- Holly Marie Clouse and her parents had been missing since 1981.
- Investigators ultimately identified her parents' bodies 40 years after they were killed.
- But investigators later found Holly was alive, married with kids at age 42, and living in Oklahoma.
In 1981, a young couple and their baby daughter disappeared shortly after moving to Texas.
For decades, their families searched. Even after the couple's bodies were found last year and investigators determined that they had been killed, the families still prayed for an answer: What happened to the baby?
That question was answered this week when investigators found the child, Holly Marie Clouse, alive and well at age 42.
Investigators walked into Clouse's workplace in Oklahoma on Tuesday to reveal her actual identity, according to Houston Chronicle investigative reporter St. John Barned-Smith. Hours later, she was on a Zoom call with her relatives, the newspaper said.
"I prayed for more than 40 years for answers and the Lord has revealed some of it… we have found Holly," Donna Casasanta, Holly's grandmother, said in a statement released by the Texas Attorney General's office.
Holly and her parents, Tina Gail Linn Clouse and Harold Dean Clouse Jr., moved to Lewisville, Texas, from New Smyrna, Florida, in 1980 shortly after Holly was born, the Houston Chronicle reported. They were there for less than a year before their families stopped hearing from them, according to the Chronicle.
The family's only clue to their disappearance came when three women dressed in white robes returned the couple's car a few months after they vanished, the Chronicle reported. They told Casasanta that her son had joined a cult, given up his possessions, and didn't want anything to do with his family.
Tina and Harold's bodies were found in 1981, but weren't identified until 2021 through genetic genealogy, according to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
The couple had died violently, the Chronicle reported. Harold had been beaten to death and Tina was strangled.
But there were no traces of their baby girl. Finally, less than eight months after the Clouses' bodies were identified, investigators with the state's Cold Case and Missing Persons Unit made a breakthrough.
Holly has been married for 20 years, with five children and two grandchildren, according to the Chronicle.
The Chronicle reported that Clouse had been adopted as a baby, but it's still unclear what caused her parents' death or who actually put her up for adoption — her parents or someone else.
"Holly appreciates all of the support she has received," the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children said in a statement, asking that the family was now asking for privacy.
Les Linn, Holly's uncle, said in a statement: "The very first thing that ran through my head when we heard Holly was found was the call that I got eight months ago … about my sister's death. The juxtaposition of that call with Holly's sudden discovery just popped into my head. To go from hoping to find her to suddenly meeting her less than 8 months later — how miraculous is that?"
"I believe Tina's finally resting in peace knowing Holly is reuniting with her family," Sherry Linn Green, Holly's aunt, added.
Casasanta called Holly's discovery a "present from heaven," as she was found on what would have been her dad's 63rd birthday.
John Bischoff, vice president of the Missing Children Division at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, credited "advancements in technology and the hard work and dedication of law enforcement" for solving the mystery.
"We are thrilled that Holly will now have the chance to connect with her biological family who has been searching for her for so long," Bischoff said in a statement.
Paxton said state investigators are still probing her parents' deaths and asked anyone with information about the killings to contact the state's cold case division.