Robert Levinson, a former FBI agent who disappeared while in Iran just over 13 years ago, has, for some time, been America’s longest-held hostage. On Wednesday, his family issued a statement acknowledging new information showing that Levinson is dead. A man who spent his career serving the United States will never come home and never meet the grandchildren born during his captivity.

What is certain is that Levinson traveled to Kish Island, an Iranian visa-free zone and resort island, to interview, among others, Dawud Salahuddin, an American convert to Islam who fled the U.S. for Iran after conducting a hit on behalf of the Islamic Republic, among others. After meeting Salahuddin, Levinson disappeared. That he was arrested by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard was certain, but what happened to him subsequently is murky.