Maryland mother says her missing children are safe but won’t say where

The mother of two missing Maryland children says they are safe but refuses to say where they are, police said.

Catherine Hoggle, 26, of Clarksburg, Md., was taken into custody late Friday. She and her children, Sarah, 3, and Jacob, 2, were reported missing Monday, Montgomery County police said.

Hoggle faces charges of child neglect and of obstruction and hindering, police said. She is being held at the county Department of Correction and Rehabilitation.

Troy Turner, Hoggle’s longtime partner and the children’s father, told police that on Sept. 7, Hoggle left Sarah at her mother’s home in nearby Gaithersburg and said she was taking Jacob with her to get pizza. She returned without Jacob about three hours later and said the boy was at a playmate’s home, police said in a statement. Police later determined that Jacob had never been at his friend’s home.

Hoggle brought Sarah home, left with her the next morning and returned alone about 8:30 a.m., telling Turner she had taken Sarah and Jacob to an unspecified day care, Turner told police. Turner, who works nights, said he did not realize Jacob had not come home the previous night.

The afternoon of Sept. 8, he said, she was “not forthcoming” about where the children were, so he decided to ask police for help finding them, police said. Before Turner called authorities, the couple stopped to eat, police said, and Hoggle left the restaurant without telling him. Police determined that she had walked to a nearby bus station.

Hoggle was found Friday night a few blocks from the bus station, and when officers approached her, she tried to flee, police said. She was wearing the clothes she’d had on when she went missing, but her hair had been cut, and she had a “missing persons” flier about her and the children, they said.

She “indicated to detectives that the children are alive, at one point saying, the ‘kids are safe,’” police said.

Montgomery County police said they were conducting a “highly organized and systematic” search for the children that includes cadaver dogs. Saturday’s and Sunday’s searches recovered no evidence, they said.

Sarah is described as 3 feet 6 inches tall, weighing 40 pounds, with brown eyes and medium-length brown hair. Jacob is described as 3 feet tall, weighing 25 pounds, with brown eyes and curly blond hair.

Anyone with knowledge of their whereabouts is asked to call 911.

Hoggle and Turner also have an older son, Clint, who is not missing. Clint’s age was not specified.

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