Retired FBI agent Robert Levinson became the longest-held hostage in US history, with his family and officials appealing to the new Iranian leadership for help in finding and releasing him.
Mystery shrouds the fate of Levinson, who disappeared on March 9, 2007, on Iran's Gulf island of Kish while reportedly investigating cigarette counterfeiting in the region.
"No-one would have predicted this terrible moment more than 61/2 years ago when Bob disappeared. Our family will soon gather for our seventh Thanksgiving without Bob, and the pain will be almost impossible to bear," she added.
But in her message she urged her husband to stay strong and said he has a new month-old grandson. "We can't wait for you to meet him. We love you and will never stop working to bring you home safely," she said.
Levinson has now been held longer than the former Associated Press bureau chief Terry Anderson, who was kidnapped in Lebanon in 1985 and held for 2,454 days by Hezbollah militants. Virtually no news has filtered out about Levinson, now 65, since his capture other than a hostage video of him received by the family three years ago and a few pictures sent to them in 2011.