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Thursday, January 11, 2001

Missing minister resurfaces after creating new life
By APRIL CASTRO
Associated Press Writer

Missing for more than 16 years and presumed dead, an ex-minister told family and friends after he was recognized last month that he knew nothing about his Central Texas past and had picked a new name and birth date after he emerged from a coma.

But James Simmons' name, birth date and Social Security number are the same as those of a Clarendon rancher, the San Antonio Express-News reported in a copyright story for Thursday's editions.

The ex-minister, formerly known as Wesley Barrett “Barre” Cox, has been studying and working at a California Baptist seminary for the past 10 years.

Rancher James Simmons told the Express-News he was audited by the Internal Revenue Service in 1987 and 1989 and had gotten calls from the FBI. He was told to put a notice in his credit file explaining that someone was using his Social Security number.

The former San Antonio minister was recognized Dec. 10 by an ex-parishioner as he preached in a Texas church.

Beth Cox, the minister's former wife, said he apparently remembered nothing of his life before 1984, when he said he was brutally beaten and left for dead in the trunk of a car in a Memphis, Tenn., junkyard. At the time, he and Beth had a 6-month-old daughter and he was a family minister at MacArthur Park Church of Christ in San Antonio.

Law officers haven't been able to confirm the description from Abilene Christian University, which publicized Beth Cox's account, of how Cox was found beaten and left with amnesia.

Vincent Higgins, a Memphis, Tenn., police detective, told the Amarillo Globe-News in Thursday's editions that searches for a police report on Cox's discovery in a car trunk have been unsuccessful.

“I have not been able to determine if a police report has been filed,” he said, adding that a police report “most certainly” would have been filed had Cox been found beaten nearly to death and left in a trunk to be discovered later by children playing in a Memphis junkyard.

“That would have been a mandatory report,” said Higgins.

The ex-minister's sister-in-law, Mary Cox, told The Associated Press late Wednesday that he was reunited with his mother and brother on New Year's Day. She said the minister did not recognize his 80-year-old mother or his 54-year-old brother, George. He spent a few hours with the family at their home in Frankston in East Texas.

Cameron Crabtree, director of public relations at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in Mill Valley, Calif., confirmed Wednesday that Barre Cox and Simmons were the same person, the Abilene Reporter-News first reported in a copyright story in its online edition.

The rancher, who goes by the name Jem, said he had never known Cox. Both men were students at Texas Tech, but not at the same time, the Express-News said.

Mary Cox declined Wednesday to tell the AP where the former minister is living. She said he wants to get settled with his new congregation before talking to reporters.

The minister was employed as director of housing at the seminary, but resigned last week when reports of his identity began surfacing, Crabtree said.

Cox, 49, disappeared July 12, 1984, when his car was found abandoned and ransacked on a farm road in Jones County north of Abilene. He was traveling between Lubbock and Abilene after finishing work on his doctoral dissertation for Texas Tech University.

Three attempts by the AP to reach a Memphis police spokeswoman for comment Wednesday were unsuccessful, but Memphis police told the newspaper that they have been unable to confirm the minister's account and are researching microfilm from the summer of 1984 to try to verify it.

Mary Cox said she immediately recognized her brother-in-law from “his looks, from his voice, his writing, his demeanor.”

“It was just a blessing to see him and to hug him,” she said. “It was just the answer to our prayers.”

“We're happy for (his mother) because she never did give up on the fact that he was alive,” she said. “It's more like a closure for her and she knows that he's doing well and is healthy. He has had some rough times but is doing well now.”

His marriage to Beth Cox was dissolved after he was never found. Neither remarried.

The news that Barre Cox had been located began circulating after Beth Cox, who now lives in Franklin, Tenn., notified Abilene Christian she had spoken with her missing husband. Both had worked at the university, and Beth Cox wanted to notify former colleagues that he had been found, an ACU spokeswoman said.

“Barre remembers nothing from before he was beaten, and we may never know exactly what happened all those years ago,” Beth Cox said in a release through the university. “It doesn't really matter now. But I know God has been with him and with us. He brought Barre back to the ministry, and he watched over him when he was all alone in Memphis. No matter what happens now, God will help us through it.”

Contacted at her home in Franklin, Tenn., Cox referred questions to a Tennessee attorney.

“I'm really just trying to grasp the situation now,” she told the AP.