Alaskan Bush People…

New details have surfaced in the death of Alaskan Bush People personality Matt Brown, following his tragic suicide at the age of 43.

Brown’s body was recovered from the Okanogan River in Oroville, Washington on Saturday by a ‘group of private citizens,’ the Okanogan County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release on Sunday reviewed by the Daily Mail.

The probe by the search party had been conducted after officials received reports a man had shot himself and his body had fallen into the river.

‘The individual was recovered and brought to shore,’ authorities said, ‘where he was positively identified as Matthew Brown.’

The body was taken by the Okanogan County Coroner, as his ’cause and manner of death’ remained under investigation, authorities said.

‘No further information is being released at this time pending the ongoing investigation,’ officials said. 

Authorities said they extended their ‘condolences to Mr. Brown’s family and loved ones during this difficult time.’ 

The private search party recovered Brown’s body after previous search efforts saw ‘deputies and a Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife agent’ deployed on the challenging task Friday amid inclement weather conditions. 

The deputies and agent used ‘boats, personal watercraft, sonar and divers’ in their efforts to recover the body Friday, authorities previously said.

In addition, officials said that a canine ‘trained in detection of human remains, was deployed’ had been brought in from Spokane, Washington to assist in the search.

Authorities said ‘implements were used to drag the river bottom’ amid Friday’s search for the body, which was ‘hampered’ due to poor river conditions following rainfall on Thursday.

Chay Wilkerson Moore, one of the searchers, told TMZ on Sunday that ‘little remnants of a’ brown jacket the late TV personality had on alerted kayakers to where Brown’s body was, amid murky conditions.

Moore said that Brown’s body was carefully recovered amid a current, from ‘a remote area’ of the river with the help of a resident and his compact fishing boat.

The searchers flanked both ends of the river around two miles south of where Matt had last been spotted once they recovered the pieces of the coat amid fast-moving waters, Moore told the outlet. 

Matthew’s younger brother Noah Brown took to Instagram late Saturday to confirm the tragedy to the public, while shedding light on rescue efforts and thanking the people involved.

‘I have some bad news,’ Noah, 33, said in the clip. ‘For the past couple days, I’ve been working with search and rescue groups trying to locate the body and today, at 3:27, the group that I was working with located the missing body.

‘And I identified it as Matthew – my oldest brother, Matthew Brown, has passed away.’

Noah said there will be more details later after coroner’s findings came back.

He thanked two groups which assisted in the search, Ozark and Stardog Rescue, as well as ‘locals here in town’ who assisted in the recovery efforts.

‘There aren’t a lot of details,’ Noah said. ‘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.’

Noah added, ‘It’s definitely Matthew – his ID and Social Security card was on him, and I was able to, visually identify that it was Matthew.’

He said that he was hesitant to say anything publicly until his brother’s death was definitive, at which point he reached out to friends and relatives with the sad news.

‘I wanted to make sure that everyone who knew us personally heard first,’ Noah said. ‘Once we know a cause of death and everything, I will put a video up about that.’

He urged his followers to ‘say your prayers and tell people that you love that you love them while you can,’ ending by saying, ‘God bless.’ 

Noah’s clip came after his brother Bear, 38, also confirmed the tragic news in a TikTok clip, admitting that the nature of his sibling’s passing shocked him.

‘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, you know, like, OD’d or something like that. It does look as though the injury is self-inflicted.’

Bear urged posters keep things kind amid the tough time: ‘Please, please be respectful to my family and to my mom, and please watch the comments that you leave, guys. 

‘Keep in mind that people on the other side of your screen, people that you’re watching a video of, they’re real people, too.’

He added, ‘Leave as many negative comments about me as you want, but please leave my family out of it.’

The Brown family issued a statement to Us Weekly on Sunday in the wake of the family tragedy.

‘It is with profound sadness and broken hearts that we share the loss of our beloved son, brother, uncle, and friend, Matthew Brown,’ the family said. ‘To millions of viewers, Matt was known as one of the original stars of Alaskan Bush People. To us, he was so much more.’

Matt’s family described him as an ‘intelligent, curious, creative, and endlessly fascinated by the world around him’ as well as ‘a gifted outdoorsman who felt most at home on the water, in the wilderness, or sharing what he had learned with others. ‘

They continued, ‘He was an accomplished fisherman, an experienced boatman, and served as the radar operator on our family’s vessels. He loved adventure and never stopped exploring new ideas.’

The family recalled how ‘Matt had an extraordinary mind,’ giving examples of his skill set in language and arts.

‘He taught himself sign language, studied Egyptian hieroglyphs, petroglyphs, and Sanskrit, learned conversational Spanish, and could spend hours mastering a new skill simply for the joy of understanding it,’ his relatives told the outlet. 

They added, ‘He was also a talented artist whose creativity allowed him to see beauty and meaning in places others often overlooked.’

Brown’s relatives said that people who truly knew Matt ‘knew his heart,’ describing him as ‘compassionate, generous with his time, and [a person who] deeply wanted to help others.’ 

Brown’s family touched on his past struggles with addiction, saying that ‘during periods of sobriety and recovery, he openly shared his struggles with addiction and mental health through his online videos and personal outreach.

‘He encouraged others to seek help, offered hope to people fighting similar battles, and used his own experiences in an effort to make others feel less alone.’

Brown’s relatives addressed reports that they had been estranged from Matt for about five years amid his issues with substance abuse.

‘Families facing these challenges often make difficult decisions, establish boundaries, and endure periods of separation while never losing their love for the person at the center of the struggle,’ they said. ‘Our family was no different.

‘Matt’s life was not without mistakes, struggles, and painful chapters. Like all of us, he was imperfect. Some of those chapters caused hurt, and we do not minimize that.

‘At the same time, we do not believe that any person’s life should be defined solely by their lowest moments, especially when there was so much more to who they were.’

Alaskan Bush People ran from 2014 until 2022 over 14 seasons on Discovery Channel, with Matt having appeared on 79 episodes from 2014–2019 on the series, which chronicled his family’s life in the remote area.

A logline for the show described it as ‘a journey deep into Alaska’s bush, where naturalist and adventurer Billy Brown, along with his wife, Ami, and their seven children, choose to live life on their own terms, connected to wild nature and bonded to each other.’

If you or someone you know needs help, please call or text the confidential 24/7 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline in the US on 988. There is also an online chat available at 988lifeline.org.