Deputies and the FBI just spent two days digging around a buried structure in a field near Mendon. Sara Jo and I talk about what that search means, what it doesn’t, and why the tip behind it feels familiar.

Then we open the diary. Eric Shank’s Google account recorded where a device was, every few seconds, for 48 days after Brittany Wallace Shank disappeared. I’ve walked every mile of it. A sheriff’s office at 1:00 in the morning, twice. A tire shop that keeps showing up after dark. A night in the fields on Fawn River Road where the record goes quiet for 40 minutes. A traffic stop on video that proves whose hand the phone was in. Two devices reporting at the same time, 16 miles apart. A command sent to Brittany’s phone on Christmas morning, and three words that came back. Yes, it’s at Mike’s.

The file can’t tell us who was holding the phone. It can tell us where the phone went, when it stopped talking, and who was asking it questions. Then we close some loose ends: Laron, the story Skylar told us, a tip we chased to the end, and a phone number I still have.

On November 30th, 2018, Brittany Wallace Shank said she was almost to her grandma’s. She never made it. She was 23. A mother of four. Sturgis, Michigan.

For years, her case sat still. Then, in 2023, people started sitting down in the other chairs.

A lot of you have asked what happened after we brought what we found to law enforcement. Here’s the answer: we gave them everything we saved. All of it. In Part 1, you heard what they did with it — Ashley’s interview, and the questions that never got asked.

Part 2 is the rest of the chairs. The husband — Eric, across the table from Detective Auton, answering the questions this case has been circling since day one. The drug dealer — the man who says he met Brittany exactly once, and the message thread that says more than he does. The boyfriend. And the third man in the apartment. Plus a phone call I recorded in 2022, a year before detectives caught up — so you can hear one man’s story twice, a year apart, and decide for yourself what changed.

You’ll hear Brittany’s own voice in this episode. You’ll hear the minute her day stops. And you’ll hear me say the thing that should make everyone in St. Joseph County uncomfortable:

Eight polygraphs, by the county’s own count. Seven years. No one has ever been charged.

Somebody forwarded a video. Somebody knows the rest.

Play the tape. Read the paper. Compare.

Listener discretion advised. This episode contains descriptions of a missing person case and recorded law-enforcement interviews.

Part 1 — “The Other Chairs, Part 1: The Fake Cry” — is available now. Start there.

— — —

IF YOU KNOW SOMETHING

If you were in Sturgis in November 2018 — if you knew this circle, or heard something that winter you’ve been carrying — the line is open.

Reach the show: hideandseekpod@yahoo.com · (509) 866-6985

Prefer to go straight to law enforcement? St. Joseph County Sheriff’s Department, Centreville, Michigan: (269) 467-9045. Non-emergency dispatch: (269) 467-4195.

https://stjosephcountymi.gov/government/courts-law-enforcement/sheriff-s-department/

You don’t have to be certain. You don’t have to accuse anybody. You just have to remember.

— — —

CREDITS & ATTRIBUTION

Crime Junkie. Portions of this episode quote, with attribution, from Crime Junkie: “MISSING: Brittany Wallace Shank” (audiochuck) — hosted by Ashley Flowers with Brit Prawat, original reporting by Madison Cavalchire, released June 22, 2026. Hear the full episode: https://crimejunkiepodcast.com/missing-brittany-wallace-shank/

Records. Interview excerpts and documents referenced in this episode come from the St. Joseph County Sheriff’s Office case file (CFS #18-053859), obtained by this show through records requests at our own expense.

Interviews. The March 2022 phone interview with Justin Gayheart was recorded by this show as part of our original reporting on this case.

Re-creations and recordings. Brittany’s written messages are read by a voice actor — her words, verbatim, not her voice. You will also hear Brittany’s actual voice once in this episode, from a recorded call. We will tell you which is which.

Hide and Seek is written, reported, and hosted by James Baysinger. A Sasquatch Productions podcast.

The people who were physically closest to Brittany in her last week sat in interview rooms across five years. We have the tapes. We have the paper the detectives filed afterward. This episode runs on one process: play the tape, read the paper, compare.

Part one is the best friend — Ashley. Two chairs, four and a half years apart, and the night nobody ever really asked her about.

Brittany Wallace Shank has been missing since November 30, 2018 — Sturgis, Michigan. Nobody heard in this episode has ever been charged with anything connected to her disappearance.

Part two — “The Other Chairs, Part 2: You Forwarded a Video” — is out now: the husband’s week of texts, and the interview that never asked about any of it.

— — —

IF YOU KNOW SOMETHING

If you were in Sturgis in November 2018 — if you knew this circle, or heard something that winter you’ve been carrying — the line is open.

Reach the show: hideandseekpod@yahoo.com · (509) 866-6985

Prefer to go straight to law enforcement? St. Joseph County Sheriff’s Department, Centreville, Michigan: (269) 467-9045. Non-emergency dispatch: (269) 467-4195.

https://stjosephcountymi.gov/government/courts-law-enforcement/sheriff-s-department/

You don’t have to be certain. You don’t have to accuse anybody. You just have to remember.

— — —

CREDITS & ATTRIBUTION

Crime Junkie. Portions of this episode quote, with attribution, from Crime Junkie: “MISSING: Brittany Wallace Shank” (audiochuck) — hosted by Ashley Flowers with Brit Prawat, original reporting by Madison Cavalchire, released June 22, 2026. Hear the full episode: https://crimejunkiepodcast.com/missing-brittany-wallace-shank/

Records. Interview excerpts and documents referenced in this episode come from the St. Joseph County Sheriff’s Office case file (CFS #18-053859), obtained by this show through records requests at our own expense.

Re-creations. Brittany’s written messages are read by a voice actor. Her words, verbatim — not her voice.

Hide and Seek is written, reported, and hosted by James Baysinger. A Sasquatch Productions podcast.