Noah helped search for Matt for “days” before his body was found in Washington, he said in an emotional video

Noah Brown was there when his late brother’s body was pulled from a Washington river.

The youngest son of the Brown family, featured on Discovery’s Alaskan Bush People, spent days searching for his eldest brother, Matt Brown, before his body was finally found in a river on May 30, Noah said in an Instagram video posted later that day. (His post was shared after sibling Solomon Isaiah “Bear” Brown confirmed Matt’s death at age 42 in an Instagram video of his own shortly before.)

“It’s late, and I have some bad news. … It’s been a long day,” Noah, 33, began in the emotional video. “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.”

“My oldest brother, Matthew Brown, has passed away,” he continued.

Later in the video, Noah revealed, “I was there when we pulled him out of the river.”

“We hauled him up off the bank,” he said of his brother Matt. “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 then thanked the individuals who helped in the search for Matt’s body, including “some of the locals here in town.”

“I’ve had a lot of phone calls I’ve been making to inform one and anyone that I haven’t been able to reach or didn’t have a phone number for, but knew Matthew personally, that finds out from this video, 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.”

The youngest Brown brother also stated that there will be “more details,” including a cause of death, shared at a later date, pending the coroner’s report.

Bear, 38, previously said their family believed that Matt, who had a history of substance abuse and was estranged from his family, had ended his own life.

Matt Brown.

Matt Brown.Matt Brown/Instagram

Noah also said in his video that he is going to continue posting on social media after his brother’s death. “I’m gonna do my best to continue doing my thing on TikTok because I’ve got a bunch of videos that I’ve been made to post, so I’m gonna try to get back to doing that when I can,” he explained.

“Anyway, it’s late. Say your prayers and tell people that you love that you love them while you can,” Noah concluded. “God bless, guys.”

Matt was born to Ami and Billy Brown, and he rose to fame as part of the reality series Alaskan Bush People, which followed the family’s unconventional lifestyle in the wilderness.

Matt starred in the show from its premiere in 2014 until 2019, when he stepped away amid his public struggles with addiction.

In his last conversations with Bear, Matt told his brother “he had fallen off the wagon,” the sibling said.