Missing Hoggle Kids: Gone 18 Months Without a Trace

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ROCKVILLE, MD — Another benchmark has passed in the disappearance of the two Hoggle children from Montgomery County – now gone from home for 18 months – and investigators seem no closer to knowing their fate.

Authorities accuse the siblings’ mother of taking her daughter Sarah, now 5, and son Jacob, 3, from the family home. The mother is a schizophrenic who reportedly refused to stay on her medication. While she says the children are safe, she has not shared any information on their whereabouts.

Catherine Hoggle has been institutionalized since she was arrested in September 2014 after her children vanished. Judges have ruled several times that she is not mentally competent to stand trial on charges she is responsible for their disappearance.

Jacob was last seen with his mother on Sept. 7, 2014, in Darnestown or Clarksburg; Sarah was last seen with Hoggle on the morning of Sept. 8, 2014. Catherine’s family says she is paranoid and was making plans to leave the area, so she gave the young children to someone for safekeeping.

On Monday, the children’s grandmother, Lindsey Hoggle, shared this message on Facebook:

“Many people in the last few days have asked what they can do to help. Spreading awareness for these two ‪#‎missing babies is the biggest thing we need help with. With today and tomorrow marking a year and a half, I would like to ask you to change your profile picture. Help us by making it impossible for people to miss their faces! We need to ‪#‎bringthemhome! Flood social media with the call to ‪#‎FindSarahFindJacob!”

Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy won a request for an April 25 hearing exploring Catherrine Hoggle’s mental state. While doctors at Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center say she is not capable of facing criminal action, her mother, Lindsey Hoggle, and her common-law husband, Troy Turner, the father of Sarah and Jacob, filed say they believe Catherine understands her situation based on their conversations with her.

“There’s a lot of people in this community that care about Sarah and Jacob,” McCarthy said in February. “There’s a lot of people that have volunteered to support this family and love this family in their efforts to get to the bottom of what happened to those two children.”

McCarthy said that in April, Hoggle could be questioned in court about her competency since she has been receiving treatment. He wants to challenge the doctors at the state hospital and hire an independent doctor to evaluate Hoggle’s competency.

SEE ALSO:

• Missing Hoggle Kids: Mom Again Found Not Competent to Stand Trial
• Missing Hoggle Kids: Hope Alive One Year After Disappearance
• 'Mystery Must End' Says Missing Hoggle Kids' Grandmother

Lindsey Hoggle told reporters last month that she has talked with her daughter at times over the last six months, but hasn’t learned where her grandchildren are. She’s told Catherine repeatedly that the mystery of the children’s fate needs to end, whatever it may be.

“She continues to claim that they are with someone, so until this mystery is solved, that’s my job, is to keep looking,” Lindsey Hoggle said.

Montgomery County Police believe the children are dead, while the extended Hoggle family disagrees.

Related Stories:

• Missing Hoggle Kids Are Not Dead: Family
• Massive Search for Missing Hoggle Kids Yields Nothing
• Gone Without a Trace: Hoggle Siblings Missing for 6 Months

Family Asks for Tips

Lindsey Hoggle and other family members post almost daily on the FindSarahFindJacob Facebook page. She has thanked people for sharing information about the search for the youngsters, and asked that readers continue to spread the word. She posts photos of the children daily, with the hashtags #HOPE #Believe and #Notevergivingup.

Family members ask anyone in the Clarksburg area who may have seen Sarah and Jacob to message the Facebook page, call or text (301) 549-9044 or submit a tip on the website www.findsarahfindjacob.com. Tips can be made anonymously.

Timeline of Events

On Sept. 7, 2014, 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.

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, 2014, Hoggle was found and arrested in Germantown.

»Photos of Sarah and Jacob Hoggle with their mother, Catherine Hoggle, courtesy of the FindSarahFindJacob Facebook page