Alaskan Bush People’s Brown family issue statement after Matt sadly pulled from river
He was found after an extensive police search
The Brown family have issued an official statement following the death of Alaskan Bush People star Matt Brown, after he was pulled from a river.
A search for Matt was started at the end of last week, with his brother Bear confirming that he’d been found on Saturday after a body was located in the water.
An official press release from the Okanogan County Sheriff Office’s stated: “On Saturday, May 30, 2026, a group of private citizens conducting a search along the Okanogan River located a deceased individual in the river. The individual was recovered and brought to shore, where he was positively identified as Matthew Brown.”
Bear, who was there when Matt’s body was found shared that he “never would have suspected that Matt would have hurt himself” even though his brother “struggled for a long time.”
“I was so worried that he would end up ODed or something like that. I didn’t think he would hurt himself,” Bear told his followers.
The Brown family have now issued a statement to Us Weekly about Alaskan Bush People star Marr, saying he had an “extraordinary mind.”
“It is with profound sadness and broken hearts that we share the loss of our beloved son, brother, uncle, and friend, Matthew Brown. 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 was intelligent, curious, creative, and endlessly fascinated by the world around him. He was a gifted outdoorsman who felt most at home on the water, in the wilderness, or sharing what he had learned with others. 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 continued: “Matt had an extraordinary mind. 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.
“He was also a talented artist whose creativity allowed him to see beauty and meaning in places others often overlooked. Those who truly knew Matt knew his heart. He was compassionate, generous with his time, and deeply wanted to help others.”
They added: “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.”’
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