corpse. |
| May 9, 2024 | He is sentenced to 45 years to life on the murder count. |
| June 11, 2026 | The New Hampshire Supreme Court throws out the murder conviction. The other four convictions stand. |
| Sept. 15, 2026 | At a scheduling conference, the state and the defense agree on an October 2027 retrial. |
What did the Sept. 15 hearing actually decide?
Only the calendar. Both sides told Hillsborough Superior Court North they could be ready by October 2027, and the court set the retrial to start then. Montgomery was not in the room; he is in prison on the convictions the Supreme Court left alone.
No new evidence was aired, and no plea discussion was described in open court. This was housekeeping, which is what most pretrial dates are.
Why was the murder conviction overturned?
Not because of anything a witness said. The justices took issue with how the trial was packaged.
Montgomery faced a second-degree assault charge alongside the second-degree murder charge, and the jury heard both at once. The court found that combining them jeopardized his right to a fair trial, and that the murder verdict could not stand on that record.
It is a structural ruling, not an innocence ruling. The assault conviction itself was untouched, which is the part people miss when they hear the phrase "conviction overturned."
Is Adam Montgomery out of prison?
No, and he is not close to it. The reversal erased the murder count and the 45-years-to-life term attached to it. The assault, evidence-tampering, witness-tampering and abuse-of-a-corpse convictions all survived, and he is serving that time now.
👉 A vacated conviction and an open cell door are two very different things — here they are years apart.
Has Harmony Montgomery ever been found?
No. That is the hardest line in the file, and it has not changed since 2021.
Senior Assistant Attorney General Ben Agati told the court this week that the search has not been abandoned, saying flatly of Harmony: "We still do not know where she is." He said investigators had searched a new area roughly a month to six weeks ago.
Why does a retrial take until 2027?
Three things stack up. The state has to rebuild a case it already tried once, this time without the assault count riding alongside it. The defense gets the same discovery clock over again. And Hillsborough Superior Court North has a docket that does not clear itself for a multi-week homicide trial on short notice.
Twenty-one months sounds long. Measured against the cases we track, it is ordinary: Alex Murdaugh's retrial was moved to a new county this month with jury selection set for April 2027, and Bryan Kohberger's attempt to withdraw his guilty plea is not heard until June 2027.
What happens between now and then?
Motions, mostly, and they matter more than usual here. Whatever the state wants the second jury to hear about the assault — the conduct behind the count that was tried jointly the first time — will be fought over well before October 2027. Expect those filings through 2027's first half.
FAQ
Was Adam Montgomery found not guilty?
No. The murder conviction was vacated on a trial-structure issue, which means the charge is live again and will be retried.
When is the retrial?
October 2027, at Hillsborough Superior Court North in Manchester, New Hampshire. A precise start date has not been published.
What is he serving time for right now?
Second-degree assault, falsifying physical evidence, witness tampering and abuse of a corpse — the four convictions the Supreme Court upheld.
More from the case files
Retrial questions are the theme of the month. In Massachusetts, Lindsay Clancy's lawyer is trying to stop a second trial before it starts after her jury hung, and in Ohio a first trial finally began this week for Caleb Flynn. For a case where the conviction is settled and the fight is over release instead, see Morgan Geyser, and for an appeal argued this week, the Delphi file. The rest are in Case Updates. If you want the TV side, this week's newsmagazine grid has Friday's Dateline, and the viewing guide has the times.
Sources
- Concord Monitor via NHPR — Adam Montgomery murder retrial set for next year
- CBS News Boston — Harmony Montgomery case archive (2024 verdict, sentencing, 2026 reversal)
- Oxygen — retrial scheduling coverage, Sept. 15, 2026
- Jim Chafin Update (Sept. 2026): DNA Names a Suspect in a 1987 Arizona Killing, 39 Years On
- Lindsay Clancy Update (Sept. 2026): Her Lawyer Is Asking a Judge to End the Case Without a Retrial
- Aliza Sherman Update (Sept. 2026): Gregory Moore's Murder Trial Stalls on Day One Over Defense Motions
- Caleb Flynn Update (Sept. 2026): Jury Selection Starts Thursday, and the Venue Fight Isn't Over