Alaskan Bush People star Matt Brown dies in Washington river, 42

Matt Brown, one of the faces of Discovery’s Alaskan Bush People during the rise of survivalist and off-grid reality television, died in Washington state after a search in the Okanogan River turned deadly. He was 43. Brown appeared on the first eight seasons of the series, from 2014 to 2019, as the oldest child of Billy and Ami Brown, helping make the family’s remote-living story one of the genre’s most recognizable cable-TV properties.

The Okanogan County Sheriff’s Office said it received a 911 call on Wednesday, May 28, 2026, about a man sitting in the shallow waters of the Okanogan River south of Oroville, Washington. Deputies said the caller turned away, heard a sound, looked back and saw the man face down in the water, drifting away in the current. Authorities said a firearm was recovered from the water where the man was last seen.

The search was suspended at 4 p.m. Thursday because of severe weather and dangerous river conditions. Brown’s body was later found and positively identified in the nearby river, according to Bear Brown, who said Noah Brown was with the family and helped pull the body from the water.

Bear Brown also said Matt Brown had struggled with drugs and alcohol for a long time and asked viewers to treat the family and their mother with respect. The death comes four years after Billy Brown, the patriarch and original star of Alaskan Bush People, died in February 2021 at 68 after suffering a seizure. For the Brown family, the loss closes another painful chapter in a franchise built around survival, isolation and the public fascination that followed.