Official Upham Family Press
Release:
We would like to provide the
following infomation to all of
Misty's friends and family. We
believe that Misty's death was
accidental. She did not commit
suicide. We believe she ran into the
wooded area behind her apartment
to hide from the police. The area in
question has a hidden drop off and
evidence suggests that she slipped
and fell off of the steep
embankment when she tried to get
out of a view from the road. She
simply did not see the drop off. We
searched near that area that
evening she disappeared and
missed seeing her purse by 25 feet.
I , Charles, went there after Fire
Department officials recovered her
body and you just can't see the
steep drop until it's to late. Misty
was afraid of the Auburn PD
officiers with good reason. In an
incident prior to her disappearance,
the Auburn PD came to pick up
Misty on an involuntary transport to
the ER. She was cuffed and placed
in a police car. Some of the officiers
began to taunt and tease her while
she was in the car. Because it was
dark they couldn't see that we, her
family, were outside our apartment
just across the street witnessing
this behavior. They were tapping on
the window making faces at her.
Misty was crying and she told them
you can't treat me like this I'm a
movie actress and I will use my
connections to expose you. Then
another officer walked up to her
asked "are you a movie star?, then
why don't complain to George
Clooney!" After Misty arrived at the
ER we went to see her and she has
a swollen jaw, black eye and
scratches and bruises on her
shoulder. I asked the ER staff what
happened and they said Misty was
brought in like that. Misty said she
couldn't remember what happened
but thats why she feared the police.
I asked Misty to call the Auburn PD
and ask to speak to the
commander. When she was
connected to, whom we believe was
Commander Stocker she made a
verbal complaint. The official asked
her "what are you going to do about
it?" She replied I'm doing it, I'm
telling you so you do something
about it." The APD official told her
unless she wanted to file a formal
complaint the matter would not be
pursued. The day the APD was
called to do another Involuntary
transport Misty left the apartment
where she was staying. When we
tried to follow her Auburn PD
officiers told us they wanted to
check for inside. We told them that
Misty may have walked around the
side of the apartment but they
made us to go back inside. They
asked if we were hiding her and
took time to search the apartment
and get a description of what she
was wearing. By the time they
finished Misty was gone. We
believe that if we were not
otherwise occupied we may have
found Misty before she got hurt. It
is a tragic that Misty slipped and
fell to her death trying avoid the
police, it's tragic that she did not
get the proper medication to treat
her mental illness from her mental
health care givers at Valley Cities
Mental Health, it is tragic that the
Auburn PD refused to help offer to
find or at least change her Missing
status to "Endangered" to allow
other agencies to get involved. But
the real tragedy is this could have
been prevented on a lot of levels.
We pleaded with the Auburn Police
to help us find Misty but
Commander Stocker made the
decision that Misty did not fit the
criteria of the Washington State
Endangered Missing Persons Plan.
This became a point of contention
between us and the Auburn PD. In a
statement he gave to the press he
said Auburn PD doesn't have any
evidence that Misty is actually
missing. He went to say that Misty
packed her belonging and left her
apartment. This was an inaccurate
statement. We believe that
Commander Stocker had animosity
against Misty due to a previous
encounter. Why else would he
refuse to allow common sense to
prevail? Imagine a 32 year old
woman with mental illness, without
her medication, imagine she left in
an unstable mental state, imagine
for the first time in 32 years she lost
contact with everyone for 11 days.
Now imagine she is Commander
Stocker's daughter. Do you think
this case would have been handled
differently? Misty loved life, she had
ambition, vision and a desire to
make a difference in the world she
lived in. She tried to use her
celebrity status to influence
positive change and she became a
living example of that endeavor.
Now press reports are saying that
Auburn police department found
Misty. The truth is the Native
American community formed a
search party and found her after
several days of searching without
the help of the Auburn PD. We
would like to thank the
Muckleshoot Tribe and other Tribal
volunteers for all their support in
our time of desperation. We would
like thank all the wonderful
supporters who could not be here
but offered kind words and prayers.
A special thank you to Pastors
Kenny and Charolette Williams for
opening up the Pentecostal Church
for a rescue command Center and
providing food, supplies to the
volunteers. We will let the family
and friends know about her funeral
arrangement once medical
examiner concludes his
investigation.
Thank you
Charles, Mona, Amanda,
Christopher and Alesha.
If you would like to donate to the
Misty Upham Memorial Fund
please follow the link below.
Fundly.com/m2/misty-upham-memorial