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Harold Clouse, Tina Clouse and their infant daughter Holly Marie vanished in October 1980, shortly after the young family moved from New Smyrna Beach, Florida, to the Dallas suburb of Lewisville, Texas, according to the Texas Attorney-General's Office.
In January 1981, in a rural area east of Houston, a dog that returned home with a decomposed human arm in its mouth prompted a police search that located the remains of an unidentified couple.
The couple remained unidentified until last October when a group of genealogists who worked with law enforcement tested the remains and identified them as the Clouse couple, First Assistant Attorney-General Brent Webster said at a Thursday afternoon news conference in Austin, Texas.
But no sign of their infant daughter, was found with the remains.
It was not until Tuesday, when genetic matching led investigators to the missing infant's workplace, that the now-42-year-old woman would learn of her biological family and her tragic background.
Before that, all she knew was that she had been raised by an Oklahoma family who had adopted her.
At some point, two women left the child at an Arizona church, which took her into its care, Mr Webster said.
“Two women who identified themselves as members of a nomadic religious group brought [the child] to the church," he said.
It's not known yet, how the women came to be in possession of the child.
Investigators believed the group travelled around the American south-west, including Texas, and were known in the Yuma, Arizona, area for asking for food, Mr Webster said.
In late December 1980 or early January 1981, the missing couple's family received a telephone call from a woman identifying herself only as “Sister Susan.”
The woman said she was calling from Los Angeles to explain that the missing couple had joined their religious group, renounced all their worldly possessions and wanted no further contact with their families.
The woman asked if the family wanted the return of the missing couple's car.
A rendezvous was arranged at the Daytona Motor Speedway in Florida and authorities were notified, Mr Webster said.
They encountered a man and three berobed women.
The women were taken into custody and the car was turned over to Donna Casasanta, Harold Dean Clouse's mother, but no case file about the women's arrest could be found by Florida authorities, Mr Webster said.
www.abc.net.au
In January 1981, in a rural area east of Houston, a dog that returned home with a decomposed human arm in its mouth prompted a police search that located the remains of an unidentified couple.
The couple remained unidentified until last October when a group of genealogists who worked with law enforcement tested the remains and identified them as the Clouse couple, First Assistant Attorney-General Brent Webster said at a Thursday afternoon news conference in Austin, Texas.
But no sign of their infant daughter, was found with the remains.
It was not until Tuesday, when genetic matching led investigators to the missing infant's workplace, that the now-42-year-old woman would learn of her biological family and her tragic background.
Before that, all she knew was that she had been raised by an Oklahoma family who had adopted her.
At some point, two women left the child at an Arizona church, which took her into its care, Mr Webster said.
“Two women who identified themselves as members of a nomadic religious group brought [the child] to the church," he said.
It's not known yet, how the women came to be in possession of the child.
Investigators believed the group travelled around the American south-west, including Texas, and were known in the Yuma, Arizona, area for asking for food, Mr Webster said.
In late December 1980 or early January 1981, the missing couple's family received a telephone call from a woman identifying herself only as “Sister Susan.”
The woman said she was calling from Los Angeles to explain that the missing couple had joined their religious group, renounced all their worldly possessions and wanted no further contact with their families.
The woman asked if the family wanted the return of the missing couple's car.
A rendezvous was arranged at the Daytona Motor Speedway in Florida and authorities were notified, Mr Webster said.
They encountered a man and three berobed women.
The women were taken into custody and the car was turned over to Donna Casasanta, Harold Dean Clouse's mother, but no case file about the women's arrest could be found by Florida authorities, Mr Webster said.
Missing woman found in Oklahoma four decades after she was orphaned in a cold case killing
After a decades-long search by members of her biological family, a US grandmother learns that her parents were killed in a cold case murder more than 40 years ago.
www.abc.net.au
