Baby Holly: Once-missing woman left in Arizona as a baby seeks justice for parents' cold case murders
Imagine learning you’ve been missing for four decades and that your parents were murdered.
That’s the perspective of a woman who was dropped off at an Arizona church as a baby. She's known as "Baby Holly," and she's opening up about her family’s cold case linked to a religious group.
Where was Holly Marie?
Within the dense, green forest of a rural area in Houston, Texas, authorities discovered the bodies of a young man and woman.
The man was left bound and beaten, and the woman had been strangled.
"In 1981, two deceased individuals were discovered in the wooded area in Houston, Texas. Their identities could not be determined at that time. What law enforcement did know is that they were likely murdered," said Brent Webster, Texas's First Assistant Attorney General.
Referred to as John and Jane Doe, sometimes called Romeo and Juliet, the double murder case went cold for 40 years.
But in 2021, the evolution of forensic genetic genealogy led to the identification of 21-year-old Dean and 17-year-old Tina Clouse – a married couple who once lived in Florida.
They also had a baby girl less than a year old named Holly Marie, but she was nowhere to be found at the scene of the crime.
Sgt. Rachel Kading works in the cold case and missing persons unit for the Texas Attorney General’s Office.
Sgt. Rachel Kading with the Texas Attorney General’s Office.
Through her investigation into the Clouse murders, she learned Dean and Tina joined a nomadic religious group known as "Christ Family" in October 1980.
Christ Family members gave up worldly possessions, wore white robes, walked barefoot, did not eat meat, and frequented the Arizona-California border, mainly staying in Yuma or Blythe.
The group also separated men and women.
"Not only were they nomadic, lived outside, traveled around, but they also viewed, well some would say that they viewed a relationship with a child, as also a conflicting relationship," Sgt. Rachel Kading said.
This leads us to Baby Holly, and this is where her life changed.
‘I knew they needed some kind of help’
At the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Yuma, Arizona, a pastor with a prayer had no idea what was about to happen next.
"I remember looking down the hallway, looking through the glass window and the door, and seeing these two ladies dressed in white. That would seem unusual to the average person, but having been a pastor, I have seen these ladies around. I met them before. I didn’t know anyone in particular. They all looked the same, kind of like a uniform, but I knew they needed some kind of help," former pastor Philip McGoldrick said.
He took Baby Holly in that day.
She came with documents relinquishing parenthood, signed by Tina and Dean Clouse.
"The whole impression was a mother trying to give her child a safe place to live and possibly come back and get the child later," McGoldrick said.
That was November 8, 1980. Just a couple of months before, the Clouses were found murdered.
"My wife and I had been praying for a baby so maybe God was answering our prayer in a very surprising way," McGoldrick said.
'This was a cult, not a religious group'
"My dad is my hero for one," Holly Marie said. "The real hero of the story."
Holly, more than 40 years later, is a mother of five and a grandmother living in Oklahoma.
Holly was working her shift at a restaurant when she learned what happened to her biological parents.
"Didn’t really think much of them until the investigators came knocking on my door," Holly said.
Charles McHugh was the leader of Christ Family, known as "Lightning Amen."
He served time in a California prison for a drug conviction and was also found guilty of child molestation. He died in 2010 at the age of 73.
"I started to realize this was a cult, not a religious group," Holly said.
Do investigators think a member of the Christ Family had something to do with the murders?
"I don’t believe that anybody I’ve spoken to has anything to do with the murders, but I cannot say that a member of Christ Family is not responsible," Sgt. Rachel Kading said.
If a member was responsible, he said, it would be a fringe member.
Thousands of people joined and left the group over time.
She has not identified anyone who specifically remembers Dean, Tina or Holly.
"I really think they were trying to leave the group because they were found together, not separated. The men and women are separated in this cult. They were found together. They were not found with their white robes. They were found with normal clothes, so I do believe that in their travels of leaving this cult is how they got murdered," Holly said.
Investigators say two witnesses signed the document when Tina surrendered Holly at the Yuma church. Those witnesses are Koral Mariano and Rosemary Garcia.
Both women have passed away.
Sgt. Rachel Kading believes Rosemary Garcia is a significant witness even though she’s no longer alive. She has three daughters who traveled with the Christ Family group.
Investigators want to know what happened after Tina gave up Holly. How long was she with Rosemary before reuniting with her husband?
Rosemary’s daughters are named Joyce, Janice and Jill – known as the "three J's." They would have been young adults or teens in 1980.
They are not suspects in the murders, but could they help fill gaps in the timeline?
Holly Marie and her family
So, what would it mean for Sgt. Rachel Kading and her team to identify a suspect?
"Everything. I mean, that’s why we do this job. We do this job so that we can bring closure to families and that’s obviously always the goal. We want to find out what happened and what the truth is, no matter what that truth is," she said.
The complete truth – which means justice for Dean and Tina Clouse – and closure for Holly as she begins a new chapter of her life while reuniting with biological family members through her journey.
"I had all these mixed emotions of this grief for what happened to my parents and learning that, and then this joy that there’s this family that has been praying for me to be found," Holly said.
Holly has now written a book titled "Finding Baby Holly," telling her life story.
She also encourages people to donate to Genealogy for Justice, a nonprofit organization dedicated to cold cases across the country.
If you have any tips on the Clouse murders, you can contact the Texas Attorney General's Office.