Body of ‘Alaskan Bush People’ star Matt Brown found in Washington state river

A body pulled from a Washington state river has been identified as that of “Alaskan Bush People” cast member Matt Brown.

The Okanogan County Sheriff’s Office said the body was discovered in the Okanogan River on Saturday by a private search team and subsequently identified as Brown’s by the county coroner.

The coroner will determine the cause and manner of death, the sheriff’s office said in a statement Sunday, sending condolences to the Brown family.

His brothers, Noah and Bear Brown, made emotional announcements about their brother’s untimely death on verified social media accounts. Noah said he was there when Brown’s body was pulled from the water.

“I identified it as Matthew,” Noah said on Instagram. “My oldest brother, Matthew Brown, has passed away.”

Brown was a cast member of Discovery’s reality show “Alaskan Bush People” from its debut in 2014 until 2019, according to IMDb. The show follows the Brown family as it lives deep in the Alaskan wilderness.

During that time, Brown was open about struggles with alcohol.

Bear Brown alluded to Brown’s struggles in a TikTok video.

“I would have never suspected he would have hurt himself, honestly,” Bear said. “He struggled for a long time, as I’ve mentioned. And I was so worried he was going to end up like OD’d or something like that. I didn’t think that he would hurt himself.”

Family patriarch Billy Brown died in 2021.

Efforts to reach a representative for Brown late Sunday were unsuccessful. Representatives of Warner Bros. Discovery did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The sheriff’s office said Wednesday that it launched a search after a caller reported having spoken to a man sitting in a shallow part of the river south of the city of Oroville, in north-central Washington.

“A caller reported to Okanogan 911 that he had just spoken to a male sitting in the shallow water,” the sheriff’s office said. “The caller turned away from the man sitting in the river, heard a sound, turned back toward the man in the water and saw the man was face down in the water drifting away in the current.”

A gun was found Wednesday near where the man in the water was seen, the office said.

In his video, Bear Brown appeared to allude to a gunshot being apparent after the coroner examined his brother’s body. “It does look as though the entry is self-inflicted,” he said.

State and local first responders joined sheriff’s personnel for multiple searches. Noah Brown said that two volunteer search groups joined the effort and that the one he was in found the body Saturday.

“Say your prayers and tell people that you love that you love them while you can,” he added.

If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988 or go to 988lifeline.org to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline or visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources.

NBC News Top Stories wp:paragraph