Missing ‘baby Holly’ found more than 40 years after parents killed

A CHILD who went missing in the 1980s after her parents were apparently murdered in Texas has been located more than 40 years later.

Holly Marie Clouse, now 42, referred to in reports at the time as “baby Holly”, was found “alive and well” after coldcase investigators used genealogy to positively identify her parents, Tina Gail Linn Clouse and Harold Dean Clouse Jr.

The couple disappeared in late 1980, while moving from Florida to Texas. They were found dead in some woods in Houston a few months later, but were not identified until last year, when DNA connected them to family members in Kentucky.

The office of Ken Paxton, Texas’s attorney general, made the announcement about Holly on Thursday.

Mr Paxton said Ms Clouse was now living in Oklahoma and has five children. “Holly has been notified of the identities of her biological parents and has been in contact with her extended biological family,” he said.

Holly and her biological family met virtually for the first time earlier this week, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is facilitating an in-person meeting soon.

Harold and Tina were last heard from by their family in October 1980 while they were living in Lewisville, Texas.

Harold had been beaten, bound and gagged, while Tina had been strangled.

Holly – an infant at the time – was nowhere to be found and was classified as missing for decades, while the couple’s remains were unidentified until last year. DNA was extracted by investigators, who found a match with Harold Clouse’s cousins in Kentucky.

Brent Webster, first assistant attorney general, revealed Holly “was left in a church in Arizona and was taken into their care”. Mr Webster said a pair of women “who identified themselves as members of a nomadic religious group” brought Holly to the church. “They indicated the beliefs of their religion included the separation of male and female members, practising vegetarian habits and not using or wearing leather goods,” he said. “The women indicated they had given up a baby before at a laundromat.”

The group is said to have travelled around the south-west region of the country, such as California, Arizona and possibly Texas.

Holly’s grandmother, Donna Casasanta, welcomed the news. “I prayed for more than 40 years for answers and the Lord has revealed some of it... we have found Holly,” she said.

“Thank you to all of the investigators for working so hard to find Holly. I prayed for them day after day and that they would find Holly and she would be all right.”

Mr Webster added: “We are grateful we found her but we must continue with our investigation into who killed them.”