Taylor Swift becomes best hope for family of Austin Tice, journalist missing in Syria for the last 12 years

How could Taylor Swift become Austin Tice's best hope of returning to the United States, 12 years after the soldier-turned-journalist was abducted near Damascus during the Syrian Civil War?

A former U.S. Marine, Tice was abducted in August 2012 and there has been little-to-no news regarding his life since, plunging his family into over a decade of darkness worrying about his safety and well-being upon his disappearance.

Now there is a new window to potentially discover what happened to the veteran and reporter following the collapse of Bashar al-Assad's government, which ruled the Middle Eastern nation with an iron fist.

Thousands of prisoners have been handed their freedoms after being liberated by rebels, including political prisoners, since December 2024 so could Tice be one of them? So far, there isn't a lot of news, but this may be where Taylor Swift comes in.

Tice was a known Swiftie at the time of his capture based on tweets from his 31st birthday as he described how he listened to her music besides a pool along with members of the Free Syrian Army, who were opposed to Al-Assad.

With considerable influence through her personality, as well as incredible wealth, the 35-year-old billionaire popstar could begin petitioning the United States government to invest effort into discovering Tice's whereabouts. Or, in the worst case, to give his family closure.

The State Department and FBI are currently offering $10m and a million dollars for any information leading to the discover of Tice.

His parents still believe he is alive, perhaps based on a recount by Saher al-Ahmad who claimed to share the same prison as Tice twice including as recently as 2022. This is thought to be consistent with a unconfirmed U.S. intelligence report from 2022.

Austin Tice update: What do we know?

Tice went on to describe the celebration as the "best birthday ever" just days before he vanished. A video later surfaced online showing Tice blind-folded and forced to march by men with guns who were wearing white robes.

The American is heard reciting a prayer in Arabic and that 47-second clip was the last news of him until Reuters discovered in December that he briefly escaped capture in 2013 before later being detained once again.

It's unclear who actually had possession of him at the time. United States officials believe Al-Assad's government captured him and posed as an Islamist group to throw them off the scent. This is backed up by the fact the Syrian government refused to negotiate a release deal for over a decade.