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A mother accused of killing her two youngest children reportedly attended a group therapy session just hours after their demise and made jokes about strangling them, claim prosecutors.
Catherine Hoggle was arrested and charged on Friday with the 2014 murders of three-year-old Sarah and two-year-old Jacob.
Three years earlier, a judge had dismissed charges for the same offenses, ruling that her mental health made her incompetent to stand trial.
On Tuesday, the court heard prosecutors reveal they have new evidence implying she confessed to the murders.
Montgomery County State Attorney John McCarthy informed the court that she participated in a group therapy meeting alongside the children’s father, Troy Turney, shortly after the alleged incident.
‘At that point in time, she made a comment to a woman that was in those therapy sessions with her that she had strangled her children,’ McCarthy said.
He alleged Hoggle made a ‘strangling’ motion with her hands before ultimately insisting she was joking.
He argued against her request to be released on bond, noting there was a third, surviving child she could attempt to harm if freed.
Three-year-old Sarah and two-year-old Jacob vanished with their mom in September 2014 and have never been seen since
Catherine Hoggle was rearrested and charged with the 2014 murders of three-year-old Sarah and two-year-old Jacob on Friday, less than a month after she was released from a mental health facility
Police allege Hoggle was last seen with little Jacob on September 7, 2014, after driving off with him.
She returned home and allegedly told family members she had dropped him to a friend’s house for a sleepover.
That night, police allege Hoggle secretly took Sarah from the home. Neither Sarah or Jacob have ever been seen again.
The new warrant states investigators met with a criminal profiler with the FBI who noted: ‘It was their belief that the children were murdered, likely by strangulation and their bodies were disposed of via an outside trash container.’
Hoggle had allegedly intended to abduct the children’s older brother, then five, from his school bus stop but the plan was foiled by the boy’s father.
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 declare her competent to stand trial; otherwise, criminal charges would be dismissed.
She was initially arrested and charged with neglect and abduction, both misdemeanors. She was sent to the state-run psychiatric hospital for treatment
Hoggle (pictured on CCTV) has long suffered from severe mental illness. She has a history of schizophrenia and was treated with antipsychotic medications after her arrest
Hoggle has long suffered 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.
McCarthy vowed then that if she were ever deemed no longer a threat and released, he would charge her again with murder.
