ROCKVILLE, Md. — 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.
An email seeking comment was sent to Hoggle’s attorney Monday morning.
Hoggle is scheduled to appear in court Monday afternoon for a bail review hearing.
It’s not clear why she was released from the hospital and whether she was receiving psychiatric treatment in a different capacity since then.
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 restore her competency before the charges must be dismissed.
Her attorney, David Felsen, has long said she suffers 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.
The children’s father, Troy Turner, has acknowledged Hoggle’s mental illness, saying she was acting erratic and paranoid before the children’s disappearance. He told the AP in 2014 that she had started showing signs of psychosis and was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. But he later claimed she was feigning incompetency.