The murder trial of Montgomery County mother Catherine Hoggle, who is accused of killing her two young children after they disappeared in 2014, has been delayed until 2027, according to NBC4.
Hoggle had been scheduled to go on trial beginning October 19. During a status hearing Wednesday, the trial was rescheduled for a period between October 4 and November 5, 2027, NBC4 reported.
Hoggle is charged with two counts of murder in connection with the disappearance of her children, Sarah and Jacob Hoggle. Sarah was 3 and Jacob was 2 when they were last seen in their mother’s care in September 2014. Their bodies have never been found.
The delay comes as Hoggle’s defense plans to argue that she was not criminally responsible at the time of the alleged offenses because of a mental disorder. Her attorneys have argued that she was unable to appreciate the criminality of the alleged conduct or conform her actions to the law. A not criminally responsible plea is Maryland’s version of an insanity defense.
According to NBC4, prosecutors will have doctors and other specialists evaluate Hoggle in response to the defense. Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy previously said the not criminally responsible plea could delay the trial and described another delay as difficult for Sarah and Jacob’s family.
Hoggle was initially charged with child neglect, obstruction of justice and child abduction before murder charges were filed in 2017. Those murder charges were later dismissed after she was repeatedly found incompetent to stand trial.
She was indicted again on two counts of first-degree murder in 2025 after a judge ruled her competent to stand trial. Hoggle was arrested in August 2025 after prosecutors learned she had been discharged from Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center, where she had been committed for years.
