After Reported Missing, Shain Gandee of MTV’s Buckwild Is Found Dead In A Truck

Shain Gandee of MTV’s reality show Buckwild was found dead this morning. The whole case is kind of bizarre. Here’s what The Huffington Post reported.

In a statement released Monday morning, the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Department reported the MTV reality star as missing. However, authorities later confirmed that the 21-year-old was found dead in a truck in Sissonville, W. Va., along with two other bodies, the Charleston Gazette reports.

ABC affiliate WCHS-TV reports that a man on a four-wheeler spotted the three unresponsive people in a vehicle on Wolf Pen Road Monday morning. After emergency services responded, the three were confirmed dead.

According to Kanawha County Commissioner Kent Carper, the body of Gandee’s 48-year-old uncle, David Gandee, was also recovered, local CBS affiliate WOWK-TV reports. The identity of the third body has not been released.

In the missing persons advisory, police said Gandee was last seen with his uncle at Larry’s Bar in Sissonville at about 3 a.m. on March 31. Both men were reported missing overnight after family and friends could not locate them throughout the day.

The two men told others that they planned on going “four-wheeling” in the younger Gandee’s Ford Bronco, police said. However, the men did not specify exactly where they planned to drive off-road. The red-and-white vehicle was last seen leaving the parking lot of Larry’s Bar early Sunday morning.

From what it sounds like, there weren’t any signs of trauma but they’re not releasing a lot of details about the crime scene other than that Shain and David Gandee were found with a third unidentified person in a truck. They were reported missing for about one day. I didn’t think that you could report someone as missing until after 48 hours but maybe that’s just one of those classic movie tropes that people mistake for fact. Or maybe it’s just different from state to state. MTV released a statement:

We are shocked and saddened by the terrible news about Shain Gandee, and those involved in this tragic incident. We are waiting for more information but at this time, our main concern is for the Gandee family and their friends. Our thoughts and prayers are with them. Shain had a magnetic personality, with a passion for life that touched everyone he met and we will miss him dearly.

MTV’s Jackass star Ryan Dunn died in June of 2011 in a car wreck. In his case it was due to drunk driving. No word yet on the cause and circumstances of Gandee’s death.

UPDATE (VIA TMZ):

2:38 PM PT — TMZ has learned … the bodies of all 3 victims have been recovered from the scene and have been transferred to the local medical examiner’s office where autopsies will be performed.

2:29 PM PT — Officials have retrieved Shain’s red Ford Bronco from the muddy pit where it was discovered … and judging by pictures of the car taken at the scene, it appears the vehicle was submerged past the window.

The photos seem to support the theory that the passengers died from carbon monoxide poisoning because the deadly fumes from the car could not escape through the tailpipe, which was completely submerged in the mud.