Cole Brings Plenty, "1923" actor, found dead in Kansas days after being reported missing

Cole Brings Plenty, an actor who appeared in "1923," a spinoff of the popular television western "Yellowstone," was found dead after he went missing amid a domestic violence investigation in Kansas, authorities said Friday.

The Johnson County Sheriff's Office said in a statement on social media that deputies found the body of a 27-year-old male in a wooded area on April 5. Detectives were dispatched around 11:45 a.m. local time to investigate an empty car on Homestead Lane, the sheriff's office said. 

Crime scene investigators and the medical examiner were at the location, but no details were released about the cause of death. Two days earlier Brings Plenty was charged in a nearby county with aggravated burglary, domestic battery and criminal restraint. An arrest warrant was issued.

Police in the town of Lawrence said officers responded Sunday to an apartment where a woman was screaming for help, and Brings Plenty had left before they arrived. Traffic cameras showed him leaving the city immediately after the incident, traveling southbound on 59 Highway, the Lawrence Police Department said. Authorities said he was driving a 2005 Ford Explorer bearing a Kansas license plate.

He then missed an audition for an upcoming film project that was scheduled for Monday morning over Zoom, his agent, Peter Yanke of Phirgun Mair Worldwide, said this week. Authorities said they had used drones in their efforts to locate the missing actor.

Brings Plenty's father, Joe, said in a statement Friday that he is grateful for everyone "for their prayers and positive thoughts you sent for Cole."

"I learned this week how many people knew the goodness in Cole's heart and loved him," Joe Brings Plenty Sr. said.

Cole Brings Plenty appeared in two episodes of the first season of "1923," a Paramount+ series starring Harrison Ford that is a prequel to the Paramount Network hit "Yellowstone." He also had recent small roles in two other Westerns from INSP TV, "Into the Wild Frontier" and "The Tall Tales of Jim Bridger."

His uncle Mo Brings Plenty is a star of "Yellowstone" and acts as a cultural adviser for Native American issues on both that show and "1923." He posted a flyer about his nephew's disappearance on Instagram, and police said the family reported the younger man missing.

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