Overview

Last seen: On or about January 12, 1946
Location: South Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with some case information describing the broader Bay View-to-South Milwaukee area
Age: Approximately 23 to 26 years old
Case status: Missing / unresolved
NamUs: MP21890

Main circumstances: Helen Stark, whose maiden name was Borkowski, disappeared after leaving her two young children with a babysitter. She never returned to pick them up and was never heard from again. Family members have maintained that they did not believe she would voluntarily abandon her children. Public case summaries also report that Helen was experiencing marital difficulties around the time she vanished.

Detailed Case Breakdown

Helen Stark Missing Since 1946: Wisconsin’s Long-Unsolved Missing Person Case

Brief Case Summary

Last seen: On or about January 12, 1946
Location: South Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with some case information describing the broader Bay View-to-South Milwaukee area
Age: Approximately 23 to 26 years old
Case status: Missing / unresolved
NamUs: MP21890

Main circumstances: Helen Stark, whose maiden name was Borkowski, disappeared after leaving her two young children with a babysitter. She never returned to pick them up and was never heard from again. Family members have maintained that they did not believe she would voluntarily abandon her children. Public case summaries also report that Helen was experiencing marital difficulties around the time she vanished.

Who Was Helen Stark?

Helen Stark was a young mother living in South Milwaukee, Wisconsin, when she disappeared in January 1946. Her maiden name was Borkowski, and available records indicate she was in her early to mid-20s.

Descriptions of Helen vary slightly among databases. Wisconsin’s current missing-person poster lists her as 23 years old, approximately 5 feet 9 inches tall and 170 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. Other historical case summaries place her age between 23 and 26 and give her height as between 5 feet 9 inches and 6 feet, with a weight between 170 and 180 pounds. She may also have worn eyeglasses.

Helen Stark Disappears in January 1946

Helen was last seen in or around South Milwaukee on approximately January 12, 1946.

According to the Wisconsin Clearinghouse for Missing & Exploited Children & Adults, Helen had left her two young children with a babysitter. She was expected to return for them but never did. She subsequently disappeared without any known contact with her family.

Later case information has described the precise disappearance date as somewhat uncertain. Wisconsin Missing Persons Advocacy, drawing from historical NamUs information, states that Helen apparently disappeared sometime after January 12, 1946, somewhere in the Bay View-to-South Milwaukee area. Her residence was in South Milwaukee.

That distinction is important: January 12 is the official date attached to the case, but the surviving historical information is limited enough that the exact time and circumstances of Helen’s final confirmed sighting are unclear.

She Never Returned for Her Children

One of the most significant details surrounding Helen’s disappearance is that she never returned to collect her two children from their babysitter.

Her family has reportedly said they did not believe Helen would willingly abandon her children. After her disappearance, relatives never heard from her again.

With no known subsequent communication, confirmed sighting, or publicly documented evidence that Helen established another life elsewhere, investigators and missing-person organizations have continued to carry her as a missing person.

Marital Difficulties Before the Disappearance

Historical case summaries report that Helen was experiencing marital problems at the time she disappeared. She was married to William P. Stark and had two small children.

Some secondary accounts additionally state that January 12, 1946, coincided with William Stark’s discharge from military service. That detail has generated discussion around the case, particularly on missing-person forums and independent websites.

However, publicly available law-enforcement information does not identify Helen’s husband as responsible for her disappearance, and the coincidence should not be treated as evidence of a crime. No publicly available record reviewed for this article establishes that he was charged, arrested, or officially named as a suspect in Helen’s disappearance.

Why Helen Stark’s Case Is Especially Difficult

Helen disappeared in an era decades before computerized case databases, widespread DNA testing, digital records, surveillance cameras, mobile-phone location information, and modern missing-person protocols.

The passage of roughly eight decades presents additional challenges. Witnesses who might have known what occurred may now be deceased, records may have been lost or never preserved, and even fundamental details such as Helen’s precise age and exact last-known movements remain uncertain.

Those gaps help explain why modern case listings contain only a relatively brief description of her disappearance.

The Case Entered Modern Missing-Person Databases

Helen’s disappearance predates NamUs by more than half a century. Wisconsin Missing Persons Advocacy reports that her case was entered into NamUs in September 2013. Her current Wisconsin missing-person poster identifies the NamUs case as MP21890.

The Charley Project has also maintained Helen among its chronological missing-person cases and documented updates to her listing in July and August 2018.

In December 2024, The Doe Network added Helen to its database as case 4950DFWI, further extending the case’s presence in modern missing-person resources.

Current Case Status and Recent Public Updates

Helen Stark remains publicly listed by the Wisconsin Clearinghouse for Missing & Exploited Children & Adults. The state continues to identify her as missing from South Milwaukee and directs anyone with information to the Milwaukee Police Department.

A current Wisconsin missing-person poster continues to circulate with Helen’s photograph, physical description, disappearance date, law-enforcement contact number and NamUs identifier.

Wisconsin Missing Persons Advocacy’s dedicated Helen Stark page was updated on December 31, 2025 and continues to describe the disappearance as unresolved.

The Doe Network’s December 2024 case update archive records Helen’s addition as 4950DFWI.

As of September 2026, the publicly accessible sources reviewed for this article do not report that Helen has been located, that remains have been identified as hers, or that an arrest or publicly announced resolution has occurred.

What Happened to Helen Stark?

There is not enough publicly available evidence to say what happened to Helen.

Her failure to return for her children, her family’s belief that she would not have abandoned them, and the absence of any known subsequent contact make her disappearance concerning. But concern is not the same as proof of homicide.

No publicly available evidence reviewed for this article establishes whether Helen met with foul play, suffered an accident, left under circumstances unknown to her family, or experienced some other fate.

More than 80 years later, the central question remains unchanged: Helen Stark left her children with a babysitter in the Milwaukee area and never came back.

Information Could Still Matter

Cases this old can occasionally be advanced through information passed down within families, rediscovered documents, photographs, letters, property records, unidentified-person comparisons, or information that a witness never previously disclosed.

Even secondhand information concerning Helen’s movements in January 1946 could potentially provide investigators with context that was lost over the decades.

Anyone with information about Helen Stark’s disappearance should contact the Milwaukee Police Department or the Wisconsin Clearinghouse for Missing & Exploited Children & Adults.