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| Holly Marie Claus Parents |
- Holly Marie Claus and her parents have been missing since 1981.
- American investigators finally identified her parents' bodies 40 years after they were murdered.
- But investigators later found out that Holly was alive, married with children at 42, and living in Oklahoma.
- In 1981, a young couple from the United States and their daughter disappeared shortly after they moved to Texas.
For decades, their families searched. Even after the couple's bodies were found last year and investigators determined they were murdered, families are still praying for an answer: What happened to the baby?
That question was answered this week when investigators found baby Holly Marie Claus, alive and well at 42.
Detectives entered Claus' workplace in Oklahoma on Tuesday to reveal her actual identity, according to Houston Chronicle St. John Barnead Smith's investigative reporter. Hours later, the newspaper said, she was on Zoom call with her relatives.
"For over 40 years I've prayed for answers and God has revealed some of them... We found Holly," Holly's grandmother, Donna Casasanta, said in a statement released by the Texas Attorney General's office.
The Houston Chronicle reported that Holly and her parents, Tina Jill Lynn Close and Harold Dean Close Jr., moved to Louisville, Texas, from New Smyrna, Florida, in 1980 shortly after Holly's birth. They were there for less than a year before their families stopped hearing their news, according to the Chronicle.
The family's only evidence of their disappearance came when three women dressed in white robes returned the couple's car a few months after their disappearance, the Chronicle reported. They tell Casasanta that her son joined a cult, gave up his property, and didn't want anything to do with his family.
Tina and Harold's bodies were found in 1981 but weren't identified until 2021 through genetic genealogy, according to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
The Chronicle reported that the couple died violently. Harold was beaten to death and Tina was strangled.
But there were no traces of their child. Finally, less than eight months after Claus' bodies were identified, investigators at the state's Cold Case and Missing Persons Unit have made significant progress.
Holly has been married for 20 years, and has five children and two grandchildren, according to the Chronicle.
The Chronicle reports that Clouse was adopted as a baby, but it remains unclear why her parents died or who actually gave her up for adoption — her parents or anyone else.
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| A picture of Holly Marie Claus when she was a child and now |
"Holly appreciates all the support she has received," the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children said in a statement, requesting that the family now demand privacy.
Les Lynn, Holly's uncle, said in a statement: "The first thing that came to my head when we heard that Holly had been found was the call I got eight months ago... regarding my sister's death. Next to that call with Holly, a sudden discovery popped into my head. To go from hoping to find her to meeting her all of a sudden less than 8 months later - how miraculous is that?
“Sherry Lynn Green, Holly's aunt, added: "I think Tina finally rested in peace knowing Holly is going to meet her family.
"Casasanta described Holly's discovery as a "gift from heaven", as she was found on her father's 63rd birthday.
John Bischoff, deputy chief of the Missing Children Division at the US National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, credited "technological advances, hard work, and dedication to law enforcement" for solving the mystery.
"We are delighted that Holly will now have the opportunity to connect with her biological family who has been searching for her for so long," Bischoff said in a statement.
Paxton said state investigators are still investigating her parents' deaths and have asked anyone with information about the murder to contact the state's cold case department.