The coroner involved in the investigation of Matt Brown’s death has revealed more details about the discovery of the Alaskan Bush People star’s remains.
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In a statement, the Okanogan County Coroner’s Office confirmed the identity of the deceased adult male recovered from the Okanogan River south of Oroville, Washington. It was noted that the Okanogan County Sheriff’s Office notified the coroner’s office on May 27 of “an individual observed floating face down in the river.”
“Initial efforts to confirm and retrieve the individual were unsuccessful due to fast-moving river conditions,” the statement reads. “And search operations continued over the following days.”
The coroner’s office was notified on May 30 that a body “had been located downstream from the original site.”
“Working in coordination with the Okanogan County Sheriff’s Office, the body was secured and subsequently positively identified as Matthew J. Brown, 43, of Oroville, Washington,” the coroner’s office shared. “Identification was confirmed by a family member present on scene.”
The coroner’s office stated that the postmortem examination will be conducted in the coming days. The examination will determine the official cause of death.
Matt’s brother, Bear, initially confirmed the news over the weekend. Bear pointed out that his older brother was missing before his body was discovered. He stated it is theorized that Matt’s passing was “self-inflicted.”
“I would have never suspected he would have hurt himself, honestly,” Bear explained. “He struggled for a long time, as I’ve mentioned. And I was so worried he was going to end up, you know, like, OD’d or something like that. I didn’t think he would hurt himself.”
Bear further shared, “Obviously, the coroner and stuff still has to look at him and stuff. But I thought that y’all guys should know that it is him.”
Matt’s brother, Noah, Spoke About How He and the Search Team Found the Remains
The coroner’s information comes just after Matt’s brother Noah spoke out about how he and a search team discovered the remains.
“All we can say is that he was lost in the river,” Noah explained to Us Weekly. “He was lost in the river, and we found him. Right now, he’s with the coroner. They’re going to do an autopsy and everything like that. They haven’t yet released the cause of death.”
“I was there, so they found him, and the small search team that had actually located him,” Noah further shared. “Instead of leaving the body where it was, they had loaded him into the 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 then confirmed that he “personally ID’d” his older brother at the scene. He also explained that the Okanogan River, where Matt’s remains were found, is “very rough” and in a “treacherous area.”
“There is a fishing spot in the area. The part where he apparently went in was a spot that’s a fishing area, but again, we don’t know really anything that happened,” he pointed out. “The [Okanogan County Sheriff’s Office] hasn’t released a formal statement involving the details, and the coroner hasn’t released any statement about the autopsy yet.”
No further details have been shared at this time.