Missing girl found alive 40 years after her parents were murdered in Texas

The daughter of a couple found dead in Texas that had been missing for over 40 years has been found alive and well in Oklahoma on Thursday, according to authorities.

Then an infant, Holly Marie Clouse disappeared with her parents, newlyweds Harold Dean Clouse and Tina Gail Clouse, as they were moving to Texas from Florida.

The parents’ bodies were found in 1981 in a wooded are near Houston. Harold had been bound and beaten while Tina had been strangled, reports the Daily Mail. Authorities retuned the couple’s car to relatives, who said they believed the two had joined a religious cult and no longer wanted to be contacted.

But they did not ask about the girl, who was not found at the scene.

Their bodies were not identified until 2021 when forensic scientists at FHD Forensics were contacted with their DNA, which they put into GEDmatch.com and connect Harold Clouse’s DNA with his cousins in Kentucky.

Investigators with Texas’s new Cold Case and Missing Persons Unit only learned of Holly’s existence when Clouse’s sister, who identified the two bodies, asked if she had been found.

This set off a renewed search for the child. FHD helped launch the Hope For Holly DNA Project to help law enforcement gather information and test women who came forward saying they could be the missing girl.

The Texas investigators finally identified Holly as a 42-year-old mother-of-five in Oklahoma, visiting her on Tuesday to confirm.

Holly spoke with her extended family for the first time via the internet later that day, according to the Mail.

Det. Steve Wheeler of the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office said bringing them together was “one of the most meaningful things I’ve ever been a part of.”

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton praised the work of his new cold case unit to KHOU 11 on Thursday.

Holly and her family plan to meet in-person soon.