Vanished without a trace: Inside the desperate search for US citizens disappeared in Syria Bel Trew joins those searching Damascus and other sites across the country for journalist Austin Tice and other American citizens who went missing under the brutal regime of Bashar al-Assad.
An FBI forensic team has visited the guard compound to scout for clues, including documenting English phrases scratched into the walls, says Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens, who personally joined the search in a recent trip to Damascus that he called “thorough but not exhaustive.”.
Clinging to a hill overlooking the city, the sprawling complex and prison is, according to US diplomats and intelligence officials, one of the most likely locations where the regime of Bashar al-Assad detained Austin Tice, the longest-held American journalist in history.
The US believes Tice was still alive right up until the overthrow of Assad, whose administration spent decades forcibly disappearing, torturing and murdering people.
In many cases, the evidence was destroyed – with US officials saying that included the use of dissolving vats of acid and cremating remains.
