[Music] [Music] harold dean klaus or junior as his mother called him dean known by many grew up in new smyrna a beach town in central florida dean was a bit of a carefree spirit a bit wild and impulsive but that was what his family loved about him he was known for picking up hitchhikers during the 1970s sometimes running away with them for a few weeks at a time just to hang out even at one point joining a cult before he would call home to ask his mother for money so that he could buy a plane
ticket back home when he made it back to new smyrna he worked as a carpenter getting jobs in and around town in local construction businesses and sites and this was when he met tina gail lin tina was sweet and soft-spoken and the two fell head over heels in love with each other getting married in a whirlwind courthouse wedding that took both of their families by surprise but they were all happy about it it was not long after this that they welcomed their first child together a daughter named holly marie the couple were ecstatic and it
was not long after holly was born that things started to look even brighter for the klaus family dean was offered a position in texas a promotion that would come with a nice pay rise to help him support his family and he agreed to move he asked his mother if he could borrow her car to move his family and their belongings to dallas texas and his mother agreed he would send letters telling his mother and his family back in florida about his new life and how tina and holly were settling in but just a few months
later these letters would come to a sudden stop the family were left wandering but a few months after they would receive a very strange call a stranger told donna casasanta dean's mother that they had her car in california and they would drive it over to her if she would pay them to do so donna agreed meeting the caller late at night and only becoming more confused when she did it was her car there was no doubt about that but three women dressed in white robes and no shoes stepped out of the car and her son
nor his family were anywhere in sight one of the women called herself sister susan and she told donna that dean had joined their religion and that he was giving up his worldly possessions donna didn't know what to think but knowing her son's history she saw it as a possibility the woman then told donna that dean wanted nothing to do with his family or his past anymore and that was that but donna and the family never gave up trying to find dean tina or holly but months turned into years and desperation turned into grief the family
believed that dean really did want nothing to do with them and they had no evidence of any foul play or anything to show that dean had not left for this next cult unwillingly so they were left without answers answers they wouldn't get for another 40 years 2021 a california-based organization that tests dna evidence for law enforcement agencies identifiers international asked permission to test the dna from a couple that had been found just months after dean had stopped writing to his family the couple had been found deceased in houston texas after a dog had come back
to his owner during a walk with the decomposed remains of a human arm in its mouth an investigation was subsequently launched but it would take another week for the police to find the decomposing bodies of a man and a woman it appeared that they had been deceased for quite some time the woman had been strangled to death and the man had been beaten but for over 40 years no one would know anything else about them they were known as the harris county does for many years that was until 2021 john and jane doe were eventually
buried in a popper's graveyard and registered simply as john and jane doe but in 2021 identifiers international would enter their dna profiles onto an online database that law enforcement agencies from across the country had access to and they would get a hit following the trail of dna identifiers international found some of dean's relatives in kentucky who pointed them towards dean's sister debbie brooks within 10 days they were able to give john doe his name back and inform his family of what had happened to him over 40 years prior now with a bit more of a
stepping stone to work with dna testing would reveal that the jane doe found alongside him was his wife tina gail lynn but that in some ways just left investigators and their families with even more questions if dean and tina had been dead this entire time then what had happened to their baby daughter holly donna casa santa feared the worst so much so that when her daughter debbie called her with the news about her granddaughter she started crying before debbie could say another word donna was on the phone begging her daughter not to tell her saying
quote please debbie i can't no more bad news honey i just can't no more no more it was an especially difficult time the family were just returning from a trip down to houston to visit dean and tina's gravesites but debbie told donna about holly anyway she told her that holly was alive and well and living in oklahoma with a family of her own around the time that her parents bodies were discovered holly was dropped off at a church in arizona by two women wearing no shoes and white robes women who said that their religion believed
in the separation of men and women a vegetarian diet and not wearing leather they also admitted that they had left another child at a laundromat before and then the women simply vanished holly was adopted by a family called the websters who loved and cared for her as if she wear their own flesh and blood providing her with a childhood that holly's biological families would both be incredibly grateful for when they found out the truth she'd been married for 20 years with five children of her own and two grandchildren by the time she was informed of
her true identity holly marie klaus two policemen came into holly's workplace and told her what they had discovered and just hours later holly was introduced to the families who had missed her for over 40 years through a zoom call the call brought everyone a huge sense of peace and excitement but a huge sense of loss as well not only did the call happen on what would have been dean's 63rd birthday a day that donna would later describe as a gift from heaven but both families would say that looking at holly was like looking at tina
the two women incredibly alike both physically and in their mannerisms a fact that would be as comforting as it was bittersweet investigators still don't know who murdered dean and tina klaus and they don't know very much else about the cult that they seemed to either willingly or unwillingly be a part of women matching witness descriptions and wearing white robes would be seen in arizona and california as well as possible sightings in texas but the police are not able to say much else at this time they are asking for anyone with any information to please make
contact with the texas attorney general's cold case and missing persons unit through their email address cold case units at oag.texas.gov normally in cases such as this one when two parents are murdered and a child has disappeared normally it ends tragically and yet in this particular case the families remaining found light in the fact that young holly marie managed to survive living her life happily and healthily we can only hope that as time passes justice will finally be served for her beloved parents tina and dean [Music] [Music] you
