Thursday, January 11, 2001
Media ring Abilene in pursuit
of story
By Sidney Schuhmann
Reporter-News Staff Writer
George Cox has a brother, but he hasn’t
been missing for 16 years.
That’s what he told reporters from
ABC’s “Good Morning America” and other media the
last two days when they called the Abilene resident to ask if
he was related to Barre Cox. Missing since 1984, Barre Cox, a
former Abilene Christian University administrator, has been discovered
living in California and, he says, suffering from amnesia.
After ACU officials announced the news Monday,
calls and e-mails poured in to the campus from across the country.
Even a German television station is following the story.
Tom Craig, ACU’s media relations director,
expected the media frenzy. Beth Cox, Cox’s wife, asked ACU
to make the announcement because of the many friends who knew
him in Abilene and had helped search for him when he disappeared
in July 1984.
Cox, then 33, was en route to his home in
San Antonio from Lubbock, where he was completing work on a doctoral
dissertation at Texas Tech University. His abandoned, ransacked
car was found July 12, 1984, on a farm road near Tuxedo in Jones
County.
Cox has said he was found later that month
in a car trunk in Memphis, Tenn., nearly beaten to death and in
a coma. After recovering in a hospital but unable to remember
his identity, Cox assumed a new name and life.
His old life resurfaced Dec. 10 while he
was auditioning for a ministerial position and a parishioner recognized
him.
“Once we told the local people (media),
we knew it would spread like wildfire,” Craig said.
By Monday afternoon, calls and e-mails began
pouring in from Texas media, Craig said.
Then came queries from ABC’s “20/20”
and “Good Morning America,” CBS’ “60 Minutes”
and “48 Hours,” and NBC’s “The Today Show.”
Newspapers nationwide and the Associated Press joined in the search
for information on Cox as well.
“The phone rang constantly,” Craig
said. “We spent an entire day yesterday (Tuesday) responding
to media calls. Those were the only calls we were able to respond
to.”
Craig said ACU was able to offer only initial
information on Cox’s discovery. His story still has holes
to be filled.
“This story has grown way beyond us,”
Craig said. “There are a lot of unanswered questions. It
makes an ideal story for media to dive into.”
ACU’s media relations office directs
calls to Beth Cox’s attorney in Tennessee. Unable to get
interviews with Barre Cox’s family, reporters are trying
to track down anyone who can share information about him.
George Cox began fielding media phone calls
Tuesday. A 30-year Abilene resident, he shares the same name as
Barre Cox’s brother. But the George Cox in Abilene is not
related to the family.
He said he remembers hearing about Barre
Cox’s disappearance in 1984 and was aware he’d been
found. But he wasn’t expecting to hear from reporters in
New York and Miami.
The first call was from a Los Angeles man
who didn’t identify himself.
“He said, ‘Has your brother been
missing for 16 years?’” Cox recalled. “I said no
and he hung up.”
Cox has received almost 10 calls since then
from media looking for a Barre Cox connection.
Hans Huebner, a Miami correspondent for
a German television station, said he became interested in Barre
Cox after reading an Associated Press story about him. Huebner
is working on his own story for a news show that will air in Germany.
“We picked up this story because it’s
very unusual,” he said. “It doesn’t happen every
day.”
Contact staff writer Sidney Schuhmann
at 676-6721 or schuhmanns@abinews.com.
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Copyright ©2001,
Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps. Publications
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