‘Alaskan Bush People’ Star Matt Brown Missing Near River — New Evidence Found

Matt Brown |

By Milly Wanjiku Ndirangu

May 30, 2026

03:35 A.M.Share

A witness says a man was sitting in shallow water. Moments later, after a sudden sound, he was drifting down the river. Now, the search for answers has taken an unexpected turn.

For several days, concern has been growing around former “Alaskan Bush People” star Matt Brown. While authorities have not identified the man at the center of an ongoing river search in Washington state, a series of developments has placed the reality star at the heart of the mystery.

The questions began with a reported sighting near a riverbank. They grew after Matt’s brother, Bear Brown, publicly expressed fears that the missing man could be him. Then, investigators revealed what search crews recovered from the water.

‘Day Two’: A Man Trying to Hold On.

Just five days before he went missing, Matt went live on YouTube on Memorial Day, May 25. He was in Oroville, Washington — the same town where the search would later be launched — and by his own account, things were fragile but moving forward.

It was day two of what he called his recovery plan. He was short on sleep, struggling to find somewhere to stay, and candid about the weight of starting over.

“I didn’t get much sleep last night,” he told his viewers. “It’s a little bit harder to find places here in Orville. So, yeah, things are good. I still have a good recovery plan. This is day two. Yeah, go slow, have faith, be positive, you know, those kinds of things.”

He talked about fixing up his truck, planning shorter road trips to stretch a tight budget, and thinking about getting a hotel room so he could shower. He acknowledged a relapse had cost him — his YouTube channel had gone down temporarily — and he reflected on the people he felt he had let down.

“At first, it was a little melancholy getting back and thinking of all the people I disappointed with my relapse,” he said. He reminded himself of the steps: meetings, sobriety milestones, taking it slow.

Near the end of the video, a friend showed up and handed him cigarettes. The exchange was warm, easy — the kind of moment that makes a person seem very much alive.

“It’s because he’s got faith in me, is what it is,” Matt said. He also made a statement that felt like a quiet resolution: “Baby steps. Just take baby steps.”

In another livestream filmed around the same period, Matt appeared in a starkly different state. He was shirtless, smoking a cigarette, and visibly restless — fidgeting and rambling in a way that stood in sharp contrast to the measured tone of the Memorial Day video.

The Mystery Starts Wednesday Morning

On the morning of Wednesday, May 27, a family member who spoke to TMZ spotted Matt near Driscoll Island Wildlife Area off Highway 97 in Oroville. The time was around 8 AM. He was less than a mile from the Okanogan River.

The sighting was not unusual. It is a campground and fishing hole he is known to frequent, and close to where trouble would unfold hours later. Hours passed. Then, at 2:30 PM that same afternoon, a 911 call came in.

A Sound, Then Silence

The Okanogan County Sheriff’s Office detailed the moment in its press release: a caller reported that he had just spoken to a male sitting in the shallow water of the Okanogan River south of Oroville.

The two had talked. Then the caller turned away only to hear a sound. He turned back — and the man was face-down in the water, drifting away in the current.

Law enforcement, fire, and EMS responded immediately. Okanogan County Deputies arrived with one boat, two jet ski-type watercraft, and an aerial drone. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife sent an additional boat. Despite the full-scale response that afternoon, the man was not found.

The search continued until dark, around 8:45 PM. It resumed the following morning, May 28, with watercraft, divers, and an aerial drone back in the water. That afternoon, severe weather forced authorities to suspend operations.

Sheriff Jodie Barcus noted the conditions made the search especially dangerous — elevated runoff levels, reduced visibility, strong currents, and debris moving through the water.

The identity of the male was not confirmed. Authorities stated it would not be released.

The Discovery in the Water

Amid the search, investigators recovered something from the water near the spot where the man was last seen: a firearm.

The Okanogan County Sheriff’s Office confirmed the weapon was pulled from the river in the area where the unidentified male was observed. The family member who spoke to TMZ separately noted that Matt owns a firearm.

The identity of the male has not been officially confirmed, and authorities have stated it will not be released. But the pieces were adding up fast — and Matt’s own brother was already connecting them.

Bear Breaks Down on Camera

On Thursday, May 29, Bear Brown, 38, posted an emotional TikTok video telling his followers he had received “some really bad news.” He said he had been told that Matt “took his own life,” though he stressed he could not confirm it.

Bear said Matt “was seen in a river, at a river or close to a river” and later “floating down the river,” and that someone had “called police,” who had been “trying to find the body.”

“All the witnesses are saying that it was Matt,” Bear said, visibly emotional. “Someone definitely did, and a lot of people are thinking that it’s him. … It looks like it is. … It’s looking very likely that it is the case.”

He was open about Matt’s long-running battle with alcohol and drugs, but he pushed back on any perception that the family had turned its back on him. The reality, Bear said, was the opposite — it was Matt who “didn’t want anything to do with the family.”

Bear described calling to encourage him, urging him toward sobriety whenever they connected. But those calls were infrequent, and the in-person moments rarer still.

The Last Time They Were in the Same Room

The brothers had crossed paths not long before the disappearance, running into each other at a Walmart. Bear recalled it as the final time they were face-to-face.

“That was the last time I saw him,” Bear shared. “And he called me after that, and he said that he had fallen off the wagon. And I was like, ‘Well, get back on it, man. Everybody falls off. Just get back on it. Go to rehab if you’ve got to. You got this. You’ve fought it a lot before.'”

Beyond the relapse, Matt had also been going through a painful breakup with someone he cared about deeply. Bear said the combination of the drinking and the heartbreak had taken a visible toll, though he did not know all the details.

He repeated, three times, that he “would’ve never thought that Matt would take his own life.” With visible grief, Bear asked fans to direct none of their anger toward his mother, Ami Brown.

“Please don’t blame her,” Bear begged. “Mom cares very much for Matt and always has and has been through a lot for him.”

A Man Still Unaccounted For

As of Saturday, May 30, the Okanogan County Sheriff’s Office has not confirmed the identity of the man in the river. The search remains ongoing, pending improved weather conditions.

What is known: a family member placed Matt Brown near that river on the morning of May 27. A witness watched a man go under that same afternoon. A firearm was recovered from the water. And the eldest Brown sibling has not been heard from since.Share