WEST SPRINGFIELD – A fingerprint has led to the arrest of a Florida man in connection with a double murder in western Massachusetts nearly 50 years ago.
Timothy Joley, 71, was arrested at his home in Clearwater, Florida on two counts of murder. He will be returned to Massachusetts in the coming weeks.
The Hampden County Prosecutor’s Office
Who were the victims?
Theresa Marcoux, 18, and Mark Harnish, 20, were found dead just off Route 5 in West Springfield on the morning of November 19, 1978. Both bodies were found by a police officer above a guardrail at a rest stop on Route 5, where the pick-up was parked up from Harnish. Marcoux and Harnish had been shot dead. The driver’s side window of Harnish’s pickup was damaged and there was blood in and around the pickup.
According to the Hampden County Prosecutor’s Office, Marcoux and Harnish both attended East Longmeadow High School. Marcoux worked as a clerk at a local hardware store and Harnish worked at an auto repair shop. They were last seen in the early morning of November 19, 1978 around 12:30 am, as they left a friend’s party.
Investigators said they were shot in the truck and their bodies were moved to the area where they were found.
The Hampden County Prosecutor’s Office
How was the case resolved?
The Hampden district attorney said a fingerprint was found on the pickup that did not belong to Marcoux or Harnish. Over the years, the fingerprint was compared with more than 70,000 other fingerprints. In the past month alone, investigators received information that Joley was allegedly involved in the murders.
The Hampden County Prosecutor’s Office
The Hampden district attorney said investigators determined the fingerprint from the 1978 crime scene belonged to Joley. They also learned that he was a licensed gun owner at the time and was believed to have purchased a gun about a month before the murders.
