Worship expert Joseph Szimhart said he would “give a guess at nine out of 10” that the details revealed last week after the baby’s identity was revealed fit the group known as the Family of Christ that has roamed the southwestern United States for years. The organization was described by Texas authorities last week after Holly was finally in Oklahoma and reunited with her family. Texas First Assistant Attorney General Brent Webster said the team handed Holly over to an Arizona church after her parents were killed 1,000 miles away in Harris County, Texas. Webster said the group wore white robes, went barefoot, ate a vegetarian diet, separated men and women, and avoided animal products. That description fits Christ’s family, Szimhart, who met the group many times in the early 1980s, told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview. Christ’s family was led by a convicted drug dealer named Lightning Amen, who in 2003 was convicted of harassing or abusing a child under the age of 18. The group, which numbered about 2,000 at its peak, believed that marijuana was a God-given herb and smoked it openly and called it “God’s sedative” – ​​while the men wore turbans on their heads like turbans. Dean Clouse, 21, and Tina Clouse, 17 (photo with their one-year-old daughter Holly Marie) were found dead in a wooded area of ​​Houston, Texas, in January 1981 – until last year their identities were unknown. The Texas Attorney General released a photo of Holly, which was adopted after being handed over by a religious cult, although she did not reveal her identity. The Christ’s Family nomadic cult was led by a convicted drug dealer named Lightning Amen, who in 2003 was convicted of child abuse and claimed to be Jesus Dean Cluj and Tina Lynn met as teenagers. They married when Tina was 15 and pregnant in Holly, then moved to Texas before their baby was one year old, so Dean could find a better-paying carpenter job. Webster said a member of the group called “Sister Susan” contacted relatives of Holly’s murdered parents either in December 1980 or January 1981 after their deaths and offered to return their car – for a $ 1,000 donation. The exact involvement of the group in the deaths of Harold Dean Clouse Jr, 21, who was beaten and tied up, and of Tina Clouse, 17, who was strangled, is unclear. Authorities have not revealed how long Holly has been in their care, but it appears they were at least with them on the trip from Texas to Arizona.

Schedule of 40 year search for Baby Holly Marie Clouse

1980 – Harold Dean Clouse, known as Dean or Junior to his family, his wife Tina and their baby Holly Marie move from Florida to Texas. October 1980: Dean stops writing letters to Donna Casasanta’s mother, sounding the alarm Around New Year 1981: A man contacts Dean’s family to tell them that he has joined a cult and does not want anything to do with it. At that time: The family comes in contact with a man who claims to be law enforcement, who brings them in contact with a “sister Susan” from a religious group wearing white robes and offers them back to Dean and her car. Tina for a $ 1,000 donation. January 1981: The bodies of a young man and a woman are found in Houston, Texas. There is no baby sign and it is unknown 2011: Corpses are exhumed for DNA samples by Identifinders International, a California-based genetic research organization 2021: The corpses are finally identified after discoveries in forensic DNA technology and their relatives are informed. 2022: Holly discovers she is alive and is identified

The Clouses’ relatives said that Dean – as his family knew him – and Tina had joined the cult and abandoned their earthly possessions and did not want to contact them. But in 2021 two corpses discovered in Houston 40 years earlier were identified as such by DNA technology. With Holly’s body not in her parents’ hands, her family was left hoping she was alive, prayers answered last week when Holly was found to be a 42-year-old mother of five living in Cushing, Oklahoma. which had been adopted after delivery. She was informed of the identity of her biological family just last week and a reunion is planned in the coming days. The Christ Family was one of many fanatical groups that emerged in the 1970s, said Szimhart, who survived a cult and once took unplanning lessons for former members. The group spent the winters in places such as Yuma, Arizona, a county that authorities referred to when they announced that Holly had been found. Christ’s family believed in gender segregation and traveled from coast to coast “like the wind,” according to a 1980 Washington Post report on the group. The report said they did not wear leather goods, did not eat meat, eggs, dairy products or even honey, as they say it is a product of captive animals. Almost everyone took the surname “Christ”. Their most famous feature was their white robes and bare feet, inspired by the idea that it could bring them closer to Jesus. They had no money, lived on food stamps and charities from the public and Army-type blankets on their shoulders as makeshift beds. Szimhart said he met groups of about a dozen members of the Christ Family in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, where he worked as a portrait artist. He said: “There were other Jesus-like groups, but these people were very discreet, they said you should smoke marijuana and they wore white robes. “You were immediately surprised why they were so discreet. One of the women squatted down to talk to me. He was not wearing underwear. She was very comfortable with that. “They were not trying to recruit me and they were attracting people passively through their gaze and their peaceful behavior. “Some young people were curious and would find meaning in their words and would register and a month later wear the uniform.” Although police did not say the group was violent, they had a criminal element, especially their leader. In 1986 Lightning Amen – real name Charles Franklin McHugh – was convicted of possession and transport of methamphetamine for sale, as well as possession of a hypodermic needle and a concealed weapon. According to an Associated Press report at the time, he was facing up to seven years in prison, but further charges were pending for drug seizures, $ 4,200 in cash and multiple weapons. The report notes that in December 1985, 10 members of the cult were sentenced to prison for cultivating $ 900,000 worth of marijuana on the heresy ranch. Amen is said to have left his family to find God after the failure of a business and two marriages. Court records in Riverside County, California show that in 2001 Amen, who died in 2010, was charged with three counts of harassing or harassing a child under the age of 18. He was found guilty of one of them the following year and ordered to do 160 hours of community service. He was also instructed not to have any contact with three females who were all identified with the surname “Y”. Today on the ranch an old yellow school bus with the personalized sign that reads 4 Christ sits in squares in the front yard Many of the worshipers take the nickname “Christ”, including Gary Christ (left) and John Christ Amen spent five years in jail in Chino, California, on gun charges, Gary Christ’s fan told DailyMail.com. The group, numbering about 2,000 at its peak, believed that marijuana was a God-given herb and smoked it openly and called it “God’s sedative” – ​​while the men wore turbans on their heads like turbans. Members wore white robes, went barefoot, ate a vegetarian diet, separated men and women, and avoided animal products. But now members like John Christ are wearing fashionable clothes Szimhart said: “The leader handled the whole issue – he was narcissistic in the way he interpreted the Bible, combining the Earth movement with the Bible. Develop this look, the white robes that look like something from Jesus movies with white ribbons tied around their heads. “I’m not saying they did not believe in the Bible, but it was a very twisted version of it for the leader who wanted power. Gary Christ, 69, told DailyMail.com that only three people now live in the band. “I’ve been here since the 1970s,” he said “Amen used the Bible to gain power over people and to promote his majestic vision of who he thought he was. The drug trade was huge among hippies and since God blessed marijuana why not? “Meth was there then and it was easy to make more money. In a way, he was able to bless it and integrate it into teaching. “ According to Szimhart, if Holly’s parents had any connection to the Christ Family, they could have been told to get rid of their baby. He said: “The simple answer is that their team persuaded them to abandon the child. They generally supported celibacy like monks and nuns. “Attachments to people and your family and things outside the group were considered sinful. “You must leave it to the lord. If you do not love Jesus more than your mother and father, you are not worthy of the Kingdom of Heaven. “They would use words like ‘your job is for the Lord’, then you would abandon the child.” Lightning was living on a ranch in Hemet, California, at the time of his death, near the site of Scientology headquarters, a large area known as the “Golden Base,” where Tom Cruise is said to have studied intensively. A non-profit organization called Christ Family …