Shain Gandee, the star of MTV’s West Virginia-based reality TV series “Buckwild,” has been found dead, along with two others, in a Ford Bronco submerged in deep mud.
Shain Gandee, 21, had last been seen in the early hours of Sunday morning at a bar. But early Monday morning, Gandee, his uncle David Gandee, 48, and another male were found stuck in mud that reached above the windows of Gandee’s 1984 Ford Bronco on an off-road racing area in Sissonville, W.Va.
A representative for the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office in West Virginia told the press that they were initially unable to remove the bodies from the scene because the truck was stuck in a deep muddy ditch requiring an all-terrain vehicle (ATV) for extraction. The representative also reported that there is no cell reception in the area, which might have inhibited any attempts to get help, and that the bodies were discovered Monday morning by a passing ATV rider.
As MTV reports, the cause of death has not yet been declared. The network issued a statement that the reality-show cast member “had a magnetic personality, with a passion for life that touched everyone he met.”
MTV’s “Buckwild,” the South’s version of the “Jersey Shore,” follows a group of friends in West Virginia as they try to entertain themselves in their small town.