Holly Marie Clouse, the daughter of a slain Texas couple, has been found alive and well more than 40 years after she vanished.
According to the Houston Chronicle, law enforcement managed to identify the woman through DNA testing that connected her to relatives in Kentucky. Clouse’s family had not seen her since late 1980, shortly before her biological parents’ were found dead in a wooded area in Houston.
It wasn’t until 2021 that investigators used genealogy to identify the bodies as Tina Gail Linn Clouse and Harold Dean Clouse Jr., a couple who had moved to Texas from Florida right before their disappearance. Once the Clouses’ identities were confirmed, their families began trying to figure out whatever happened to their infant daughter, who was not found with her parents’ remains.
The Texas Attorney General’s Office Cold Case and Missing Persons Unit worked alongside various police departments and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Together they reviewed official adoption papers and birth records to track down Holly Clouse, who now lives in Oklahoma with her husband of 20 years.
“I am extremely proud of the exceptional work done by my office’s newly formed Cold Case and Missing Persons Unit,” Texas Attorney General Paxton said in a statement. “My office diligently worked across state lines to uncover the mystery surrounding Holly’s disappearance. We were successful in our efforts to locate her and reunite her with her biological family.”
Dean’s mother Donna Casasanta said the family had not heard from them for several months when they received a call from a man who claimed he had found the couple’s car in California. Casasanta said three women dressed in white robes drove the vehicle back to Florida and met her at the Daytona Speedtrack one night. She said one of the women informed her Dean Clouse had joined a cult and wanted nothing to do with his past life.
On Jan. 6, 1981, a Texas man alerted authorities that his German Shepherd had returned home with what appeared to be a decomposed arm in his mouth. Police conducted a massive search of the area, eventually finding the bodies of a man and woman who were beaten and strangled to death, respectively. The victims’ identities remained unknown until last year, when a pair of genealogists exhumed the bodies and uploaded their genetic information to a website. Days later, they were connected to Casasanta and eventually Clouse.
“Finding Holly is a birthday present from heaven since we found her on Junior’s birthday,” Casasanta said. “I prayed for more than 40 years for answers and the Lord has revealed some of it… we have found Holly. 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 alright. ... We will be forever grateful.”
Authorities continue to investigate the mysterious circumstances surrounding the Clouses’ murders. No one has been arrested in connection to their deaths, and it remains unclear who gave Holly Clouse up for adoption.
