Tampa non-profit joins national group searching for missing Marine

By
Published  December 23, 2024 5:30pm EST
FOX 13 News
Loading Video…

This browser does not support the Video element.

Local group helping search for Austin Tice

Evyn Moon reports

The Brief

    • Tampa-based Grey Bull Rescue is partnering with Hostage Aid Worldwide to accelerate the effort to bring Austin Tice home after 12 years.
    • Grey Bull Rescue has carried out hundreds of operations in Syria and will utilize standard measures of  Hostage Aid Worldwide, which brings different approaches to hostage recovery
    • Tice was detained just days before his 31st birthday while reporting on the Syrian conflict and would be 43 now. 

TAMPA, Fla. - The search for Austin Tice, the American journalist and former Marine held hostage in Syria since 2012, is intensifying. 

Tampa-based non-profit Grey Bull Rescue is partnering with Hostage Aid Worldwide to accelerate the effort to bring him home after 12 years.

Photo of Tice, who has been missing for 12 years.

Tice, who was detained just days before his 31st birthday while reporting on the Syrian conflict, would be 43 now. 

READ: Investigation ongoing after crash hospitalizes 1 man: TPD

Despite fears that he may be dead, both organizations and Tice's family remain hopeful. 

"I believe him to be alive. My team wouldn't be forward deployed if we didn’t truly believe that," said Bryan Stern of Grey Bull Rescue.

"He's a young guy. He's been in jail, missing for 12 years. And he can literally be home." Stern said. "Everything about his case is frustrating. Chasing a ghost is hard. They don't admit to having him. We don't know where he is. There are some people who don't believe that he's alive."

Grey Bull Rescue, which has conducted hundreds of operations in Syria, is joining efforts with Hostage Aid Worldwide, which takes a different approach to hostage recovery.

READ: Drones crash at Orlando Christmas show: FAA opens investigation 

"We both are working hard and have been working hard for years to rescue Austin amongst many, many, many others. We've done hundreds of operations. They've done 100 hundreds of cases," said Stern. 

Photo of Tice, who has been missing for 12 years.

Stern said, "The way that Hostage Worldwide goes about it is a little bit different than the way we go about it and vice versa. The idea is that if we if we can do it by joining forces, we can pull resources together and come at this problem in a more holistic approach and hopefully get to a resolution faster than if we were apart." 

As the Tice family faces their 12th Christmas without Austin, the new partnership offers hope that he may soon return home.

Loading Video…

This browser does not support the Video element.

Press play above to watch FOX 13 News live:

    STAY CONNECTED WITH FOX 13 TAMPA: