The body of the YouTube star was recovered early Tuesday morning in St. George, Utah after he had gone off the radar near the Sand Hollow State Park while paragliding on Monday night.
- Jul 31, 2019
AceShowbiz - YouTube community is mourning the death of one of its own, Grant Thompson. The creator and star of popular YouTube channel "King of Random" passed away on Monday night, July 29 during a paragliding trip. He was 38.
The sad news is confirmed via a statement posted on his official Instagram account on Tuesday. "It is with great sadness to inform everyone that Grant Thompson passed away last night," the statement reads. "Grant had great love and appreciation for his fans. We invite you to share your thoughts for Grant and the channel in the comments. Please do a random act of love or kindness today in honor of The King of Random. Grant's legacy will live on in the channel and the global community he created."
While the statement doesn't detail the circumstances of his death, his brother Mark tells TMZ that Grant went paragliding on Monday evening, but never returned home. His body was recovered on Tuesday after his family filed a missing person's report.
According to the Washington County Sheriff's Office, Grant had gone off the radar near the Sand Hollow State Park and could not be reached on his cellphone. After a massive search and using Grant's coordinates pulled from GPS data, a helicopter managed to locate his body that night. Paragliding equipment and a video recording device were found at the crash site. Detectives are using footage from the recording device to review the accident and determine the cause.
Mark says his brother Grant started paragliding around 5 months ago. He also enjoyed skydiving, flying and other airborne activities.
Grant created his YouTube channel in 2010. It documents experiments, life hacks and random weekend projects often involving large amounts of a single item. The channel was originally hosted solely by Grant, but now features co-hosts Nate Bonham and Calli Gade. The channel has more than 11 million subscribers and amassed nearly 2.5 billion views total.
YouTube expressed its condolences on Twitter, posting, "We're deeply saddened to learn of the tragic loss of Grant Thompson, a gifted, passionate and endlessly curious creator. We send our deepest condolences to his loving family, The King of Random team and fans."
