Photo: JOSEPH EID / AFP / Getty Images
The family of missing Texas journalist and Austin Tice is denying several reports that the Houston native has been found dead in Syria.
In a statement to CNN, a Tice family representative said, “We appreciate whatever mission is ongoing to help families of ISIS victims find closure. However, an initial and erroneous report that Austin Tice was identified among the remains was quickly and completely contradicted. The gratuitous repetition of this rumor is designed for clicks and is unfortunate and deeply disrespectful to the family.”
Several reports emerged on Sunday that his body was found in a cemetery in northern Syria. This had not been confirmed be either the State Department or Tice's family.
Tice was a captain in the Marine Corps and journeyed to Syria as an independent journalist in May 2012, before his final year at Georgetown Law School. He was detained in Damascus in August 2012 while reporting on the uprising against the Bashar al-Assad regime, which marked the early stages of the Syrian civil war.