The family of missing American journalist Austin Tice believes he is alive and may have been transferred to Iran after the collapse of Bashar Assad’s regime in 2024, according to statements by his sister Naomi Tice.
Austin Tice, a former US Marine whose reporting was published by The Washington Post and McClatchy newspapers, disappeared at a checkpoint near Damascus in August 2014 while covering the Syrian civil war. A video released shortly after his disappearance showed him being led away by armed captors.
His sister, Naomi Tice, said the family believes Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps may have moved him from Syria following the fall of Assad’s government, Houston Public Media reported.
Naomi Tice said Assad consistently denied holding Austin Tice but noted that some detention facilities in Syria operated under Iranian control. She said that arrangement may explain why Assad denied responsibility if Iranian officials oversaw the sites where detainees were kept.
“With the regime change, we do think, at that point, Austin might have been brought over to Iran during that time,” Naomi Tice said. “Once again, this isn’t confirmed, but we have strong reason to believe that might be the case.”
Searches conducted after the Assad regime fell, including inspections of former government prisons in Syria, did not determine Tice’s whereabouts.
In 2025, The Media Line’s Rizik Alabi reported that human remains believed to possibly belong to Tice were discovered in a remote area of Aleppo province in northern Syria.
The remains of three people were reportedly recovered based on testimony from a former Islamic State member believed to have had direct or indirect involvement in the kidnapping and killing of journalists and activists during the early years of the Syrian conflict.
After DNA testing in the US, it was determined that the remains didn’t belong to Austin Tice. FBI and Qatari search teams later uncovered additional remains believed to belong to Islamic State victims, though Tice’s family rejected reports that his remains were among them and continued to maintain he is alive.
The family is urging the Trump administration to contact sources in Iran and said it has been in communication with US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz regarding possible negotiations for Tice’s release.
They are also requesting that President Trump pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin to seek information from Assad, who is living in exile in Russia, about the journalist’s whereabouts.
The Tice family has also sought Israeli assistance regarding Khaled al-Halibi, a former Syrian brigadier general currently detained in Austria on war crimes allegations. Al-Halibi was publicly identified by The New York Times as a double agent linked to Israeli intelligence.
Austin Tice’s brother, Jacob Tice, said the FBI should question al-Halibi in an effort to obtain information that could help clarify Austin’s fate or location.
