Sarah & Jacob Hoogle

Catherine Hoogle

Early life and mental health

Catherine Hoggle had difficulties early in life with what are commonly called executive functions, such as planning, organization, and structure. During her teenage years, doctors also began to express concern about her mood swings, and suspicions arose of bipolar disorder.

Education, work, and meeting Troy Turner

After high school, Catherine began studying at a community college. In the fall of 2007, she took a job as a waitress at the sports bar Greene Turtle in Germantown, Maryland. It was there she met Troy Turner, who worked as a security guard. The relationship developed quickly, and Catherine later described that time as feeling like a fairy tale.

At the time, Troy was living a relatively ordinary everyday life. When the relationship with Catherine took off, he quickly became a central part of her world.

Building a family

Together they built a family, and Troy took on the role of provider. In the fall of 2008, they had their first child, a son whose name is not disclosed by sources.

Shortly afterward, the family moved to Harrisonburg, Virginia, where Troy began working in timeshare sales, a form of shared ownership in which buyers purchase the right to use a property during certain periods. They were a young couple with small children, living a daily life that required a great deal of energy and structure.

Early signs of control and anxiety

When their first child was a newborn, Catherine's mother Lindsey planned to care for the baby for two days to give the young couple some relief. As Lindsey was about to leave with her grandchild, Catherine slipped small notes into her mother's back pocket. The notes contained detailed instructions on how to mix formula, when the baby should be fed, and a reminder not to place pillows in the crib. For Troy, this was an early sign of Catherine's strong need for control.

Around the same time, Catherine began to show signs of suspicion. Troy has said that she became paranoid and believed someone was trying to break up their family. He suspected postpartum depression. Over time, the behavior faded, and Troy chose not to worry further.

The birth of Sarah and Jacob

In 2011, their daughter Sarah Grace Hoggle was born. In 2012, their son Jacob Gabriel Hoggle was born. As time passed, Catherine's mental health gradually deteriorated, and the family felt she increasingly sought control by withholding information.

Growing paranoia and conflict

Troy has described small but frequent situations that reflected this change. In one example, he asked which 7-Eleven store Catherine had been to. She replied, "The one in Germantown," even though there were several. When he asked which one, she said, "I already said it."

Accusations against Troy's sister

In 2013, Catherine became convinced that Troy's sister was breaking into their apartment. She went to court and claimed the sister had stolen toddler undershirts worth twelve dollars and nine cents and a plastic toy with a lion motif worth thirty dollars. Catherine described the toy in detail and claimed it was missing a scratch that had been on the family's own toy, which she said proved it had been stolen.

She also accused Troy's sister of following her to grocery stores, doctor's appointments, and visits to Catherine's own mother. Catherine applied for a restraining order, which the court denied.

Escalating mental health crisis

Troy has said that he urged Catherine to seek professional help and take her medication, though he did not know whether she did. At one point, while sitting in their SUV, Catherine began whispering and looking around as if the car was bugged. Troy pulled over and tried to calm her by joking that no one was listening because they were boring. His concern, however, continued to grow.

First psychiatric hospitalization

On August 13, 2013, when Jacob was about thirteen months old, Catherine was admitted to a psychiatric hospital. She was still breastfeeding and pumped breast milk, which was sent to Lindsey, who fed Jacob. This marked a clear break in everyday life, when the situation could no longer be kept within the walls of the home.

Involuntary admission and long treatment

On Christmas Eve 2013, Catherine was admitted involuntarily to Sheppard Pratt Psychiatric Hospital in Maryland. According to Lindsey, Catherine was handcuffed in front of her children before being taken away.

Troy later described how he explained the hospitalization to the children, comparing it to a time when he himself had been hospitalized for asthma and telling them their mother just needed to stay a little longer.

After Christmas, Catherine transitioned from inpatient care to day treatment, then to residential care, and finally to outpatient care. This process lasted for nine months, until September 2014, shortly before the children disappeared.

Life under supervision

During the summer of 2014, Catherine Hoggle was home again and appeared to be doing better. Doctors recommended that another adult should always be present when she was with the children, not because she was considered dangerous, but because of the sedating effects of her medication.

Lindsey has said that she personally witnessed how the medication affected Catherine and worried whether she would be able to react in an emergency, such as a fire. Catherine's father, Randy, later said that after treatment she seemed to return to being the attentive parent she had once been. She read books to the children, asked them questions about the stories, and encouraged them to think.

At the same time, Randy noticed her fatigue and absence. Sometimes she would open a book and stare at it, while the children themselves turned the pages and tried to understand the story on their own.

A fragile balance

Troy Turner has said that during this period he did not believe Catherine would intentionally harm the children. However, he knew her mental illness was unpredictable and did not want to leave her alone with them.

Together with Lindsey, Randy, Troy's mother, his sister, Catherine's siblings, Troy's friends, and a babysitter, a system was created to ensure that another adult was always nearby. Childcare mainly took place in two locations: Troy and Catherine's apartment and Lindsey's home.

The weekend before the disappearance

Lindsey, who was one of the primary caregivers, has described the days leading up to the disappearance in detail. She had planned to have a former classmate, Karen, visit during the weekend of September 5 to 7, 2014. Lindsey informed Catherine that she would not be able to help with the children during that time and offered to assist in arranging alternative childcare solutions.

On Friday, Lindsey picked up Karen, and they spent time together. On Saturday, Lindsey sent a text message to Catherine saying she wanted to take Karen to the oldest grandchild's soccer game the next day.

Catherine responded negatively. She wrote that it seemed early to wake up on a Sunday and suggested that Lindsey would rather sleep, go to church, and show her guest off there instead.

Sunday, September 7, 2014

On Sunday afternoon, Lindsey sent a text message to her ex-husband Randy asking about the grandchildren. At 14:26, she asked, "Where are the babies today?" At 14:03, she received a reply stating, "With you." Confused, Lindsey replied, "With whom? I didn't know about those plans. I am eating crab tonight." She added that there was other food available for the children.

Concerned, Lindsey and Karen drove back to the house to help. They arrived around 18:00. When Lindsey walked in, Catherine was not there, and Lindsey immediately felt that something was wrong.

Through conversations with Randy, Lindsey learned that Catherine had taken Randy's car to pick up pizza and had taken Jacob with her. This went against the routines the family had agreed on. Randy later said that Catherine had mentioned a pizza coupon and asked to borrow his car. Jacob was clinging to her, and Catherine said, "Let me just take him."

Jacob disappears

When Catherine did not return, the family began driving around looking for her. She came back at 19:20, without Jacob. When asked where he was, Catherine replied that he was at a sleepover at a friend's house. She also said it had taken a long time to return because getting the pizza had been difficult.

Lindsey became upset. Catherine was not supposed to be driving, and Lindsey believed a two-year-old was too young for a sleepover.

Around the same time, Karen had bought a princess dress for Sarah. Sarah tried it on, Lindsey took a photo, and Catherine asked to see Lindsey's phone. She immediately deleted the picture.

By 20:30, Lindsey's concern had grown significantly.

The night before

Randy was asked to drive Catherine, Sarah, and the oldest grandchild back to the apartment and then pick up Jacob from the supposed sleepover. He drove the others home, but according to all accounts, Jacob never returned to the apartment that night.

Troy came home from work around midnight. He noticed Jacob was not in his bed, but that was not unusual. Jacob often climbed into bed with a sibling. Troy went to bed without waking the children.

Later, Troy would say that no one called him when Catherine came back without his child. He said that if he had received that call, Sarah would still be with them, because he would have contacted the police immediately. He expressed deep regret that he did not go into the bedroom to kiss the children good night, something he usually did even when coming home late.

Randy stayed overnight at the apartment and left early the next morning.

The morning everything stopped

Troy was woken early by his oldest child, who was eager to get ready for school. It was a normal weekday morning. The child was dressed, ready, and impatient in the way children often are when routines are deeply ingrained.

When Troy got up, he quickly realized that something was wrong. Catherine was not in the apartment. Sarah was not there. Jacob was not there.

At first, he tried to orient himself. He checked the rooms, the bedrooms, and the bathroom. He thought Catherine might have gone out early, that the children might be in another room, or that he himself was simply not fully awake yet. But the apartment was empty.

Troy calmly got the oldest child ready for school. He followed the usual routines, kept his voice steady, and made sure the child got on the school bus as normal.

Only after the bus had left did he pick up his phone.

At 08:03, Troy called Lindsey. He asked where Catherine and the children were. Lindsey did not offer an explanation. She told him to call 911.

The 911 call and Catherine's return

Troy called 911 and reported that Catherine and the two youngest children were missing, along with the family car. While he was still on the call with the dispatcher, Catherine suddenly drove up in front of the apartment building.

Troy asked the operator to wait.

Catherine got out of the car and walked toward him. She appeared calm. She said that she had gotten up early to let him sleep. She explained that she had taken Sarah and Jacob to a daycare that was running a pilot program. According to Catherine, the daycare was located in Germantown.

She suggested that Troy could come with her later to see the place when they were going to pick up the children.

Troy was upset that she had taken the children without telling him. At the same time, her explanation sounded plausible. It was not impossible that a new daycare existed, and Catherine was speaking calmly and coherently.

Troy returned to the 911 call and told the dispatcher that it had been a misunderstanding. He canceled the report.

Conflicting stories

Afterward, Troy drove Catherine to her treatment program. At 13:40, Lindsey called Catherine to ask where the children were. Catherine replied that she could not talk because it was her last day in group therapy.

Later, Catherine would deny having said this. Lindsey, however, had written the conversation down in her diary.

Around 14:00, Troy picked Catherine up from the program. He told her that he wanted to go with her to pick up the children. Catherine then said that she could not remember the name of the daycare, but that she could show him the way.

They started driving.

During the car ride, Catherine became increasingly evasive. She did not give clear answers. At the same time, Lindsey called and sent messages, trying to get information directly from her daughter. Catherine did not give her any answers either.

Picking up the oldest child

When it was time to pick up the oldest child from the school bus, Troy and Catherine were the closest. They picked him up together.

Lindsey asked Troy to stop the car so she could meet them. She drove to Rockville to intercept them. When Lindsey arrived, she went directly to the car and took the oldest child out. She later said that she was worried about his safety.

This made Catherine furious.

Catherine got into Lindsey's car and sat next to the child in the back seat, saying that she would go with Lindsey. Lindsey replied that this was fine, but that the child would be taken to her home until Sarah and Jacob could be located.

Catherine then got out of the car and said that she was going to get her phone.

At that moment, Lindsey drove away with the child.

Catherine disappears again

Catherine immediately began calling and sending messages, both from her own phone and from Troy's phone. She demanded that Lindsey return the child and accused her of kidnapping.

Lindsey replied that she would return the child as soon as Catherine could show where Sarah and Jacob were.

Troy now demanded answers.

"Where are my children?" he asked. "Where are my children?"

He told Catherine that they were going to the police.

Catherine then asked if they could first stop at a Chick-fil-A. She said that she needed to buy a soda in order to take her medication. Troy agreed to the stop. The police station was located right next to the restaurant.

When the car stopped, Catherine got out.

She disappeared.

Troy sent a message to Lindsey that read, "She is gone."

Reporting to the police

Troy and Lindsey both went to the police station to report what had happened. A search was immediately launched.

The police began looking for Catherine as a missing adult while simultaneously trying to determine where the children were. It was known that Catherine had last been seen near a restaurant close to the Germantown Transit Center.

Police used a tracking dog to follow Catherine's scent. The trail showed that she had left the restaurant area on foot and moved toward the transit center. There, the trail ended.

During this time, police gathered background information from the family. Troy spoke about Catherine's mental illness and her previous behavior. Lindsey stated that she believed Catherine had been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder. Troy said that he had been told it was paranoid schizophrenia.

Surveillance footage and movements

As the hours passed, there was still no confirmation of where Sarah and Jacob were.

Police reviewed surveillance footage from the area. On cameras from the restaurant and nearby buildings, Catherine could be seen moving around the area after leaving the car. Additional footage later showed her inside nearby buildings, even several hours later.

Further details emerged. Catherine had entered a restaurant next to Chick-fil-A, where she borrowed the staff's phone and called a childhood friend who lived nearby. After that, she was captured on camera in a building across the street.

She appeared in that same location multiple times, both shortly after she disappeared and later during the night, around 04:30 in the morning. On several occasions, Catherine was seen checking her voicemail from that location, despite not having her own mobile phone with her.

Catherine is found

Four days after the disappearance, Catherine was found walking alone in the streets of Germantown. She was taken into custody and brought in for questioning.

She was questioned for several hours. Afterward, Troy was brought into the same room.

When Catherine saw him, she calmly asked, "What are you doing here?"

Troy later said that she appeared relaxed. Her behavior was different from earlier episodes, such as when she had believed the car was bugged or that someone was breaking into their home.

"I am here, hopefully to find out where my children are," Troy replied. "And to see you."

"They are with Erin"

Troy asked the same question the police had already asked.

Where are the children?

Catherine replied that she had left them with a woman named Erin.

She provided no further details. She would not say who Erin was, where she lived, or how she could be contacted.

After the interrogation, Catherine was taken to a psychiatric hospital for evaluation to determine whether she was mentally fit to participate in legal proceedings.

Meanwhile, the search for Sarah and Jacob continued.

Police used helicopters, search dogs, and organized ground searches with trained teams. No trace of the children was found.

The unexplained phone call

During the investigation, Lindsey reviewed phone and technical records. She discovered that at 14:00, on the same day the children's absence was first noticed, a call had been made to her home from an organization abbreviated as CCHR.

CCHR stands for the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, an organization with ties to Scientology.

Lindsey informed the police about the call. However, it could never be linked to the disappearance of the children.

A public appeal

On September 11, 2014, Randy Hoggle was asked by police to make a public statement. Investigators believed that he was the person Catherine trusted the most and that his voice might reach her.

Standing before cameras, Randy pleaded directly with his daughter to return with the children or to tell authorities where they were. The appeal was emotional but controlled. He asked her to do the right thing and emphasized that the family only wanted the children back safely.

Despite the appeal, no new information emerged.

The investigation stalls

As days turned into weeks, the investigation continued without results. Police followed every lead that came in, but none led to Sarah or Jacob.

Search efforts were extensive. Helicopters scanned wooded areas. Search dogs were deployed. Ground searches were organized with trained teams. Bodies of water were examined. No physical trace of either child was ever found.

Technical evidence was repeatedly reviewed. Phone records, surveillance footage, and witness statements were analyzed again and again. The movements that could be reconstructed all concerned Catherine. There was no verified sighting of Sarah or Jacob after September 7, 2014.

Catherine's legal status

After Catherine was located in Germantown and taken into custody, the focus shifted to her mental state. She was placed in psychiatric care for evaluation to determine whether she was competent to participate in legal proceedings.

In 2014, Catherine was charged with three offenses: abduction of the children, neglect, and obstruction of an investigation. These charges were based on the fact that she had taken the children without informing their father, that she had not disclosed their whereabouts, and that she had actively withheld information from police.

However, Catherine was deemed incompetent to stand trial. Medical professionals concluded that she did not sufficiently understand the legal process or the charges against her to be able to assist in her own defense.

As a result, the criminal process was paused, and Catherine was committed to Clifton T. Perkins Hospital, Maryland's maximum-security state psychiatric hospital.

Questions about malingering

During this time, prosecutors expressed concerns that Catherine might be exaggerating or simulating parts of her mental illness in order to avoid trial. This assessment came from the prosecution and was not a medical conclusion.

The suspicion did not immediately change her legal status. Catherine remained legally incompetent, and the case could not proceed.

Statements about the children

While hospitalized, Catherine made sporadic statements to family members and authorities. She repeatedly claimed that the children were alive.

To her father, Randy, she reportedly said, "They are fine. I promise they are alive."

When he asked her to explain where they were or provide details, she refused. "I cannot talk about that," she replied.

At one point, Catherine stated that she wanted to lead police to the children.

A courtroom moment

Following Catherine's statement that she wanted to show police where the children were, Troy and Lindsey Hoggle appeared in court, hoping that this would finally lead to a breakthrough.

Catherine was brought into the courtroom in handcuffs, her hands secured behind her back. She kept her head down and avoided eye contact.

Lindsey tried to catch her daughter's gaze but was unsuccessful.

The prosecutor asked the judge to allow Catherine to leave the courtroom for several hours, accompanied by police officers, to show them where Sarah and Jacob were.

Catherine's defense attorney objected, stating that Catherine did not want to cooperate or leave the courtroom.

The judge denied the prosecutor's request.

When the hearing ended, Lindsey attempted to approach her daughter to tell her that she loved her. A security guard intervened. Catherine had already turned away and was escorted out of the room.

Years without answers

In the years that followed, the search for Sarah Grace Hoggle and Jacob Gabriel Hoggle continued. Law enforcement revisited the case repeatedly. New tips were assessed. Old evidence was reexamined.

Despite continued efforts, no trace of the children was ever found.

Catherine remained legally incompetent for an extended period. The original charges against her were minor offenses, and under the law, a person cannot be held indefinitely as unfit to stand trial for such charges.

As time passed, those charges expired.

Murder charges in 2017

In September 2017, Catherine was charged with murder.

The charges marked a significant shift in the case. However, without bodies, without forensic evidence, and without proof that the children were deceased, prosecutors could not meet the burden of proof required in court.

The murder charges were dismissed.

Catherine was not acquitted of murder. The charges were dropped, which meant that she could be charged again in the future if new evidence were to emerge.

Troy Turner's changing belief

As the years passed without answers, Troy Turner began to speak more openly about what he believed had happened to his children.

For a long time, Troy held on to hope. He has said that he tried to believe that Sarah and Jacob might still be alive, that Catherine might have left them with someone else, or that there was an explanation he did not yet know.

He has said that this hope was something any parent in his position would cling to.

Over time, however, his position changed.

After Catherine was charged with murder in 2017, Troy stated publicly that he now believed Catherine had killed the children. He said that the hope for another outcome had always been there, but that it grew weaker and weaker as the years passed without any concrete sign that the children were alive.

He said that he no longer believed Catherine had left the children with someone else and no longer believed that they were somewhere waiting to be found.

Talking to the surviving child

Troy has also spoken about the conversations he had with his oldest child in the years after the disappearance.

He has been clear that he did not use the word "dead" when speaking to him. Instead, he tried to be honest without being explicit.

"They may never come home," he told his child. "Do you understand that?"

The child later expressed his own understanding, saying that he believed there was a strong chance that Sarah and Jacob were "with God."

Troy confirmed that this was a possibility.

He has said that these conversations were among the most difficult he has ever had. He described feeling a responsibility both to protect his child and to avoid lying to him.

Living with uncertainty

In the years following the disappearance, Troy has spoken about what it means to live without answers. He has described the ongoing grief, the lack of closure, and the weight of not knowing what truly happened.

The case of Sarah and Jacob Hoggle remains unresolved.

Catherine Hoggle remains the last known person to have been with them.

And despite years of investigation, court proceedings, and public appeals, no one knows where the children are.

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