Holly Marie Clouse (born January 24, 1980) was an infant who went missing in 1980 alongside her parents, Tina and Dean, both of whom were later found murdered.
She was found alive in June 2022, having been adopted and later relocating to Oklahoma, marrying, and having five children and eventually becoming a grandmother herself. Her married name was initially undisclosed; she went by her first and middle name in contemporary media coverage, until revealing her married name in a 2023 interview.
Case[]
Holly and her parents moved from New Smyrna Beach, Florida to Houston, Texas in the early winter of 1980 after her father found work in the area. Her aunt received a call that same year from an unidentified group saying that they would deliver Dean's car to Florida for $1,000. She agreed and three women dressed in religious robes delivered the car to her. When she asked about the whereabouts of Holly or her parents, she was told that they had joined a religious group and were cutting ties with them.
On January 12, 1981, both of her parents were discovered deceased in a wooded area near Wallisville Road in Houston, victims of homicide. Their identities were confirmed in November 2021 through genetic genealogy. Their case remains unsolved. When the family was informed of this discovery, her aunt (Dean’s Sister) asked about Holly’s whereabouts. This led to confusion among the police, as they were unaware of the existence of a baby and, therefore, had not been searching for one. This discovery prompted them to reopen the investigation.
Holly Marie Clouse, the missing infant daughter of a couple murdered and abandoned in the Texas woods over 40 years ago, was left at a church in Arizona during the early 1980s. She was placed there by two women dressed in white robes and barefoot, who claimed to belong to a religious cult. One of them was identified by the name “Sister Susan".
The women described themselves as members of a "nomadic religious group", now thought to be the "Christ Family" led by Charles Franklin "Lightning Amen" McHugh. The Christ Family followed practices such as separating the sexes, adhering to vegetarianism, and avoiding the use of leather. They also claimed to have previously abandoned another baby at a laundromat.
The family that raised Holly is not considered suspects in the deaths of her parents.
On what would have been her biological father’s 63rd birthday, Holly was informed by police about the fate of her birth parents and subsequently made contact with relatives on their side of the family.
Holly stated in a later interview that she believes that members of the Christ Family killed them to stop them leaving the cult.
Gallery[]
Media[]
- Holly Marie authored an upcoming memoir, set to be released in November 2023.
- ABC 20/20 covered the case in November 2023 in an episode titled “Baby Holly Found".
Sources[]
- KHOU
- Forensic Mag
- Press release
- USA Today
- Dean and Tina Clouse on Wikipedia
- ABC News