Marc Tice, left, and Debra Tice, the parents of missing Marine Corps veteran Austin Tice, a journalist who was kidnapped in Syria, update reporters during a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington on Friday, Dec. 6, 2024, about their son’s condition as they continue to push for his release. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)

The fall of the Syrian government a week ago has brought a renewed sense of hope to the family of Marine Corps veteran and journalist Austin Tice, believed to be held by regime allies for more than 12 years.

“I’m waiting with joy and anticipation for sure,” Debra Tice said Monday during a news conference outside the Syrian Embassy in Washington, D.C. “I feel like we are standing in line … because there are a lot of prisons that still aren’t open.”

Austin Tice, a Houston native who served as a Marine officer in Iraq and Afghanistan, traveled to Syria in 2012 to cover the country’s civil war during his summer break from law school. In August of that year, he was detained while reporting from a Damascus suburb.

A video surfaced online of him blindfolded and surrounded by armed men. It was the last his family has seen him.

Since rebels ousted President Bashar al-Assad on Dec. 8, Syrians have begun opening prisons filled with those detained by his regime.

An estimated 56,000 people were imprisoned under terrible conditions in dozens of facilities across the country, according to Amnesty International.

Debra Tice said she will remain patient that her son will be found eventually in one of the prisons. In the world of the “instant baked potato,” eight days can feel like a long time, she said.

“The most important thing is to just keep opening the prisons,” Tice said.

Earlier this month, Debra Tice spoke at the National Press Club in Washington alongside her husband, six other children, and grandchildren, where she emphasized she believes her son is alive and receiving good care. That information came from a “significant source,” she said without elaboration.

President Joe Biden said a week ago that he, too, believes Austin Tice is alive.

The State Department said it’s working with Hayat Tahir al-Sham, the leading group that toppled the regime, to underscore the importance of finding the Marine veteran.

Officials also have been in touch with other organizations and groups that work with detainees and their families internationally.

“That has been a top priority for the United States government,” said Matthew Miller, spokesman for the State Department. “We have a number of people engaged on trying to find Austin Tice and bring him home, and we communicated directly to HTS that anything that they could do to help us find him we would greatly appreciate, and they committed to do that.”

Miller would not speculate on any leads or information received regarding Tice.

Meanwhile, the Tice family is working with Hostage Aid Worldwide, a nonprofit that works to help those unlawfully detained.

The organization has launched an awareness campaign in Syria about the Tice case.

It has reached out to Syrians, Lebanese, and Iraqis in the hope that someone, perhaps an ex-prison guard, a former prisoner, or even a wife who has overheard something, might come forward with valuable information, said Carole Chedid, a board member of Hostage Aid Worldwide.

Its text message campaign has sent more than 37.5 million messages to Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq, garnering more than 1.3 million link clicks, she said.

“With recent developments quickly unfolding in Syria, our [text] messages have shifted to emphasize a greater sense of urgency, particularly directed to Syrians,” Chedid said.

In the U.S., Tice’s family is pushing a media blitz to keep Austin top of mind for fellow Americans, lawmakers and the White House.

Abigail Edaburn, Tice’s sister, said her brother has been gone long enough.

“He’s a human and he’s missed,” she said during the family news conference. “To us, he is just a family member that is really deeply missed.”

The youngest Tice sibling, Simon Tice, said he was just 18 years old when his brother disappeared and is now 31 – the age Austin was on that day he was taken in August 2012.

“It’s given me a lot to think about in terms of all the growth and development that I’ve had in these 12 years, and the fact that all that growth and development has been completely robbed from my brother,” he said.

The National Press Club, an organization of journalists, has helped the family keep Austin Tice’s name before the public.

That effort has included an August concert featuring Army combat veteran and country music star Scotty Hasting.

“We were trying to raise awareness for Austin and his family and just try to do as much as we can for another veteran to try to bring him home,” Hasting said Monday in a telephone interview. “It’s important to be hopeful. We’re still counting on the fact that we’re going to turn on the TV, and we’re going to see his face.”

Hasting said he receives inspiration in part from the Tice family’s belief that Austin will eventually come home alive.

Debra Tice often credits that belief to her Christian faith.

“I’ve never had any shadow of a doubt at all. The God that I believe in is not a trickster. If I needed to be prepared, the Lord would have prepared my heart. And I haven’t been prepared for that,” she said Monday.