Are Missing Md. Children In New Jersey?

Two Maryland children who have been missing for four months may have been seen in the area of Exits 8A or 9 on the New Jersey Turnpike, according to social media posts.

Sarah Hoggle, 4, and Jacob Hoggle, were last seen in early September with their mother, Catherine Hoggle, according to Patch reports.

Troy Turner, the children’s father, has been searching on his own in the months since. On the FindSarahFindJacob Facebook page Turner posted late Sunday: “Possible sighting on NJ Turnpike North at Exit 8A-9 - Yesterday December 28th ~4 PM Eastern.”

On Sept. 7, Catherine Hoggle borrowed her father’s gray 2012 Nissan Rogue SUV and said she was picking up pizza for Jacob. She returned three hours later without the boy or pizza and told her parents she had left Jacob at a playmate’s house. The next day Hoggle left home with Sarah and told the children’s father, Troy Turner, she was taking Sarah to a day-care center.

That afternoon when Turner asked about the children’s whereabouts, Hoggle would not tell him where the children were. Both Hoggle and Turner set off for the police station, but stopped at a Chick-Fil-A near the Germantown Transit Center in Maryland, where Hoggle left the restaurant without Turner noticing and disappeared. On Sept. 12, Hoggle was found and arrested in Germantown.

Catherine Hoggle, who is being held in the Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center and treated for mental illness, says the children are safe, but has not given any information on the children’s whereabouts, and her lawyer says she is incompetent to stand trial.

Tips come in from the family’s website and Facebook pages set up for the search. Turner says he pursues leads he believes the Montgomery County Police doesn’t have the manpower to do.

There has been no comment from Montgomery County Police to Turner’s post on social media about the possible New Jersey sighting of the children.

The family of the missing siblings have organized searches every weekend since the children disappeared, using the Germantown Community Center as a home base, according to Montgomery Community Media.

Police have shifted the Hoggle case to a homicide investigation, according to a previous Patch story, but Turner and the Hoggle family believe the children are still alive and being harbored by someone at Catherine Hoggle’s request. Turner said he believes if Catherine Hoggle had killed the youngsters, the massive searches in the area would have uncovered their bodies.