WASHINGTON — Exactly one year ago, the two Hoggle children went missing from their home in Clarksburg. Their mother has been charged in connection with their disappearance and refuses to cooperate with the investigation.
It’s been a grueling year for Troy Turner.
Since his two small children went missing, his life has been turned upside down. Birthdays and holidays just aren’t the same without his kids. “I dreamed that they came home and it seems real and I wake up. And they’re not there. The worst days of my life would be November 20th, July 3rd — their birthdays, and they’re not there,” he tells Montgomery Community Media.
His common-law wife, Catherine Hoggle, is charged with abducting Sarah, then 4, and Jacob, then 2, on Sept. 7 and 8, 2014, before disappearing herself. After she was found, she refused to tell law enforcement where the children were but maintained they were alive and safe. Hoggle was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and is being treated at a mental health facility. She has been declared incompetent for trial.
There have been countless leads and potential sightings of the children since their disappearance, but dozens of community searches have turned up nothing.
The Montgomery County police believe the children are dead, and they’re building a homicide case against Hoggle. But Turner says he’s not giving up hope.
“I want it to be investigated just as hard looking for my kids as they are looking for the corpses of my kids,” he says, “since we have no hard evidence either way.”
Hoggle is scheduled for another status hearing on Sept. 18. She is charged with abduction, neglect and hindering law enforcement’s investigation.
Conversations with Troy Turner, from Montgomery County Media:
