A decade after his two children went missing, one Maryland father isn’t giving up.
This weekend will mark 10 years since 2-year-old Jacob Hoggle and 3-year-old Sarah Hoggle were last seen with their mother, Catherine Hoggle, on Sept. 7, 2014. The next day, the children’s father, Troy Turner reported them missing.
Hoggle was initially charged with misdemeanor child neglect — misdemeanor charges of parental abduction and obstructing an investigation were later added — but she was repeatedly found incompetent to stand trial by Montgomery County District Court judges. In September 2017, with the children still missing, Hoggle was indicted on two counts of murder.
After almost five years of being found not competent to stand trial, in November 2022, a judge questioned Hoggle to determine whether she could help in her own defense. The questioning did not include specifics about what happened to her children.
On Nov. 30, 2022, Circuit Court Judge James Bonifant dismissed the murder counts, citing a Maryland law that states authorities have five years to restore a defendant to competency, before felony charges must be dropped.
“It’s not lost on me that we’ve been waiting and attempting over about a 10 years period of time to get into court, so that we can try Catherine Hoggle,” Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy said.
In the days after the children’s disappearance, as police searched, Troy Turner was determined to find them. “And the media paid attention to this, because we had two beautiful, young children that were missing,” recalled McCarthy.
Although his office argued for years that Hoggle was malingering and attempting to avoid being prosecuted, McCarthy said the judge had no option but to eventually drop the murder counts.
“If you’re not competent, you can never be tried,” he said.
Since Bonifant determined that Hoggle continued to be a danger to herself or others, she remains civilly committed at the Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center in Jessup.
“Like many people in the community who are concerned and grieve about these children, there are frustrations with the fact that we haven’t gotten to trial,” said McCarthy. “I still remain hopeful that at some point in time, whether it’s through medication or psychotherapy, she will become competent and we’ll be able to take the next step forward in this case.”
Contacted by WTOP, Hoggle’s defense attorney, David Felsen was asked whether he believes the public will ever know what happened to Sarah and Jacob.
“At the time of the children’s disappearance, Ms. Hoggle was in the throes of a severe mental health crisis — she was schizophrenic, she was paranoid, she was delusional,” Felsen said. “As a result, I don’t think we’ll ever have a credible story of what happened to the children, and that is a tragedy for everyone.”
Turner bristled at Felsen’s comments, calling them disingenuous.
“Mr. Felsen isn’t a doctor, and he is the farthest thing possible from a reliable witness, as it relates to his client. He’s literally paid to create reasonable doubt relating to Catherine’s actions. We hope you will explain this to your audience if you quote Catherine’s criminal defense lawyer in (this story) which should be about Sarah and Jacob.”
After a decade of advocating for his missing children, Turner said: “We will never give up trying to bring Sarah and Jacob home, no matter wherever or however they are. The focus has deviated too far from my babies for too many years. There are laws in place to protect Catherine, but not Sarah and Jacob.”
