By Maya Gebeily DAMASCUS (Reuters) - The mother of American journalist Austin Tice, who was taken captive during a reporting trip to Syria in August 2012, arrived in Damascus on Saturday to step up the search for her son and said she hopes she can take him home with her.

DAMASCUS, Syria — The mother of American journalist Austin Tice, who has been missing in Syria since 2012, said Monday during a visit to the Syrian capital that the incoming Trump administration has offered to help uncover long-awaited answers about the fate of her son.

The mother of American journalist Austin Tice said on Monday she was hopeful that the new administrations in the U.S. and Syria would help her find her missing son, who was taken captive during a reporting trip near Damascus about 12 years ago.

Trump’s “people have already reached out to me. I haven’t experienced that for the last four years,” Debra Tice said. “I have great hope that the Trump administration will sincerely

Austin Tice, who worked as a freelance reporter for the Washington Post and McClatchy, was one of the first US journalists to make it into Syria.

Austin Tice, a freelance journalist for outlets including McClatchy, CBS, and The Washington Post, disappeared in Syria on Aug. 14, 2012, shortly after his 31st birthday. He was reportedly stopped at a checkpoint in a Damascus suburb while reporting on Syria’s civil war.

The mother of US journalist Austin Tice, abducted in Syria while on a reporting trip in 2012 and one of the longest-held American hostages, has returned to the country for the first time in a decade to renew the search for her son.