ROCKVILLE, Md. – A woman from Maryland, who has struggled with severe mental illness for many years, is now being held without the possibility of bail. This follows her recent re-arrest for the murder of her two children, who disappeared in 2014, nearly three years after an earlier case against her was dismissed.
A judge dismissed the previous murder charges in 2022 because Catherine Hoggle had been repeatedly found incompetent to stand trial.
Despite this, prosecutors decided to charge Catherine Hoggle again after she was recently discharged from a state psychiatric facility, where she had spent 11 years. This new charge adds another chapter to the case that started with the disappearance of her young son and daughter, who have never been located.
Catherine Hoggle, age 38, was detained on Friday. She appeared in Montgomery Circuit Court for a bail hearing on Tuesday afternoon, dressed in a tan jumpsuit and wearing glasses. During the hearing, she remained silent and showed no visible emotion while prosecutors detailed the accusations against her.
According to Montgomery County State’s Attorney, John McCarthy, Hoggle purportedly admitted to another woman in a group therapy session that she strangled her children around the time they disappeared. McCarthy also mentioned a disturbing drawing allegedly created by Hoggle that depicted children being disposed of in a trash can, related to a prompt about reducing stress.
“You think you have stress in your life? I just strangled my two children,” Hoggle told the woman, according to McCarthy’s account.
Defense attorney says Hoggle remains mentally incompetent
Hoggle’s lawyer, David Felsen, criticized the state’s attorney for presenting detailed information in what he termed a “45-minute opening statement” suited for a trial’s start, not a bail hearing.
Felsen argued that Hoggle remains mentally incompetent to stand trial. That finding hasn’t changed since 2022, he said.
“As she sits, she is non-restorable,” he told the court.
However, prosecutors maintained that her recent behavior has shown significant mental improvement, leading to her release from the Maryland’s Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center. Since her release, McCarthy noted that she has been residing in a group home and moving freely around town, expressing concerns about the safety of her third surviving child.
Hoggle’s mother also criticized the circumstances around her release from the hospital. Lindsey Hoggle told reporters after the hearing that her daughter was abruptly discharged into the community — from “shackles and handcuffs to living on her own in a dorm-like facility.” She should be receiving psychiatric treatment, not sitting in jail, Lindsey Hoggle said.
But Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Jeannie Cho ordered Hoggle held without bail because she could otherwise pose a flight risk and a “great danger” to the community.
“There is a great deal of information that showed a concerted effort to hide herself and conceal the evidence and to be deceptive,” Cho said before announcing her ruling.
The judge noted that Hoggle is currently prescribed 22 different medications. Keeping her on this treatment regimen could be difficult in a group home environment with “little to no supervision that I can glean,” Cho said.
It is still not exactly clear why Hoggle was released from the hospital.
First arrest was in 2014
Her children, Sarah and Jacob Hoggle, were ages 3 and 2 respectively when they were last seen in September 2014. Catherine Hoggle also went missing around the same time. The children’s father reported them all missing. Hoggle was found days later, walking in a nearby town. Police said she refused to tell them where the children were.
She was initially arrested and charged with neglect and abduction, both misdemeanors. She was sent to the state-run psychiatric hospital for treatment.
Then in 2017, she was indicted on murder charges. A judge ruled she was incompetent to stand trial and imposed continuing court-ordered treatment. Under state law, authorities had five years to declare her competent to stand trial. That didn’t happen, so in 2022, a Montgomery County judge dropped the charges against her, citing the five-year time limit. Hoggle was ordered to remain involuntarily committed for psychiatric treatment because she was still considered a danger to herself or others.
During Tuesday’s hearing, Hoggle’s attorney raised questions about the strength of the state’s case. He presented records showing that a court commissioner had found insufficient probable cause to issue an arrest warrant for the murder charges. In response, prosecutors took the case to a grand jury instead, which issued the indictment.
Prosecutors said nothing about that process weakens their case.
Family members seek answers
Hoggle’s mother and other family members watched from the courtroom gallery, including the children’s father, Troy Turner, whose shirt was emblazoned with a message seeking justice for Sarah and Jacob.
In remarks after the hearing, Turner said he still wants answers. He said he hopes that by prosecuting Hoggle again, the court system will finally reveal what happened to his children.
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