The harrowing details about the moment a rescue team found Matt Brown’s body in the river have emerged.
Chay Wilkerson Moore spoke to the US Sun about the emotional rescue mission, saying that he quickly formed a small team — which included Matt’s girlfriend, Jaime, and his brother Noah Brown — to search the Okanogan River in Washington State.
“Basically, we had four people, and they brought whatever we could find, which were kayaks from Walmart,” Moore told the outlet.
“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,” he added.
“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.”
Moore said they had a plan to man both sides of the bank. Then, a female volunteer spotted a brown jacket bobbing up in the murky water.
“Brown water and brown jacket… so very difficult to spot,” Moore said, adding that they found Matt’s body “about 3.5 miles exactly from the entry point where he entered the water.”
Moore said there were “a lot of emotions” felt when a volunteer named Charlie located Matt and began praying for him.
“And from that point, they approached the body, and they loaded it into the boat, which isn’t a normal practice for us,” Moore 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. If he went down that river, we would not find him,” he added.
“And being that they were very close to Matt, I think that their adrenaline kicked in and they loaded him into the boat.”
The rescue team arranged an exit point where Noah and others met them to retrieve Matt’s body.
“We picked up the boat with Matt in it; he was covered, and Noah was still in a surreal state of disbelief,” Moore recalled to the US Sun.
“Jamie, Matt’s girlfriend, was very overwhelmed with emotions, to say the least,” he shared, adding that she was “being comforted as Charlie assisted the body down the water, to keep her looking forward and holding her.”
Over the weekend, Matt’s brother Bear Brown, 38, shared the devastating news on TikTok that his oldest brother had died. He was 43.
Bear said that his late brother had “been struggling for a long time with alcohol and with drugs.”
Matt, his parents and his siblings starred in “Alaskan Bush People” between 2014 and 2019. The reality show followed their lives as they lived off the grid in the wilderness.
If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, contact the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988.
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