She had been reported missing in 1981 when she was just an infant.
Texas authorities announced on Thursday that they had found an American woman alive and called for help in unraveling the mystery that still surrounds the murder of her parents.
The Texas authorities said they were “very proud” of the “work accomplished around this exceptional cold case”, reports SkyNews.
“Baby Holly has been located, she is alive, 42 years old and doing well,” Texas Assistant Attorney General Brent Webster said at a press conference.
“We welcome that,” he continued, “but we still have one crime to solve.”
This dates back to January 1981, when the bodies of a man and a woman, apparently victims of homicide, were found in a wooded area of Houston, Texas.
For forty years they remained without an identity.
Advances in genetic genealogy made it possible, in 2021, to put a name to these victims: they are Tina and Harold Clouse, a couple from Florida who had a little girl, Holly.
A sect potentially implicated
It is the latter that has just been found.
She “was informed of the identity of her biological parents and met virtually with members of her biological family for the first time on Tuesday,” said Brent Webster.
According to him, she had been abandoned in a church in Arizona and raised in a family which is "not suspected in the investigation".
On the other hand, the police are looking for “two women identifying themselves as members of a nomadic religious group” who dropped her off at this church.
'Baby Holly' found 41 years after parents murdered in Texas https://t.co/TAqbKnNfKQ pic.twitter.com/SFWGEQ6UD0
— New York Post (@nypost) June 9, 2022
"They wore long white dresses, walked barefoot, and said their beliefs included separating men and women, being vegetarians, and not using leather objects," the prosecutor described.
However, the Clouse family had been contacted, in December 1980 or January 1981, by a woman introducing herself as “Sister Susan”.
“A real relief”
She had assured that the couple had joined their sect, wanted to cut ties with the outside world and get rid of their material possessions.
"Sister Susan" had offered Harold Clouse's parents to bring them their car, for a fee.
They had contacted the police.
When two or three white-robed women arrived with the vehicle, officers pulled them over, but no records could be found, according to Brent Webster, calling on the public 'for help' to get back on track. the story.
Read alsoCold cases: “Working on these cases means fighting against oblivion, for families”
In the meantime, the Clause family rejoiced to have reunited with Holly.
“It is a real relief to know that she is well and has a good life,” commented her aunt Cheryl Clouse quoted in a press release.
"Finding Holly is a godsend," Holly's biological grandmother, Donna Casasanta, was quoted by the New York Post as saying.
“I prayed for over 40 years for answers and the Lord revealed some of it…we found Holly.
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