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 disappeared near the Syrian capital in 2012, and has not been heard from since other than a video released weeks later that showed him blindfolded and held by armed men

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.

The mother of American journalist Austin Tice said Monday that the incoming Trump administration had offered its support in finding her son, who went missing in Syria in 2012.

For the first time in a decade, Debra Tice, the mother of missing American journalist, Austin Tice, returns to Syria to find news of her son.