Matt Brown’s brother Bear Brown has confirmed that the “Alaskan Bush People” star died by suicide.
Bear released a shocking update about Matt in a TikTok video on Saturday, after Matt worried fans with his recent alarming livestream. Bear said Noah Brown, the youngest of seven Brown brothers, pulled Matt’s body from the Okanogan River in Washington and identified him.
“I didn’t think he would hurt himself. It looks like it was a self-inflicted injury,” Baer said. “Obviously the coroner has to look at him and stuff, but I thought you guys should know it was him.”
Baer asked his followers to be respectful of his family, especially his mother, and be mindful of the comments they leave.
“Sometimes words can hurt more than fists and a lot of people have left negative comments about Matt as well,” he added. “In one of his last videos, he actually talks about how negative people were about his posts.”
“You have to remember that the people on the other side of the screen, the people watching the video, they are real people too.”
Baer said in a TikTok video last Thursday that Matt “has struggled with alcohol and drugs for many years,” but insisted his family has not “shunned” him. In fact, it is said that Matt “didn’t want anything to do with his family.”
The last time they saw each other was when they ran into each other at Walmart, and Matt said he “fell off the wagon.” Baer said he recommended he go to a rehabilitation facility.
Matt also said he 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.
Concerns about Matt were heightened earlier this month after he posted a YouTube livestream that showed him naked, speaking incoherently and carrying what appeared to be a firearm.
He was 43 years old.
Matt appeared on Discovery Channel’s Alaskan Bush People from 2014 to 2019, starring his parents Billy and Ami and his siblings.
The reality series follows the Brown family as they live off the grid in the wilderness.
