Brittany Coles

Brittany Michelle Coles was a young woman whose warmth and love of good food shaped her hopes for the future. Born July 21, 1988, she grew up with a close family life and a bright spirit that friends and relatives remembered for her smile and upbeat personality. In 2009 she and her mother relocated to Detroit to build a new chapter, and Brittany pursued the craft she loved — graduating from Dorsey Culinary School in Roseville in September 2010. Her training and passion for cooking were a clear part of who she hoped to become.

Family members described Brittany as fun-loving and generous with her light; she was a cherished daughter, sister and granddaughter whose presence brought joy to those close to her. The Legacy-hosted funeral notice listed her parents and other relatives and connected her to communities in both New London and Detroit, showing how family and friends across places remembered her.

In late March 2011 Brittany’s life was cut short. Public reporting and cold-case listings note that she was found dead on March 31, 2011, in Detroit at age 22. In the days after her death, her family appealed for information and a CrimeStoppers reward was offered as they sought answers. Those facts are part of the public record, but they do not define the person her loved ones remember: someone who loved to cook, who had completed culinary school just months earlier, and who carried a bright smile and warm presence.

Though the circumstances of her passing remain part of a painful public record, Brittany’s life — her culinary ambitions, her closeness with family, and the light she brought to rooms — is what endures. This page honors those parts of Brittany that were wholly hers: her laughter, her plans in the kitchen, and the love she left with family and friends.

If you have memories of Brittany you’d like to add to a family memorial, or information that could help bring closure, please share them with her family or with the Detroit Police Department as appropriate. Brittany mattered to many, and her memory lives on in the people who loved her.