Native American actress Misty Upham had an impressive resume, having appeared on screen with Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts in the film "August: Osage County," and with Benicio del Toro in "Jimmy P." But her personal life was in stark contrast to her Hollywood dream. In October 2014, Upham was living in Auburn with her parents when she went missing. A recent investigative report on the disappearance by Kristen Millares Young for The Guardian found the Auburn police did very little to help find her. Upham had moved from California to Washington to help take care of her father who was recovering from a stroke. Upham also suffered from mental illness and was accessing health care through the Indian Health Service. "She needed to go through a process to reapply for her prescriptions to control her anxiety," Young told Jeannie Yandel on The Record. "She had been in Washington for months, and one by one, these prescriptions were running out. According to her friends and family, she turned to alcohol to try to dull this constant anxiety and panic that she suffered." Seven weeks before she went missing, she was arrested outside of a deli across the street from the family's apartment. An employee called the police and said Upham was shoeless and hiding in the bushes outside the store.

Young reported that when the police arrived on the scene, they dragged Upham from the bushes, handcuffed her and put her in the squad car. They didn't believe her claims of being a movie star and openly mocked her. "One of the officers said to her, 'Well if you're so famous, if you're an actress, why don't you call up your friend Robin Williams and have him come save you?'" Upham was involuntarily committed that night. Her father, Charles Upham, wrote in a Facebook update that she had a swollen jaw, black eye and scratches and bruises on her shoulder. He said his daughter didn't remember how she was injured. "When Auburn police later characterized their interaction with Misty Upham, they said that they had acted with professionalism and compassion," Young said. "In this officer's own report from that evening, he admitted that he mocked her and her lack of agency." Misty Upham went missing on Oct. 5, 2014. She had been inconsolable and left the apartment after her father called the police.