WI WI - Helen Stark, South Milwaukee, 23-26 years old, 12 January 1946

[Mysteries1974]

Helen Stark

• 

Stark, circa 1946

• Missing Since01/12/1946
• Missing FromSouth Milwaukee, Wisconsin
• ClassificationEndangered Missing
• Age23 - 26 years old
• Height and Weight5'9 - 6'0, 170 - 180 pounds
• Distinguishing CharacteristicsCaucasian female. Brown hair, brown eyes. Stark's maiden name is Borkowski. She may wear eyeglasses.

Details of Disappearance
Stark was last seen in South Milwaukee, Wisconsin on or about January 12, 1946. She was having marital issues at the time of her disappearance. She never came to pick her two young children up at the babysitter's and has never been heard from again.

Stark's family doesn't believe she would have abandoned her children. Few details are available in her case.
Investigating Agency

• Milwaukee Police Department 414-935-7405

Source Information

• NamUs

 

[Lilibet]

This caught my eye because I was born around the time Helen disappeared.

Here is the exact link to her NamUS profile.

Missing Person Case

She was married to William P. Stark.

Helen Stark | wimissing

Depending on how old her children were, they would be well into their 70’s by now. Helen would be about 97. I wonder why her exact age and height are not known.

 

[Mysteries1974]

Yes I know I’m very confused by the way her vital statistics are listed. I wonder how well police handled her case? Also thank you!

 

[Lilibet]

Yes I know I’m very confused by the way her vital statistics are listed. I wonder how well police handled her case? Also thank you!

Yes, I wish there was more info about her disappearance. If her husband had any position in the community it could have been handled with kid gloves.

Or else, she really did walk away from her children. My grandmother left when my mother was 6 months old and her sister was 3. This was in 1912! She didn’t disappear though. My grandfather’s wealthy family managed to place stories in the NYT painting her in a bad light. I’m convinced my grandfather was abusing her. She did try and fail to get her daughters back even though she had her own money. So leaving children does happen.

Whatever happened, it’s very sad for those children to grow up without their mother.

 

[Mysteries1974]

Yea I really wish there was more information

 

[AliceInPain]

Thanks for posting Helen! I can't find much about her disappearance either, just a few bits that won't help solve much but...

About her age, she was 9 in April 1930.
1930 census on Familysearch

Her sister's obituary:
Sophia Fredel's Obituary on Wausau Daily Herald

Namus describes her as "stocky"(?) but I'm not sure, she looks normal/slim to me?
Helen and husband (couple on the left), and Helen far left wearing glasses.

 

[Lilibet]

Thanks for posting Helen! I can't find much about her disappearance either, just a few bits that won't help solve much but...

About her age, she was 9 in April 1930.
1930 census on Familysearch

Her sister's obituary:
Sophia Fredel's Obituary on Wausau Daily Herald

Namus describes her as "stocky"(?) but I'm not sure, she looks normal/slim to me?
Helen and husband (couple on the left), and Helen far left wearing glasses.

Great finds! Do you have links for the photos?

Did you mean she was born in 1920? She wouldn’t be 23-26 if she was born in 1930. I can’t access the Ancestry info.

Maybe she became “stocky” after having children.

 

[Mysteries1974]

Thank you! And your welcome! I felt bad and I didn’t want Helen’s case to fade

 

[Lilibet]

Great finds! Do you have links for the photos?

Did you mean she was born in 1920? She wouldn’t be 23-26 if she was born in 1930. I can’t access the Ancestry info.

Maybe she became “stocky” after having children.

Quoting myself...Oops! I misread that and now see she was 9 in 1930. That’s better.

 

[Lilibet]

I see that her family assumes she is dead according to her sister’s obituary.

I simply don’t understand why no one knew her exact age. A three year span is very strange.

I wonder if her siblings kept in touch with her husband and children. Helen came from a big family.

 

[JDG]

I wonder if her age is unknown for certain because she was a lady who didn't give her exact age out. There used to be a lot of that wayyy back, or ladies who knocked a few years off their age. Mind you, the husband should have known the proper age.

 

[JDG]

And ditto to the fact that women would walk away from their children under abusive circumstances. Not often but it did happen with a member of my extended family too. She left 4 children, aged between 3-9 in the 1950s.
Later said she couldn't take them all and couldn't pick a 'favourite', not fair to the others. She also didn't vanish, her own family knew where she was located.

 

[JDG]

Did the police just take a report and file it? No investigation? How to find out?

 

[Lilibet]

I wonder if her age is unknown for certain because she was a lady who didn't give her exact age out. There used to be a lot of that wayyy back, or ladies who knocked a few years off their age. Mind you, the husband should have known the proper age.

You’d think her siblings would know her age. I wonder if her age was just never recorded by LE.

Did the police just take a report and file it? No investigation? How to find out?

I don’t know how to find out about the original investigation, other than check with whoever is handling the case now. But it seems that there wasn’t much info. Who knows what her husband said about her! My great grandparents trashed my grandmother and if she had been a deceased missing person, everyone would have just thought she went to England, which she did. And of course there is always the possibility that Helen’s husband was a nice guy and the marital difficulties were an affair on her part.

 

[AliceInPain]

I found out her mother died in 1936, and her younger siblings were put in an orphanage.
Maybe that's why her family believed she'd never abandon her children?

Also, if there ever was a missing person report it might have been lost, and maybe a relative filed a new one in 2013, when she was entered into Namus.
By then there was only one sibling left who was only 13 when Helen disappeared, hence the few details and "sketchy facts."

Mother/ findagrave
1940 census (St Joseph Orphan Asylum)

 

[Laughing]

Now that's a gold mine of Eastern European surnames, right there. Thanks for the link that Federal census page!

So -- I wonder how she met her husband? Was he in the orphanage as well? Did Helen work before that lovely wedding picture?

 

[AliceInPain]

You're welcome!

I wonder if this is the husband?

"...Stark, William P., Cpl.; route 1, box 320, Pewaukee; entered army March 12, 1943; discharged Jan. 12, 1946..."

Would explain how they'd remember that date, if she disappeared around the same time her husband returned. And "marital problems" could be she'd met someone else while he was gone.

Waukesha Daily Freeman Archives, Apr 4, 1946, p. 11

 

[JDG]

1940 Census link takes me to Family Search? to sign up.

AliceInPain, I want you looking for me if I ever disappear. ok?
You are good.

 

[AliceInPain]

1940 Census link takes me to Family Search? to sign up.

AliceInPain, I want you looking for me if I ever disappear. ok?
You are good.

Sorry about the link, but it doesn't cost anything to sign up and it is really worth it!
I've used it for years and never had a problem with spam or anything.

Thank you! But that will never happen <3

 

[Lilibet]

Sorry about the link, but it doesn't cost anything to sign up and it is really worth it!
I've used it for years and never had a problem with spam or anything.

Thank you! But that will never happen <3

Thanks for your hard work, Alice and for reassuring me about signing up. I get sooooo much garbage. I’ll give it a try.