Former MTV VJ Jesse Camp Found Safe After Sister’s Desperate Plea

Jesse Camp, the former MTV VJ who was reported MIA by his family earlier this week, is no longer considered missing. The Riverside, California Police department issued a statement to confirm that the TV personality, whose real name is Josiah Camp, “was contacted by a local law enforcement agency a short time ago and not in need of any assistance.”

Earlier this week, Page Six reported that Jesse Camp, 38, was missing after his concerned sister, Marisha Camp, filed a missing person’s report with police. During a search for Camp, it was revealed that he hadn’t spoken to his mother in nearly two weeks after normally keeping in touch with his family on a weekly basis. An ex-girlfriend also stated that when she tried to call Camp a stranger answered his cell phone and revealed the former MTV star gave him the phone and three bags of belongings.

In a statement to Us Weekly, Riverside PIO Ryan Railsback confirmed that Camp had been found alive and that his family was aware of his whereabouts.

“Jesse Camp is no longer considered missing. A neighboring law enforcement agency noticed Jesse in a shopping center and came in contact with him. Jesse’s family was notified.”

Former MTV VJ Jesse Camp has been found https://t.co/qQdp3SAfH3 pic.twitter.com/iOHISkkoej

— billboard (@billboard) July 25, 2018

Us reported that Jesse Camp’s sister had spearheaded a widespread search for the star, posting stories to her Instagram in a desperate pitch to find him. Marisha Camp asked fans to keep her brother in their prayers and to ask him to call home if he was spotted.

Officer Railsback told People that Marisha Camp had been in contact with someone who had told her her brother was in Riverside, about 50 miles from Los Angeles, a week ago, and “that he’s been known to travel to the Inland Empire, and Riverside, from time to time.”

Police added that they didn’t see “anything suspicious” about Jesse Camp’s disappearance, but that Marisha Camp reportedly called police after saying her brother “might have been depressed recently.”

In a 2015 interview with Huffington Post, Camp revealed that he struggled with drug addiction for most of his 20s before getting sober at age 29.

Jesse Camp rose to fame in 1998 after winning the first season of the MTV reality show Wanna Be a VJ, which came with a one-year VJ stint on the popular music video countdown show, TRL, which was then hosted by Carson Daly. Camp released an album titled Jesse & the 8th Street Kidz in 1999.