The families of four American hostages who were killed while in Islamic State custody issued a joint letter Wednesday imploring the Obama administration to “use all appropriate means” to find and return missing U.S. journalist Austin Tice. 
 
 Tice is the last unaccounted-for American reporter in the Syrian civil war; he was abducted by unknown gunmen in August 2012 and has been incommunicado ever since. Tice’s parents have asked the White House to step up search efforts, with their calls sounding increasingly urgent as the clock runs out on the Obama administration’s final term. 
 
 State Department spokesman John Kirby said U.S. officials are working through the Czech government, the U.S. protecting power because the U.S. embassy in Damascus is shuttered, to find information on Tice’s “welfare and whereabouts.” Kirby said officials are in regular contact with families of U.S. detainees overseas, but that privacy considerations prevented him from saying more about Tice. 
 
 “We are deeply concerned about the well-being of Austin Tice,” Kirby said. “His case has the attention of the highest levels in the U.S. government and the administration.” 
 
 The letter the Tices released Wednesday bore the names of the slain hostages’ parents – a raw reminder of search efforts that didn’t find captives in time. They represented journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and humanitarian aid workers Abdul-Rahman Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller. 
 
 The Islamic State beheaded Foley, Sotloff and Kassig in gruesome propaganda videos. Mueller, who reportedly was enslaved and assaulted for months by Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, died in a coalition strike, apparently an inadvertent casualty of the U.S.-led campaign targeting the Islamic State’s so-called caliphate in Iraq and Syria. 
 
 We are four families bonded together by tragedy and terror. . . . But there is something that still can be done: Bring Austin Tice safely home. Open letter to President Obama 
 
 The Tices got to know the other families when they united to lobby for changes in hostage policy – they were at the White House together a year ago this week when President Barack Obama announced a revamped process based on the families’ recommendations. 
 
 “We are four families bonded together by tragedy and terror. We will never fully recover from the horrific outcome of our own hostage crisis,” the families of the slain captives wrote in the joint letter. “But there is something that still can be done: Bring Austin Tice safely home.” 
 
 Neither the Tices nor the other families named specific steps the Obama administration could take to find Tice and win his release. They alluded to diplomatic efforts and urged officials not “to hesitate in leveraging all appropriate means.” The parents also chided Obama for failing to mention Tice – the only U.S. journalist in captivity in the world – during his high-profile speech at the annual White House Correspondents Association dinner April 30. 
 
 Austin Tice is the only American journalist being held captive in the world. 
 
 “We are not asking the White House to put anyone in harm’s way, nor compromise national security,” the families wrote. “We are asking the president, fully within the responsibilities and obligations of his office, to put aside any personal or election year concern, to engage boldly and to use all appropriate means to bring Austin Tice safely home as soon as possible.” 
 
 The families gave wrenching testimonials about having a loved one held hostage in Syria. 
 
 Mueller’s parents and brother, Carl, Marsha and Eric, wrote that they are “haunted every day” and urged the government not to repeat what they deemed as missed opportunities and “the deadly silence that cost all the hostages their lives.” 
 
 Foley’s parents, Diane and John, told Obama that they’re counting on him to keep the promises he made “after the horrific execution of our son.” Kassig’s parents, Ed and Paula, said they’re “devastated by the loss of our son, but the pain will be slightly lessened” if his death spurred the government to act urgently to bring Tice home. 
 
 Shirley and Arthur Sotloff were even more direct. 
 
 “We, the family of the late journalist Steven Sotloff, remind President Obama of the following: You told us in person that if it were your daughters, you would do anything in your power to bring them home,” they wrote. “We implore you: Bring Austin Tice home.” 
 
 EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE 
 
 Tice, now 34, a U.S. Marine-turned-journalist who reported for outlets including McClatchy and The Washington Post, vanished in Syria in mid-August 2012. Apart from a video clip showing him in the custody of unknown gunmen shortly after his disappearance, there’s been no confirmed sighting of Tice since. 
 
 Unlike the other American captives, Tice is widely believed to have been seized by loyalists of the Syrian regime – not by the Islamic State. Damascus denies any knowledge of his whereabouts. This August will mark his fourth year in apparent detention. 
 
 The parents of the hostages closed their letter of support by recognizing the Tice family’s anguish. They, too, know how “it requires mountain-moving faith to maintain hope as the crisis continues.” 
 
 “With unwavering hope, Austin’s parents do not give up,” the families wrote. “The United States government must not give up.” ||||| ISIS appears to have cruelly executed American journalist Steven Sotloff just one week after his mother pleaded with the group's leader to "be merciful" and spare her son. 
 
 Shirley Sotloff's heartbreaking bid for her son's life was ignored and video was released today indicating he was the second American journalist to be beheaded by the Islamic militant group, ostensibly in retribution for U.S. planes bombing ISIS fighters in Iraq. 
 
 Sotloff's parents have declined any media interviews and have been enduring an agonizing wait after James Foley was executed last month and Sotloff was shown on his knees, wearing an orange jumpsuit and threatened with execution. Their only public words were Shirley Sotloff's video message to ISIS' caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi saying, "I ask you justice be merciful and not [to] punish my son for matters he has no control over. I ask you to use your authority to spare his life.” 
 
 Video Appears to Show ISIS Execution of Second American Steven Sotloff 
 
 Mother of American Hostage Pleads With ISIS ‘Caliph’ for Mercy 
 
 Could Money Have Saved James Foley? ISIS 'Wasn’t Serious' About Demands, Officials Say 
 
 At the time of his capture, Sotloff, 31, had been covering the Middle East for years as a freelance reporter, including stints in Yemen and Egypt. He wrote for Time Magazine, the Christian Science Monitor, the Daily Caller, Foreign Policy, and most recently for World Affairs Journal. 
 
 The reporter studied journalism at the University of Central Florida, according to the Orlando Sentinel. His articles online show heartfelt reporting about the brutality of the Syrian war. 
 
 His parents live in Miami, and Sotloff's last Tweet, from August 2013, was about the Miami Heat NBA team. 
 
 His Twitter feed, which was his major online presence beyond his reported stories, showed a mix of humor and seriousness about his reporting. 
 
 Is it bad that I want to focus on #syria, but all I can think of is a #HEATFinals repeat? — Steven Sotloff (@stevensotloff) June 12, 2013 
 
 Friends of Sotloff and his family had started a White House petition urging the government to do all it can to rescue the freelance reporter. 
 
 "Steven Sotloff is an American citizen and reporter with Time magazine who is believed to have gone missing in August of 2013," the petition read. "Today, on August 19, 2014 it was revealed that Steven is a captive of the Islamist terrorist organization ISIS." 
 
 "We, the undersigned call upon you, President Obama, to take immediate action to save Steven's life by any means necessary,” it said. 
 
 Matthew Van Dyke, a documentary filmmaker, self-described “revolutionary” and friend of Sotloff's, told ABC News that the two last saw each other in Washington, D.C., just a few weeks before Sotloff's disappearance. Van Dyke has reported from the Middle East, and joined the fighting during the Libyan revolution, and was held as a prisoner of war. 
 
 "We were talking about his upcoming trip to Syria," Van Dyke said. "I feel horrible for what he's going through, I can't really imagine. I mean I thought I had a tough time in Libya but to be held by ISIS for this long, Steven's been there for a year now and who knows what kind of conditions they're in. It's absolutely horrifying. I can't imagine it." 
 
 World Affairs, the journal that had most recently employed Sotloff, described him as "an honest and thoughtful journalist who strives to understand the story from local perspectives and report his findings straightforwardly. He is certainly courageous." ||||| James Foley’s Brother: The U.S. Could Have Done More for Jim 
 
 By Liz Goodwin 
 
 The brother of American journalist James Foley said Friday morning that the U.S. government could have done more to attempt to free his brother and other American hostages from the Islamic militant group ISIL. 
 
 “There’s more that could have been done directly on Jim’s behalf,” Michael Foley, 38, told Yahoo Global News Anchor Katie Couric in an exclusive interview near his parents’ home in Dover, New Hampshire. “I really, really hope that Jim’s death pushes us to take another look at our approach to terrorist and hostage negotiation.” 
 
 Foley, a 40-year-old journalist who was covering the Syrian conflict for GlobalPost, was kidnapped nearly two years ago near the Syria-Turkey border. ISIL, also called ISIS, released a grisly video of his beheading Tuesday, claiming it killed him in retaliation for U.S. airstrikes in the region. 
 
 But another issue was money. The group had also captured French and Spanish journalists, but freed them after their governments paid ransoms through intermediaries. The U.S. government refused to negotiate or pay the group on behalf of Foley and other American captives. ISIL emailed Michael Foley and demanded 100 million euros—a sum he called “ridiculous”—for his brother’s release. 
 
 “I just feel strongly that more can be done moving forward,” Michael Foley said. 
 
 The Obama administration said this week that it had sent a special military operations force to try to rescue Foley and the other Americans over the summer, but that the mission failed. “I’d like to think it did happen, but I certainly wasn’t aware of it,” Foley said of the failed mission. 
 
 ISIL has threatened to kill another captured American journalist, Steven Sotloff, next. Michael Foley said he hopes the U.S. government does more on his behalf, including considering trading prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. 
 
 “I don't believe ISIL can be contained — containment is not a strategy. We need to recognize that they are a threat and we need to deal with them,” Michael Foley said. 
 
 Michael Foley and his sister Katie, 26, told Couric that condolences have come pouring in from all around the world. Pope Francis called their family yesterday, telling them that James Foley’s death was an act of martyrdom. 
 
 The family briefly had hope that they would be able to negotiate for his release, after an intermediary made contact with ISIL on their behalf. But then the U.S. government began bombing ISIL earlier this month. On August 12, ISIL sent Foley’s parents a “chilling” email saying their son would die to pay for the airstrikes, according to Michael Foley. “I don’t understand where that type of hate could come from,” Katie Foley said. 
 
 The family believes that Foley volunteered to be the first American to be executed. “You can see from the clips from the video that he wasn’t afraid,” Michael Foley said. 
 
 European journalists who were captured by ISIL but later freed told Foley’s family that the journalist made a makeshift board game out of objects they found and even taught his fellow captives Spanish as a way to keep hope alive. 
 
 The U.S. government says they will hunt down and punish Foley’s killers. 
 
 “We will be relentless,” President Barack Obama said this week. “When people harm Americans anywhere, we do what’s necessary to see that justice is done.” 
 
 Foley’s friends have set up a scholarship fund in his name at Marquette University, where he graduated in 1996, for disadvantaged students. 
 
 Watch the Full Interview:
– American journalist Austin Tice—believed to be the only US reporter held hostage anywhere in the world—was captured in Syria in August 2012. Since then, US hostages James Foley, Peter Kassig, Kayla Mueller, and Steven Sotloff have been killed, and their families fear Tice's parents will soon have to share in their heartbreak. "We are four families bonded together by tragedy and terror," they write in an open letter to Obama at McClatchy. "But there is something that still can be done: Bring Austin Tice safely home." The letter comes a year after Obama promised the US would improve on how it dealt with hostages. "You told us in person that if it were your daughters, you would do anything in your power to bring them home," says the letter. "We are not asking the White House to put anyone in harm's way, nor compromise national security," but to "engage boldly and use all appropriate means to bring Austin Tice safely home as soon as possible." The editorial board of the Sacramento Bee is backing the families. "The US military has a solemn creed: No soldier left behind," it writes. "The same should hold true for Austin Tice." A State Department rep tells McClatchy that Tice's case "has the attention of the highest levels in the US government and the administration."