Mother of missing Maryland children ‘has not said they are not alive’

Police in Maryland are opening a homicide case against Catherine Hoggle, the mother of two children who were reported missing a week ago, even as they still hope to find the children alive.

Hoggle, 26, of Clarksburg, Md., has refused to reveal the whereabouts of her children Sarah, 3, and Jacob, 2, although she has repeatedly said they are safe, Montgomery County police said. She and the children were reported missing Sept. 8, and police said she was taken into custody Friday.

“She has not said they are not alive,” police Capt. Darren Francke, director of the major crimes division, said Monday at a news conference, but “we have to be prepared for every circumstance.”

He also asked local residents to search their properties for signs of the children.

Hoggle has been charged with two counts of child neglect and one of hindering and obstructing an investigation, and she is being held in lieu of $1,020,000 bail, a Montgomery County state’s attorney’s spokesman said. Two charges of parental abduction have been filed and are pending, he said.

On Monday afternoon, a judge ordered a psychiatric evaluation of Hoggle and postponed her next bond hearing until Sept. 30, he said.

Francke said Monday that Hoggle told police she had “a plan to remove the children” but did not give further details. When asked whether she provided a reason for taking the children away from the home they share with their father, Troy Turner, and Hoggle’s father, Francke replied: “She said a bunch of things. I’m not going to speculate on what’s the truth.”

Francke said he believes Hoggle understands what is at stake. “She was quite lucid through the entire interview.”

Last week, Turner told police that on Sept. 7, Hoggle left Sarah at her mother’s home in nearby Gaithersburg and said she was taking Jacob with her to get pizza. She returned without Jacob about three hours later and said the boy was at a playmate’s home, police said in a statement. Police later determined that Jacob had never been at his friend’s home.

Hoggle brought Sarah home, left with her the next morning and returned alone about 8:30 a.m., telling Turner she had taken Sarah and Jacob to an unspecified day care, Turner told police. Turner, who works nights, said he did not realize Jacob had not come home the previous night.

The afternoon of Sept. 8, he said, she was “not forthcoming” about where the children were, so he decided to ask police for help finding them, police said. Before Turner called authorities, the couple stopped to eat, police said, and Hoggle left the restaurant without telling him. Police determined that she had walked to a nearby bus station.

Hoggle was found Friday night a few blocks from the bus station, and when officers approached her, she tried to flee, police said. She was wearing the clothes she’d had on when she went missing, but her hair had been cut, and she had a “missing persons” flier about her and the children, they said.

Montgomery County police said they were conducting a “highly organized and systematic” search for the children that includes cadaver dogs. Saturday’s and Sunday’s searches recovered no evidence, they said.

Sarah is described as 3 feet 6 inches tall, weighing 40 pounds, with brown eyes and medium-length brown hair. Jacob is described as 3 feet tall, weighing 25 pounds, with brown eyes and curly blond hair.

Anyone with knowledge of their whereabouts is asked to call 911.

Hoggle and Turner also have an older son, Clint, who is not missing. Clint’s age was not specified.

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