Investigators say that “Baby Holly”, who has been found alive more than 40 years after her parents were murdered, was dropped off at an Arizona church by female members of a nomadic religious group.
Texas officials released the never-before shared information after a woman who vanished as an infant when her parents were killed in 1980 was finally identified.
The youngster disappeared along with her parents, Tina Gail Linn Clouse and Harold Dean Clouse Jr, who were last heard from by relatives in October 1980; their fates remained a mystery until late last year, when genealogists identified the decades-old remains of a John and Jane Doe, found in 1981 in a wooded area near Houston, as the couple.
It was determined they’d been murdered - but no remains of an infant had been located with or near the bodies. No one knew what had happened to Baby Holly.
Until this week, when investigators tracked down the now-adult woman in Oklahoma and helped reunite her virtually with her family.
The Texas Attorney General’s Office did not take any questions during a press conference on Thursday, citing an ongoing criminal investigation in the case. But they did ask the public for any information that could help solve the Clouses’ murders and clear up Baby Holly’s journey.
Investigators shared the few details they had.
The Cold Case and Missing Persons unit, created last year by Texas Attorney General Kenneth Paxton, began taking cases “in December of 2021; this case came in right after we started taking cases,” First Assistant Attorney General Brent Webster said Thursday.
“Baby Holly was left in a church in Arizona and was taken into their care ... The family that raised Holly are not suspects in this case. Two women who identified themselves as members of a nomadic religious group brought Holly to the church. They were wearing white robes and they were barefoot.”
They said they were members of a religious group that believed in “separation for male and female members, practiced vegetarian habits and not using or wearing leather goods.”
The women “indicated they had given up a baby before, at a laundromat.
“It is believed that this particular group travelled around southwest United States, including Arizona, california and possibly Texas. There were sightings of this religious group around Yuma, Arizona in the early 1980s. The women members would be seen around town at various points, asking for food.”
In late December 1980 or early January 1981, relatives of the Clouses received a phone call from someone identifying herself as ‘Sister Susan’ – who explained she was calling from Los Angeles, California and wanted to return Tina and Dean’s car to their family,”Mr Webster said. “She further stated that Tina and Dean had joined their religious group and no longer wanted to have contact with their families. They were also giving up all of their possessions.”
Mr Webster said the woman asked for money in exchange for returning the car; the family agreed but contacted local authorities. The missing couple’s relatives set up a meeting with “Sister Susan” at the Daytona Racetrack in Florida.
They encountered two or three women and “possibly one male,” Mr Webster said; the individuals also appeared to be members of the religious group.
Authorities “reportedly took the women into custody, but there is no record of a police report on file that has been found as of yet,” Mr Webster said – a situation not uncommon for such an old case.
The returned car belonged to the missing man’s mother; it was described as a 1978 two-door, red burgundy AMC Concord, Mr Webster said.
He added that authorities believed the couple “were likely murdered in December 1980 or early January 1981.”
“If you have any information regarding these murders, we ask that you come forward,” Mr Webster said. “Even if it’s a piece of information that may not be concrete evidence, we need to find pieces of the puzzle to solve this crime.”
nvestigators found Holly, who was adopted by a couple, at her workplace earlier this week and told her of her identity, and hours later she was on a Zoom call with her biological grandmother and aunts and uncles.
Holly Marie Clouse and her parents Tina, 17, and Harold, 21, disappeared in Texas in 1980 after moving to the state from Florida.
Investigators found remains of the murdered couple in 1981, but their identities remained a mystery until 2021 their bodies were exhumed and identified using genetic genealogy done by Identifinders International. Dean, who was a carpenter, was beaten to death, while Tina had been strangled.
Holly’s biological paternal grandmother, Donna Casasanta, said that the long-lost family member had been located on the birthday of her murdered son, and called it “a birthday present from heaven.”
“I prayed for more than 40 years for answers and the Lord has revealed some of it... we have found Holly,” Ms Casasanta said.
Her aunt, Sherry Linn Green, welcomed being reunited with Holly.
“After finally being able to reunite with Holly, I dreamed about her and my sister, Tina last night,” she said in a statement.
“In my dream, Tina was laying on the floor rolling around and laughing and playing with Holly like I saw them do many times before when they lived with me prior to moving to Texas.
“I believe Tina’s finally resting in peace knowing Holly is reuniting with her family. I personally am so relieved to know Holly is alive and well and was well cared for, but also torn up by it all. That baby was her life.”
