Jacob and Sarah Hoggle were 2 and 3 years old when they vanished from Montgomery County a decade ago. What happened to them remains a mystery, but their father won't give up on finding his kids.
Troy Turner pleaded for help finding Sarah and Jacob in a video released by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).
“As a dad, I want to have hope. And as a father, obviously, I love my kids and I want to hope that in some way, they’re still there,” Turner said. “We’re gonna keep fighting.”
In hopes of getting answers, the NCMEC released age-progressed images of what the Hoggle siblings may look like today. The hope is that the images may spark a memory, or inspire someone to come forward with information.
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Sarah would be 13, and Jacob would be 12 years old.
“There’s tremendous frustration that we have gone 10 years and not had, sort of, a conclusion to this,” John McCarthy, the State’s Attorney for Montgomery County, said.
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Murder charges against children's mother were dropped
Sarah and Jacob were last seen on Labor Day weekend 2014, in the care of their mother, Catherine Hoggle, the NCMEC said.
Catherine Hoggle was later arrested and charged with murder. Despite extensive searches, Sarah and Jacob have never been found. According to the NCMEC, Hoggle continues to say her children are "safe."
The last major update in the case came two years ago when a judge dropped charges against Catherine Hoggle.
Montgomery County courts repeatedly deemed Hoggle not mentally competent to stand trial, and Maryland law mandated the charges be dropped after five years. Police said she refused to cooperate, and prosecutors accused her of faking the extent of her mental illness.
A judge ordered Hoggle to be involuntarily committed to a psychiatric institution civilly after it was determined that she remained a danger to herself and others. Hoggle, who had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia before the children went missing, has been held in a maximum-security psychiatric hospital since her arrest.
The State's Attorney's office continues to monitor Catherine Hoggle’s condition and would charge her again if they can, McCarthy said.
“If her mental health status improves to the point that she can be removed from the hospital because she’s no longer a danger to herself and others in the community, we’ll reindict this case,” he said.
In a release from the NCMEC, Turner, the father, said it’s time to move the focus onto finding his son and daughter.
“For the past 10 years the focus has been on her and whether she was competent to stand trial,” Turner said. “I want the focus to be put back on finding my children. It is definitely time to have some movement in the case. If someone knows anything, if anyone saw anything, it's time to come forward. It's past time.”
Anyone with information can contact the NCMEC at 1-800-843-5688 or Montgomery County Police at 301-279-8000.
NBC Washington is looking back at the Hoggle case. Stay tuned for updates.
