Community Holds Vigil for Missing Children
By Kevin O’Rourke
Returning to the spot where the weeklong odyssey began, Troy Turner and seventy-five to a hundred people gathered at the Chik-Fil-A in Germantown on Saturday night to hold a candlelight vigil and pray for the safe return of Turner’s children, who have been missing since Monday.
The crowd gathered to support Troy Turner, the Clarksburg father of Jacob, 2, and Sarah, 3, as their mother Catherine Hoggle undergoes police questioning as to the whereabouts of the children.
The Chik-Fil-A was where Hoggle went missing after Turner pressed her for answers as to whereabouts of the children. As they prepared to go to the police, Hoggle disappeared creating a week-long county wide search for the 27-year-old mother who has a history of serious mental issues, and the two children. She was finally taken in to police custody last night and was charged with two counts of child neglect earlier this afternoon.
The vigil was organized by friends of Troy Turner, who are using social media and the Internet in an effort to locate Turner’s missing children. A Facebook page was started early Friday morning and has more than 500 followers. Organizers are also using the Twitter hashtags, #FindJacob and #FindSarah, to raise awareness of the missing toddlers.
The group gathered in the parking hugged Turner and did their best to lend emotional support to the father. The group sang songs and prayed for the safe return of the children.
Astrine Etheridge-Covington, a co-worker of Turner’s, created the Facebook page. She also created a crowd-sourced fundraising campaign to raise money to be offered as a reward for information leading to the safe return. The gofundme.com site has raised more than $900 since its inception on Friday morning.
Montgomery County Police continue to search for Jacob and Sarah, and plan to cover eight wooded or undeveloped areas in the Darnestown area tomorrow. Anyone with information about the whereabouts of Catherine and/or her children is asked to immediately call 9-1-1 or the police non-emergency number 301-279-8000.
Captions:
Video: Community members gathered to sing and pray for the safe return of Jacob and Sarah Hoggle.
Top: Troy Tuner, father of missing children, at the candlelight vigil in Germantown.
Next: Friends and family gathered to pray for missing children.
Photos and video by Germantown Pulse.
