A Montgomery County Grand Jury indicted Catherine Ashley Hoggle, 38, of Clarksburg, on two charges of first-degree murder in connection with the deaths of her children, Sarah and Jacob Hoggle. Following her release from a state mental health facility, Hoggle was apprehended in Kent County.
The Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office reports that Hoggle was taken into custody in Kent County, Maryland, on Friday, August 1, 2025, following the State’s discovery that she had been released from the Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center on July 23, 2025. Hoggle’s bond review hearing in Circuit Court is set for tomorrow at 1:30 p.m. This case is being prosecuted by State’s Attorney John McCarthy and Deputy State’s Attorney Ryan Weschler.
According to the Maryland Court of Special Appeals, the case’s background: Sarah and Jacob Hoggle are the children of Catherine Hoggle. The State claims that on September 7, 2014, the two youngsters were last seen in their mother’s custody. Jacob was three years old and Sarah was five at the time. Three days after the kids vanished, Hoggle was taken into custody. After questioning her for several hours, the officers were unable to find out where the kids were.
The State filed a number of charging documents against Hoggle in the District Court of Maryland for Montgomery County within a week of the arrest. She was first accused by the State of neglecting a juvenile on two separate occasions. She was then accused on one count of obstructing justice by the State. Lastly, she was accused by the State of two charges of unlawfully detaining or abducting a kid by a relative. With a history of schizophrenia, Hoggle was evaluated by a Health Department evaluator. Hoggle was deemed incompetent to stand trial at that time by the evaluator.
Hoggle was committed to Clifton T. Perkins Hospital after the district court determined on January 10, 2015, that she was not fit to stand trial. As mandated by law, the district court examined Hoggle’s competency on a regular basis. The district court determined that Hoggle was still incompetent and that she still met the requirements for commitment nine times between the date of commitment and September 2017.
About eighteen months after the district court’s three misdemeanor case was started, in March 2016, a prosecutor told the court that the State intended to charge Hoggle with the murders of her two children. According to the prosecutor, the State chose to postpone the indictment in order to allow the grand jury to look into the two children’s disappearance if necessary. The prosecutor stated that the State would no longer be able to use the grand jury as an investigative body after obtaining an indictment.
The State entered a nolle prosequi on September 14, 2017, dismissing all of the accusations against Hoggle in district court. She was charged by the State with first-degree murder of Sarah Hoggle and first-degree murder of Jacob Hoggle in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County that same day.
