Yellowstone star Mo Brings Plenty has shared his belief that his nephew was murdered, accusing the local police of not wanting to dedicate resources to investigating his death.
Cole Brings Plenty, 27, was found dead in a wooded area of Kansas in April 2024, just days after his family reported him missing. At the time, the Johnson County, Kansas Sheriff’s Office confirmed there was no foul play suspected in the 1923 actor’s death.
Years later, his family is still demanding answers.
“For his murder to go uninvestigated, and for it to be written off as ‘no foul play,’ because they didn’t want to invest anything into it? It’s heartbreaking,” said Mo, a member of the indigenous Oglala Lakota tribe, in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “We’re not letting it go.”
The actor, who reprised his best-known role as Mo in Taylor Sheridan’s new Yellowstone spin-off Marshals, added: “Because we’re taxpaying people as well. So for them to not work for us, no different than how they work for anyone else is, is pretty sad.
“I saw his body, I saw the evidence that is there that someone caught him,” he claimed. “So for them to say that there was nothing, I can’t believe that. I still can’t.”
At the time he was reported missing, Cole was a suspect in a domestic violence case. He was accused of fleeing after authorities responded to “reports of a female screaming for help.”
Lawrence police said in a statement at the time: “Traffic cameras showed him leaving the city immediately after the incident.”
Mo further alleged that “the departments didn’t put much effort” into searching for Cole. “In fact, they weren’t even really looking for him. They were hunting him,” he claimed. “They weren’t searching for him. They were hunting him until the day when a good friend of mine and I rented a helicopter and told the Lawrence Police Department that we were going to go and search from the air, and that day, they were out in full force.”
In a statement to The Independent, a spokesperson for the LKPD denied Mo’s allegations, saying: “We provided a complete, in person, presentation of the evidence to the family which included videos, witness statements, and photographs. The family chose not to release the facts. Out of compassion we complied with their wishes.
“Once the case concluded, the family petitioned the court to seal the autopsy report, medical examiner’s case file, law enforcement case files of the Lawrence, Kansas Police Department and the Johnson County, Kansas Sheriff’s Department, and the Death Certificate of Cole Brings Plenty. A judge signed it,” they continued.
“The entire case contains clear evidence that there was no foul play involved in Cole’s death and that Cole acted alone,” they added. “Any confusion and speculation are a result of the family’s messaging. With the family’s permission, we are willing to release a full report of our investigative efforts and results.”
The Independent has contacted the Coles’ family and the Johnson Sheriff’s Office for comment.
Cole was a media student at Haskell Indian Nations University in Kansas. He was best known for playing Pete Plenty Clouds on the Western drama 1923.
Describing Cole as “the future” of their people, Mo added: “It was a hard loss for us because this was an individual who was speaking our language, singing our songs and carrying on our traditions.”
Months after Cole’s death, his father, Joe Brings Plenty Sr., also demanded a full investigation.
“My boy, we have some work to do,” the Cheyenne River Sioux tribal leader said at the 2024 Red Nation Film Festival. “We want a full investigation done, a fair investigation, to find out what happened with Cole.”
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