Competency Hearing Delayed In Catherine Hoggle Murder Case: Report

Updated at 9:25 p.m.

GAITHERSBURG, MD — Catherine Hoggle — who was indicted last month on murder charges in the 2014 disappearance of her two children, Sarah Hoggle, 3, and Jacob Hoggle, 2 — was scheduled to be in a Montgomery County courtroom Monday for a hearing focused on her mental competency to stand trial.

But Judge James Bonifant postponed the competency hearing until December, when he will hear arguments on the mental state of Hoggle. Court proceedings were pushed back to Dec. 8 and 9 after Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy asked that the state be permitted to conduct its own competency evaluation of Hoggle.

The children were last seen on Sept. 7, 2014, and their mother was the last person seen with them, Montgomery County police said. Catherine Hoggle, 38, has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.

WTOP reported a Montgomery County judge will hear arguments Monday afternoon on whether Catherine Hoggle is competent to stand trial for murder.

Hoggle was initially charged with child neglect, obstruction, and later, murder. However, she was found incompetent to stand trial citing mental health issues and was civilly committed to a psychiatric facility. The mother, who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, has said her children are safe.

In an Aug. 5 bond hearing, Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy told the court of a comment made during a 2014 group-therapy session Hoggle attended with Troy Turner, the father of the missing children.

“At that point in time, she made a comment to a woman that was in those therapy sessions with her that she had strangled her children,” McCarthy said, according to WTOP's coverage.

McCarthy said a drawing Hoggle made in response to a prompt about eliminating stress factors from your life depicted children being thrown into a trash can.

Hoggle was deemed a flight risk after the hearing and is being held without bond.

• Related: Catherine Hoggle Indicted For Murder In Case Of 2 Children Missing Since 2014

Defense attorney David Felsen said prosecutors haven’t developed or provided Hoggle's team with any new evidence, and argued the judge should dismiss the indictment, saying the state had already used up the time allotted to restore Hoggle’s competency. A new competency evaluation by the Maryland Department of Health was completed, with the findings given to prosecutors and the defense on Thursday.

After she was released from a state hospital in July 2025, Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy convened a grand jury. After the indictment, Hoggle was arrested by the Montgomery County Department of Police on Aug. 1.

Sarah and Jacob Hoggle remain missing, and the circumstances surrounding their disappearance are still unsolved, police said.

• Related: 10 Years Later, Search Continues For Missing Hoggle Children

In November 2022, a judge questioned Catherine Hoggle to determine whether she could help in her own defense. On Nov. 30, 2022, a judge dismissed the murder charges, citing a Maryland law that states authorities had five years to restore a defendant to competency before felony charges must be dropped.

The children's father, Troy Turner, has said he believes Hoggle killed their children.

“I feel like my kids will be searched for until they’re found, or I’ll die looking for them. It could turn into 30, 40 years, or however long I’m blessed to live,” he told NBC Washington last year.

Turner, his wife and their children released a statement Sunday to NBC saying the family continues to seek justice — a mission he's had for more than 10 years.

"We are following the latest developments closely and continue to work with authorities to seek justice for Sarah and Jacob. We ask that you please respect our privacy as we continue to rebuild our lives while continuing to search for our babies," the statement said.

According to the Find Sarah Find Jacob Facebook page, a candlelight vigil in honor of the children was held Sept. 7 in the parking lot of the Germantown Chick-fil-A to mark the 11th anniversary of their disappearance.

"Someone please tell us where our babies are," the page posted on Sept. 5. "Someone had to have seen something. **SOMEONE KNOWS** Let them come HOME no matter what that looks like."

Search For Sarah And Jacob

On the day the children disappeared, Catherine told their father, Troy Turner that she dropped Sarah and Jacob off at daycare; however, when it was time to pick them up, Turner said she couldn’t tell him where they were.

After hours of searching, Turner said he and Catherine stopped at a fast-food restaurant. While he waited in the car, Catherine went inside, where she slipped out the back door. After realizing she had fled, Troy called the police and reported her and the children missing.

Several days later, Catherine was found wandering the streets of Germantown. Montgomery County police arrested her and charged her with child neglect, obstruction and hindering.

Catherine was later charged with murder; however, a judge found her incompetent to stand trial and ordered her to the maximum-security psychiatric facility Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center in Jessup, where she remains today. She still claims her children are safe, according to the NCMEC.

"For the past 10 years the focus has been on (Catherine) and whether she was competent to stand trial," Turner said. "I want the focus to be put back on finding my children."

Hoggle’s defense attorney, David Felsen told WTOP, “At the time of the children’s disappearance, Ms. Hoggle was in the throes of a severe mental health crisis — she was schizophrenic, she was paranoid, she was delusional. As a result, I don’t think we’ll ever have a credible story of what happened to the children, and that is a tragedy for everyone.”

Turner told the station: “We will never give up trying to bring Sarah and Jacob home, no matter wherever or however they are. The focus has deviated too far from my babies for too many years. There are laws in place to protect Catherine, but not Sarah and Jacob.”

In a 2022 interview with a true crime podcaster, the father of Sarah and Jacob accused the system of failing to protect his children.

"We still don't know where my kids are," Turner said on the podcast. "We still don't have them home in any way, shape or form."

At the time, Turner said he hired a private investigator to look into the disappearance of his children. While the investigator chased down leads, most were dead ends, he said.

Anyone with information about the Hoggle children should call NCMEC at 800-843-5688 or Montgomery County police at 301-279-8000.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to visit the Crime Solvers of Montgomery County, MD website at www.crimesolversmcmd.org and click on the “www.p3tips.com” link at the top of the page or call 1-866-411-8477. A reward of up to $10,000 is being offered for information that leads to the arrest of the suspect. Tips may remain anonymous.