After August: Osage County actress Misty Upham's body was found in a ravine near Auburn, Washington, her family has issued a statement saying they think Upham was trying to hide from police but slipped and fell to her death.
It was previously reported that Upham's body was found on Thursday by a search party led by her uncle, Robert Upham. After hours of waiting, her body was eventually identified by her father, Charles Upham.
When her father initially reported her missing, he worried that she was in danger and said she was suicidal. Her family, however, no longer thinks that Misty's death was a suicide.
In a statement posted to Misty's Facebook page, her family says that they believe Misty was attempting to hide from the police in the woods behind her apartment and slipped off of a steep embankment. Charles Upham wrote that his daughter was afraid of police officers, and cites an incident in which she was involuntarily transported to the ER.
"She was cuffed and placed in a police car. Some of the [officers] began to taunt and tease her while she was in the car," Charles Upham wrote. He added that he and other members of her family witnessed the incident from across the street.
Charles Upham went on to write that he urged Misty to make a complaint to the Auburn Police Department's commander. When she did, she was told by who Charles believed was Commander Stocker that she would need to file a formal complaint in order for it to be pursued.
A longtime friend of Misty's, Tracy Rector, released a statement saying that Misty's family felt as if the Auburn Police Department didn't do enough to help the family in the search for her.
The Auburn Police's commander, Steve Stocker, told The Washington Post that the accusations from the family were false and that, although the police department never put out a search party, "We felt like we put effort into it; the family obviously doesn’t believe that the efforts were enough but we handled it as we felt was appropriate."
He said that a detective was assigned to her case, and is very sad at the news of Misty's death.
NBC News reports that although the King's County Medical Examiner's Office has not determined the actresses' cause of death, they have determined that she died on Oct. 5, the day she was last seen.
image via Facebook from Misty Upham
Image courtesy of INFphoto.com