Officials say a fingerprint, a taxi cab application and a name provided to authorities helped lead to an arrest in a decades-old double homicide case in West Springfield.
Authorities in western Massachusetts say an arrest has been made in connection with the murders of 18-year-old Theresa Marcoux and 20-year-old Mark Harnish, almost 46 years to the day their bodies were discovered.
Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gulluni says it was the morning of Sunday, Nov. 19, 1978, when a West Springfield police officer came across Harnish’s pickup truck in a rest area off of Route 5.
Noticing blood and damage to the vehicle, the officer then came across the remains of the victims just over a nearby guardrail – both having suffered multiple gunshot wounds.
No firearm was recovered and in the years that followed, authorities continued to investigate to little avail. That is, until last month, when Gulluni says new info emerged.
“In just the last month, my office received information from an individual who provided investigators with a name - the name of ‘Timothy Scott Joley,’ and information as to Joley’s purported involvement with the deaths of Theresa Marcoux and Mark Harnish,” the district attorney said during a press conference Wednesday.
According to the DA’s office, Joley had been living in Springfield at the time of the murders.
Gulluni says there is currently no evidence to suggest he knew the victims – both graduates of East Longmeadow High School.
Marcoux had been working as a clerk at a local hardware store while Harnish worked at a car repair shop. The two were last seen alive as they left a party hosted by friends just after midnight.
“The medical examiner opined that their time of death was during the early morning hours of Nov. 19,” Gulluni said. “A witness who lived in the area also reported hearing multiple gunshots at approximately 4 a.m.”
Multiple projectiles were recovered at the scene – all believed to be fired by the same gun. Also discovered on the truck’s passenger-side vent window was a latent print – spotted in what appeared to be blood and not belonging to either victim.
Decades later, with a name provided, authorities were able to obtain a fingerprint identification card for Joley from Springfield Police.
His prints were on file after Joley attempted to apply for a taxicab license in 2000. After evaluating and verifying the prints, investigators determined the print in Harnish’s truck came from Joley’s left thumb.
The new info culminated in Gulluni’s office seeking an arrest warrant for Joley, who had been living in Clearwater, Florida.
“A two-count murder complaint and arrest warrant for Joley was issued by the Springfield District Court on Oct. 29, 2024,” the DA recounted. “On Oct. 30, Timothy Joley was arrested at his residence in Clearwater, Florida, and was held without bond at the Pinellas County jail. On Nov. 5, Jolie appeared before a circuit judge in Pinellas County, Florida, and waived extradition.”
The district attorney says Joley will be returned to Massachusetts in the weeks ahead to face charges.
Answering questions from reporters, Gulluni says the suspect had not previously been on the radar of investigators over the course of the case – decades in which a number of persons of interest were looked into.
Speaking before relatives of the victims, he emphasized the importance of individuals coming forward with information, even if it feels like a small detail.
“… we come to the media and we seek the public's assistance in a lot of these kinds of cases - it is really so critical: one piece of information or one name that someone provides can really change the course of a case,” he said. “In this case, this was 40-some-odd-years without answers, and that person's coming forward has led us to a point where families have renewed hope and there's a good possibility for justice.”
