NPR News

Austin Tice's mother returns to Syria in search for son

By Emily Feng

Published January 20, 2025 at 9:41 AM EST

Debra Tice, mother of missing American journalist Austin Tice, speaks a press conference in Damascus, Syria on Jan. 20, 2025.

DAMASCUS, Syria— Debra Tice, the mother of American journalist Austin Tice who went missing in Syria twelve years ago, is visiting Syria and meeting with officials in the country's new de facto government in the hopes of finding new clues as to her son's whereabouts.

"We're turning a page in Syria," Tice told reporters in Damascus, Syria's capital. "I think it's prudent for us to have very high hopes and to believe that we're going to be able to engage, and that they're going to want to help us reunite our families."

Last December, rebels led by the group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham or HTS, ousted Syria's former dictator, President Bashar al-Assad. Debra Tice has been trying to work with Syria's de facto new government to find her son, Austin, who is now 43.

Her son went missing while covering the Syrian civil war, after he was taken at a checkpoint in the Damascus suburbs in 2012.

During her visit this week, Debra Tice visited two former military prisons and met with Syria's current de facto leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa for about three hours.

Syria's de facto leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, right, meets with Debra Tice, the mother of American journalist Austin Tice, who went missing in Syria in 2012, left, and Nizar Zakka, head of non-profit Hostage Aid Worldwide, center, in Damascus, Syria, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025.

Sharaa himself was arrested by American forces and held for five years in various detention centers, including Abu Ghraib in Iraq.

"One of the things we talked about with Mr. Sharaa was his own imprisonment," Tice said. "They know what we are going through. And as they do their important work, they are trying to make things right for people like us."

Tice said Sharaa pledged to help her. She also said the new Trump administration had already reached out to her to help find out what happened to her son.

Debra Tice wears a "#Free Austin Tice" badge and jewellery mad for her by a silversmith depicting a mother and her child.

Tice spent more than three months living in Syria in 2014, during which she said she grew to love the country her son reported on. She last visited Syria in 2015, after which the Assad regime did not grant her further visas.

"I know that I come here, I am part of the Syrian mothers," Tice said, referring to the mothers of tens of thousands of Syrian who disappeared into Assad's extensive prison system. "And we can sit down and have tea together, and we can also carry out burdens together."