Father of Missing Toddlers Maps Out Weekend Upcounty Searches

As law enforcement search teams continued Friday to look for two Montgomery County toddlers, the father of the missing children clung to hope that they’re still alive as he planned to lead search teams this weekend.

Police – who say they are also building a homicide case against the children’s mother -- searched near Darnestown and along the Interstate 270 corridor on Friday.

Troy Turner, the father of the missing Hoggle toddlers, will lead searchers into wooded areas in Upcounty. Montgomery Community Media reports Turner is also reviewing surveillance video of area businesses hoping to find signs of his children. No leads have turned up yet after nearly two weeks of searching.

“It’s all about trying to find information to lead us to them,” he told MyMCMedia Friday.

Catherine Hoggle, 27, was charged Wednesday with two counts of detaining a child in the state and ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation. Hoggle was arrested Sept. 12 in connection with the disappearance of her two toddlers, Jacob, 2 and Sarah, 3. Hoggle was initially charged with child neglect and obstructing and hindering.

Turner and extended family don’t know where the youngsters are; Hoggle refuses to tell family or police where she left the children.

Family members have said Hoggle is a paranoid schizophrenic who stopped taking her medication.

Turner said Hoggle had “dirt under her fingernails” and other indications that she had been in the woods when she was arrested. He said he is coordinating his searches with those of the police. Anyone willing to help can meet at Seneca Valley High School at 7:30 a.m. Saturday.

Volunteer search teams are also accepting donations of water, bug spray and other useful items, Turner said.

Montgomery County Police using search teams from various jurisdictions have covered more than 13,000 acres in the Upcounty area. Hoggle lived in Clarksburg but she was arrested in Germantown on Sept. 12. Her parents live in Darnestown. The focus of the searches have mostly been in those areas, says the county media site.

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