Hostage envoy Roger Carstens traveled to Syria Friday, making the first known U.S. in-person contact with the caretaker government, and seeking help in finding missing American Austin Tice.

Nongovernmental workers and journalists have scoured prisons for clues about his fate in the absence of an official American presence in the country.

We should ask the militants who toppled Bashar al-Assad in Syria what became of missing U.S. reporter Austin Tice and why

There are no credible hints of his whereabouts, but also no clear evidence that he is dead, a U.S. official said.

The recent fall of the Assad regime has infused new hope in the search for Austin Tice, an American detained in Syria for a decade, as prisoners in jails across the country are released, Gustaf Kiland

The mother of missing journalist Austin Tice told NBC News" "Meet the Press" that seeing an American held captive in Damascus after he was freed was "almost like having a rehearsal."

US group Hostage Aid Worldwide said Tuesday that it believes journalist Austin Tice, who went missing in Syria in 2012, is still alive, though it did not offer concrete information on his whereabouts.

The fall of the Assad regime in Syria has led to the freeing of tens of thousands of prisoners from the country’s brutal and byzantine prison system. Desperate family members continue to search for many more people who went missing since repression of an anti-government uprising triggered a horrific civil war in 2011.

Journalist Austin Tice was taken hostage in Syria twelve years ago. Now there's finally reason to believe he may return. The U.S. government must act.

The chairman and CEO of the McClatchy Media Company says the time is now to work toward the release of colleague Austin Tice, who was abducted in Syria 12 years ago.

The fall of the Assad regime in Syria opens the door to find Austin Tice, a reporter abducted 12 years ago, McClatchy Media Company CEO Tony Hunter writes.