Rapid City Journal from Rapid City, South Dakota • 7

LocalState A7 Rapid City Journal Police: Kueter killed self as probe closed in on him see the clothes Tom had worn the Tom Kueter returned home, and the whole family spent the early afternoon at Bear Country. They got home about 3 p.m. Nancy Kueter says Riddle called her and said she was scared. She says Gleason came on the line and told her she should "ask Tom about drugs." While she was on the phone, a Rapid City police detective arrived at the Kueter home. He asked Nancy Kueter to come to police headquarters for questioning.

He also asked to A chronololgy of events leading to death of Rapid City man. By Bill Harlan Journal Staff Writer Police say Tom Kueter killed himself because investigators looking into the disappearance of Tina Mar-cotte were closing in on him. Kueter's life from shortly before Marcotte's disappearance to just after his death: Kueter played softball the night of June 23, 1994. After the game, he dropped a friend at home. That was about 11 p.m.

Marcotte got off work at Black Hills Molding on Highway 79 at 12:30 a.m. Kueter got home at 3:30 a.m. He said his car had broken down. He washed his shirt. Marcotte's live-in boyfriend, Pat Then Kueter and Gleason went to Rapid City Police Department headquarters to report Marcotte missing.

Kueter denied he had given Marcotte a ride and said he could pass a lie detector test. Meanwhile, Riddle called Nancy Kueter to tell her about the phone call from Marcotte. When Tom called Nancy from police headquarters, she asked him why Riddle would say he gave Marcotte a ride. Tom said, "I don't know what the (expletive) is going on." a.m. and Marcotte wasn't home.

Friday morning Kueter went to work at Forest Products Distributors, also on Highway 79. His wife, Nancy Kueter, said he acted "very normal." On Saturday morning, Marcotte's friend, Vicky Riddle, called Tom Kueter. Riddle told him Marcotte had called her from work and said Kueter would take her home. Kueter denied he was with Marcotte. Later that morning, Kueter and Gleason met at Riddle's house to discuss Marcotte's disappearance.

night Marcotte disappeared. Nancy Kueter said she complied with both requests. When she got back home, the family went to the Ramada Inn, where relatives were staying, to go swimming. Nancy Kueter called it "a nice family night out, a great time." On their way home they saw police towing Tom's car away. A detective said they were looking for evidence.

Nancy Kueter was upset. She said her husband told her, "Someone is trying to frame me, and they're doing a Gleason, told police he awoke at 4 Here is a chronology of events in good job of it Later that night, she sata ner nus-band told her again, "Somebody is out to get me. They're trying to frame me. I didn't do anything, Nancy." On Sunday, Tom Kueter aid yara work. The family went swimming at the Ramada again.

Tom Kueter washed his shoes and shoelaces. Nancv Kueter says that about 5 p.m. Tom got a call. She said Tom acted "very quiet" the rest oi ine night Before bed, he once again told her someone was trying to frame him. "I don't know why," he said.

"I didn't do anything." On Monday, the police still had Tom Kueter's car, so they gave him a ride to work in a police cruiser. A detective questioned him at work about whether he was having an affair with Marcotte. He denied it. Nancy Kueter said detectives told her husband they had found blood in his car. Nancy Kueter said her husband didn't appear nervous about that.

On Tuesday, Tom Kueter left for work at 6:30 a.m., in a police car. Nancy told him, "1 love you, babe." Tom Kueter said, "I love you, too." It was their last conversation. Co-workers said Kueter acted normally when he got to work. About 8:30 a.m. two workers found Kueter dead, his head crushed under the wheel of his forklift.

At 10:15 a.m., police came to the health dub where Nancy works to tell her Tom was dead. Although the official suicide ruling didn't come for two weeks, detectives told her Tom had killed himself. She remembers her reaction was: "No, he wouldn't do this. No, no, no!" Police got her permission to search her home for a suicide note. They didn't find one.

Police returned Tom Kueter's car the day of his funeral. They found nothing in it linking him to Marcotte. I 114.99 ry i Reg. $20. Solid colored, I Sk' i lined shorts for the beach I I 2959 Vi iiiihk" cotton with pleated or plain front styling.

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--yl-fiiTbp of the Line in men's ii I underwear during the Top Drawer Sale. of their families. "It's a big deal back home to graduate from high school, and you start thinking about being home and my parents wishing they were here for it," said Emina, the class salutatorian. "It was kind of hard." Emina came to Harrold as an exchange student in 1991. Mirna, who grew up across the street from Emina, joined her friend in South Dakota earlier this year after a stint as an exchange student in California.

Emina had been in South Dakota for about five months when fighting began in the new republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina. She has been staying with the Jeanne and Dean Ritter family in Harrold. i 'When I got on the plane, I thought this is going to be the best year of my life," she said. "I'll learn about a dif ferent country, learn the language But in April 1992 my dad called to ask the Ritters if I can stay here for while longer. The fighting had started in my country.

"I always thought it's not going to last this long. Every day you actually don't know what's going to happen." The war has all but cut off communication with her parents, Emina said. But earlier this year her parents were able to arrange for her younger, sister, Jasmina, to come to South; Dakota. She graduated from eighth grade at Harrold this spring. Mirna can keep touch with he mother because she is in Slovenia as a refugee.

But contacting her father more difficult because he holds a job in Bosnia and is not allowed to leavo the country, she said. Both Emina and Mirna hope to ge I jobs or continue their education. "There is really nothing to go back; to now. All the good memories are jtSst gone," EminS said..