Solving a Tragic 41 Year Old Murder

How DNA identified Romeo and Juliet

U.S. Department of Energy Human Genome Program, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Police made a chilling discovery in a boggy area of rural Houston, Texas, on January 1981.

Skeletal remains of an unidentified teenage male and female were lying close together. The two young people had been tragically murdered. Their bodies were strewn like trash in the weeds.

There weren’t any clues as to who these youths were. Investigators wondered about the teens. Had they been unlucky lovers forced apart by a cruel fate and, ultimately, death?

Were they, in fact, a modern-day tale of Shakespeare’s 1597 Romeo and Juliet? Sadly, answers to the puzzling mystery remained hidden for the next 41 years.

A mysterious baby

Thousands of miles away from the couple’s remains in Yuma, Arizona, a baby had recently appeared. Two barefoot young women presented an infant to a Seventh-Day Adventist church pastor.

“I heard a knock at the back door.” Standing at the door were “Two ladies wrapped completely (from head to toe) in white.”

Pastor Phillip McGoldrick remembered, “They looked like they’d walked out of the Bible holding an eight—or nine-month-old baby.”

Investigators later identified the two women as members of a roaming nomadic cult. They were disciples of the Christ Family formed in the late 1960s.

They said, “We need someone to care for a baby.”

An impromptu adoption

McGoldrick and his wife met the birth mother waiting in a nearby car. Tina Clouse confirmed she wanted to give her child up for adoption.

As proof, the young mom provided her baby’s official birth certificate. Clouse submitted letters confirming she was surrendering her baby to the McGoldricks.

The McGoldricks had been praying for another child. They felt the baby was “a gift from God.” They adopted Holly and raised her with their biological daughter, Sally.

A traveling cult

What possessed the young woman to hand her precious baby over to complete strangers?

She was a part of the traveling Christ Family, founded by the late Charles Franklin McHugh. All church members were expected to discard all personal possessions, including children. McHugh believed it was too difficult for members to travel with young kids.

Most church members surrounded their babies with family or friends. But Tina Clouse had no one to take her child, so she gave them to the first couple who was willing.

Although they traveled about, cult members eventually settled in Hemet, California; a few still live in the area currently.

Were loved ones searching for Romeo and Juliet?

Investigators couldn't match the unidentified couple's fingerprints or dental records to any national database. One unusual factor was the couple's perfect dental health. That told detectives that Romeo and Juliet were loved and missed.

Sketches of the murdered young couple were created and circulated. It was during a time before the Internet or cell phones. The only advertising options for missing people were old school. It included news outlets, telephone poles, and bulletin boards.

No one ever responded.

Romeo and Juliet's case and all evidence were filed away in the police Cold Case files. The file gathered dust for the next four decades.

The couple were buried side-by-side in Harris County Cemetery. Their graves were marked as Jane and John Doe. They joined the ranks of hundreds of other anonymous souls who form a silent mass disaster.

It's estimated there are over 40,000 unidentified bodies around the country. They're known as Unidentified Decedents (UIDs) around the country. Many law officials feel it's essential that they find the identities of all the missing. They deserve to have their names restored.

DNA unlocked the mystery

Harris County Institute of Forensic Science received a Federal Government grant in 2011. These funds allowed the County to test some of the remains of its most promising cold cases.

The still-unidentified Harris County John and Jane Doe or Romeo and Juliet were at the very top of the list. Investigators suspected someone was searching for answers about their missing loved ones. Plus they were a couple and so young. That also gave them priority placement.

With the grant money, the County exhumed the couple’s remains. They took them back to the Medical Examiner’s office and extracted their DNA. After analyzing the results, they reentered the new data into the system.

Investigators hoped that the DNA would determine if the couple were blood relatives. The results were conclusive. Romeo and Juliet weren’t related.

The County hoped for a hit by checking the couple’s new DNA against the National DNA Index System (NDIS). But zero familial matches were found, and at that point, Harris County couldn’t access any other database records.

A search of their database and circulation of her poster proved futile. They needed help locating the missing teen. They sent Jane Doe’s rendering to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Their efforts resulted in no matches or leads.

Advances in Forensic Genealogy tools

In 2018, investigators utilized genetic genealogy to catch the famed Golden State Killer. The capture of Joseph James DeAngelo demonstrated the power of cutting-edge DNA testing.

Misty Gillis is a Senior Forensic Genetic Genealogist from Identifinders International.

She said, "I love solving mysteries. Ever since I was younger, I read Sherlock Holmes and Nancy Drew. I followed true crime all the time."

In 2020, Gillis investigated cold cases with Misty Peacock, another genetic genealogist. Peacock is the founder and President of FHD Forensics. She was looking through the DoeNetwork online.

It's a North American clearinghouse for unidentified and missing persons. Gillis noticed "a rendering of a man found in Texas in 1981."

Finding Romeo and Juliet

Gillis told 20/20, “There was something about it.” The photo (of the couple) Ignited something in me.”

She told Peacock, “There was a male and female found together.”

Gillis was convinced they were Romeo and Juliet-style lovers who met a tragic end.

Peacock told 20/20, “There was a story there” about the couple. “We just didn’t know what it was.”

The genetic genealogists decided to try to figure out who these two young people were. At that point, the couple’s identity had remained unknown for 40 years.

Building Romeo’s family tree from DNA matches

In 2021, Harris County Forensic Sciences agreed to partner with Gillis and Peacock. Their primary goal? They wanted to solve the Romeo and Juliet case. The teams were able to use DNA from the remains along with their genetic genealogy tools.

Gillis started building out the family tree matches. She found DNA matches for both the mother and the father. Gillis knew the unidentified remains were from the family tree she’d constructed.

Eventually, Gillis discovered one male, who she said was “Her AHA moment.” She said, “She knew she’d figured it out.”

After about ten days of research, Gillis told Peacock, “I think I solved the Harris County John Doe case.”

Gillis positively identified John Doe, aka Romeo, as Harold Dean Clouse, 21.

The team contacted Debbie Clouse Brooks in Florida. They told her they found Dean with an unidentified female. Dean’s sister Debbie suggested that the female was Tina Gail Clouse, 17, Dean’s wife.

After forty years, Romeo and Juliet had their identities and names back. The beautiful young couple from New Smyrna Beach, Florida, was found. Their families finally found out what happened to their missing loved ones.

What about baby Holly?

After Romeo and Juliet's identity was uncovered, law officials thought the case was closed. Little did they know there was another bombshell.

After the Clouse family discovered Dean and Tina were found, they asked about their baby.

Peacock was shocked when she was asked about Baby Holly. She told 20/20,

"I said, "Baby? What baby?" Peacock explained, "My brain was on fire. How could a child be missing for forty years, and no one knew where she was?"

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children created an age progression rendering. It was created in late 1981. It showed what Baby Holly might look like at her current age.

Investigators tried putting the pieces of the puzzle together to find Dean and Tina's baby girl.

Dean and Tina were in love

Dean, or Junior as he was called, was part of a family of six children. Much to his family's disapproval, he'd pick up random hitchhikers because of his big heart.

During his teens, he joined cults with young people traveling through Florida. Eventually, he'd return home. Dean's mother, Donna, was a widow and hard-working waitress. She worried for his safety, but he disregarded her concerns.

As Gillis suspected, Dean and Tina Gail Linn were deeply in love. They married in short order. Soon afterward, on January 24, 1980, at 6:30 a.m., they had a beautiful baby girl named Holly Marie.

In early Spring of 1980, when Holly was a few months old, the couple moved to Baltimore, Maryland. They moved again and ended up in Lewisville, Texas, outside of Dallas.

The couple vanished into thin air

By the end of that year, the Clouse and Linn families could no longer locate Dean, Tina, or Holly. The family wondered how their loved ones could vanish into thin air. Just as

After Dean disappeared, a stranger called his mother, Donna. He offered to return her son's 1978 two-door red burgundy AMC Concord car. The stranger told Donna that Dean's car had been found in a Los Angeles suburb.

When his mother retrieved the vehicle, a woman dressed all in white told her about Dean. She told Donna that the entire family had joined a cult and they would never return.

But Dean and Tina's families didn't believe her. They thought the young couple and their baby would eventually surface. They didn't know Dean and Tina had been murdered.

A missing persons case was opened on Baby Holly in Texas

Lewisville, Texas, was Dean and Tina's last known location. The couple and their baby had been staying there with a Clouse family member. After about a month, the family found their own apartment, and then they disappeared.

The Lewisville police department opened an official missing persons case on Holly Clouse. Detective Craig Holleman tried to track down Holly's original Florida birth certificate. He met with a series of roadblocks.

In January 2022, the Texas Attorney General's Office (OAG) in Austin launched a new Cold Case unit. They joined forces with Detective Holleman to help locate the missing girl.

In March, the OAG connected with the Volusia, Florida Sheriff's Investigative Service. They located Holly's original birth certificate in Florida, but it was sealed, which indicated that Holly was adopted.

A Florida judge unsealed the records. The investigative team found Holly's adopted parents, the McGoldricks, using public records and social media accounts. Then, they found a Facebook profile for Baby Holly, who lived in Cushing, Oklahoma.

On June 7, 2022, Texas OAG investigators traveled to Oklahoma to meet Holly. They revealed what they'd discovered after 41 years about her biological parents. She finally got answers about who they were and what happened to them.

The missing baby finally found her family

This tragic case was solved using cutting-edge DNA testing and hard-core detective work. After 41 years, it had a happy ending.

Holly reunited with the Clouse and Linn families. Dean’s mother, Donna, was still alive and could finally hug her long-lost grandchild.

Family and friends rallied around Holly. She has now made it her life mission to support others who may have lived through similar scenarios.

The Clouse and Linn families agreed to bury Dean and Tina together in the same grave.

The modern-day Romeo and Juliet have finally been reunited in death.

Sources

• 1981 Murdered Harris County John & Jane Doe Identified After 40 Years Leads to Discovery Their Baby, Now Age 41, is Missing, Cision PR News, Identifinders International, 12 Jan, 2022, 08:38 ET.

• Collaborative Investigative Partners for Law Enforcement — Genetic genealogy, Y-STR profiling, degraded DNA, and cold case training solutions.

• Geiger, Dorian, Houston Couple’s 1981 Murder Solved With DNA, 1-Year-Old Daughter Still Missing, Oxygen True Crime, Jan 14, 2022, 7:02 PM ET.

• Investigators Identify ‘Baby Holly,’ Who Was Dropped Off At Arizona Church By Nomadic Religious Group 40 Years Ago, ADI Staff, ReporterArizonaDailyIndependent.com, June 9, 2022.

• Jones,Alyse, Cushing residents say town changed forever after ‘Baby Holly’ cold case was cracked, Koko News 5, ABC, Updated: 10:12 AM CDT Nov 4, 2023.

• Muir, David, Baby Holly Found, The Exclusive Interview, ABC 20/20, S46, E6, 11/03/2023.

• Steinbach, Rebecca, Baby Holly’s Untold Story, 11–02–2023.

• Wickenheiser, Ray A., Forensic genealogy, bioethics and the Golden State Killer case, PubMedCentral, PMC, Published online 2019 Jul 12.