Naman Shrestha
For several decades, Holly Marie Clouse’s whereabouts remained unknown until the police used advanced genealogy technology to determine that she was alive and well. After determining that her parents had died in early 1981, the police worked hard to uncover the mystery behind their murder and their missing daughter. All the intricate details of the decades-long case and the investigation that ensued are explored in ABC’s ’20/20: Baby Holly Found,’ through insightful and emotional interviews with Holly’s birth relatives.
Holly Marie Was Identified More Than Four Decades Later
The case of Holly Marie Miller, born Holly Marie Clouse on January 24, 1980, dates back to early 1981, when the remains of her biological parents — Harold Dean Clouse and Tina Linn Clouse — were found in the wooded area near Houston, Texas. A few months prior, in the spring of 1980, Harold and Tina left behind New Smyrna Beach, Florida, with their newborn daughter, Holly, to begin afresh in Lewisville, Texas, where they stayed with Harold’s family before moving into an apartment of their own. A few months later, in late 1980, in the weeks prior to their deaths, Harold and Tina allegedly joined a religious group called the Christ Family. As per reports, on November 8, 1980, Holly was delivered to a church in Yuma, Arizona, by three women in white robes.
From there, Holly was taken in by the church’s pastor, Philip McGoldrick, and his then-wife, Constance McGoldrick. Before formally adopting her six months later, the couple placed ads in local newspapers to let the community know about the girl’s abandonment. By the time she turned 16, she was living in Oklahoma, where she admittedly developed a drug habit. After turning 18, Holly relocated to California with her new boyfriend, Troy. When her drug use became life-threatening, she decided to change and get her life back on track. She and Troy then moved to Arkansas, where they tied the knot in 1998. A few months later, they had their first child, Joshua. The couple later moved to Cushing, Oklahoma, in 2007 with their growing family and settled down.
While Holly became a doting mother to five kids in Cushing, the authorities finally uncovered the mystery behind the remains they had discovered in January 1980 near Houston, Texas. It was in October 2021 that the remains were identified as those of Harold Dean Clouse Jr. and Tina Gail Linn Clouse with the help of forensic genealogy. While the former was beaten to death, Tina was strangled. After the identification of the deceased, the police had another mystery to uncover — the whereabouts of their daughter, Holly. A few months later, around March 2022, after unsealing her birth records, the police learned that Holly had been adopted by a couple in Yuma, Arizona. On June 7, the detectives tracked her down to Cushing, Oklahoma, where the mother of five worked as a server at Naifeh’s Deli & Grill.
Holly Marie is a Published Author and an Advocate For Genealogy Today
After meeting Holly Marie at her workplace in the small town of Cushing, Oklahoma, the investigators told her about her biological parents’ fate and her birth relatives, including her grandmother Donna Casasanta. After getting into a Zoom meeting with her newfound relatives, she reunited with them face-to-face for the first time on November 6 in Daytona Beach, Florida. In the following year of November, Holly published her book titled ‘Finding Baby Holly: Lost to a Cult, Surviving My Parents’ Murders, and Saved by Prayer,’ in which she talked about her life and the journey it took for her to be reunited with her roots.
During a conversation with NCMEC (National Center for Missing and Exploited Children), she described how she was affected when she learned that her biological family remained in the dark about her for about four decades. Crediting genealogy, she said, “It’s a simple ‘spit-in-a-tube,’ but it can have a great impact and allow genealogists and investigators to solve a case, like my parents…I hope that after reading my book and watching the special, people are moved to upload their DNA into GEDmatch. DNA and genealogy have been a miracle to me, a miracle I didn’t even know was possible.”
Ever since then, Holly has made it her mission to help others find answers and solve the decades-long homicide of her birth parents, Harold and Tina Clouse. It seems that Holly no longer works at Naifeh’s Deli & Grill. On the personal front, she officially divorced Troy Miller on May 3, 2024, and has been leading a single life since then, spending time with her five kids, including daughter Serenity Miller and son Joshua. Through her organization, Genealogy For Justice, she and her family have done plenty of advocacy work over the years. In August 2026, Holly was one of the speakers at the Cold Case Conference at Arizona State University.
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