Janelle Brown and her family are addressing the sudden death of her son Garrison Brown for the first time on Sister Wives.
On the May 4 episode of the TLC hit, several Brown family members recalled the moment they first heard the news that Garrison was “gone.” As Janelle spoke, she remembered texting Garrison “all day long” before tragedy struck on March 5, 2024.
“This was not unusual because he and I talked probably three times a day,” Janelle, 55, told the cameras.
“I knew he was struggling. 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,” she continued. “I think he needed the connection, and I know he was talking to [and] calling his brothers and stuff too.”
The night before, Janelle recalled lying down in bed at 8:30 p.m. that evening and noticing that Garrison “kind of stopped texting me.”
“I knew he’d been drinking again. He would go through periods where he was really good, and then he just would have a binge, just as part of the cycle, I think,” she continued. “So I called [my sons] Logan and Hunter. I texted them … because we’ve tag-teamed. I said, ‘Will you guys see if Garrison will respond to you?’ They said, ‘Mom, we’re on it. We’ll just kind of check on him and make sure he’s OK.'”
“So, I went to sleep and Gabriel called me and he’s like, ‘Mom, he’s gone.’ And I’m like, ‘What?'” she added.
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PEOPLE confirmed on March 5, 2024, that Garrison was found dead at age 25. At the time, Lieutenant Charles M. Hernandez II of the Flagstaff Police Department confirmed that “Flagstaff Police officers responded to a report of a death inside a home” and “discovered Mr. Brown deceased.”
Ahead of his death, Janelle noted that Garrison “really struggled with alcohol.”
“I don’t know what happened. He was never a drinking kid. He didn’t like it, didn’t like the taste of it,” she explained. “He started to drink during COVID. Something happened in this last year, and it really just got him.”
Janelle also said her family “had offered him all the love, all the support, all the help, all the resources” beforehand.
“I don’t know what happened that 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,” she continued. “I don’t know. I don’t know what happened this time.”
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Sister Wives airs Sunday at 10 p.m. ET on TLC.
If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988, text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741741 or go to 988lifeline.org.
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