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Hoggle seeks to plead not criminally responsible for missing children

Ahead of Catherine Hoggle’s murder trial in the 2014 disappearance and presumed deaths of two of her young children, Hoggle’s lawyers have told a judge she was not criminally responsible when her children vanished. According to a new filing — Plea...

Dan Murphy • •1 min read
Hoggle seeks to plead not criminally responsible for missing children
Public Safety & Justice

Hoggle seeks to plead not criminally responsible for missing children

By

Neal Augenstein - WTOP

July 9, 2026 11:00 a.m.

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    Catherine Hoggle
    Catherine Hoggle after arrest in July 2025. Photo credit: Montgomery County Police Department

    Ahead of Catherine Hoggle’s murder trial in the 2014 disappearance and presumed deaths of two of her young children, Hoggle’s lawyers have told a judge she was not criminally responsible when her children vanished.

    According to a new filing — Plea of Not Criminally Responsible —  in Montgomery County Circuit, Hoggle’s public defenders, Meghan Ellis Brennan and Tatiana David, say Hoggle “because of a mental disorder, lacked the substantial capacity to appreciate the criminality of the alleged conduct  or conform that conduct to the requirements of law.”

    Police and prosecutors have said the Clarksburg, Maryland, mother was the last person to see 3-year-old Sarah and 2-year-old Jacob, when they disappeared on Sept. 7, 2014. In the dozen years since the children were last seen, no physical evidence has ever been discovered that suggests the children were killed or are still alive.

    Read more on WTOP.com.

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    This article was written by Bethesda Today’s partner WTOP News and republished with permission. Sign up for WTOP’s breaking news, traffic and weather alerts and emails today.

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    Originally published at Bethesdamagazine