Police to Review Video in Purported NJ Sighting of Hoggle Children

Video from a New Jersey rest stop that a woman claims shows missing siblings Sarah and Jacob Hoggle is on its way to Montgomery County Police to review, but local investigators say they are convinced the children are dead.

Laura Penny of Shoreham, Long Island, NY, told Montgomery Community Media Monday that she might have spotted the toddlers Dec. 28 at the Joyce Kilmer Service Area off the New Jersey Turnpike near New Brunswick.

The children -- Sarah Hoggle, 4, and Jacob Hoggle 2 -- were last seen Sept. 8 with their mother, Catherine Hoggle, who is being held in the Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center and treated for mental illness. Catherine Hoggle says the children are safe, but has not given any information on the children’s whereabouts, and her lawyer says she is incompetent to stand trial.

The family of the missing siblings have organized searches every weekend since the children disappeared, using the Germantown Community Center as a home base, according to Montgomery Community Media.

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Penny said while stopped that afternoon at the busy rest area she saw a boy who “looked just like Jacob” walking hand-in-hand with a woman in a long white sweater. Holding the other woman’s hand was a girl that Penny originally thought was too tall to be 4-year-old Sarah. After speaking with Sarah’s father, Troy Turner, and grandmother, Lindsey Hoggle, Penny now believes the girl may have been Sarah.

“They didn’t seem distressed, but it seemed the woman was trying to almost hide them,” Penny told Montgomery Community Media. “She had a tight grip on their hands.”

Penny didn’t speak to the children and didn’t call police, instead contacting the Hoggle family through the www.findsarahfindjacob Facebook page.

A Montgomery County Police homicide investigator spoke to Penny on Dec. about her sighting, she says.

Police Downplay Report

Capt. Darren Francke told Montgomery Community Media he is waiting for a copy of the rest stop video, but he doesn’t believe the sighting to be “credible.”

“We have to run it out. We are focused on a homicide investigation. Every piece of evidence we believe unfortunately that the children are dead,” Francke said Monday in an email to the media site.

Francke said the evidence of the children’s deaths includes statements by their mother, Catherine Hoggle, statements from friends and associates, the actions by Hoggle’s attorney and other aspects of the police investigation, despite the lack of finding the bodies of the children.

Tips come in from the family’s website and Facebook pages set up for the search. Turner says he pursues leads he believes the Montgomery County Police doesn’t have the manpower to do.

While police have shifted the Hoggle case to a homicide investigation, according to a previous Patch story, Turner and the Hoggle family believe the children are still alive and being harbored by someone at Catherine Hoggle’s request. He believes if Catherine Hoggle had killed the youngsters, the massive searches in the area would have uncovered their bodies.

“I can’t imagine anywhere where she could have put their bodies where they wouldn’t have been found by now,” Turner said in December.

Donations to the Hoggle fund can be made at the Find Sarah Find Jacob website or by visiting the GoFundMe page set up by Lindsey Hoggle, the children’s grandmother.

Timeline of Events

On Sept. 7, 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, Hoggle was found and arrested in Germantown.

On Nov. 6, it was revealed in court that Hoggle allegedly told her mother she could take the police to where the children are. Hoggle’s lawyer said she did not want to go, and Judge Eugene Wolfe refused to sign an emergency order for her to leave Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center.

On Nov. 17, a psychiatric evaluation of Catherine Hoggle was submitted by Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center, finding her not competent to stand trial.

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>>Photo screenshot from Find Sarah Find Jacob GoFundMe page.