The late Alaskan Bush People star’s family confirmed his suspected death this week after his body was found on Sunday.
Matt Brown from Discover’s Alaskan Bush People was found dead on Sunday afternoonCredit: Instagram
Matt Brown’s body was pulled out of a river in Okanogan in Washington by a volunteer search and rescue teamCredit: Getty
Matt had been missing since May 27, and relatives took to social media to appeal for help and keep fans informed.
The Okanogan County Sheriff’s Office previously confirmed they launched a huge search operation after a witness saw a man “face down in the water drifting away in the current.”
They said a firearm was found nearby where the man first went missing, but they failed to find a body.
Chay Wilkerson Moore, who has completed 12 successful recoveries in the past five years, told The U.S. Sun he quickly got to work forming a team to search the Okanogan River.
He said he knew Matt “pretty well,” and he was aware he’d struggled with addiction and mental health issues for many years.
Eyewitnesses took to Facebook to report seeing Matt in a “state of confusion,” and at one point, he was allegedly seen walking down the middle of a road, Chay claimed.
“A very personal friend of mine called me and told me that Matt said he was on a mission from Jesus,” Chay told The U.S. Sun. “And we had no clue what any of this meant.”
He explained he then saw the official report from the Sheriff’s Office and waited until they had conducted their own search, so he didn’t interfere before taking to Facebook to appeal for volunteers.
The volunteer was also in contact with Matt’s brother Noah, who signed off on the search and stayed in touch.
Chay said, “Basically, we had four people, and they brought whatever we could find, which were kayaks from Walmart.
“I mean, we literally had two kayaks and a little narrow fishing boat.
“In fact, I felt that I was too big to get in the fishing boat to assist because, you know, I’m a pretty big guy.”
Chay explained, “We all know that river extremely well. I’ve been swimming in it since the 1970s.
“We know the terrain, and we know our equipment, so we were quite confident that we’d find him.
“Being in a kayak and canoe and small boats with no engines were able to go inch by inch very slowly, even with fast-moving water, which, in this case, the water was moving at about four knots, I’d say about close to five miles per hour, which is pretty extreme.”
Chay Wilkerson Moore lead the search for Matt’s body and said it was an emotional dayCredit: The U.S. Sun
Matt Brown was estranged from a lot of his family members after years of addiction issuesCredit: Instagram
They had a plan to man both sides of the bank and entered the water at about 1.31 pm.
Chay explained that Matt’s girlfriend, a woman named Jaime, was also a major part of the search and sat on one of the boats.
“At that point, a drone operator came to the scene as well and donated his services,” Chay said.
“The drone didn’t yield any results. As a matter of fact, the drone was searching the banks, and the boats were slightly ahead of him.
“And it was actually the group of kayakers that, as I said, it’s a very tedious situation, examining a brown river that’s rapid with ripples.
“It’s very hard to see over a little wave. So a powerboat wouldn’t have been a good option.
“Even a helicopter with the updraft would not help the situation.
“We found Matt about 3.5 miles exactly from the entry point where he entered the water.”
He explained that one of the female volunteers spotted a brown jacket bobbing up in the brown water, which turned out to be what Matt was wearing when he disappeared.
“Brown water and brown jacket… so very difficult to spot,” Chay said.
He said there were “a lot of emotions” felt when a volunteer named Charlie located Matt and began saying prayers for him.
Charlie’s wife was also “stirred” when she called Chay to alert him, he claimed.
“And from that point, they approached the body, and they loaded it into the boat, which isn’t a normal practice for us,” Chay admitted.
“We normally call the Sheriff, have them deal with it. But, being that the current was there, they were afraid that they would lose him. And if he went down that river, we would not find him.
“And being that they were very close to Matt, I think that their adrenaline kicked in and they loaded him into the boat.
They then arranged an exit point about 20 minutes from Chay, and the others involved in the search, including brother Noah, met them to retrieve his body.
“We picked up the boat with Matt in it; he was covered, and Noah was still in a surreal state of disbelief,” he said.
Chay explained that as the boat arrived, it was almost entirely submerged, with only around three inches above the water as they battled to pull it in.
“Jamie, Matt’s girlfriend, was very overwhelmed with emotions, to say the least,” Chay said.
“And she was being comforted as Charlie assisted the body down the water, to keep her looking forward and holding her.”
Chay said the family has a “love of love for each other” despite Matt’s problems and being estranged from many relatives due to his addiction issues over the years.
Matt was a fan favorite on the reality show Alaskan Bush People from 2014 until he was fired in 2018.
It emerged two years later that he had been accused of raping two women, but the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office declined to file charges.
Following his death this week, his young brother Bear announced the news on TikTok.
“Noah helped them pull the body out of the water, and Noah identified [Matt],” he told followers.
Bear alsoshared in his videothat Matt had been struggling withalcoholand drug addiction, among “other issues” that he’d kept private from the publicin recent years.
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