Shain Gandee, the breakout star of MTV’s rowdy reality show “Buckwild,” was found dead Monday in his stranded Ford Bronco in West Virginia, authorities said.
His uncle and a third man identified as Robert Myers were also dead in the truck in a remote, wooded area near Thaxton Hollow in Sissonville, authorities said.
Emergency responders used all-terrain vehicles to access the isolated accident site and said the vehicle’s placement suggested the group had gone “mudding, ” an extreme version of off-road driving depicted on the MTV show.
“The vehicle was in a muddy area along a worn path,” Cpl. B.D. Humphreys of the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office said. “There was no sign of foul play.”
He declined to confirm or deny conflicting interent theories that the vehicle had overturned in water or was upright in mud just deep enough to cover the tailpipe and cause a backup of carbon monoxide.
“We will not speculate on the cause of death. We will wait on an autopsy report from the West Virginia Office of the Chief Medical Examiner,” he said.
“Everyone is shocked and devastated. He was such a great kid, so respectful. I’ve been in tears all day long,” cousin Ashley Gandee, who just opened Gandee’s General Store in Crown City, Ohio, told the Daily News.
“He was just here for our grand opening on Saturday, signing autographs, laughing, hugging,” she said. “His newfound fame didn’t faze him at all. He was so down to earth.”
She said the third man in the car, Robert Myers, likely was a friend, though Shain’s dad didn’t know who he was.
“This is a very sad and tragic event. We live in a very small community and this tragedy will affect many lives in Kanawha County,” county Commissioner Kent Carper said in a statement.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the Gandee family,” he said.
Shain, 21, and his uncle David Gandee, 48, were last seen around 3 a.m. Sunday at Larry’s Bar in Sissonville, according to a sheriff’s department press release.
They said they were planning to go four-wheeling in Shain’s 1984 Bronco, the release said.
Relatives spent most of Sunday trying to contact and locate the two men before calling 911 to report them missing, cops said.
Gandee’s hit MTV show characterizes the “wild” lifestyle of a group of rambunctious teenagers living in rural West Virginia.
It follows the format of MTV megahit “Jersey Shore,” focusing on a group of friends partying and performing reckless stunts for fun.
Shain was the show’s undisputed star, billed as the “redneck MacGyver” who had done “every job from coal mining to being a garbage man.”
His most popular stunts included converting a dump truck into a swimming pool, hurtling downhill curled inside a truck tire and giving “Late Night” host Jimmy Fallon a jar of homemade deer meat pickled in moonshine.
“Wild, crazy, don’t really care for nothin,'” is how he described his personality in a recent interview with the Daily News.
“We are shocked and saddened by the terrible news about Shain Gandee, and those involved in this tragic incident,” MTV said in a statement. “Shain had a magnetic personality, with a passion for life that touched everyone he met, and we will miss him dearly.”
ndillon@nydailynews.com
