South Dakota : Tina Marcotte
In a world that often feels connected and closely monitored, it is disconcerting when an individual seemingly vanishes without a trace. One such case that has captivated the nation is the mysterious disappearance of Tina Marcotte, along with her suspected killer Tom Kueter’s possible suicide. In this episode, I will dive into the details surrounding her vanishing act, the ensuing investigation, the death of Tom, and the questions that continue to haunt both of their loved ones and the public. Today we are navigating advocacy in South Dakota.
Tina Marie Marcotte was born on December 13, 1963, and was from New Hampshire. At the time of her disappearance, she lived in Rapid City, South Dakota, with her live-in boyfriend, Patrick Gleason. Tina and Patrick had three children together. Tina worked for a company called Black Hills Molding, where she was a lumber grader. The business closed its doors in 2012 when the owner decided to retire, but years before, this well-known cabinet company was one of the establishments in the news for being surrounded by mystery.
In the heart of South Dakota lay Rapid City, a bustling metropolis brimming with over 74,000 people. Known as the gateway to the black hills, this enchanting town earned its moniker as the "City of Presidents" due to the striking statues of all the United States esteemed leaders adorning the downtown area. Rapid City's origin story unfolded like a tale of gold and glory. It all began when a secret was unearthed in its midst—a discovery that would forever change the course of the town's destiny. Yes, gold, the precious metal of dreams, was found in abundance, casting a spell on fortune seekers far and wide. People flocked to Rapid City, eager to find their own. Yet, amid the charm, a shadow lurks beneath the surface. Trusty neighborhoodscout.com showed a different story than what I once thought about this area. Despite its facade of a Hallmark movie set, Rapid City has an unsettling crime rate. This town was rated a 6 out of 100 as far as safety is concerned. I went ahead and checked crimedata.com, hoping against hope for a more favorable verdict. Any hopes were shattered. The data on this website stated that Rapid City, this very place I would love to visit, was more dangerous than 96.9% of other cities.
June 24th, 1994, was a night destined to etch its mark upon Tina Marcotte's life. At 12:30 am, as Tina bid farewell to the empty halls of Black Hills Molding, she walked towards her vehicle in the company parking lot. Underneath the glow of the moon, Tina's heart sank as she discovered a flat tire, a roadblock on her path to driving home that night. Determined to find a solution, she retraced her steps, slipping back into the safety of the office. She used the phone to contact her dear friend, Vicky Riddle. With frustration and urgency, Tina told her friend about the car trouble. Vicky, being the loyal friend she was offered to come to get her stranded friend. As they were about to disconnect the call, Tina was surprised by a vehicle pulling up to her workplace. She asked Vicky to hang on the phone while she investigated who it was. Tina's voice resurfaced on the line, infused with a blend of relief and lingering apprehension. Tina explained that she no longer needed a ride because she was getting one from Tom, that had just pulled up, and because Vicky, again being a loyal friend, asked who Tom was. As soon as Tina uttered the words, “It's my friend Tom; he used to work here with me,” it made Vicky visibly breathe a sigh of relief, knowing her friend would be safe, but how wrong she was. This would be the last time anyone had contact with Tina besides the person that picked her up that night.
A full day elapsed before Patrick, Tina's boyfriend and the father of their children, began to grow increasingly worried about her failure to return home. The sequence of events that followed is a subject of conflicting accounts. However, according to some reports, Patrick, accompanied by Tom, the individual who potentially offered Tina a ride on that ill-fated night, visited Vicky's residence in search of answers regarding Tina's whereabouts. As Vicky relayed the details of the phone call and accused Tom of being involved, his demeanor shifted, becoming defensive and displaying peculiar behavior. Tom vehemently denied being the one to pick Tina up, asserting that Vicky must have misunderstood due to potential intoxication. In a daring move, Patrick directly confronted Tom, questioning the nature of his relationship with Tina and his own common-law wife. Tom, maintaining an outward calmness, firmly denied any involvement, stating that he was not the type of person to engage in such behavior and would not betray Patrick in such a manner. While this response might seem reasonable to some, Patrick found it peculiar, noting that Tom would typically react with aggression and a desire to fight if falsely accused of wrongdoing.
United by their shared concern, the two men, Patrick and Tom, made their way to the local police station to officially report Tina as missing. Swift to respond, law enforcement officers immediately initiated their search for Tina. Their efforts led them to her vehicle, discovered parked at the Black Hills Molding parking lot. To their alarm, not only did the car bear the evidence of a flat tire, but there was also a discernible slash, seemingly inflicted by a knife. The presence of these alarming signs compelled authorities to consider the possibility of foul play surrounding Tina's disappearance.
Tom, summoned for an interview, readily complied with the police request. Questioned about whether he had given Tina a ride home on that fateful night, he adamantly denied any encounter with her. According to his account, he had attended a baseball game, provided a friend with a ride home, and experienced a car breakdown while en route to his own residence. He claimed to have spent the subsequent hours attempting to repair his vehicle on the roadside, eventually returning home at around 3 am in the early morning hours. His wife, serving as a corroborating witness, confirmed his arrival time and asserted her lack of knowledge regarding his whereabouts prior to that night. Adding to the intrigue, she informed the authorities that upon his arrival, Tom engaged in an uncharacteristic act—immediately laundering all the clothes he had worn that day, even going so far as to wash his shoelaces, an unusual behavior for him, especially in the middle of the night.
With each puzzle piece slowly falling into place, law enforcement officers were confronted with a perplexing and potentially incriminating set of circumstances. The slashed tire, Tom's conflicting timeline, and his atypical laundry rituals cast a suspicious light on his involvement in Tina's disappearance. As the investigation intensified, the search for answers would lead the authorities down a winding path fraught with uncertainty and the weight of unspoken truths.
Summoned by the distressing news of her daughter's disappearance, Tina's mother flew from New Hampshire to South Dakota, determined to provide support and care for Tina's three young children. Though advised by the police to remain in New Hampshire, with assurances that there was nothing she could do in South Dakota, Tina's mother defied their counsel. Driven by an unwavering determination, she declared that nothing could keep her away, firmly stating that if her daughter remained unfound, she would be the one to uncover the truth.
Intrigued by the unfolding investigation, Tina's mother, Joyce, found herself grappling with the enigmatic involvement of a man named Tom. Never having encountered his name before, she couldn't help but feel perplexed by his presence in the labyrinth of events surrounding her daughter's disappearance. As law enforcement officials scoured the land and sky, conducting exhaustive searches in the hopes of discovering any trace of the 30-year-old Tina, their efforts yielded no fruitful results.
Days later, the police returned to the lumberyard where Tom worked, seeking a second round of questioning. With each passing moment, the web of suspicion tightened around him. Designated as a suspect, Tom was once again asked about his alleged role in Tina's vanishing and whether an extramarital affair had transpired between them. Firmly denying any involvement, Tom's claims were met with a grave revelation from the authorities—he was informed that blood had been discovered in his vehicle, and forensic tests would determine if it matched Tina's. The implied gravity of the situation hung heavily in the air as the police made it clear that they would return with the results.
Determined to unravel the truth, the investigators meticulously probed the sequence of events Tom had described on the night of Tina's disappearance. Guided by his narrative, they urged him to pinpoint the exact location where his vehicle had broken down. Armed with this information, the police embarked on a canvassing mission, scouring the neighborhood for witnesses who could confirm Tom's presence or the sight of his car. However, their efforts met with a disconcerting void of recognition. Three individuals, whose presence would have made it impossible to overlook Tom or his vehicle, stated unequivocally that they had not seen him. Their assertions cast a damning shadow, implying that Tom's claims may have been nothing more than a web of deceit to hide the truth.
The following day, authorities returned to the lumber yard, but their purpose was not to apprehend Tom; instead, they arrived to investigate a tragic incident involving his untimely demise. The life of Tom, who worked as a forklift operator, was cut short in a harrowing turn of events. During the shift change, Tom's co-workers made a chilling discovery—a lifeless body beneath his forklift. While the scene initially appeared to be a work-related accident, the layers of the story ran deeper.
Intriguingly, law enforcement officials came to suspect that Tom had taken his own life. They theorized that he orchestrated his demise while manipulating the very tools he operated. According to their investigation, Tom intentionally loaded an excessive amount of lumber onto the forklift, surpassing safety protocols. Moreover, he parked the heavy machinery on an incline, creating a perilous scenario. As per the authorities' findings, Tom then positioned himself in front of the forklift, sealing his tragic fate.
In the weeks that followed, the medical examiner's conclusions aligned with the police theory, officially labeling Tom's death as suicide. The police firmly believed that Tom bore responsibility for Tina's mysterious disappearance. Under the mounting pressure of a relentless investigation, Tom may have felt cornered, with no way out. In an act driven by a desperate desire to leave his family with some form of financial support, he orchestrated the entire scenario, ensuring they would be eligible to receive death benefits that would otherwise be unattainable.
The circumstances surrounding Tom's death cast a somber light on the intricate web of his life, his actions suggesting a complex and tragic motive. As authorities pieced together the puzzle, the weight of their discoveries illuminated the profound impact of a single individual's choices, leading to a chain of events that forever altered the lives of those involved.
Tom's wife, Nancy, refused to accept the notion that her husband had taken his own life. In her eyes, Tom's death was a result of foul play. She believed that leads existed, pointing towards evidence that would deny the suicide theory, but the police's refused to look into these leads. In an interview with the media, Nancy expressed her conviction that her husband had been murdered, casting doubt on the official narrative surrounding his death. One of the tips that came in via the family’s lawyer implicated one of Tom's co-workers in a sinister plot. According to the informant, this individual had allegedly attempted to bribe another co-worker into inflicting harm on Tom, specifically by breaking his legs due to a workplace dispute. The same source also claimed that this person boasted about placing Tom beneath the forklift. However, the police, deeming the report unfounded, did not pursue further investigation into these allegations.
Adding another layer to the story, Tom's co-workers shared stories of him being a person prone to a short temper, mood swings, and frequent bouts of anger. These accounts painted a picture of a troubled individual wrestling with inner turmoil. However, the mystery was far from its conclusion. On October 11, 1995, around noon about 15 months after Tina vanished a chilling discovery unfolded at Forest Products Distributors, the place of Tom's employment during his time of death. While relocating a stack of scrap wood at the rear of the property, a worker inadvertently dropped a few pieces. Stepping down from his machinery to retrieve them, he stumbled upon a grisly scene—a badly decomposed body. Dental records and personal belongings found in close proximity confirmed the shocking truth. This was the remains of Tina Marcotte. The subsequent autopsy revealed that Tina had suffered fatal blunt-force trauma to the head, likely on the very day she vanished. Investigators surmised that she had been killed elsewhere before being disposed of at the lumber yard, further strengthening the mounting evidence pointing towards Tom as the perpetrator of Tina's murder.
The police would continue to investigate for a few years with only more evidence being found that points towards Tom. In a Facebook post by Tina’s now adult daughter, she states, and I quote, “ Just to clarify, I am Tina's daughter. After we moved away from Rapid City, I got in contact with the detective that worked my mother's case once I was older and had questions, he had me and my father, Patrick, go to the police station where I live now and give them our DNA to test it against the blood found on Tom's shoe, and it came back about 99% match and said if Tom was still alive, they would now have enough evidence to put him In prison for the rest of his life.. No, the officer didn't just close the case to clean up his desk.. As I can only speak for myself, I have the answers that I want or need. although I am not happy with what happened and deeply wish it didn't, I am at peace with the outcome and am glad that its finally closed as Solved and was able to finally move on... as for my father, he was very deeply hurt and never moved on and stayed single until rest his soul he passed from a heart attack in 2015, so no him and Vicky did not kill her and end up together... So, to sum it up.. Tom killed Tina..end quote. Commenting on that thread, In the midst of the unfolding narrative, Tom's wife, Nancy, stepped forward to present her side of the story. She vehemently disputed the claim of blood being found on her husband's shoe, casting doubt on that particular piece of evidence. Nancy also revealed that she had endured a legal battle spanning five years over Tom's death benefits, winning in the end. The judge presiding over the case concluded that the available evidence was insufficient to establish Tom's suicide, thus entitling Nancy and her children to compensation.
Due to the sensitive nature of the circumstances, I refrained from reaching out to Tina's daughter, who had expressed a sense of peace and closure regarding her mother's fate in that social media post.
This case stands apart from the usual investigations we encounter, as it is officially closed. However, the air of mystery still envelops both of these deaths, leaving lingering questions and an aura of intrigue that remains unresolved.
If there is anything you know about Tina Marcotte or Tom Kueter, please contact the rapid city police department at 605-394-4131
Sources: https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/Tina_Marcotte
https://www.city-data.com/crime/crime-Rapid-City-South-Dakota.html
https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/sd/rapid-city/crime
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapid_City,_South_Dakota
https://www.newspapers.com/image/527494425/?terms=tina%20marcotte%20&match=1
https://www.newspapers.com/image/527465804/?terms=tina%20marcotte%20&match=1
https://www.newspapers.com/image/527498313/?terms=tina%20marcotte%20&match=1
