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<\/p>\nHuman remains discovered in a river in Washington state have been identified by police as those of 42-year-old Alaskan Bush People star\u00a0Matt Brown, days after family members took to social media to address speculation that the body of the reality show cast member had been spotted.<\/p>\n
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The Okanogan County Sheriff said Brown was discovered Saturday along the Okanogan River by a private search party and later formally identified by the coroner\u2019s office, according to a Facebook update<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe cause and manner of death will be determined by the Coroner\u2019s Office,\u201d the department added Sunday, before sending its condolences to Brown\u2019s family and loved ones.<\/p>\n Police said that a body was first reported floating face down in the Okanogan River by a passerby on May 27, who said they had just spoken to a man sitting in the river, according to an earlier news release<\/a>.<\/p>\n Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n \u201cA caller reported to Okanogan 911 that he had just spoken to a male sitting in the shallow water of the Okanogan River south of Oroville, WA. 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,\u201d the release says.<\/p>\n In another statement<\/a> detailing subsequent search efforts, the sheriff\u2019s office said: \u201cDeputies and a Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife agent used boats, personal watercraft, sonar and divers to search an expanding area near the last location the male was seen.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tGet daily National news<\/p>\n Get daily Canada news delivered to your inbox so you’ll never miss the day’s top stories.<\/p>\n The search was suspended on Friday due to poor weather conditions, it added. Brown\u2019s body was discovered the following day by the private search operation, authorities said.<\/p>\n His brothers, Noah and Bear, who also appear on the show, both made statements over the weekend from their verified social media accounts, addressing their sibling\u2019s death.<\/p>\n In a series of videos posted over the past week \u2014 two of which have garnered millions of views \u2014 Bear said in a Sunday update that he had been told his brother had been found and may have died by suicide, but stressed he could not confirm the information.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore on Entertainment Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n He explained that his brother had struggled with alcohol and drugs, which Matt was open about with viewers and addressed in a 2016 People interview<\/a>, but that he had become estranged from the family, who had tried but were unable to help in his recovery.<\/p>\n Bear said in his most recent video that Noah was with the private search party and identified the body pulled from the river as Brown\u2019s on Sunday.<\/p>\n \u201cI identified it as Matthew,\u201d\u00a0Noah said in an Instagram post<\/a>. \u201cMy oldest brother, Matthew Brown, has passed away,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n Brown appeared in 79 episodes of Discovery\u2019s reality show Alaskan Bush People from when it first aired in 2014 until 2019, according to IMDb<\/a>. The show followed the Brown family \u2014 parents Billy and Ami and their seven children \u2014 as they navigated life in the deep Alaskan wilderness, far from civilization.<\/p>\n Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n After quitting the show, Brown started a YouTube channel where he filmed and shared his life and recovery journey, interspersed with personal reflections. He built a following of 65,000 subscribers and amassed eight million views on more than 1,000 videos, NBC News reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\t\t© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n![\"Get](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/national.jpg\")
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