Austin Tice, a former U.S. Marine and freelance journalist, is one of the longest held American hostages abroad.

But the recent fall of Bashad al-Assad and his brutal regime in Syria has renewed hope that Tice will be found,

some 12 years after he was abducted during a reporting trip outside of Damascus.

Details about Tice's imprisonment are limited, but here is what we do

know. Tice traveled to Syria in May of 2012 to cover the war. On his way to Lebanon on August 14th,

he was detained at a checkpoint in Damascus. Five weeks later, a 43-second video surfaced showing

Tice being held by armed captors. Reports emerged that Tice

had escaped imprisonment in early 2013, but his freedom was short-lived, and he was recaptured

in Damascus soon thereafter. Still, the Biden administration declared in 2021 its sincere belief

that Tice was alive. And more recently, a Syrian former prisoner has come forward telling NBC that he saw Tice twice in prison in 2022.

Tice's family has long advocated for his release, pushing American officials over three administrations to do more to find him.

And now that prisoners held by Assad's regime

are being released all across Syria,

Tice's family is stepping up their campaign to find him.

Austin Tice's mother, Deborah, joins us now.

Deborah, welcome.

Thanks for being here.

Thank you so much for having me here.

So 12 years you have been fighting,

more than 12 years years to bring your son

home. What was it like for you to see the Assad regime fall, to see a new Syria emerging,

and to see a new opportunity to potentially find Austin and bring him home? Well, there were two

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