MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD – A 38-year-old woman has been reindicted over the 2014 disappearance of her then-two young children, with the woman now facing murder charges after being released from a psychiatric facility upon being found fit to stand trial.
On July 23rd, Catherine Hoggle was released from a psychiatric facility after being committed to a Maryland state hospital by Judge James A. Bonifant in 2022 after the judge deemed her to be a danger to herself and others.
Hoggle, who is now facing two counts of murder in connection with the September 2014 disappearance of her two children, then-3-year-old Sarah and 2-year-old Jacob, has been the subject of a years-long back-and-forth with the courts on the standing of her competence and ability to stand trial.
Going back to the initial disappearance of the two children, Sarah and Jacob were last seen with their mother on September 7th, 2014, where Hoggle reportedly gave conflicting statements to investigators at the time as to where she’d last dropped them off before the children went missing.
In one iteration allegedly relayed by Hoggle to investigators, she claimed to have dropped the children off at daycare, whereas in another version of events, she reportedly told investigators that she’d left her kids with a friend.
Hoggle would initially be charged with child abduction, but those charges were dropped in 2015 after a court found the woman to be too incompetent to stand trial. As the case dragged on, in tandem with an inability to locate the missing children, prosecutors eventually upgraded the charges to two counts of murder.
Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy, who has been overseeing the case for years, has been explicit in his adamance that Hoggle would face justice despite the speedbumps presented by various competency hearings.
Back in 2022 when Hoggle was involuntarily committed to a state facility, McCarthy told members of the press, “As long as I'm State's Attorney, it would be my intent that if she is judged to be safe to be returned to the community, the circumstances would be such that we would recharge her even if we have to revisit the issue of competency again.”
Given McCarthy’s apparent fervor in the pursuit of justice, it was of little surprise that the state attorney quickly convened a grand jury following Hoggle’s release from the psychiatric facility this past July, which led to Hoggle being taken back into custody on August 1st.
Nearly eleven years after the children’s disappearance, there’s seemingly no trace as to the whereabouts of Sarah and Jacob.
Considering that Hoggle is facing murder charges in relation to her children’s vanishing, prosecutors will be faced with a proverbial uphill battle in court as a lack of physical evidence or even a potential cause and date/time of death can’t be reasonably examined short of any future breakthroughs in the investigation.
Meanwhile, the children’s father, Troy Turner, has remained hopeful that one day his children will be recovered.
While not having spoken to the press recently, Turner did share a statement with the press in September of 2024 after the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children released age progressed photos of Sarah and Jacob.
“We want [the photos] out there because we want people to understand that no matter what the situation is, my kids deserve to come home and deserve to be loved on and taken care of,” Turner said at the time, adding, “As a dad I want to have hope, and as a father, obviously, I love my kids. I want to hope that in some way they're still there. It's been 10 birthdays, it's been 10 Christmases, 10 Easters, 10 Thanksgivings, 10 school year starts where you go ‘they're supposed to be here.’”
David Felsen, Hoggle’s defense attorney, told a local Fox News affiliate in response to the reindictment that he plans to challenge both the current charges and her detention at the county jail. “Ms. Hoggle was held for eight years having been judicially determined to be incompetent,” Felson told the outlet, further stating, “Every doctor found that, every doctor agreed with that. Nothing’s changed.”
On July 23rd, Catherine Hoggle was released from a psychiatric facility after being committed to a Maryland state hospital by Judge James A. Bonifant in 2022 after the judge deemed her to be a danger to herself and others.
Hoggle, who is now facing two counts of murder in connection with the September 2014 disappearance of her two children, then-3-year-old Sarah and 2-year-old Jacob, has been the subject of a years-long back-and-forth with the courts on the standing of her competence and ability to stand trial.
Going back to the initial disappearance of the two children, Sarah and Jacob were last seen with their mother on September 7th, 2014, where Hoggle reportedly gave conflicting statements to investigators at the time as to where she’d last dropped them off before the children went missing.
In one iteration allegedly relayed by Hoggle to investigators, she claimed to have dropped the children off at daycare, whereas in another version of events, she reportedly told investigators that she’d left her kids with a friend.
Hoggle would initially be charged with child abduction, but those charges were dropped in 2015 after a court found the woman to be too incompetent to stand trial. As the case dragged on, in tandem with an inability to locate the missing children, prosecutors eventually upgraded the charges to two counts of murder.
Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy, who has been overseeing the case for years, has been explicit in his adamance that Hoggle would face justice despite the speedbumps presented by various competency hearings.
Back in 2022 when Hoggle was involuntarily committed to a state facility, McCarthy told members of the press, “As long as I'm State's Attorney, it would be my intent that if she is judged to be safe to be returned to the community, the circumstances would be such that we would recharge her even if we have to revisit the issue of competency again.”
Given McCarthy’s apparent fervor in the pursuit of justice, it was of little surprise that the state attorney quickly convened a grand jury following Hoggle’s release from the psychiatric facility this past July, which led to Hoggle being taken back into custody on August 1st.
Nearly eleven years after the children’s disappearance, there’s seemingly no trace as to the whereabouts of Sarah and Jacob.
Considering that Hoggle is facing murder charges in relation to her children’s vanishing, prosecutors will be faced with a proverbial uphill battle in court as a lack of physical evidence or even a potential cause and date/time of death can’t be reasonably examined short of any future breakthroughs in the investigation.
Meanwhile, the children’s father, Troy Turner, has remained hopeful that one day his children will be recovered.
While not having spoken to the press recently, Turner did share a statement with the press in September of 2024 after the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children released age progressed photos of Sarah and Jacob.
“We want [the photos] out there because we want people to understand that no matter what the situation is, my kids deserve to come home and deserve to be loved on and taken care of,” Turner said at the time, adding, “As a dad I want to have hope, and as a father, obviously, I love my kids. I want to hope that in some way they're still there. It's been 10 birthdays, it's been 10 Christmases, 10 Easters, 10 Thanksgivings, 10 school year starts where you go ‘they're supposed to be here.’”
David Felsen, Hoggle’s defense attorney, told a local Fox News affiliate in response to the reindictment that he plans to challenge both the current charges and her detention at the county jail. “Ms. Hoggle was held for eight years having been judicially determined to be incompetent,” Felson told the outlet, further stating, “Every doctor found that, every doctor agreed with that. Nothing’s changed.”
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