Matthew Brown, reality TV star of Alaskan Bush People, has died, authorities confirmed. He was 42.
His body was located Saturday by a group of citizens conducting a search along the Okanogan River in Washington State, the Okanogan County Sheriff’s Office said Sunday in a statement.
The cause and manner of death is to be determined by the coroner’s office, it said.
Noah Brown, one of Matthew Brown’s younger brothers, said in a late Sunday post to Instagram that he was among those searching for his eldest brother. He said Matthew Brown’s body was found at 3:27 p.m. and that he identified the remains.
“I was there when we pulled him out of the river, we hauled him up off the bank and then after the sheriffs got there and everything, the coroner did his thing and I went down to identify that it was him,” he said.
“It’s definitely Matthew. His ID and Social Security card was on him, and I was able to visually identify that it was Matthew.”
The sheriff’s office said Wednesday that the search was launched after receiving a 911 call from a person who said they had just spoken to a person sitting in the shallow water of the rivers just south of Oroville, Wash.
The caller told dispatch that after turning away from the person sitting in the water, they heard a splash and then saw a man face down drifting away in the current.
Bear Brown, a second younger brother to Matthew Brown, referred to his elder brother’s struggles with addiction in a TikTok video, stating, “I would have never suspected he would have hurt himself, honestly.”
“I was so worried he was going to end up ODed, something like that. I didn’t think he would hurt himself,” he said, suggesting the death might be by suicide.
The three brothers were cast members of Discovery’s Alaskan Bush People that followed a family who decided to live in the Alaskan wilderness. The show first aired in 2014.
According to IMDb, Matthew Brown appeared in the show from 2014 to 2019.
Notable deaths of 2026
Sonny RollinsKennedy Center Honoree, jazz great Sonny Rollins, salutes photographers on the red carpet as he arrives at the Kennedy Center for a gala evening in Washington on December 4, 2011. Rollins, a Grammy winner known for his virtuoso playing of the tenor saxophone, died at the age of 95 on May 24. Photo by Mike Theiler/UPI | License Photo
