On Thursday, the Texas Attorney General’s office announced they had located Holly Marie, now 42.
Holly Marie and her parents Tina, 17, and Harold Dean Clouse Jr., 21, disappeared in Texas in 1980 after moving from Florida. Remains of a murdered couple were found in a wooded area in Houston in 1981, but their identities were unknown until 2021, when their exhumed bodies were identified using genetic genealogy.
But Holly Marie remained missing — and what happened to her remained a mystery.
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
According to the Texas Attorney General’s office, Holly Marie, who now lives in Oklahoma, was notified of the identities of her parents on Tuesday and later took part in a video call with her biological relatives.
In the release, her biological paternal grandmother, Donna Casasanta, said she was located on the birthday of her slain son, calling the news “a birthday present from heaven.”
“I prayed for more than 40 years for answers and the Lord has revealed some of it… we have found Holly,” Casasanta said.
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But important questions about the case remain. For one, investigators have not revealed how they located Holly, or how she might have survived after her parents were murdered. Also, authorities have not spoke about the circumstances surrounding the killings of Holly’s parents, Tina and Dean.
Anyone with information on the killings of Tina and Dean is asked to contact the Texas Attorney General’s Cold Case and Missing Persons Unit atcoldcaseunit@oag.texas.gov.
source: people.com
