Washington, D.C., December 17, 2024 –American citizen Travis Timmerman, reported missing in Budapest, Hungary, since June 2, 2024, was miraculously found wandering barefoot on December 12, 2024 in Syria, following the mass release of thousands of detainees from Syrian prisons. His unexpected discovery raises serious questions: how could a missing person disappear into Syria without his government knowing?

Travis revealed that he had traveled to Lebanon on a pilgrimage and unlawfully crossed the border into Syria on foot. There he was detained by the Assad regime and imprisoned for 7 months, his family and government completely unaware of his whereabouts. 

While on-the-ground efforts to locate missing American journalist Austin Tice, detained in Syria since 2012, have drawn widespread attention, Travis’s case emerged as an unexpected twist in the search.

Travis was discovered by a Syrian family, who mistook him for Austin Tice. Rather than reporting Travis to the authorities, the family contacted Hostage Aid Worldwide President, Nizar Zakka,  directly after having received a direct mobile message with a contact number in one of the campaigns sent as part of the organization’s 4-month efforts to gather information on Austin Tice. The family took Travis into their care, provided him with food and shelter, and protected him despite an armed attempt to take him away. 

Hostage Aid Worldwide’s ongoing campaign to free Austin in Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq has been instrumental in raising awareness and creating channels for gathering information about Asutin Tice. Through this campaign, Travis was safely reunited with his family, bringing this unexpected chapter to a close. 

This demonstrates the power and the success of collaboration between grassroots initiatives and non-governmental organizations to open up avenues of hope and resolution, even in the most challenging circumstances.