Judge Won't Dismiss Murder Charges In Missing Hoggle Kids Case

ROCKVILLE, MD — The court will not dismiss murder charges against Catherine Hoggle in connection with the disappearance of her two kids in 2014, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals decided Wednesday.

Hoggle was the last known person seen with her kids, Sarah, then 3, and Jacob, then 2, in September 2014. Police say Hoggle told them she gave her children to someone and they were safe, but would not say where the siblings were. She was arrested three days after their disappearance and charged with misdemeanors, including the neglect of a minor.

In January 2015, she was found unfit to stand for trial and was ordered to Clifton T. Perkins Hospital, where she has been held since. Hoggle has a history of schizophrenia, court records say.

Hoggle was indicted on murder charges in 2017. The doctors at the state facility said she was incompetent to stand trial on Dec. 1, 2017.

Her attorney has argued that state law says that cases must be dropped after five years if the defendant is determined to be incompetent to stand trial during that entire time. He said that she was first found to be incompetent in 2015 and filed for the charges to be dismissed last year, five years after that original date.

The court ruled Wednesday, however, that the five-year clock started when she was charged with murder, not with the misdemeanors in 2014. The court decided prosecutors have until December 2022 to bring Hoggle to trial.

"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.

He agreed with the circuit court, which has previously denied Hoggle's appeal.

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

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

A vigil is planned for at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at 19945 Century Blvd. in Germantown, marking seven years since the disappearance of the two children.

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