“Alaskan Bush People” star Matt Brown was going through a lot mentally in the days leading up to his death, a family friend exclusively tells Page Six.
Brown’s body was pulled from the Okanogan River in Washington state on Saturday, and his brother Bear announced that he had died by suicide.
Page Six spoke Thursday with Stardog Champion K9 Chay Moore, a family friend of the Browns who was part of the crew that pulled Matt’s body from the river. Moore said she met Matt less than three weeks before the body was discovered and said the reality star was going through a stressful situation.
“He couldn’t get his pickup truck to start. Part of his frustration that day was that the truck wouldn’t start. He couldn’t go on the trip,” he told us.
“[He]broke up with his girlfriend,” he continued. “All these things hit him at the same time that day.”
Matt was dating a woman named Jamie before his death, and while Moore said she didn’t know exactly when they broke up, she knew it was “definitely on my mind” the day she met Matt.
“He was walking and taking buses from town to town to survive,” she said, also describing the difficulties Matt faced after his truck broke down. “He used to take buses and things like that.”
Moore said Jamie was instrumental in finding Matt’s body.
“Matt’s girlfriend really, really pushed us to get going and get out on the water,” he said. “I think there was a concept in her mind of where she thought he was.”
“She basically led the search party on that river,” he added.
Baer said in a TikTok video last week that Matt was “going through a really bad breakup” with a woman he “really loved.”
“I think he had been drinking too much. I don’t know the details,” he said.
She also insisted that Matt’s family has not “shunned” him despite his “long-standing struggle with alcohol and drugs.” In fact, it is said that Matt “didn’t want anything to do with his family.”
“I didn’t think he would hurt himself. It appears to be a self-inflicted injury,” Baer said in a video confirming Matt’s death over the weekend.
Matt and Bear’s youngest brother, Noah, also confirmed finding Matt’s body in the river and said he was the one who identified him.
The Brown family appeared on Discovery Channel’s “Alaskan Bush People” from 2014 to 2019. This reality series follows a family of nine living without electricity in the wilderness.
If you or someone you know has been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, please contact the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988.
