Lance Waldroup, one of the bootleggers featured in Discovery‘s reality series “Moonshiners,” died on Feb. 25 in North Carolina. He was 30.
The network confirmed Waldroup’s death in a Facebook post earlier this week.
“We are saddened to hear about the loss of Lance Waldroup,” the network said. “An adventurous distiller who was featured alongside his father throughout the early seasons of Moonshiners, Lance was always looking to take his flavorful recipes of ‘shine to new heights.”
A cause of death has not yet been revealed. However, a GoFundMe page set up by his family to raise money for a memorial fund says the death was “unexpected.”
Waldroup, one of the less experienced bootleggers on the series, frequently appeared on “Moonshiners” with his father, Jeff, to whom he would frequently turn for guidance.
According to the GoFundMe, Waldroup is a native of Graham County, N.C. His sister, Lyndsey, had cystic fibrosis and died at the age of 11, and his brother, Lamar, also had cystic fibrosis and died at the age of 20, 1.5 years after a lung transplant, leaving Lance with no siblings. The losses left him with survivor’s guilt, according to the page, and he “was an addict for several years and then decided to turn his life around. He went to rehab and had become a recovered addict.”
Waldroup quit “Moonshiners” to take care of his mother, Lynn, after she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. “He did not want to leave her side and waited on her hand and foot,” the GoFundMe page reads.
A memorial service for Waldroup is set for March 6 at the Cedar Cliff Baptist Church in Robbinsville, N.C.
