Disclaimer: This story was written for informational purposes only.
The Clouse Family
The Clouse family made their home in Volusia County, Florida, in the mid-70s. Harold Dean Clouse and Donna Ruth Allen had several children including Harold Dean Clouse, Jr.
Junior, born on June 7, 1959, aka Dean, was 17 when the Clouse family moved to Florida's New Smyrna Beach. Dean hung out with “cool, bearded Brothers and long-haired Sisters." His mother, Donna, worried when two of the Brothers came into their home wearing white robes.
The nomadic group was known in Central Florida for their conversions. At times, Dean traveled with the group but always returned home. Within a few years, Dean's allegiance began to wane and the religious movement lost its appeal.
Part of the disassociation can be attributed to Dean falling in love in 1979.
Tina Gail Linn was born on September 21, 1963. She was only 15 years old when she met Dean. The families were close; Dean's sister was already dating Tina's brother.
Both couples married. Dean and Tina had eloped without notice. They were married at the Volusia County Courthouse on June 25, 1979. By January 24, 1980, their family became three when baby Holly was born.
And Then They Were Gone
To Dean's sisters' disappointment, their dream of all raising babies together wasn't to be.
Dean was a talented cabinet maker. He was offered a job 950 miles away with builder D.R. Horton in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. So, in the summer of 1980, the little family packed up and left in a car borrowed from his mom.
Finances were tight and Dean and Tina bounced around a bit. Initially, they stayed with a cousin until they could find their own place.
During the mid-1980s, Dean, Tina, and baby Holly relocated to Lewisville. The first few months were a strain but they were hopeful, content, and happy.
By October of 1980, and only shortly after moving to Texas, contact with their families had stopped. The last anyone knew, Dean, Tina, and Holly, lived in Lewisville and went silent. The first communication in weeks came not from Dean, but from a stranger.
Dean's parents received a call from a man who claimed to have found Donna's car in Los Angeles. The man offered to drive it from California back to Volusia County and return it to them for $1000.00. Anxious to get information regarding Dean, Tina, and Holly's whereabouts, the Clouses agreed to meet at the Daytona Speedway parking lot.
At the midnight meeting, one of the women in the group driving Donna's car introduced herself as "Sister Susan."
All "Sister Susan" would offer was, “He’s joined our group, and he’s cutting off ties.” She relayed that Dean and Tina no longer wanted contact with their families or any of their possessions.
In 1981, Dean, Tina, and Holly were reported missing by both the Clouse and Linn families.
Daytona Beach police considered Dean, Tina, and Holly as voluntarily missing. Tina's family requested help from the Salvation Army which maintained missing persons records. Unfortunately, the Clouse information was never entered into the FBI’s NCIC system (a national database commonly used in cases involving unidentified bodies). The family's grassroots search efforts came to a standstill.
Years went by with no word from the young family. The Clouse and Linn families grappled with the belief that Dean and Tina were traveling around the country with their baby and the group of Jesus People.
Connecting the Dots
A gruesome discovery was made on January 12, 1981, in northern Harris County, Texas. A resident reported that their dog returned from a wooded area with a decomposed human arm. Authorities and search parties ultimately located two decomposed adult bodies.
Unable to pinpoint the exact time of death, estimates narrowed the time window from a week to two months. Science was limited. The remains were badly decomposed with partial skeletalization.
Authorities documented foul play. The male had been bound, gagged, and beaten while the female died from strangulation.
The unidentified bodies found in the woods had been buried in the Harris County Cemetery. They remained undisturbed for decades.
It would take almost forty years to identify "John and Jane Doe."
July 2011
In July 2011, interest in identifying John and Jane Doe resulted in exhuming the bodies and extracting DNA samples. The DNA information was entered into the national databases for routine comparisons against missing persons' reports. The samples were analyzed in FBI databases and a public domain known as NamUs.
In late 2020, a California-based genetic genealogy organization focused on the Texas John and Jane Doe. Identifinders International made the much-anticipated breakthrough.
Within ten days, forensic genealogists Misty Gillis and Allison Peacock identified Dean, and the identity of Tina was revealed shortly after. The cutting-edge forensic technology pinpointed the couple's identities.
Dean and Tina Clouse had not voluntarily gone missing after all. The wooded area was further searched by investigators upon learning the Clouses had an infant daughter at the time of their demise.
No remains of Holly were ever found.
On January 12, 2021, the 40th anniversary of discovering the remains in the woods, The Texas Attorney General’s cold case unit publicly revealed the unknown couple's identities as Harold Dean Clouse, Jr. and Tina Linn Clouse.
Due to the relentless work of genealogists who continued their search for Dean and Tina's little girl, she was found alive and well. On June 7, 2022, baby Holly was 42 years old and living in Oklahoma.
On June 9, 2022, Texas First Assistant Attorney General Brent Webster held a press conference and shared what authorities knew. Two women had dropped baby Holly off at an Arizona church. They identified themselves as part of a nomadic religious group.
“They were wearing white robes and they were barefoot,” Webster said.
Holly was told of her biological parents' tragic end. She has chosen to release scant details of her life to protect her privacy. Much information remains confidential due to the ongoing investigation into her parents' deaths.
Holly reportedly has five children and two grandchildren. Her extended biological family tree has blossomed as well.
“Finding Holly is a birthday present from heaven since we found her on Junior’s birthday. 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 biological grandmother
The Clouse homicide case remains active in Harris County.
they need to get the ones who drove that car back to the parents asking for money. since they mentioned that them folks never wanted anything else from them
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