What To Know
- Matt Brown died by suicide in May and was cremated at the Okanogan County Crematory in Washington.
- A coroner previously confirmed death by a single gunshot wound to the head.
- Matt’s brother Noah coordinated search efforts and identified the body.
Warning: The following post contains discussions of suicide.
Alaskan Bush People star Matt Brown has been cremated following his death by suicide back in May, according to new reports.
According to TMZ, the ashes of the late reality star were taken to the Okanogan County Crematory in Okanogan, Washington, on June 24. The Okanogan County Coroner’s Office previously confirmed Brown’s death was caused by a “single penetrating gunshot wound to the head.”
Contributing circumstances were noted as “subsequent immersion in water” and “under the influence of methamphetamine.”
The 42-year-old was pulled from a river in Okanogan County on May 30, as confirmed by his brother, Bear Brown. “They found a body in the river a few hours ago, and it was positively identified as being Matt,” Bear told his Instagram followers in an emotional post.
Matt’s younger brother, Noah, was the one who identified the body. At the time, Noah told Us Weekly, “For the past couple days, I’ve been communicating back and forth with the different search teams. There [were] two separate search teams that were going to look for him. They were nonprofits and we’re all communicating.”
He continued, “One of the smaller, more local teams decided to go out yesterday, and about, I think it’s 3:20-something, 3:27, 3:28, something like that, they texted me and told me they had found him. So I rushed down to the spot.”
Noah said that it was too risky to leave the body where it was in case the current took him away. Instead, the small search team loaded Matt into a “small skiff” and moved him to shore.
“Then myself and the rest of the people that were looking hauled the skiff up further on the shore, and that’s where it was… when the coroner came,” Noah added. “Right now, all I can say is that he was lost in the river. He was lost in the river and we found him.”
Noah later shared an update on Instagram, confirming that he identified the body as his older brother’s. “We hauled him up off the bank. And then, after the sheriffs got there and everything, the coroner did his thing, and I went down to identify that it was him,” he said. “It’s definitely Matthew. His ID and Social Security card was on him, and I was able to visually identify that it was Matthew.”
If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by texting or dialing 988. If you or a loved one is in immediate danger, call 911.