Denise D. Stark Token Creek Park Brutal Murder
June 3, 1993 – Madison, WI
Elbert McGowan dragged, Denise Stark, at knifepoint into a men’s room of Shelter No. 5 in Token
Creek Park. The De Forest woman’s body was discovered by a man who went to use the bathroom.
When the police arrived she was still warm but had her throat slashed, several other stab wounds,
and bruises.
A man whom Token Creek County Park employees nicknamed “Rambo” because he typically dressed in
military fatigues, was arrested. He confessed to the crime showing little emotion. He had planned
the crime so carefully that he brought a change of clothes to wear after the killing.
This was not Rambo’s first brush with violence and sexual assault. He was convicted in Coweta County,
Ga., of sexual assault at gunpoint in 1984 and was still on probation for the 1991 sexual assault
of a child in Madison. His sentence was a year in jail with work-release privileges and probation.
Police found the buck knife allegedly used in the murder hidden in the car's air cleaner in the
engine compartment.
Denise D. Stark (30)
Elbert Casper McGowan (29)
