The woman who was dubbed “Baby Holly” when she went missing after her parents were killed in 1981 has reunited with some members of her biological family.
The 42-year-old Holly Miller could be seen hugging her grandmother Donna Casasanta in footage of the teary-eyed homecoming released Monday by ABC News.
“I love you,” Miller told her grandmother. “Thank you for all your prayers.”
Miller, of Oklahoma, was identified in June as the infant who disappeared in the wake of her parents’ gruesome murder in Texas decades ago.
DNA testing linked Miller, who was only a baby in 1981 at the time of the slaying, with living family, according to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Miller’s parents were found dead in the woods after the family vanished in 1980, but were not identified as father Harold Dean Clouse Jr. and mother Tina Gail Linn Clouse until 2021. Harold Dean was beaten to death and Tina was strangled, the Houston Chronicle reported.
“Baby Holly” was left at an Arizona church and taken in by adoptive parents who are not suspects in her biological parents’ murder.
“God kept me safe and protected all these years and I just want you to know that,” Miller told Casasanta in the ABC News footage.
The emotional grandparent replied, “We never gave up on you,” during another warm embrace.
The footage also showed Miller sitting with her grandmother and other relatives as they flipped through an old family scrapbook.
“I am so wonderfully blessed to have a loving, faithful family to embrace as we meet again after 41 years. My heart is overwhelmed with joy and sadness,” Miller, a mother of five, told ABC News in a statement. “Joy to get to know my parents’ family who have been praying and searching for me.
“Sadness for our loss of my parents and the time we could have shared together. I am hopeful for many more gatherings with my newfound family to embrace one another and share memories together.”
Her parents’ killer or killers have never been brought to justice, but the Texas Attorney General’s Office noted members of a nomadic religious group brought the small child to the church wearing white robes and walking barefoot.
In addition to Casasanta, Miller, born as Holly Marie Clouse, also saw her aunt Debbie Brooks and her aunt Tess Welch, as well as other extended family members, for the first time, ABC News reported.
Grandmother and granddaughter both vowed they’d get more answers about Miller’s parents’ mysterious deaths, the footage showed.
“I promise that one day we will, we will know and the suffering will end,” Miller said.
