7-Minute Less Taken VI - His & Her: Last Ride (Rapid City, SD)

June 24, 1994. Tina Marcotte never makes it home from work. Her tire goes flat. She calls a friend for help—but by morning, she's vanished.

The last man known to see her is found dead days later beneath a forklift in what police call a freak accident. But locals in Rapid City still whisper: Was it guilt… or something else that caught up with him first? 

A case where the road ends twice. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Most taking contains content that may not be suitable for
all audiences. Listener's discretion is advised less. On a cold,

(00:25):
silent night in South Dakota, Tinem Marcotte's car gives out
on the side of the road a flat tire, but
nothing dramatic. It's just one of those little things that
never happens when it's less inconvenient and seems to only
occur when you're tired, it's late, and you're alone. She

(00:47):
calls someone from a nearby landline. Someone she trusts. Is
a man named Tom Counter, a co worker, not a stranger,
not some shadow from a dark alley or a drifter
along the roadside. He's a man that works in the
same warehouse as her. And although it's getting late, Tom

(01:09):
offers her a ride, and that's the last time anyone
hears from Tina or sees her alive. Within days, Tom
is dead too, his head crushed in a forklift accident
that raises more questions than it answers. Now, the primary

(01:32):
question is what happened between Tina's last ride in Tom's
final day. Tina is a thirty year old, kind, reliable mother.
She works at a wood products company just outside rapid city,
the kind of place where you learn a lot about

(01:52):
people by how they show up the work on time,
no drama. On June twenty fourth, ninety four, Tina calls
a friend and says she's got a flat tire near
the Old Folsome Road area. She needs a ride home.
Around ten thirty that night, she speaks to Tom. He

(02:13):
says it'll come get her. And you know this part already,
But what's bizarre lies in the details. It's late, but
not that late. The road is rural, but it's not isolated.
There's no sign of struggle. No one reports hearing anything,
and by morning Tina's gone. Tom tells the police he

(02:38):
didn't see her that night and that they only talked
on the phone and he never picked her up. He
might have if she asked, but she didn't. At least
he swears that's the truth, but some friends say otherwise.
One of them even says Tina mentioned she was expecting
Tom specifically. Another tells investigator she believed Tina had gotten

(03:03):
into the car that night, And then, of course, something
strange happens. Just three days after Tina disappears, Tom dies
at work. His lifeless body is found under a forklift.
An accident, they call it, but not just any accident.

(03:23):
That kind of leaves behind even more suspicion. When they
find Tom, his head is smashed underneath the back wheel
at the forklift. Did he run the machine, hop out
and then drive over himself or is it more likely
that someone else ran him over and crushed his skull.

(03:48):
Weeks turned into months, Tina's family keeps searching, flyers, interviews,
pressure on local police. Still nothing but the warehouse where
Tina and Tom worked. Whispers ensue. There's something no one
wants to say, but everyone feels maybe Tom didn't just

(04:13):
know what happened, maybe he also made sure that no
one else ever would. Then the case breaks open. While
the producers from a television show film a segment about

(04:33):
the case, workers at the blumberyard make a grim discovery.
Buried beneath a stack of wooden palettes, they find Tina's
body right there in the place she worked, in the
place Tom worked, as if she had been there all along.

(04:54):
The autopsy reveals blunt force trauma, so her demise is
no accident and there were no signs of mercy. But
Tom is already in the ground, so there's no arrest,
no confession, no trial. To investigators, the case is unofficially closed.
They believe Tom was responsible, that he picked her up,

(05:17):
killed her, and hid her underneath lumber before the pressure
became too much and closed in on him. That his
own death, whether accidental or not, keeps the truth buried.
And that's the thing about the dead. They don't speak
and they don't stand trial. Tina trusted him enough to
get into his car, and that's all it took. He

(05:41):
was the last person to see her alive, and just
days later, the only person who might have explained it
all was gone too, silenced by falling still in lumber.
Some stories end with a killer in handcuffs. Others end quietly,
with no answers and no justice. Nothing reminiscent closure, just

(06:01):
a woman on the side of the road, a man
in the shadows, and a ride that could have been
safe but wasn't. I'm seem Humphries and this has been
another seven minute Less Taken real life horror stories from
the Midwest. Follow us before we follow you on Facebook, threads,
and Instagram under the handle at less taken Pod. Visit

(06:24):
lesstaknpod dot com for all things less taken. Merch in more.
A quick note on our storytelling. While we do our
best to stick to the facts, we sometimes take creative
liberties to maintain narrative cohesiveness. And if you enjoyed this episode,
be sure to come back next week for the fourth
of seven seven minute Less Taken episodes in July. Until then,

(06:48):
thanks for listening.