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Bryant (voice-over): The `60s pop group The Cowsills search for one of their own. First, a desperate phone message as Hurricane Katrina moves in. Then video on CNN.com provides a clue. Tonight Bob Cowsill, live on the search for his brother, Barry.
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Hammer: Still ahead here on SHOWBIZ TONIGHT, we`ve got the story of a guitarist for the `60s pop group the Cowsills, who made a desperate phone call during Hurricane Katrina and his family hasn`t heard from him since. Barry Cowsill`s brother and sister will join us live. That`s a bit later in the show.
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Bryant: And the Cowsills, also music stars of the `60s. The heartbreaking story of Barry Cowsill, missing in the Katrina aftermath. His brother and sister join us live, coming up on SHOWBIZ TONIGHT.
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Hammer: A troubled pop star from the popular `60s group The Cowsills is missing in the Katrina aftermath. His brother and sister join us live with their story next.
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Hammer: Still to come the next 30 minutes, the Cowsills, a very famous and popular 60s pop group missing one of their own. Barry Cowsill has been missing since Hurricane Katrina. Susan and Bob, his brother and sister, believe they have a lead from a piece of video they saw on cnn.com. We`ll speak with Bob and Susan and get their story coming up in just a couple of minutes.
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Hammer: Tonight the desperate search for a 1960s pop star missing after Hurricane Katrina. A search fueled by video that was seen on cnn.com. Barry Cowsill and his famous family were best known for the 1960s pop band The Cowsills, with such hits as "Indian Lake" and "Hair." The Cowsills were also the inspiration for the TV show "The Partridge Family."
Now, the last time anyone heard from Barry was when he called from New Orleans two days after Katrina hit and he left his sister an ominous voicemail message. Then the family heard about a piece of video that was seen on cnn.com, a video that they are convinced shows Barry outside the New Orleans Convention Center.
Joining us live tonight from Washington, D.C., Barry Cowsill`s brother, Bob, and his sister Susan.
I want to thank you both for joining us.
A lot of people check out cnn.com every day. Millions, in fact. But it still seems rather obscure that you were turned on to this particular video. How did you find out about the video at cnn.com?
Bob: We have a large fan base still after all these years, and we had heard through our Web site that someone had posted that they thought they saw Barry in a CNN video. It was kind of that vague.
And, of course, that sent everybody scurrying to cnn.com, of course, and you have your videos in the "Modern Day Genocide" video at 3 minutes and 39 seconds. If you stop it right there -- you know, look, this goes back and forth. I think it`s him. His demeanor, it`s him. It doesn`t matter that that hat isn`t familiar to us. Who knows where he could get a hat after a hurricane like that. So we`re not concerned about the surroundings.
But there is a back and forth about that, but I thought it was him 1000 percent. I mean, I cried when I saw that thing.
Hammer: I know you guys have a TV monitor there. Ellie, if we could bring up that still -- we were just looking at the video image that caught your attention at cnn.com. I want to show you this still picture that we took from the video. And, Susan -- are we able to get that up? Is the video coming up?
OK. There on the right -- on the left is a fairly recent picture of him and on the right, the picture that you saw.
Susan, I mean, are you fairly convinced that that is your brother?
Susan: You know, it certainly could be, it absolutely could be. I can`t be convinced of anything right now.
Bob: There is a logical sequence that, if that is the Convention Center, where they allege that picture was taken, that picture was taken a day after the last day we heard from him, which was I think Thursday morning, at 1:30 in the morning.
Susan: Right, right, right.
Bob: And it would make sense logically that he would have gone to the Convention Center. He was holed up in the Warehouse District during the hurricane. He ended up in the French Quarter and --
Susan: And he also knew that there were buses leaving from somewhere in town because one of his messages said he didn`t feel -- he wasn`t wanting to wait many, many days to get on a bus with the rest of the gang.
Hammer: Now, he`s smoking a cigarette in this image. Bob, you said a lot of his mannerisms are that of your brother. Is your brother a smoker?
Bob: Yes, we were glad -- you know, if that is him, we were thrilled to say that, I`m amazed to say, because, you know, a dehydrated person in search of water isn`t going to be doing what he is doing.
Hammer: Tell me about the phone call that you got from Barry just after the hurricane. You got a voice mail message?
Susan: Yeah, I got about I think three of them, although they came in all at once on Thursday morning, because we weren`t able to receive any phone calls coming in or out. It`s actually quite amazing that they even got through. So I didn`t get to speak with him, and they all came through at the same time to me at about 10:00 in the morning, and they basically ranged I think a couple of days back to Thursday at about 1:00 in the morning, and he basically was just pretty freaked out, asking for us to come get him. He was pretty panicky, pretty scared.
Bob: Right. He said there was a lot of looting and shooting going on.
Susan: He said there was a lot of looting and shooting and he really just wanted to have his people come get him. It was heartbreaking because I didn`t get those messages and then after that, I just sat by that phone like it was --
Bob: We implemented a 24-hour plan as soon as we heard those messages, and we changed Susan`s outgoing message to tell him, hey, Barry, we got your message, give us your location, you`re home in 24 hours.
Susan: But he never called back after that.
Bob: And the call never came.
Hammer: That has to be so impossibly difficult, having gotten the messages and not being there for the phone to answer.
I have to wrap it up, but real quickly, where can people go if they have any information on the whereabouts?
Susan: cowsill.com.
Bob: cowsill.com. We have a Web site.
Susan: Or susancowsill.com. I have my own Web site. They can call "Entertainment Tonight." They can call ya`ll. They can call anybody and --
Hammer: Terrific. Bob and Susan, we appreciate you joining us, Bob and Susan Cowsill. Best of luck in your search.
Bob: Thank you.
Susan: Thank you very much.
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