Hoggle Mom Will Appear In Court This Week After Losing Appeal

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD — Catherine Hoggle, the Maryland mom charged with murder in the disappearance of her two young children, will appear in court this week.

Hoggle has a hearing planned for Thursday at 1:30 p.m., according to ABC7, after she lost her appeal in the Maryland Court of Appeals. Hoggle has been accused of killing her kids and tried to get the murder charges dismissed.

However, those murder charges still stand against her in the case of her missing children, 3-year-old Sarah Hoggle and 2-year-old Jacob Hoggle, who disappeared in 2014, police said.

In 2014, Montgomery County police arrested Hoggle and charged her with child neglect, obstruction and hindering. At the time, Hoggle told investigators that Sarah and Jacob were safe, but she would not reveal their location.

In 2015, Hoggle was first found incompetent to stand trial. In 2017, the Montgomery County State's Attorney's Office indicted Hoggle on two murder charges connected to the disappearance of her two children.

Photo courtesy of the Montgomery County Police Department

Hoggle has paranoid schizophrenia and earlier this year, her attorney filed a request for a hearing to determine if doctors could find Hoggle to be "restorable," meaning that she could eventually stand trial. Hoggle has been held in a state psychiatric center since she was charged and has repeatedly been found unfit to participate in her defense.

Hoggle was most recently found unfit to stand trial after a medical examination conducted by the state in April 2022.

The Maryland Court of Special Appeals decided in September 2021 that her case may be dropped in December 2022 — five years after she was charged with murder — if she continues to be found incompetent to stand trial throughout that period. The court said that clock started when she was charged with a felony, not when she was charged with the earlier misdemeanors.

"Under the state's theory, the five-year period in the present case 'runs from the date that the circuit court found Hoggle incompetent to stand trial on the charges that were pending against her,' not from the date when 'she was found incompetent to stand trial on different charges, in different cases, in a different court,'" wrote Judge Kevin Arthur in the opinion.

Even if the felony charges were dropped, Hoggle would likely be held in the state's care if she is determined to be dangerous.

The children's father, Troy Turner, testified at an appeal hearing last year and spoke out against their mother, saying he believes she killed their children.

"She robbed them of everything they were going to accomplish," Turner said. "I can't even bury my babies."

SEE ALSO:

• 'My Kids Are Gone,' Says Father Of Missing Hoggle Kids At Vigil
• Hoggle Lawyer Urges Montgomery Judge To Drop Murder Charges
• Doctors Are 'Incompetent' Says Father Of Missing Hoggle Kids
• Missing Hoggle Kids: Prosecutor's Case Dealt a Setback
• Missing Hoggle Kids: Is Mom 'Trying to Work System'?
• 'Mystery Must End' Says Missing Hoggle Kids' Grandmother