Noah Brown is opening up about the heartbreaking role he played in the search for his brother, Matt Brown.
In a video shared on social media on May 31, the former Alaskan Bush People star revealed that he spent several days working alongside search-and-rescue crews before Matt was recovered from the Okanogan River.
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“For the past couple days, I’ve been working with search and rescue groups trying to locate the body. And today, the group that I was working with located the missing body, and I identified it as Matthew,” Noah said. “My oldest brother, Matthew Brown, has passed away.”
“I was there when we pulled him out of the river,” he continued. “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. It’s definitely Matthew. His ID and Social Security card was on him, and I was able to visually identify that it was Matthew.”
Noah went on to apologize to anyone who knew Matt who had to learn of his death on social media.
“I am sincerely sorry that I wasn’t able to tell you personally,” Noah said in his video. “And for all the fans of the show and everything, I’m sorry that it came down to this of finding out.”
Noah and Matt starred alongside their family on the Discovery Channel series, Alaskan Bush People. Matt left the show in 2019 and entered rehab for substance abuse, a struggle he spoke openly about.
The Okanogan County Sheriff’s Office has confirmed that the body recovered from the Okanogan River belonged to Matt. His official cause of death has not yet been released and will be determined by the coroner.