The Moonshiners Cast That Died All Had One Thing in Common — And It Wasn't Booze
Over more than a decade on Discovery's Moonshiners, viewers have seen bootleggers dodge the law and keep their stills running.
But the cast members who've died since the show began didn't lose their lives to alcohol. What they shared was something far more personal — and far less visible on screen: private battles and circumstances that ended their lives away from the cameras.
Kenny Law died Jan. 14, 2025, at 68. His distillery's Facebook page said he passed "peacefully" and "surrounded by loved ones." No cause of death was given, but his passing joins a list of former Moonshiners no longer here.
Lance Waldroup died in March 2021 at just 30. His mother found him unconscious in bed after he'd been outside smoking, then gone to play video games. An autopsy revealed congenital heart failure, worsened by morbid obesity — he weighed 580 pounds — along with a history of opioid addiction and depression. His upbeat energy on Moonshiners masked the fact that he was struggling.
Discovery remembered him as "an adventurous distiller" who was always looking to take his moonshine recipes further.
Jim Tom Hedrick, a fixture from Season 2 to 2017, died in September 2023 after battling kidney cancer. He was 82. Discovery called him "a treasured member of the Moonshiners family." His illness had pulled him out of the public eye years before his death.
Popcorn Sutton — the legendary moonshiner whose old footage appeared in Season 1 — died in 2009, before the series even aired. Facing a federal prison sentence, he took his own life via carbon monoxide poisoning.
None of these deaths matched the high-stakes image the show projects. Instead, the common thread was lives ending due to illness, addiction, depression, or legal pressure — all far removed from the jars of liquor that made them famous.