Alaskan Bush People star Matt Brown dies as brother issues emotional statement
Matt Brown, the star of Alaskan Bush People, has died at the age of 43 after his body was recovered near a river following days of searching.
The Okanogan County Sheriff’s Office said they'd received a call about 'a male sitting in the shallow water' south of Oroville, Washington, which triggered a search for the individual.
Matt's brother Bear said the family had been unable to contact him for days, and in a recent update he confirmed that the body recovered as part of search efforts was indeed Matt.
In a statement he confirmed that their younger brother Noah had been part of search efforts and had positively identified the body as Matt.
Speaking on social media he said: "They found a body in the river a few hours ago, and it was positively identified as being Matt.
"Noah was with them and helped them pull the body out of the water, and Noah identified him.
"I would have never suspected he would have hurt himself purposely, he struggled for a long time as I've mentioned and I was so worried he was gonna end up like OD'd or something like that.
"I didn't think that he would hurt himself. It does look as though the injury is self-inflicted. Obviously the coroner's got to look at him and stuff.
"But I thought you all guys should know that it is him."
Bear went on to ask 'people to please be respectful to my family' and to be mindful of the comments they left as the grieving family would be seeing them.
"Sometimes words can hurt more than fists can and a lot of people left negative comments on Matt's stuff too," the grieving brother said.
"On one of his last videos he's actually talking about how negative people were on his posts, and you guys should keep in mind that people on the other side of your screen, people you're watching a video of, they are real people too.
"I know a lot of you guys have helped a lot as well."
In the end he urged people to 'be kind' with the messages they were leaving.
The area where Matt Brown's body was found had previously been searched with authorities not finding anything, the Sunday Guardian Live reports, and an autopsy will now be performed to determine his cause of death.
The series Alaskan Bush People was a reality show that followed the Brown family as they lived off the grid.
Joe Harker