John Matthews
WMAL.com
ROCKVILLE — Catherine Hoggle may currently be mentally unfit to stand trial, but if she ever recovers, she’ll face murder charges in the deaths of her 2-year-old son, Jacob and 3-year-old daughter, Sarah.
A Montgomery County grand jury indicted the 30-year-old former waitress Thursday, who was being held without bond at the County jail.
Hoggle has spent the past three years at a state psychatric hospital, refusing to tell detectives and family members what happened to her children as she was being treated for paranoid schizophrenia – a condition that doctors say has made her unfit to stand trial.
Her indictment now was apparently timed to beat a legal deadline. Because police had no bodies to tie Hoggle to the childrens’ murder in 2014, she was charged with neglect, abduction and hindering – all misdemeanors. Those types of charges carry time limits for prosecution, and without Hoggle being cleared mentally to stand trial, she could have been ordered released as soon as this week.
The new felony murder charges will allow prosecutors to continue to keep Hoggle confined as they continue to build their case against her.
Doctors have repeatedly said that with the right treatment and medication, Hoggle could eventually be restored to competency and be put on trial.
Catherine Hoggle and her children were reported missing in the fall of 2014 by Hoggle’s boyfriend, who is also the children’s father. Hoggle was spotted in Germantown several days later, but without the children. She refused to tell police where they were, and was taken into custody.
She is due in Maryland District Court in Rockville for an indictment hearing Friday morning.
Copyright 2017 by WMAL.com. All Rights Reserved. (PHOTO: Montgomery County Police)
