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.

The mother of Austin Tice, who was taken captive in Syria in 2012, voiced hope that upheaval in the country will lead to freedom for her son.

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

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

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.

HOUSTON — The head of an international aid group for hostages believes Houston freelance journalist Austin Tice is alive. This latest update comes a few weeks after another American, Travis Timmerman, was found in Damascus. Tice was detained at a checkpoint near Damascus in 2012 while covering the civil war in Syria.

Bryan Stern, founder of Grey Bull Rescue, says evidence points to a safe return of American journalist and former U.S. Marine Austin Tice, along with other prisoners detained by the brutal Assad regime in Syria.

A hostage rescue operator in Syria told Fox News Digital he believes Marine veteran Austin Tice is alive and has hope that he will be found soon.

The Palestinian city of Bethlehem is preparing for a somber Christmas Eve under the shadow of war in Gaza, with most festivities cancelled and crowds of tourists absent Tuesday in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.