Woman Identified As Missing 'Baby Holly' Of Couple Murdered Over 40 Years Ago
Holly Marie Clouse is seen as an adult holding a photo of her parents and herself as an infant. (Photo: Attorney General of Texas)
A 42-year-old woman has been identified as the missing baby of a Florida couple that was found murdered in a wooded area of Texas in 1981. Authorities made the discovery after reopening the cold case and examining the couple’s suspected ties to a religious group.
Holly Marie Clouse’s stunning recovery, announced this week by the Texas attorney general’s office, comes less than a year after human remains found in Houston were positively identified as her missing parents, Tina Gail Linn Clouse, 18, and Harold Dean Clouse Jr., 22.
“Their identities could not be identified at that time. What law enforcement did know is that they were likely murdered,” Brent Webster, Texas’ first assistant attorney general, said at a news conference Thursday.
The family of Harold Dean Clouse and his wife, Tina Gail Linn, pray and embrace at their gravesite in Harris County, Texas, in March after the couple's remains, which were found in 1981, were positively identified late last year. (Photo: Associated Press)
Holly, as an infant, had been with the couple at the time of their disappearance, authorities said, but her remains were not found with them. Though their bodies’ discovery brought some closure for the family, plenty of questions remained unanswered.
“Finding Holly is a birthday present from heaven since we found her on Junior’s birthday,” Harold Clouse’s mother, Donna Casasanta, said in a statement Tuesday. “I prayed for more than 40 years for answers, and the Lord has revealed some of it... we have found Holly.”
Authorities on Thursday revealed few details about what may have happened to Holly in the years after her parents’ murder, though they said she was notified Tuesday of her identity and that work is now underway to physically reconnect her with her extended biological family. The Houston Chronicle reported that she has been living in Oklahoma, is married and has five children and two infant grandchildren.
What is known, Webster said, is that she was abandoned at a church in Arizona as a baby and taken in by a family who are not suspects in her parents’ murder.
Donna Casasanta with a painting showing her late son, Harold Dean Clouse, with his wife, Tina Gail Linn, and their daughter, Holly Marie Clouse, at Casasanta's Florida home in January. (Photo: Associated Press)
Two women who identified themselves as members of a nomadic religious group, who were barefoot and wearing white robes, left her at the church. They said their religion believed in the separation of male and female members, embraced vegetarian habits and didn’t use leather goods, and that they had abandoned another baby previously at a laundromat, Webster said.
This religious group is believed to have traveled around the Southwest, including Arizona, California and possibly Texas, with their members seen around various locations asking for food in the 1980s, he said.
Around the suspected time of the couple’s death, in late 1979 or early 1980, Webster said their families received a call from a woman identifying herself as Sister Susan from Los Angeles who said she wanted to return the couple’s car to their family. The woman said the couple had joined a religious group, were giving up all of their possessions and no longer wanted contact with their families. The woman offered to return the car to Florida in exchange for money, which the Clouse families agreed to, all while contacting local authorities at the same time.
They agreed to meet at the Daytona race track in Daytona, Florida. There, two to three women, and possibly a male, showed up wearing robes and in possession of the couple’s 1978 red burgundy AMC Concord. The robed individuals are believed to have been taken into custody by local authorities, but not much is known about this since a copy of the police report has yet to be found, Webster said.
“Given the age of this case, that is common. We’re still on the hunt for that police report,” Webster said.
Anyone with information about the case is asked to contact the Texas Attorney General’s Cold Case and Missing Persons Unit at coldcaseunit@oag.texas.gov or by calling (512) 936-0742.
“We need to find pieces of the puzzle to solve this crime,” Webster said. “The Texas AG’s Office Cold Case Unit and the law enforcement agencies that work with us are committed to bringing justice in this case. We wish Holly the best. We’re grateful that we’ve found her, but we must continue with our purpose of finding who murdered this couple.”
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
