Is that.
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Move back four more interesting.
Beth Carris and I are in Gaithersburg, Maryland, stuffing ourselves into this car and about to go on a ride along of sorts. We've asked Troy to help us recreate what must have been one of the most frightening, chaotic, and terrifying days of his life.
So I went up into here and then came back down this way.
Beth is in the back, and I'm upfront with Troy, who's driving. He's our tour guide today and has agreed to bring us back to September eighth, twenty fourteen, the day everything changed.
Probably the first place we could hit would be where Jacob went missing from on the way back, and then from there we'll go to Clarksburg and start from there.
I'm Sarah Trelevin and this is Unrestorable, an original podcast from Anonymous content and iHeartRadio.
Where are we?
We are entering what they call Darnstown or North Potomac, which is actually still Gaithersburg.
We just drove through what looks like a pretty nice neighborhood.
Yeah, this is Lakeland's here, and then We're going to come out on twenty eight up here, and that'll take us right out to where Lindsay used to live.
It's been about nine years since Troy has seen or heard from his two youngest kids, Sarah three and Jacob two. They were last seen with their mother, Catherine Hogle, and despite her insistence that no harm has ever come to them, police charged her with the children's murders, but she has yet to face those charges in court. Years of mental health problems led to Catherine being deemed incompetent, in other words,
unable to assist in her own defense. So for the past nine years, Catherine has called the Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center, a psychiatric institution home. At the time that his kids went missing, Troy and Catherine were still together trying to raise their three kids, but Catherine's mental health had been deteriorating and she'd been in and out of mental health facilities. Her parents, especially her mother Lindsay, had been helping with the kids, but even with his mother
in law's help, Troy was basically a single parent. He was the one who did all the cooking and cleaning. He made sure that the kids got to school and gave them baths when they got home.
Two o'clock is when I picked her up from the day program.
Troy spent the night of September seventh, twenty fourteen, at work and the next day, September eighth, running errants that included picking Catherine up from the psychiatric hospital, where she attended a day program from morning through early afternoon.
I fell up, she's not out there. Finally she comes walking out a little bit after two thirty, so I'm like, what the heck is going on? You know, She's like, oh, I got, you know, hung up talking with this counselor and this and whatever all eyes Later on, I find out because when I look at her phone records, she actually was trying to call CAPS.
Troy was irritated because he didn't want to be late to pick up his oldest son, who would soon be dropped off by the school bus. But Catherine was normal, fine to Troy. She was acting like it was any other day.
I said, my little man can't be waiting.
The plan was to pick up their oldest son and then get Sarah and Jacob from daycare.
And where did she tell you?
Like?
Was she like, oh, they're in this neighborhood. They're near this complex much as they.
Were in daycare, So there was nothing really said at this point because I thought I knew which one we were going to.
Troy and Catherine had been discussing sending the two youngest kids to daycare. They had talked about different options, but that morning, when Troy woke up after working a late shift, the kids weren't there. Catherine had made a decision to take them to daycare, she told him. Not being consulted about that decision definitely bothered Troy. But also Catherine wasn't supposed to be driving because of the medication she was on,
and apparently she had driven both kids that morning. And at this point, are you thinking anything's wrong other than like, maybe this is a bit annoying.
No, I'm thinking, I'm going to go get my kids from the daycare and I'll determine, you know, if I want them to go back to that daycare. But I'm thinking also what I need to do to make sure that she's not even awake when I'm not around them, if I need to have her not there at all, because she's gonna, you know, full craft like this.
Over the past few months, it had become clear to Troy that Catherine could not be trusted to be alone with her kids. The family questioned her ability to make decisions and worried about the impact of the medication she was taking. Lindsay says that Catherine would sometimes be so drugged that she would fall into a deep sleep, impossible to wake. Other times, Catherine seemed paranoid or confused or angry, making the other adults around her uncomfortable and worried about
the children's safety. So as a family, they had decided that Catherine could not be alone with the children. Troy or her mother Lindsay or her father Randy had to be around. Troy's life for the year leading up to this event had been characterized by hypervigilants, the fear that Catherine might in some way endanger the kids, even if
she didn't mean to hurt them. A unilateral move like this, the loss of control to someone with a history of making irrational decisions, was exactly what Troy had been afraid of, But up until this day this car ride, no one imagined that Catherine would actively hurt the kids. The day of September eighth begins with Troy being woken up by his oldest son before the alarm clock even goes off.
Troy needs to start their day, make breakfast for all three kids, and it's so early that Troy just assumes that his two youngest kids, Sarah and Jacob, are still asleep.
I notice Jacob is not in his crib, which is actually in my room still, but it was normal for him to climb out and go to my oldest bed.
Looking back, Troy now sees that there were hints that things were off, but things have been off for so long that the unusual had begun to feel somewhat normal.
What was also not as normal, but fairly normals for all three of them to be in the same bed by the morning. So I look at in Sarah's She's not there. Something.
Next, Troy goes into his eldest son's bedroom, expecting to see the youngest kids asleep together.
Instead, the room is empty.
So then I'm like, you know, okay, so they're not here.
Troy looks out the window and sees that his car is gone too. When he calls Catherine's cell phone, he sees it vibrating on the coffee table. He calls Lindsay, Catherine's mother, but she has no idea where Catherine, Sarah or Jacob are.
I said, okay, and I get my oldest ready, get him on the bus. I didn't want to free came out. It seems I got him on a bus. I called nine one one.
That might seem extreme, I know, but things had become so chaotic that Troy didn't want to take any chances. But just as Troy's connecting with a nine to one to one dispatcher, Troy sees Catherine pull up in their car.
I go to the car, What the hell is going on based you know? And she's like, oh, well, I took them to daycare. I said, hold on, I said you're not.
And where are we heading now?
So right now we're heading to Clarksburg.
And what's in Clarksburg.
That's the apartment we lived.
In with Troy believing his two youngest kids are in daycare and his oldest safely at school. His day is relatively stress free, but that irritated feeling he gets around Catherine settles in as soon as he picks her up from her day program at the hospital. She's running late, and Troy is worried they will be late picking up their eldest son.
I was like, yeah, so let's go.
They make it on time to meet the school bus.
Next it's off to get the two babies off to a daycare that Troy has never been to but thinks he knows.
I got ready to turn, but she said go, you know, continue. She was like, no, not that one. She was like, it's down farther. I said, oh, I thought. She was like, no, there's the one right behind me. So I keep going right. So if we're driving here and I'm going, okay, well, I'm like, there's no daycares right over here? Is there? And she was like, not that I know of.
Catherine tells Troy to keep driving, but things are getting very confusing, and.
I was like, so you're positive it's in Germantown and she said yeah. I said, well, we're in Gaithersburg now, so I need to make a U turn.
And the farther they go, the more it's clear that Catherine is fuzzy on where she left their two youngest kids. And Catherine is just sort of almost treating this like you're having kind of a trivial argument, like it's not a big deal.
What are you getting so upset about?
Right? Exactly. Her tone is kind of like, I don't understand why you're so.
Angry for Troy.
It was infuriating Catherine, seeming nonchalance about picking up Sarah and Jacob.
I said, so, what's of the play is called? I don't know? Okay, Well what road is it on? I don't remember the name of the street, Troy, I said, you don't remember what's called. No, well, give me their phone number. I'll call them right now. I'm literally in this lane in this conversation Safen. And that's when she said, I don't have their phone though. And then I looked at her. This light was red. I stopped and I looked at her. I said, let me get this straight.
You took my kids and dropped them off at a daycare. You don't know the name of it, you don't have an address, you don't know what street it's on, you have no idea where it is, and you don't have a phone number. And she looked at me, and that's when she said, well, they have my number. And that's whenever I felt like I was going to explode.
But out of the corner of his eye, Troy sees his son, his eldest who's there in the backseat and he's hearing.
All of this, and I said, okay, I can't do that.
Before Troy can go any further, he needs someone to take his eldest son. So Troy calls Catherine's mother, Lindsey.
I said, I want you to take my son. And Catherine was like, what are you doing? And I said, what do you mean? What am I doing? I'm having your mom meet us. He's going to go with her and she was like, he's not going with her. I said, yes, see it, And so she's going we'll go pick up you know, Sarah and Jacob. And I said, I said, no, we're going to go pick him up. I said, but first, we're going to meet your mom here.
Troy pulls over to the side of the road to wait for Lindsay, who shows up ten minutes later, but Catherine is shaken out of complacency when Lindsay shows up and separates Catherine from her eldest son. She was adamant that Lindsay not take him. It seemed to trigger something desperate furious in Catherine.
She starts going, well, he's not going through I'm like, yes, yes, yes, And she's telling her mom, Mom, just leave, just leaving unless going now. I'm not leaving without him at this point, and Troy wants me to take him.
You know, all of this behavior is clearly troubling.
Catherine had been struggling for years, but today this is all new. In the months leading up to this, Catherine was fine with her mother's involvement in their lives. Lindsay had been a safe harbor for the family. She'd picked up huge amounts of slack as a mother and grandmother. But here and now, Catherine seems determined not to be separated from her oldest son. Troy ignores her and picks up their son, putting him in the back of Lindsay's car, and I tell.
Her go, she pulls off. Catherine starts banging on the back of her car while she's pulling off and screaming obscenities at her. I said, what the hell's wrong with you? She said, I don't trust her with him. I said that's not true. She's watched him a million times. So I said, so where are we going to get him? And she goes, well, they're up here. She said, fine, let's go get him because I want to go get him. As soon as possible from her.
At this point, Troy is wondering if this is some kind of game, a control thing, maybe punishment for the last year, for the rules, the hospitalizations, for telling Catherine how she could be a mom. Maybe Catherine feels like she's in trouble again, yet again, letting down her family.
At this point, I'm not really scared because I can my kids are in the daycare and we're going to pick them up. But I'm feeling.
Right before the kids went missing, Catherine had been getting regular treatment, she was being medicated. Troy wondered if maybe they could start enjoying life's mundane moments again. But now Troy is wondering if maybe he'd been in denial that in reality they could never really be a family, And maybe he has no idea what Catherine is actually capable of.
We drive up here and I'm asking her, you know where there are things like that? And she says, well, you know where it is?
This right here here was the daycare.
He knew it was close to the one where his oldest had gone before he started school.
So are you telling me that they're at the daycare where we put the oldest? And she said no, I said, so some one right behind it. That's what you're telling me. We're gonna go there and pick him up now. And she said, well, no, not that one. I said, well, it was the only two over here. So at that point I got the car. I opened up that door, and I'm saying above her, I'm gonna where are my kids?
And say sorry, you get out, walk around and open her door.
Right and I'm gonna where are my kids? And she goes, They're in daycare, Troy, you know, And I said, tell me where my kids are? And whatever it is inside of me, I can't put my hands on woman. I wanted to yank her out and grab her and like force her to talk, but I just can't put my hands on a woman out of anger, and I didn't. It may sound terrible, say I wish I could at this point. I wish I was one of those dudes like it in that moment only, but just not. I
couldn't do it. So there's all kinds of things going in my mind. I could make her talk, but nothing's happening.
Troy is losing control, but he knows he needs to stay calm. He's picturing Sarah and Jacobs sitting at some daycare god knows where, feeling forgotten the only kids whose parents haven't come to pick them up. But he's also desperately hanging onto the hope that he'll see their faces looking up at him when he finally gets there. Are you thinking at this point that maybe she doesn't know where the kids are, or maybe she's forgotten or anything.
No, she's nothing with it.
Or even since showing any signs of having this psychotic break with no memory or any nothing like that. She's not even acting like in terms of what I've seen is in her mental illness when it's acting up or bad or whatever you want to call it.
Are the two of you talking about anything as this goes on.
I have nothing to say to her. I just want to get my kids, get them home, get them in bed, and then put her ass out. That's all I'm thinking. At this point.
She's thinking like I'm sending her to her parents or whatever, or the street.
I don't care. At this point. She's a danger to my kids, So I'm just done.
Driving from place to place. Troy's desperation grows. It's now after six pm. The traffic is thinning as other people make at home to spend the evening with their families, to make dinner for their kids. When they pull up to a church that Catherine has directed Troy to, he feels a slight pang of relief when he sees a playground and some toys. At this point, any sign of children is a good thing.
So we go there. There's a young lady there who runs the daycare, but all the kids are gone.
The woman who runs the daycare confirms that Sarah and Jacob were never there, that she's never seen Catherine before. Catherine asked to use the bathroom, then comes back out and joins Troy in the car.
So what she did inside What turns out is she asked to use phone. She called her mom repeatedly and tried to get her to bring the oldest back. Well, it turns out her mom told her was that you know, as soon as you produced the other two, then you'll see him.
Troy knows this is serious, but what are his options. Catherine is the only one who knows where Sarah and Jacob are, and if he doesn't play her game or whatever this is, then maybe she'll just decide not to tell him. They start driving again.
I was like, is it this one? She was like, nah, not that one. I pointed out, like pretty much every church on was it this one? Is it this one? Is this one? The whole way up there?
You know, at this point, Catherine was not supposed to be alone, unsupervised with the children.
Just a reminder that Beth Carris is in the car with us as well.
I mean, maybe you didn't want to go there in your mind that she had done something with the children, but there was a reason why she wasn't supposed to be alone with.
Them, right right, And it wasn't that anyone actually at that point believed that she would physically purposely hurt them. It was more of the decision making stuff.
But it's at this point, close to seven pm, the sun starting to dip, that the worst case scenario must be starting to creep into Troy's mind. Troy and Catherine had been in the car for more than four hours when they arrived at one more daycare, and this one is still open. Troy is sure that this is the one that he's going to walk through those doors and see his children. As he pulls up, he can feel his heart pounding in his chest.
I pulled into there was actually this middle spot here. There was nothing here. There was like one car parked in the back there. So I'm going, so this is way, she says, yes. So I get out, walk quickly to the door. Here go inside, and I'm so sorry I'm late. You know, I came to get my kids and the ladies looking at me, going, ain't no kids here. I'm going, uh, you know, I give their names, like Sarah and Jacobs.
She was like, no, bought my phone. I showed her a picture on like these two and she's like they were never here. She was like, we've never seen them.
Troy changes his mind.
At this moment, whatever Catherine is doing, whatever game she's playing, he's done.
I'm thinking I'm going to the police station to basically have them do whatever they need to do to find out where my kids are. And I'm thinking that I need to get there before I lose control over my emotions at this point. You know, this is it's just too much. At this point, I'm like this, it's crazy.
So you're like really feeling on the edge here, Yes.
And it's at this point I still don't think in my mind she physically hurt my kids, but I'm thinking she has left my kids somewhere where no one is except maybe one person sitting there, you know, because there's two kids stuck there, who's probably gonna call the police or CPS, thinking that they've been abandoned. She owes, why are we pulling down here? And I said to the police station is here? We're going to the police station.
When I said that to her about right here, and she was like, we don't need to involve, We don't need to do that. I said, yes we do. I said, my kids aren't here. I don't know where you put them, so I need to have the police help me find them. Apparently, and then she owes they're on Betheta church road.
Catherine plays this like she's folding, giving up the game, like Troy has won and now she is going to really actually tell him where he can find Sarah and Jacob. Or maybe she's bargaining against something that terrifies her. Lindsey told me that when Catherine was involuntarily committed, she was handcuffed by police and taken away in front of her children, and that she'd had a paralyzing fear of police. There are red and blue lights and the loud sirens in the distance.
Since I was like, what are you talking about? She said, there's a daycom Beth's Church Road. That's where I put them. And I said, so, why wouldn't you have just said that before so we could have went and picked up. She said, because they actually have extended to stay there till like eight o'clock. And I was like, no one does that, that's not real. She was like, well, she's like out there, they do, she said, because parents get home much later because traffic is farther out. Now.
At this point, it's near dark and Troy is done, done with Catherine, done with the wild goose chase. Plus he can't dismiss his creeping sense of alarm. He feels a tug towards the police station. But he also can't let go of the hope that the kids will be at the next daycare, that after a long and frustrating day, his life will return to what looks like normal. So he agrees to drive to Bethesda Church Road, but first
Catherine pleads with him to stop for a soda. Her medication is kicking in, she says, and she's feeling tired.
All right, I said, we'll go right here hit it up.
Troy and Catherine pull into the parking lot of a fast food chicken sandwich place. There's a drive through, but Troy parks the car.
I park right here, literally right here, in this spot, and we got out, walked in.
Catherine gets a soda, and the two of them head back to the car. Troy is hopeful that the next daycare is the right one, that Sarah and Jacob will be back in his arms as soon as he can get there. But Catherine stops. She says her cup is already empty. She wants to get a refill, so she's nice and alert when they go pick up the kids.
So I said, well, hurry up, I said, I want to go get my babies.
Troy gets in the car.
He's antsy, and he starts it up in anticipation of Catherine returning any second.
Then approximately three minutes past, and that's when it hit me. You don't stand in line for refills here.
Desperate, Troy runs back into the store.
So don't see her anywhere. So she's not in line, she's not off to side getting a refill. She's nowhere inside. Walk into the men's bathroom. Walking into the women's bathroom. Nothing, She's just gone.
And now what's going through your mind?
What's going through my mind now is just panic.
Troy and knows where his next stop has to be. The police station is right across the street. He parks in front and runs inside.
So like, I go in, there's like the window where you tell them you know why you're there or whatever.
Troy frantically calls Lindsay, his own mother, Catherine's dad, Randy. Full panic has set in as he tells the cops what he's been.
Through that day, Like, go do whatever you gotta do. I'm sure you have to question me. Let's get that out of the way. You know. It was like whatever you got to do to get to actually finding my kids, just do it.
Lindsay arrives at the police station.
So Lindsay goes, I've been searching daycare for nowhere any of them in Germantown. I've driven to all on with and like what, like how long have you been doing it? And what is going on here? And she said, I've been worried kind of you know, says she didn't come back with Jacob last night. And I said what, and she goes, yeah, she came back without Jacob last night.
Catherine had come home without Jacob the night before.
I said, what the hell are you talking about, Lindsay, She goes, you didn't know Jacob wasn't there last night? I said no, I said no. One told me that with this.
It all comes crashing down that morning when Troy came home from working the night shift and he couldn't find his two youngest kids when Catherine was gone, and so was the car. Remember, Troy had started to call nine one one, but Catherine came home then and told him she'd taken the kids to daycare. It never occurred to Troy that she'd been lying. It never occurred to him that the kids hadn't spent the night in their beds, that the kids had been missing since the night before.
I'm thinking, you know, like what's going on? Like this is insane, Like where are my kids? And that's kind of all I'm really think. It's just where are my kids? What's going on here? Like I have to find them?
Next time? On Unrestorable.
The next morning, I get a call and they're asking myself and Randy to come in and saying, look, she won't tell us where the kids are. Maybe She'll tell you guys, come ask her.
Unrestorable is executive produced and hosted by Me, Sarah Trulevin, and Beth Carris. Our story editor is Kathleen Goldhar. Mixing and sound designed by Reza Dyah for anonymous content. Jessica Grimshaw is our executive producer. Jennifer Sears is our executive in charge of production, and Nick Yanas is our legal council. For iHeart executive producer Christina Everett and supervising producer Abu Zafar