Mother of 2 missing children reindicted with murder after 11 years of psychiatric treatment
Mother of 2 missing children reindicted with murder after 11 years of psychiatric treatment
ROCKVILLE, Md. (AP) — A Maryland woman with a long history of severe mental illness has been rearrested and charged with killing two of her children who disappeared in 2014 as toddlers and have never been found.
The new indictment marks the latest twist in a case that began with the children’s disappearance and subsequent revelations about their mother’s mental state, which resulted in her long hospitalization in a state-run psychiatric facility as she was repeatedly deemed incompetent to stand trial.
Catherine Hoggle, 38, was released from the hospital last month. After her release, a grand jury reindicted her on two counts of first-degree murder, according to the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office. She was arrested Friday — three years after a judge dismissed an earlier indictment charging her with the same crimes.
Hoggle appeared in court Monday afternoon for a bail review hearing, but the judge agreed to postpone the proceeding until Tuesday after her attorney raised a scheduling conflict and accused prosecutors of seeking “to try this case in the press.”
Attorney David Felsen also challenged the legality of Hoggle’s recent arrest, telling reporters after the court appearance that he believes the state has no new evidence. Furthermore, he said, Hoggle was still under civil commitment for involuntary mental health treatment, even though she had recently been released from Maryland’s Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center.
“These are the exact same charges that were dismissed in 2022,” he said.
It’s still not clear why she was released from the hospital and what psychiatric treatment she was receiving. But her attorney said the system is designed to make those determinations with public safety in mind.
“We don’t hold people just to hold people,” he said.
Hoggle’s 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; otherwise, criminal charges would be dismissed.
Hoggle has long suffered from severe mental illness. She has a history of schizophrenia and was treated with antipsychotic medications after her arrest.
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.
Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy said then that if she’s deemed no longer a threat and released, he was prepared to charge her again with murder.
Hoggle appeared in court Monday via video conference from jail and answered a few basic questions. Her 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.
Turner declined to comment Monday, but he told the AP in 2014 that Hoggle had started showing signs of psychosis and was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. He later claimed she was feigning incompetency.
By LEA SKENE
Associated Press
