Debra Tice, the mother of journalist Austin Tice, who has been missing since he was detained in Syria in 2012, told NBC News' "Meet the Press" on Sunday that seeing another missing American, Travis Timmerman,

Assad militia in 2012 after he travelled to Syria as a freelance journalist to cover the civil war. Though a former prisoner has claimed that he saw Tice alive in July 2022, the former marine has not been seen in public since he escaped prison in 2013 and was recaptured.

Asked if Timmerman's misidentification was a moment of false hope, Debra Tice instead characterized it as a moment of joy to be shared. Timmerman has said he had traveled into Syria for a spiritual mission earlier this year and was arrested for entering the country illegally.