A judge denied bond for Catherine Hoggle, accused of killing her children, Jacob and Sarah, who disappeared more than a decade ago.
Hoggle was indicted last week on two counts of first-degree murder. Charges against her were dropped in 2022 after she was found not competent to stand trial.
Jacob and Sarah were just 2 and 3 years old when they disappeared in Montgomery County in 2014.
The Hoggle children’s father, Troy Turner, has said he believes Hoggle killed their children. He’s spent the past decade trying to find them.
“I feel like my kids will be searched for until they’re found, or I’ll die looking for them. It could turn into 30, 40 years, or however long I’m blessed to live,” he told News4 last year.
Catherine Hoggle was recently released from a psychiatric facility, police say
Hoggle was living in a mental facility in Jessup, Maryland, but was discharged on July 23. She had been previously diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, according to her mother.
A grand jury returned the indictment Thursday, and she was arrested Friday in Kent County after the state found out she had been discharged from the Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center, according to the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office.
“Like a lightning bolt just hits you and runs through you when you first hear about it and have to go through everything again and just how it’s unfolding and everything,” said the children’s aunt, Raelane Turner.
News4 is still working to find out why she was released from the facility last month.
State’s Attorney for Montgomery County John McCarthy told News4 last year Hoggle could be charged again if she were ever released from the facility.
On Sunday, her attorney, David Felsen, told News4 that nothing has changed legally since the previous charges were dismissed and said that Hoggle was still under the care of the Department of Health.
“We are aware that Ms. Hoggle was rearrested for what we understand to be the same charges that were dismissed in 2022. She is still under the Civil Commitment from that time. We do not believe her detention is proper or appropriate. Legally, nothing has changed since 2022,” Felsen said in a statement.
“I don’t think there is any new evidence,” Felsen said Monday. “There has been no change in Catherine’s condition.”
Turner, the missing children’s father, his wife and their children released a statement Sunday saying the family continues to seek justice — a mission he’s had for more than 10 years now.
“We are following the latest developments closely and continue to work with authorities to seek justice for Sarah and Jacob. We ask that you please respect our privacy as we continue to rebuild our lives while continuing to search for our babies,” their statement said.
“Sarah and Jacob Hoggle remain missing, and the circumstances surrounding their disappearance are still unsolved. The investigation is ongoing,” Montgomery County police said in a press release.
A $10,000 reward is available for information leading to the arrest of a suspect, police said.
Hoggle children were last seen with their mother
Hoggle and Turner lived together with their three kids in Montgomery County.
Sarah and Jacob were last seen Sept. 7, 2014, in the care of their mother.
According to multiple law enforcement sources, Hoggle took Jacob and Sarah separately by car and returned each time without them.
Investigators say she has told various stories about where they went: She took them for pizza. She took them to a friend’s house. She dropped them off at daycare.
Turner said he took Hoggle to look for the kids, she ran away and he went to the police. Hoggle was missing for several days before she was found and taken into custody.
Police had Turner try to get Hoggle to say where their children were.
“She was saying that the kids were fine. She had given them to someone to watch until she could execute her plan to, like, go live somewhere else, like the beach or something like that. I don’t remember exactly what that was. But, she had a plan. Supposedly, they were going to watch them while she got things together,” he said.
Hoggle’s attorney said, at the time, “She was in the throes of paranoid schizophrenia with delusions. And to think that anything she might recall or say that she recalls would not be credible in terms of any investigation.”
McCarthy called the case one of the most frustrating he has ever prosecuted.
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