911 call: Missing Sturgis woman sought help before 2018 disappearance

STURGIS, Mich. (WOOD) — Nearly six years after a Sturgis woman disappeared, deputies have released a 911 phone call that indicates that she was looking for help before she disappeared.

Nov. 30, 2018, was the last time 23-year-old Brittany Shank was seen off Fawn River Road, east of Sturgis. Her mother said she went to her grandmother’s to do laundry and crashed on the way home.

In a 911 phone call released on Monday, a man can be heard telling dispatchers that Brittany came up to his door without shoes or a coat on. He said that she was bleeding from her feet and arms. The man said that Brittany told him her boyfriend crashed the car and took off running.

The man can be heard telling dispatchers that Brittany said that she needed help. When dispatchers tried to get more information, the man said that she didn’t want to talk to him and went back outside.

When deputies arrived, Brittany was nowhere to be found — they found only her vehicle with minor damage.

Listen to a redacted version of the 911 phone call below:

On Monday, police also released a forensic sketch of the man who was last believed to have been with her.

“So many factors, so many things to consider, nobody really knows what happens,” Victor Carter, her brother, told News 8 last year. “The thing that bothers me most is the amount of theories out there that have no validity to them.”

On Tuesday, hear from her father on News 8.

Multiple law enforcement agencies have been brought in to help the St. Joseph County Sheriff’s Office on the case. So has the Western Michigan University’s Cold Case program, which helped solve the 1987 murder of Roxanne Wood near Niles and the 1988 killing of Cathy Swartz in Three Rivers.

In 2023, the St. Joseph County Sheriff’s Office said detectives don’t have any evidence to elevate the case from a missing person to a homicide investigation.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to contact Detective Sgt. Jason Auton at 269.467.9045 ext 227 or autonj@stjosephcountymi.org .

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WOODTV.com.