SPOKANE, Wash. – A couple involved in a missing indigenous person case said the woman was never missing, and the two were away spending time together, the couple said.
Joseph Parisien was arrested Tuesday night by Spokane police for violating probation from a drug charge several years prior. He was the suspect in a missing indigenous person case over the weekend but said the missing person, Amanda Pakootas, is his girlfriend.
Parisien spoke to Nonstop Local about the situation from jail on Wednesday and said it was entirely a misunderstanding. He and Amanda Pakootas got into a disagreement on Friday and spent the weekend working on their relationship, Parisien said. He said the two have been in a relationship since last year.
Parisien said the two of them spent much of Saturday trying to find Pakootas’ phone, which she had lost at the Spokane Tribal Casino the night before. He said this is why Pakootas did not respond to calls from friends and family on Saturday but did speak to her mother on his phone that day.
“There’s people in the Spokane Tribal Casinos party who knew where we were at. There’s people in Amanda’s family that knew she was alright. And none of them stood up and said hey, ‘No I talked to her,’” Parisien said.
Parisien tried to turn himself in twice on Monday but was told there was no charge for him to be arrested, and he was turned away, Parisien said.
Nonstop Local also spoke with Pakootas on the phone this afternoon. She agreed that this was a massive misunderstanding and said Parisien did not kidnap her.
At Monday’s SWAT standoff, Pakootas was contacted by the police after her neighbor called 911. At that point, Parisien said he was concerned this would be a more serious situation and felt his safety may be in jeopardy.
“I saw the police coming and I walked the other direction. I’m just like ‘man’, because they were standing there with all their guns out running around, and it didn’t look like a friendly situation, are you going to walk into it or turn around and walk away from it,” Parisien said.
Parisien will appear in Federal court tomorrow for his probation violation, and no other charges have been filed at this time.
