Search for Missing Toddlers Passes Two-Month Mark; Family Begs for Answers

Family members and police have failed over the past two months to persuade Catherine Hoggle to divulge the location of her two youngest children, Jacob Hoggle, 2, and Sarah Hoggle, 3.

According to Montgomery County authorities, Hoggle is a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic. She maintains the children are safe, but won’t tell their father, her parents or authorities where she left the toddlers.

As a result, the Clarksburg mother faces three misdemeanor charges -- detaining a child, neglect of a minor and obstructing and hindering. Montgomery County Police have said they are shifting the Hoggle case to a homicide investigation.

In a new interview with The Washington Post, Catherine’s mother, Lindsey Hoggle of Gaithersburg, says she has begged her troubled daughter to share the children’s whereabouts.

“I’m trying to do the right thing,” Catherine replied, says the newspaper.

The father of the two missing children, Troy Turner, believe his children are still alive.

In court Nov. 7, it was revealed Hoggle, 27, reportedly told her mother and Turner she could take police to the children, according to NBC Washington.

The judge at the hearing would not sign an emergency order for Hoggle’s release from a state psychiatric hospital to go with the police, saying he does not think she is competent. Hoggle reportedly had offered to lead investigators to the children, then changed her mind when she arrived in court.

When Hoggle first left home with the children in early September, she told Turner she had taken them to a child-care facility. Since then, she has said the youngsters were left with a woman named Erin.

While doctors assess her mental state, Hoggle often calls family members, the Post says, who quiz her about where her children are.

“They’re fine, Dad,” Catherine recently told her father, Randy Hoggle, according to the Post story. “I promise you they’re alive.”

When he pressed her for details she replied: “I can’t talk about that where I am.”

On the FindJacobandSarah Facebook page the family posted a prayer Nov. 8 to mark the two-month milestone in the search for the children.

The post says: “Today marks two months since Jacob and Sarah have been missing, Lord hear our prayer that you touch the hearts of anyone involved in this unimaginable occurrence. Help us to remember that you are in control and although we are unable to understand why this happened we will trust you. Please touch the judges, attorneys, police and psychiatrists involved in the case. Help them to have compassion and to treat our case as if Jacob and Sarah are their own children. And do whatever needs to be done to bring them home. AMEN”

Timeline of Events

On Sept. 7, Hoggle borrowed her father’s gray 2012 Nissan Rogue SUV and said she was picking up pizza for Jacob. Hoggle returned three hours later without the boy or pizza and told her parents she had left Jacob at a playmate’s house.

On Sept. 8, Hoggle left home with Sarah and told Turner she was taking the child 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 where Hoggle left the restaurant without Turner noticing and disappeared. On Sept. 12, Hoggle was found and arrested in Germantown.

A Go Fund Me account has been established to create a reward in the case and had $2,892 in the account Tuesday.

Montgomery County Police ask anyone with information about the Hoggle children to call 240-773-5070.

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