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.”
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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.
Catherine Hoggle was reindicted in August 2025. In 2022, a judge dismissed the previous murder charges because Hoggle had been repeatedly found incompetent to stand trial.
In December 2025, Circuit Court Judge James Bonifant ruled that Hoggle is now competent to stand trial and assist in her own defense.
Unlike a competency finding, which captures a snapshot of a defendant’s current mental health in preparation for trial, this recent filing claims Hoggle was not criminally responsible focuses on her mental state “at the time of the alleged offenses,” in 2014.
A plea of Not Criminally Responsible is Maryland’s equivalent to an insanity defense.
In addition to July 6 filing alerting prosecutors of the plea, Hoggle’s attorneys also filed a Request for Bifurcated Trial.
If the judge were to grant the motions, an initial trial would determine whether a crime occurred. While Hoggle was indicted on two counts of first-degree murder, prosecutors could also ask the judge to allow jurors to consider lesser crimes.
If the jurors were to determine that Hoggle committed crimes in the disappearances of her children, a second trial would focus on whether she understood the criminality of her actions, or was able to conform to the law.
WTOP is seeking comment from Hoggle’s attorneys about the NCR filing, which will likely be discussed in an Aug. 19 status conference. Montgomery County prosecutors declined comment. Hoggle’s trial is currently set to begin Oct. 19.
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