Garrison Brown's Sister Was Trying to Get Him to Move Before Suicide

Garrison was found dead at his Flagstaff, Arizona home by brother Gabriel on March 5, 2024. He died by suicide.

Making a rare appearance on the TLC show in the heartbreaking episode was Madison "Maddie" Brush, Kody and Janelle's eldest daughter and Garrison's older sister, who revealed how she and her husband Caleb were trying to help him before his death.

"I was trying to get him to move out here," shared Madison, who lives in North Carolina. "So it's like, where every step that we like get closer to it. It's like, we talked a lot about that."

"We almost had him here, too," added Caleb, as Maddie said, "We did."

"Almost had him. He was almost coming," said Caleb, before Madison added, "I think he was just so deep."

Throughout the episode, Janelle opened up about her son's battles with anxiety, depression and alcoholism -- saying that he wasn't a drinker until the pandemic. "Then it just became the animal he couldn't get ahold of," she explained, adding that the family "did everything we could" to try and support him.

She said the family offered him "all the love, all the support, all the help, all the resources," adding, "I don't know what happened that this night he did that, because he's had other nights like this where he would drink and then pass out and he would go kind of radio silent, but he'd be back in the morning."

Janelle said she and her son had been texting each other all day before his death -- something she said was "not unusual," as they often talked a few times each day.

"I knew he was struggling and I always just picked up the phone and I always make it a point to just talk to him. And it wasn't really about anything, I think he needed the connection," she said, adding that she knew he was often talking with his brothers as well.

The night he died, she said she laid down to go to bed around 8:30pm and he "kind of stopped texting me." She said she knew he had started drinking again and would go through periods of stopping and binging, so she reached out to son Logan and Christine's son Hunter, asking them to also reach out to him. "They were on it," she recalled, saying she went to sleep, only to be woken up by a call from son Gabriel -- "and he's like, 'Mom, he's gone."

"He said, 'He's dead. He killed himself.' I don't remember the next few minutes. I got in the car and drove," she revealed.

Madison shared that she and her mother had also been talking a lot the day of Garrison's death. Then, her mother told her he had committed suicide.

"There's few moments in your life that I feel like alter your brain chemistry. I definitely feel like calling siblings that a sibling has died definitely alters your brain chemistry," she recalled. Madison also said that she and her husband were trying to get Garrison to move out near them and felt they "almost had him here, too, almost had him."

If you or someone you know is struggling with depression or has had thoughts of harming themselves or taking their own life, get help. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (1-800-273-8255) provides 24/7, free, confidential support for people in distress.