Missing Baby Found Alive After 40 Years: The Clouse Family Mystery
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Hello everyone and welcome back to my channel or welcome back to myself. It's been a minute and I feel like I have lived an entire lifetime since I last sat down to record. Not even kidding. For those of you who didn't know, I just had a baby. Well, not just had a baby. I had a baby almost two months ago, which I cannot believe I almost have a two month old. It has been one of the most

transformative times of my life. And I know that so many parents out there understand what it's like, but wow, I seriously feel like a whole different person sitting here. And that is making me weirdly very nervous. I feel like, I don't know. I feel like I haven't

recorded anything in years, but I'm excited to be back as nervous as I am. You guys have been so supportive, really encouraging me to take all the time that I needed to get used to being a parent, bond with my baby and heal, of course. And I am super grateful that I was able to do that. Having a baby was a super, super wild experience that no one could have really prepared me for until I was doing it. And same with parenting in general. It's been

a huge adjustment, but one of the best times of my life. My daughter is amazing. I love her more than I can put into words. Our daughter's name is Holly. I'm not sure if Josh mentioned that in the video that he did here on my channel, which also thank you guys so much for being so open to him doing a video. I think he did a really good job and you guys really liked it. So that's awesome. But yes, our daughter is named Holly. She is...

just everything. She's so cute. She's so funny, so sweet, so loving. And this has just been the best time I've been really, you know, soaking in all the cuddles, all of the little moments, you know, it's kind of crazy that they'll never be that way again. So I've just been soaking up every minute, enjoying it all and adjusting to being this new version of me, being someone's mother. It's a

Quite a crazy change, but I have definitely missed recording. I've missed interacting with all of you guys. So I'm super excited to be back. And again, thank you all for the extremely nice supportive comments that I have been seeing on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, all over the place. It really means the world to me and Josh to know that we have had so much support and love coming our way during this time. If you are curious about my experience,

I will be sharing some of that eventually on my personal podcast, which is called The Sesh, and on Instagram, which you can find me at KendallRay on YT. Oh, and before I actually get into things here, I wanted to remind you guys that I am currently running a fundraiser for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. We have some amazing

merch that is on sale on my website. I will have that all linked below and 100% of the profit from that is going to National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. We're going to be talking about NECMEC today and what amazing work they do. It is a great place to give back to. This merch is limited edition, so if you would like to grab some, go ahead and do it now. We have limited stock. I'm so excited to announce that with the latest charity merch campaign I've been running, we have raised over $50,000.

thousand dollars for National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Thank you so much to everyone who has supported us with this campaign by buying one of the items from the collection. So the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children really helped out with this case. The work that they do is absolutely incredible. So I just wanted to remind you once again that I have charity merch that 100% of the profit is being donated to National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. And I think you can feel really good about that purchase because they will put that donation to good use.

But anyway, let's go ahead and dive in to today's case, which is totally fascinating. I have wanted to talk about this since it caught my eye about three months ago, and I'm really happy to be sitting down to talk about this today. This case is still open. However, there is definitely a happy ending here and that's rare in true crime. Cases like this and the investigative work that goes into them really inspires me

and I think you guys are going to find this case just as interesting as I did. Weirdly enough, we are going to be talking about a missing baby today, and even weirder, her name is Holly, which is my daughter's name. So this kind of hit home even more so, but we're going to be looking at genetic genealogy and how

impactful it can be on cases like this. Today we're going to be talking about baby Holly Klaus and how she was found 40 years after she went missing. So the story begins in New Smyrna, Florida with Holly's parents, Harold Dean Klaus Jr. and Tina Gail Lynn. And the two of them fell in love in the seventies. They were very young when they fell in love, really just a couple of teenagers. And they were eager to start a family and start a life together. There isn't

that much information out there on the two of them, but let me tell you what we do know. Harold Dean Klaus Jr. primarily went by his middle name, Dean, but his family often referred to him by his nickname, Junior. He was born on June 7th, 1959, and would end up being one of five siblings in their family. Unfortunately, his father died of organ failure from lupus when he was just seven years old, and obviously that was very difficult for him and his whole family.

So he and his siblings were raised by their mother, Donna Casasanta. Holly's mother is named Tina. And again, there's pretty limited information out there about her as well. But we do know that she was born September 21st, 1963. And she also lost her father at a young age, which was something that, you know, she and Dean really bonded over. Of course, that's something that not that many people can understand. So that was something that really bonded the two of them. And what's interesting is they were actually first introduced because

Tina's brother was actually dating Dean's sister. When Tina and Dean met, she was 15 and he was 19. Now, two years before meeting Tina, Dean was actually involved for a period of time in this group called Jesus People Movement, which was growing pretty strong during the 70s.

His parents actually referred to the people that he spent time with in this group as Jesus Freaks. This movement was born in the 1960s in the West Coast, and it spread throughout North America in the 1970s and involved many people who claimed to have supernatural abilities. The presence of this group was most predominant in the Southwest region, and it was led by a man named Charles McHugh, but he was known to his followers as Lightning Amen.

Charles, of course, claimed to be the reincarnation of Jesus Christ himself. And members of this movement would actually take on the last name Christ. So Dean was known to spend time with this group and known to spend time with people who called themselves brothers and sisters. He actually left home to join this religious group.

and his family just saw it as a cult. They were very worried about him being part of it. But Dean wasn't in this group for very long. Eventually, he called up his parents and asked for money so that he could return home. And when he returned home, that's when he and Tina connected. And on June 25th, 1979, the two surprised their families by going to the Volusa County Courthouse and walking away as a married couple.

And both of their families totally supported them as a couple, supported their marriage and were very happy for both of them. And Tina's brother actually did end up marrying Dean's sister. And that was even more exciting. And they would all spend time together. So then less than a year later, the two of them welcomed their first born child.

child. On January 24th, 1980, Holly Marie Klaus was born. Dean and Tina, of course, loved their baby girl and were so excited to spend their lives with her. Their families also loved baby Holly and were so excited to see her growing up. She was an adorable little girl. She was a

quick learner and she already had a ton of personality. She had reddish brown hair that was very similar to her mother's hair and the two of them just loved her so, so much. But just a few months after Holly was born, Dean and Tina decided to pack up their belongings and move to the Fort Worth, Dallas area.

Dean had actually received a job working for D.R. Horton, which is a home construction company. And they decided that it was best for their family to, you know, see this opportunity out and make the move. Dean was a really skilled carpenter and there was a huge home construction boom going on in Texas at the time. So they were hopeful that he could really build homes.

a successful career. However, it wasn't as easy as they had hoped it would be. To make their move from Florida to Texas, they borrowed Dean's mother's car, which was a 1978 red AMC Concord. He came to me and said, Mom, I can make more money and he can give me a year-round job. And obviously, Florida to Texas is a

Pretty long drive for a family who has a newborn baby. Honestly, I cannot imagine how difficult that would have been. But they made it. They arrived in Louisville, Texas, which is a city just outside of Dallas, and they stayed with a cousin until they were able to save up enough money to afford their own place. This was by no means a permanent solution, but it did help them get their feet on the ground in this new place. I mean, after all, the two of them were 21 and 17 years old at the time with a new baby.

And the first few months of their new lives in Louisville were apparently really great. Tina wanted to stay in touch with their family. So she frequently mailed them letters and included photos of Holly as she was growing up. She was constantly, you know, updating them on all her milestones and how they were

doing. And this made it a little bit easier for their families. Of course, it was really hard for them to be separated from Tina and Dean. And of course, Holly as well. The letters from Tina came in pretty frequently. And when they stopped suddenly in October of 1980, both of their families thought it was strange, but figured it

you know, she must just be busy with her new life. They didn't necessarily have a reason to suspect that something was necessarily wrong. So they just kind of sat tight and waited for a letter to eventually arrive. Now, the exact

date is a little unclear. I mean, this case definitely has some foggy elements, especially because it has been so long, but either sometime towards the end of 1980 or the start of 1981, the Klaus family actually received a call from a woman who called herself Sister Susan. Seemingly out of nowhere, Sister Susan told them that Dean had decided to join this religious group that she was a part of and that Tina had joined as well.

and that they had decided to give away all of their possessions. And that included the 1978 red AMC Concord that Donna had let them borrow. So this sister Susan person tells them that they would volunteer to drive the car back to them, but they wanted $1,000 in.

in return, which is quite a bit, especially back in the eighties, early eighties. Donna knew that something was weird and that that was a lot of money, but she said yes. And they agreed to meet this sister, Susan person in a few days at midnight, of course, in the parking lot of the Daytona Speedway racetrack.

So obviously, Donna was very skeptical about this call and the whole transaction. So she actually contacted the local authorities about Sister Susan and told them where they would be meeting to hand off the money for the car. And I will say, given the time period and Dean's past with religion, it wouldn't be

be that far-fetched of an idea to his family, maybe that he really would join a group like this. She figured it could be a possibility, but she said that something about this woman gave her cause for concern. So when it came time for them to meet up,

Sister Susan, along with two to three other women and possibly one male, met the Klaus family at the speedway and returned the car in exchange for the $1,000. Local authorities were aware of what was happening, but because the car did, in fact, belong to Donna, they ultimately decided that there wasn't anything shady going on. If this woman had met them with some random car, it would have caused trouble.

a bit more concerned. But this was Donna's car and Sister Susan's story that Dean was getting rid of his possessions, you know, aligned with her returning it to Donna. And like I said, some of the information in this case is pretty unclear at this point. In my research, I did find someone mentioned that Sister Susan and the people with her were temporarily brought into custody, but no police report has ever been located to actually corroborate that.

In late December 1980, or early January 1981, the families of Tina Lynn Klaus and Harold Dean Klaus received a phone call from someone identifying herself as "Sister Susan."

who explained she was calling from Los Angeles, California, and wanted to return Tina and Dean's car to their family. She further stated that Tina and Dean had joined their religious group and no longer wanted to have contact with their families. They were also giving up all of their possessions.

Sister Susan asked for money in exchange for returning the car to Florida where the family lived. The family agreed but contacted the local authorities about the situation. The family agreed to meet Sister Susan at the Daytona Racetrack in Florida. The family described meeting two to three women and possibly one male and once again these women were wearing robes and appeared to be members of this religious group. The police purportedly took the women into custody but there's no record of a police report on file

So as more time passed, more and more concern kept building up for the Klaus and Lynn families. There was no communication coming from Dean and Tina, and they were

they just felt like that was very off they couldn't understand why they would just run away like this and take holly out of their lives so both families attempted to file missing persons reports but

but no one would take them seriously because of Donna's car, because it was returned to them. This supported the story that they were leaving voluntarily. But of course, this did not stop their families from trying to find them. We'd never heard from them. You know, we put out feelers every way we do have. I was on the freeway once.

But little did their families know, there was actually remains of a young man and woman that were found in January of 1981. January 12th, 1981, actually. And this was right around the time that the car was returned to Donna. But police never made the connection.

And unfortunately, they would not make this connection that the bodies actually belong to Tina and Dean until 40 years later. So for 40 years, the Klaus and Lynn families had no idea what happened to their lives.

ones. These unidentified bodies, which are referred to, I'm sure as most of you know, as Jane and John Doe's were found 100 feet off Wallaceville road in Harris County, Texas, which is near Houston and more than 250 miles from where they were living at the time. And a dog actually found their bodies. This dog came running out of the woods, holding a human arm. And then the police actually followed the dog back

to their bodies. The woman had been strangled and the man had been gagged and beaten. And this is really heartbreaking, but a forensic anthropologist said that it seemed that the man had died while trying to protect the woman and that the woman had died first. And he started referring to them as Romeo and Juliet. And he also believed that they had been dead for about two months before they were actually found.

Now, I'm sure most of you are asking, what about baby Holly? Well,

There were no remains of a baby found at the scene, so police didn't even know that they should be looking for a missing baby all of this time. Now, of course, in the 1980s, there wasn't as much technological advancement as there is today to help investigators identify human remains. CODIS, which we have talked about,

is the Combined DNA Index System, and it wasn't established until 1990, and it didn't become operational until 1994. The National DNA Index System, or NDIS, is a program where criminal justice agencies, such as the FBI, can input DNA profiles.

And CODIS is the system with which these DNA profiles are sorted and processed. And the only way that NDIS would have the DNA profiles of Dean, Tina, and Holly would be if their families had submitted it as evidence in a missing persons report, which we know they weren't able to file because the Dallas authorities didn't believe them.

The Klaus and Lynn families did what they could with the resources that were available to them. And unfortunately, the system failed them for many, many years. And keep in mind that throughout the 80s, 90s, 2000s and beyond, their families never knew about the bodies that were found in Houston. And so all they could do was hang on to hope, hang on to hope that they were out there and still alive and that maybe they would be reunited with them one day.

Of course, they could hang on to the hope that they really did join some group and that they just weren't contacting their family anymore. And so that kind of brought them some comfort. Tina's brother truly believed that they really did join a religious cult and they just didn't want contact with their families anymore, which is

Of course, heartbreaking, but for them, the idea that they were alive somewhere was more comforting than the alternative. But of course, I'm sure they had constant nagging thoughts about what happened and not knowing has to be so painful. I cannot imagine. I heard them speaking about how they really have never gotten a good night's sleep during the last 40 years. But finally, in 2011, there was a small but very important breakthrough that would later help identify John and Jane Doe.

Harris County investigators got permission to exhume a few dozen unidentified murder victims with the intention of uploading their DNA profiles to CODIS. Now that the program had been around for more than a decade, they were hoping that they would be able to make some connections. But...

still they had no luck identifying the romeo and juliet bodies that were found in january of 1981 but the system is constantly getting new dna so there was hope that maybe someday their dna would strike a match in the system and a decade later in 2021 there was another breakthrough with the help of genetic genealogy now we have talked about genetic genealogy

many times is actually very controversial, but it can be so helpful in the world of true crime. In criminology and law enforcement, genetic genealogy has even helped solve cold cases. DNA specimens from crime scenes can be uploaded to genetic databases to find relatives of unknown suspects. This narrows the search. After this is done, the matches can be used with traditional genealogy methods to build family trees until the most likely suspect is found. In some cases,

All it takes to solve a case going on for decades is for a distant relative of the suspect to post their DNA results on a genealogy site. I'm sure most of you have heard of Ancestry.com or 23andMe. The more people submit their DNA, the more the database grows. Like I said, it's somewhat controversial, but it has been used to help solve so many cases. So this is when a media network called AudioChuck got involved.

And this is so cool and is very inspiring to me. If you're not familiar with AudioChuck, it's a media network that was created by Ashley Flowers. She hosts the Crime Junkie podcast and several other podcasts. She's a really amazing woman. And they donated money to help fund two genealogists from Identifiers International. And they were able to actually uncover the identities of the Harris County Jane and John Doe or Romeo and Juliet. The incredible women who helped solve this case are named Misty Gillis and Allison P.

Misty was able to track down the male's DNA to a distant relative based in Kentucky. And soon she learned that the family had been relocated to Florida. She eventually made a DNA connection back to the male victim's sister, Debbie Brooks. And of course, Debbie remembers that when she first got the call, she could not believe it. She actually thought it was a joke at first.

The woman on the other line asked her if she had a missing relative, which she responded, yes, my oldest brother has been missing for four decades. Can you guys even imagine how you would be feeling if you had got this call? This is when they found out that John Doe or Romeo was actually Harold Dean Doe.

Klaus. Misty told Debbie that there was actually a female's body who was also found back in 1981. And of course, they were quickly able to identify her as Tina Gail Lynn. Her first question was, do you have a family relative that disappeared a long time ago? And I said, yes. I said, I have a brother that disappeared a

About 40 years ago, Harold Dean Clout Jr., she told me, she says, well, we found him. He was murdered. When we did find out the truth, it's so hard to accept because you want to lay it down, but you want him to be okay.

But then, of course, Debbie asked them, how about the baby? Did you find the baby? And that just shocked the entire investigative team because they had no idea there was a missing baby. For 40 years, the police had no idea that Romy and Juliet were actually parents to a young child.

And of course, because of that, there had been no efforts made to find baby Holly all of this time. But obviously figuring out who these bodies belong to was a huge accomplishment. And a press release from Identifiers International on January 14th, 2022 officially confirmed that Dean and Tina had been identified. But of course, it also stated that this case was far from over.

In addition to the police's criminal investigation into the murders of Dean and Tina, authorities were also now looking for baby Holly Marie Klaus, who was less than a year when her parents were killed. So the official search for Holly Marie Klaus started

this last year, January of 2022. And there were actually many women out there who believed that they could be Holly and they submitted their DNA. And the genetic genealogists were screening anyone who may have had a connection. We're just going to screen every person that shows up that has a compelling connection in some way to Holly's story. And we

And we wait. So their families and the genetic genealogist also ended up launching the Hope for Holly project, which was used to raise funds to test the DNA of women who may be Holly. Hope is actually an acronym that stands for helping other people embrace because the word embrace means a lot to their family. They are hoping to one day be able to embrace Holly. The Klaus and Lynn families just love

prayed that maybe there was a chance that Holly was still out there and that they could be reunited with their granddaughter after all those years. Anyway, on March 1st, during the search, the Klaus family gathered on Wallaceville Road where their son and his wife had been killed. And they kind of had a graveside vigil for Dean and Tina. And gosh, these idiots.

Images are so powerful. You can just see what a toll this had taken on their family. Going through what they have this year has got to be so mixed for them emotionally. I really can't imagine being in their shoes. Of course, they had this nagging fear that without any remains found at the crime scene that they would never know what happened to baby Holly. But by the most beautiful stroke of luck, they actually found Holly.

Holly. The real Holly Marie Klaus was identified on June 7th, 2022, which would have been her father's 63rd birthday.

Through collaborative efforts of the Texas Attorney General's Office Cold Case and Missing Persons Unit, the Louisville Police Department, the Volusia County Sheriff's Office in Florida, the Arizona Attorney General's Office, the Harris County Sheriff's Office, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, I'm excited to announce that baby Holly has been located alive and well 42 years later.

Holly, who of course grew up with a new name, is now a 42 year old woman who has five children of her own and two grandchildren. And out of respect for her privacy, I am not going to share more information about her current life as she has chosen to stay out of the media for the most part. And I encourage you all to do the same. But what I will say is it turns out Holly was actually dropped off at a church in Arizona right around the time that her parents were

killed. And a group of women actually dropped her off and told this church that they were part of a nomadic religious group, just like the one that Sister Susan was talking about. And it's very important to note that the family who did end up raising Holly are not suspects in this case. But of course, it's very important to authorities to find out who brought Holly to them. And of course, the Klaus and Lynn families were just over the moon to find out that Holly was still alive after

all these years. We had nightmares, you know, almost every night, wondering what happened to Holly. And they called us and found Holly. That night I was able to go to bed. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children actually helped pay to reunite the families with Holly. Before they actually met, she was able to get on a Zoom call with them. I cannot imagine how emotional that call would be. When I looked at her, I remembered the times that I used to hold her in my arms.

you know, and I just wanted to hug her. I just wanted to get up and hug her so bad, but it was Zoom and you can't. So of course, there's still a lot of things that we don't know at this point, a lot of things that need to be solved. Of course, investigators believe that this group that had gotten in contact with their family about the car is likely responsible for the murders of Dean and Tina. If they aren't responsible directly, they feel there's a good chance that they know who

is. It's possible that Dean and Tina really did get involved in this group in some capacity, but eventually decided they didn't want to be part of it and they were killed for maybe information that they knew that they weren't supposed to know. These groups actually often get involved with illegal things such as drug trafficking. So if Dean and Tina did witness anything, it's possible that the group got rid of them to keep that information under wraps. So to this day, Sister Susan has never been identified by the

police. However, they are asking for anyone out there who thinks they may know who this person is or may know someone like her from the 1980s to please get in contact with them. These religious groups often traveled through the Southwest region of the United States. And oftentimes women in these groups are seen begging for food in many areas.

So the murders of Dean and Tina are still under investigation. Of course, if you have any information that could help authorities to solve their murders, please call the Cold Case Investigation Unit at 512-936-0742. Or you can email them at coldcaseunit at oag.texas.gov.

I am sending so much love and support to the Klaus and Lynn families. I cannot imagine going through what you all have gone through and what all of this has probably resurfaced. It's got to be so hard, but it must be so amazing to have gotten to reconnect with Holly after all this time.

these years. I mean, that is just incredible. And like I said, I know that so many people have very strong opinions about submitting DNA to public databases, but this case really shows what good can come out of it. I think it's so amazing that these families never gave up hope and that they still don't. They want answers. They want to know what happened to Dean and Tina and get the justice that they deserve.

That is going to be it for me today, guys. Thank you for joining me for another episode and make sure you follow the show on Spotify and Apple podcasts. It really does help me out. If you want to watch the video version of this show, you can find it on my YouTube channel, which will be linked, or you can just search Kendall Ray. I will be back with another episode soon, but until then stay safe out there.