The Catherine Hoggle case is the decade-old Maryland prosecution of a mother charged with first-degree murder in the 2014 disappearance of her two young children, Sarah and Jacob Hoggle, who have never been found. After years in which Hoggle was repeatedly found mentally incompetent to stand trial, a Montgomery County judge ruled in December 2025 that she is now competent. A murder trial is scheduled for October 2026.
What Happened to Sarah and Jacob Hoggle
Sarah, age 3, and Jacob, age 2, were last seen on September 7, 2014, in the Clarksburg area of Montgomery County. They were in the care of their mother, Catherine Hoggle, under a supervised arrangement the family had put in place because of her mental health history. Their father, Troy Turner, was Hoggle’s common-law partner. The couple had a third, older child together.
Hoggle left home with Jacob and returned without him, telling relatives he was at a sleepover. The next morning she left with Sarah, saying she was taking the girl to daycare. When Turner pressed her later that day about where the children were, she gave no coherent answer. He drove her toward a police station but stopped at a fast-food restaurant near the Germantown Transit Center, where Hoggle went inside and slipped out a back exit. Turner then called police and reported all three missing.1NCMEC. Missing Sarah and Jacob Hoggle New Age Progression Images2Montgomery County Government. Press Release on Hoggle Missing Persons Report
Hoggle was found several days later wandering the streets of Germantown and was arrested. The children were not with her. Despite years of searching by Montgomery County police and partner agencies, Sarah and Jacob have never been located, and no remains have been recovered.3Montgomery County Government. Press Release on Hoggle Investigation A $10,000 reward remains available through Crime Solvers of Montgomery County.
Prosecutors have pointed to incriminating statements and evidence from around the time the children vanished. At a 2025 bond hearing, they said Hoggle had told someone she “strangled her children,” and that police recovered a drawing she made showing her children being thrown in a trash can.4NBC Washington. No Bond for Catherine Hoggle Accused of Killing Her Missing Children At other times, Hoggle has claimed the children are “safe” or that she left them with someone else.
Why the Case Stalled for a Decade
Hoggle has a long-standing diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia, first identified in her teens. Doctors have documented auditory hallucinations, paranoia, and flattened affect. In 2013, she was hospitalized after developing a delusion that someone was going to perform an exorcism on her and remove her limbs.5WTOP. Judge, Doctor, Prosecutor: No Evidence Catherine Hoggle Is Faking Mental Illness
After her 2014 arrest, Hoggle was initially charged in District Court with misdemeanors including two counts of neglect of a minor, obstruction of justice, and two counts of abduction. In January 2015, a judge found her incompetent to stand trial and committed her to Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center, a maximum-security state psychiatric facility in Jessup. The District Court held nine competency reviews over the next two years. She was found incompetent each time.6Maryland Courts. Catherine Ashley Hoggle v. State of Maryland, No. 237
In September 2017, prosecutors dropped the misdemeanors and a grand jury indicted Hoggle on two counts of first-degree murder. The Circuit Court found her incompetent on those charges in December 2017. Over the next two years, her treating psychiatrist submitted five reports concluding she remained incompetent and dangerous, and a psychiatrist hired by the prosecution reached the same conclusion in 2019.6Maryland Courts. Catherine Ashley Hoggle v. State of Maryland, No. 237
Maryland’s Five-Year Competency Rule
Under Maryland Criminal Procedure § 3-107, felony charges must be dismissed if a defendant cannot be restored to competency within five years, absent extraordinary cause.7Maryland General Assembly. Criminal Procedure § 3-107 The Maryland Court of Appeals held in Ray v. State (2009) that neither dangerousness nor the prospect of eventual restoration counts as extraordinary cause, making the deadline effectively firm.8Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law. Analysis of Ray v. State
The defense argued the clock began in January 2015, with the first incompetency finding on the misdemeanor charges. Prosecutors argued it began in December 2017, when the Circuit Court found Hoggle incompetent on the murder counts specifically. In 2020, a Circuit Court judge sided with the state; in September 2021, the Court of Special Appeals affirmed, holding the two sets of charges were separate proceedings.9WTOP. MD Appellate Court Rejects Catherine Hoggle Appeal to Have Murder Trial Dismissed
That set a dismissal deadline of December 1, 2022. With Hoggle still deemed incompetent, Judge James Bonifant dismissed the murder charges on November 30, 2022. She was not released. She remained involuntarily committed at Clifton T. Perkins because she was considered a danger to herself or others.10WTOP. Competency Hearing Begins for Catherine Hoggle
Discharge, Rearrest, and Reindictment
Hoggle was discharged from Clifton T. Perkins Hospital on July 23, 2025. A grand jury returned a new indictment on July 31, 2025, again charging her with two counts of first-degree murder. She was arrested in Kent County on August 1, 2025.11NBC Washington. Catherine Hoggle Reindicted on Murder Charges Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy had signaled for years that he would refile if she were ever released.12CBS News Baltimore. Catherine Hoggle Murder Case
Her defense attorney at the time, David Felsen, challenged the arrest, arguing her legal and medical status had not changed since 2022. A judge denied bond, and Hoggle was held at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility before being ordered back to a mental health facility at the end of September 2025.4NBC Washington. No Bond for Catherine Hoggle Accused of Killing Her Missing Children
The December 2025 Competency Ruling
A two-day competency hearing opened in Rockville on December 8, 2025, with sharply divided psychiatric testimony. Dr. Christiane Tellefsen, hired by the State’s Attorney’s Office, testified that she had seen no evidence of psychosis in Hoggle since 2024 and described her as rational and able to assist in her own defense. Dr. Nicole Johnson, the state-appointed psychiatrist at Clifton T. Perkins, testified that Hoggle remained “psychotic, delusional and dangerous” and continued to hold a delusion that prosecutors were falsifying evidence.13WTOP. Battle Over Catherine Hoggle’s Competency Continues With Psychiatrists Clashing
The prosecution’s case leaned on thousands of text messages Hoggle had sent from an iPad while in custody and at Perkins, along with recorded jail phone calls. In messages to her mother, she discussed hiring a new attorney, weighing fees, and coordinating a “peaceful protest at the jail” before a bond hearing to show the judge public support. She called herself “a chameleon” in describing how she navigated different settings. On recorded calls, she critiqued police procedure, saying, “They didn’t even have a search warrant. They lied about that too,” and directed her mother to leak her medication list to the press “anonymously, of course.”14NBC Washington. How Catherine Hoggle’s Texts May Have Led Judge to Rule Her Competent for Trial15WJLA. Court Records Show Jail Text, Phone, iPad Conversations
On December 10, 2025, Judge James Bonifant ruled Hoggle competent to stand trial. He found she could understand the charges and participate in her own defense, and said she had made “significant progress” through inpatient treatment. He ordered her to remain at Clifton T. Perkins to maintain her competency in the run-up to trial.16WTOP. Catherine Hoggle Found Competent to Stand Trial in Murder Case Felsen said the text messages and phone calls did not, in his view, adequately address whether Hoggle could meaningfully assist in her own defense.14NBC Washington. How Catherine Hoggle’s Texts May Have Led Judge to Rule Her Competent for Trial
Where the Case Stands Now
In January 2026, Felsen withdrew from the case without publicly stating a reason. Hoggle is now represented by public defenders Meghan Ellis Brennan and Tatiana Suren David. Her new attorneys have filed pretrial motions demanding that prosecutors provide further specifics about the murder charges, including the exact location of the children’s deaths, any weapons used, and the cause and manner of death.17NBC Washington. Catherine Hoggle’s Attorney Withdraws From Case18Bethesda Magazine. Catherine Hoggle Lawyers
The murder trial is scheduled for October 2026. Hoggle remains at Clifton T. Perkins Hospital.18Bethesda Magazine. Catherine Hoggle Lawyers
Legislative Reform Tied to the Case
Troy Turner has spent more than a decade searching for his children while pushing state lawmakers to lengthen the competency time limit that nearly ended this prosecution. “Logically, they’re probably dead, but I’m their father and it’s my job to look on both ends until we find them, one way or another,” he has said. He has also rejected the idea that Hoggle’s illness explains what happened: “Her illness did not cause it… she made a choice and she did what she did.”19WMAR. A Father’s Decade-Long Fight to Find His Kids
In 2025, House Bill 312 was introduced in the Maryland General Assembly to extend the time period for holding defendants found incompetent to stand trial.20Maryland General Assembly. HB 312 Testimony In 2026, Senate Bill 67 was introduced to extend the mandatory dismissal timeline from five to ten years for defendants charged with first-degree murder or first-degree rape who are deemed dangerous. Testimony noted that before Maryland repealed the death penalty in 2012, the effective dismissal deadline for murder charges had been ten years, and that the reduction to five was an inadvertent consequence of that repeal. The Maryland State’s Attorney’s Association supports the bill.21Maryland General Assembly. SB 67 Testimony