Actress’ father pleads for help in finding his missing daughter
Oct 13, 2014, 12:36 PM | Updated: 2:48 pm
(AP file photo)
A frantic father is pleading for help in finding his missing daughter – a successful actress known for roles in hit movies including “August: Osage County,” Django Unchained” and “Frozen River.”
Charles Upham tells KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson Show his daughter Misty Upham, 32, hasn’t been seen or heard from since walking away from her sister’s apartment near the Muckleshoot reservation Sunday, Oct. 5
“She was visibly upset and she was acting erratic, her behavior,” Upham says.
He says his daughter had stopped taking medication for anxiety and bi-polar disorder, and “was not in her right mind.”
Upham says he’s extremely worried his daughter could be wandering incoherently, or is being held against her will.
He has reported her missing to Auburn police. But police do not consider her endangered because her disappearance has to be unexplained, involuntary or suspicious, Cmdr. Steve Stocker told The Seattle Times.
Upham is furious.
“It wasn’t like she just decided to take time off. She’s out there, she’s missing, she needs help, she needs her medication,” Upham says.
The disappearance has received national attention, with some media outlets reporting that Upham is worried his daughter committed suicide. But he insists that isn’t the case.
“She has said suicidal things in the past but never followed through,” he says. “She doesn’t believe in killing herself. She believes that is a sin and she would never do that.”
Upham says he’s so worried because his daughter has never disappeared like this before, and was in a “psychotic” state with just the clothes on her back.
Misty was last seen wearing a purple sweater, black T-shirt, gray sweat pants and silver tennis shoes. She has cut scars on both arms and a birth mark on the back near her neck. She was carrying a white cell phone and a California ID, Upham says.
Now, he’s pleading desperately for help.
“I think that there’s still time that we can find her if we get people out there who know what to look for,” he says.
Upham says his daughter left California and returned home to help care for him after he suffered a stroke earlier this year, and has had a difficult time getting proper psychiatric care here.
Pictures of Misty circulating on social media show her at several Hollywood premiers. But Upham says she has since cut her hair and looks significantly different from the more glamorous shots.
Upham was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for her supporting role in the 2008 drama “Frozen River,” about two women who earn money smuggling illegal immigrants into the United States from Canada.
She played a housekeeper in “August: Osage County,” the 2013 family drama starring Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts. According to the Internet Movie Database, Upham also had an uncredited role in “Django Unchained” and a small part in the upcoming “Cake,” starring Jennifer Aniston, CNN reports.
Upham’s asks anyone with information about her disappearance that could be helpful to contact him at charlesupham@gmail.com or the Auburn Police Department at (253) 288-2121.