(National Center for Missing and Exploited Children)
Investigators say Baby Holly, who was found alive more than 40 years after her parents were killed, was left in a church in Arizona by women who were members of a nomadic religious group.
Authorities in Texas have never released shared information after a woman who disappeared as a baby when her parents were killed in 1980 was finally identified.
The young man disappeared along with his parents, Tina Gale Lynn Clouse and Harold Dean Clouse Jr., who were last heard from relatives in October 1980; their fates remained a mystery until earlier this year, when genealogists identified the couple as the ten-year-old remains of John and Jane Doe, found in 1981 in a wooded area near Houston.
It was established that they were killed, but no remains of a baby with or near the bodies were found. No one knew what 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 answer questions during a news conference Thursday, citing an ongoing criminal investigation into the case. But they asked the public for any information that could help solve the Clouses killings and clarify Baby Holly’s journey.
Investigators shared the few details they had.
The Missing and Missing Persons Division, set up last year by Texas Attorney General Kenneth Paxton, began hearing cases “in December 2021; this case came as soon as we started taking cases, “First Assistant Attorney General Brent Webster said Thursday.
“Baby Holly was left in a church in Arizona and taken into their care … The family that raised Holly is not a suspect in this case. Two women, who identified themselves as members of a nomadic religious group, brought Holly to church. They were dressed in white and barefoot. “
They said they were members of a religious group that believes in “separating men and women, practices vegetarian habits and does not use or wear leather goods.”
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The women “showed that they had given up a baby before, in a washing machine.
“This particular group is believed to have traveled throughout the southwestern United States, including Arizona, California and possibly Texas. There were observations of this religious group around Yuma, Arizona in the early 1980s. The female members will be seen around the city in different places asking for food.
In late December 1980 or early January 1981, Clouses relatives received a phone call from someone who identified themselves as “Sister Susan” – who explained that she was calling from Los Angeles, California and wanted to return Tina’s car. and Dean to their family. Said Mr. Webster. “She added that Tina and Dean have joined their religious group and no longer want to have contact with their families. They also gave up all their possessions. “
Mr Webster said the woman had asked for money in exchange for returning the car; the family agreed, but contacted local authorities. The relatives of the missing couple arranged a meeting with “Sister Susan” on the track in Daytona, Florida.
They met two or three women and “probably a man,” Mr. Webster said; the faces also looked like members of a religious group.
Authorities reportedly took the women into custody, but there is still no document for a police report that has yet to be found, “said Webster – a situation not uncommon in such an old case.
The returned car belongs to the mother of the missing person; was described as a two-door AMC Concord from 1978, Mr Webster said.
He added that authorities believed the couple “were probably killed in December 1980 or early January 1981.
“If you have any information about these killings, please come out,” Mr Webster said. “Even if it’s part of the information that may not be concrete evidence, we need to find pieces of the puzzle to solve this crime.”
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