U.S. reups $6M reward for American missing in Afghanistan for 12 years

World U.S. reups $6 million reward in case of American who vanished 12 years ago in Afghanistan By Cara Tabachnick Cara Tabachnick News Editor Cara Tabachnick is a news editor at CBSNews.com. Cara began her career on the crime beat at Newsday. She has written for Marie Claire, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. She reports on justice and human rights issues. Contact her at cara.tabachnick@cbsinteractive.com Read Full Bio Cara Tabachnick May 15, 2026 / 5:27 PM EDT / CBS News Add CBS News on Google The United States on Friday reupped two rewards totalling $6 million in the case of an American who vanished 12 years ago in Afghanistan. Freelance writer Paul Edwin Overby Jr., who had been conducting research for a book in May 2014, had said he might cross the border into Pakistan when he vanished in Khost province, Afghanistan, the FBI said.Overby had written an earlier nonfiction book on Afghanistan, "Holy Blood: An Inside View of the Afghan War." Reuters reported his wife, Jane Larson, said he was researching a follow-up to the book and hoped to interview Sirajuddin Haqqani, head of the Taliban-allied Haqqani militant network.  Photo of American Paul Edwin Overby, Jr., who vanished in Afghanistan in 2014. FBI His wife told a Pakistani newspaper in 2017 that she believed he was kidnapped and appealed to his kidnappers to reunite "an aging couple." Overby would be 83 years old.  "For over a decade, FBI agents and analysts have worked tirelessly to find Paul and bring him home," Assistant Director in Charge Darren Cox said. "We will continue to coordinate with partner agencies and pursue all credible leads until we can provide Paul's family with the answers they've waited 12 years to hear."The Taliban has recently released several Americans wrongfully detained in Afghanistan. In March, Dennis Coyle, a 64-year-old academic and language expert from Colorado, was released from detention. Ryan Corbett and an...