Bear Brown said Thursday that his older brother Matt Brown might be dead after a man was reported in the Okanogan River in Washington and a search by authorities failed to find him. Bear said he had been told Matt took his own life, and he urged fans to be respectful as the family waits for answers.
The post, made on TikTok, landed a day after the Okanogan County Sheriff Office said someone called 911 on Wednesday after speaking to a man sitting in the shallow water of the river south of Oroville. The caller said the man turned facedown and drifted away in the current. Officers from several agencies searched but could not locate him, and the search was still active as the sheriff office warned that elevated runoff water levels were making the effort difficult and dangerous.
Bear’s remarks gave the public its first personal window into how the Brown family is handling the scare. He said Matt had been struggling for a long time with alcohol and drugs, and that he had recently run into him at Walmart. After that encounter, Bear said, Matt called and admitted he had fallen off the wagon. Bear also said Matt had been going through a really bad breakup and described him as someone who would probably have told others to get back on it, go to rehab if necessary, and keep fighting.
That account, though, collided with the sheriff office’s caution. Bear said it looked very likely that the man in the river was Matt, but investigators said the identity of the man had not been confirmed and would not be released. A gun was later recovered from the area, adding to the unease, but it did not answer the central question of who was in the water or what happened after he drifted away.
Bear also moved to shield his mother from online blame, writing that fans should not attack her and saying she cares deeply for Matt and has been through a lot for him. The family has already lived through one loss after Billy Brown died in February 2021, and Bear’s plea made clear that this moment is about more than a social media post. Until authorities confirm the man’s identity, the search remains open and the Brown family is left waiting on the one fact that matters most.
