Matt Brown, Discovery Channel star Alaskan Bush People The reality series is dead. He was 42 years old.
His brother, Bear Brown, announced on Instagram on Saturday that “they found a body in the river a few hours ago, and it was positively identified as Matt.” He added that his younger brother, Noah Brown, was present when Matt Brown’s body was discovered in the Okanogan River in Washington state and helped authorities identify his brother after a body was recovered from the water.
The Okanogan County Sheriff’s Office said in a May 30 news release that a “group of private citizens” searched along the river before finding a body in the water. “The subject was recovered and brought to shore, where he was positively identified as Matthew Brown,” authorities said amid an ongoing investigation into the death.
County Sheriff Judy Barcus added, “The cause and manner of death will be determined by the coroner’s office.” Bear Brown said his brother “had been struggling for a long time,” but he never expected any harm to come to him.
“I would have never suspected that he would honestly hurt himself,” Bear Brown said in the emotional video he posted on Instagram. “I was really worried he was going to end up OD’ed or something, and I didn’t think he was going to hurt himself. It’s like the injury was self-inflicted.”
His update came after an earlier TikTok post where he said his family feared the worst. “I was told late last night that Matt committed suicide. Witnesses say he was seen in a river, or in a river, or near the river, and that he committed suicide, and then they saw him floating in the river. They called the police, and they were trying to find the body. So far they haven’t been able to. All the witnesses say he’s dead.”
Bear Brown asked fans of the reality TV series to respect his family’s privacy as they mourned the death of their brother. Alaskan Bush People Follow the Brown family of six brothers, sisters and parents, as they live in the remote wilderness over the course of 14 seasons ending in 2022.
Matt Brown starred in the series from 2014 to 2019, when he abruptly left the show.
