CENTREVILLE, Mich. (WOOD) — The family of a woman who vanished near Sturgis six years ago is calling on the St. Joseph County Sheriff’s Office to hand the case over to Michigan State Police, hoping that the larger agency could make strides in finding Brittany Shank.

“I’m feeling a lot of pain and sorrow,” Shank’s father Greg Wallace told News 8 in his first interview on an unassuming fall afternoon outside the Centreville courthouse. “Just not knowing where she’s at or what happened.”

Shank, then 23, disappeared Nov. 30, 2018, following a crash along Fawn River Road east of Sturgis just before 9 p.m. Upon News 8’s request, the St. Joesph County Sheriff’s Office on Monday released a recording of a 911 call from that night. In it, Shank can be heard asking for help after deputies believe she walked to a nearby home following the crash.

“I don’t know — the girl just came to the back door,” the resident told a dispatcher after taking the phone from Shank. “She has no shoes on, no coat. She’s bleeding from her feet and her arms. She said her boyfriend took off somewhere.”

“What is your name, hon? Can you tell me your name?” he asked Shank. “She doesn’t seem to want to talk to me.”

Below, listen to a redacted recording of the call:

The caller then told the dispatcher that Shank walked back outside. That was the last confirmed sighting of her.

“I don’t know if she was scared and took off somewhere, or if somebody picked her up. I don’t know,” Wallace said. “We don’t even know who the guy was that was with her.”

While the sheriff’s department declined several requests from News 8 for an interview regarding Shank’s case, it did release the sketch of the man she was last seen with. He was described as white, in his early to mid-20s, with blond hair and long, mutton chop-style sideburns.

“I just want to know what happened so that maybe I can be put at some ease or rest,” Shank’s father said. “I mean, I’m lucky. I don’t have to live with it much longer in the world, but her kids, they’re going to have to go through their whole life wondering what happened.”

Wallace told News 8 that while he is happy to “finally see some progress” from the sheriff’s department, he was saddened that he wasn’t given an early notification that the call and sketch would be released.

“I don’t hear from them,” he said of the sheriff’s department. “I haven’t had much contact with our local or their local law enforcement. If I ever want to know anything, I have to try to get ahold of them.”

Frustrated by what he said has been little progress, Wallace and his friends reached out to victim advocate Lindsay Turner in April of this year. Turner has had experience navigating investigations and the legal system after her sister-in-law, Egypt Covington, was murdered in 2017 on the other side of the state.

“I know this can happened to anybody,” Turner said.

She said the southeastern Michigan police department that initially handled Covington’s case meant well, but argued it was too small to handle the case.

“We were able to be loud enough or pesky enough that they turned her case over to Michigan State Police,” Turner said.

Covington’s case was solved shortly after MSP took control.

“All you have to do is ask. It’s simple. It really is simple,” Turner said.

Now she and Wallace are asking for Shank’s sake.

“We’ve reached out to meet with the prosecutor and the lead detective and the MSP detectives, multiple times,” Turner said. “The lead detective and the prosecutor are the only two who have not responded. We’ve heard back from both MSP detectives saying they are willing to meet with us along with or at the request of the lead detective of St. Joe… They don’t even have enough time to respond to an email.”

Documents obtained by News 8 show Turner’s request for an update in Shank’s case on July 29 of this year. A detective responded two days later. He blamed staffing shortages, saying he had twice been reassigned to road patrol over the previous 10 months to help cover, as the reason he could not schedule a meeting.

“The worst part of this is I am not able to spend any time on Brittany’s case,” the detective wrote.

Turner said that admission is reason enough to ask Michigan State Police to take over the investigation.

Last month, Wallace stood in front of the St. Joseph County Board of Commissioners and pleaded with members to pressure the sheriff and prosecutor to turn Shank’s case over to MSP.

“You shouldn’t have to have anybody fight for you,” Wallace said through tears. “She was my daughter. She was a momma of four kids. Brittany deserves more.”

While the lead detective contends a case transfer is unusual in an email to Wallace and Turner, the same request was asked and granted in Turner’s case.

“(The sheriff’s office investigators) don’t know where to go, what to do, who to contact and what the capabilities really are available in a different agency. That’s why I think it’s unintentional negligence,” Turner said.

St. Joseph County Undersheriff Jason Bingaman, who did not respond to News 8’s request for an interview, did release a statement saying, “We are fully committed to this case and remain dedicated to finding the resolution.”

The department on Monday also released an outline of the steps it has taken in the investigation in the six years since Shank went missing, including a leveraging a partnership with Western Michigan University’s Cold Case program to organize evidence and a dozen searches of the area Shank was last seen in.

In the Monday release, the sheriff’s department maintained it has had ongoing meetings with MSP and there is a “collective agreement” that St. Joseph is the appropriate agency to lead the investigation. News 8 has not been able to substantiate those claims, having not heard back from MSP or the sheriff’s office directly.

“Why? Why are we delaying this even longer? It is unnecessary,” Turner said. “They have already admitted they don’t have time for Brittany’s case. Let’s get started. Let’s allow this family to have a Christmas, a Thanksgiving, maybe this year where they aren’t wondering where their baby girl is.”

If you have any information about the disappearance of Brittany Shank, you are asked to contact St. Joseph County Sheriff’s Office Detective Sgt. Jason Auton at 269.467.9045 ext. 277.