Fingerprint from taxi license application leads to arrest in 1978 double murder

Nearly 46 years after a double homicide, a fingerprint from a taxi license application has led to a suspect's arrest, officials in western Massachusetts announced Wednesday.

The case began on Nov. 19, 1978, when police discovered Theresa Marcoux, 18, and Mark Harnish, 20, shot dead near Route 5 in West Springfield, Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gulluni said.

Harnish's Dodge pickup truck was found nearby with blood and a damaged window, he said.

Marcoux and Harnish were shot in the passenger compartment of the truck and their bodies were moved after the murders, Gulluni said.

A key piece of evidence was a bloody fingerprint left on the truck window, Gulluni said.

"Over the years, as the investigation continued, this latent print was entered into the Massachusetts Automated Fingerprint Identification System, better known as AFIS, and was also manually compared to approximately 70,000 known fingerprint cards. As of October 2024, there was no identification made," Gulluni said at a news conference Wednesday.

Then, within the last month, someone came forward linking 71-year-old Timothy Joley to the crime, he said.

Joley, who lived in Springfield at the time of the murders, had no significant criminal record, Gulluni said.

Investigators obtained Joley's fingerprint records from a 2000 taxi license application and matched his left thumbprint to the print recovered on Harnish's truck, Gulluni said.

Police also discovered that Joley was a licensed gun owner in 1978, and he bought a Colt handgun about one month before the murders, Gulluni said.

The recovered projectiles at the crime scene came from a .38 caliber firearm, police said.

With this new evidence, authorities secured an arrest warrant and Joley was taken into custody on Oct. 30 at his Florida home, Gulluni said. Joley waived extradition on Nov. 5 and will be returned to Massachusetts to face two counts of murder, he said.

No motive is known and there was no apparent connection between Joley and the victims, Gulluni said.

Marcoux "was described as someone who loved to laugh and always had a smile on her face," Gulluni said, and Harnish "was known as a quiet, polite young man."

Gulluni praised the victims' families, who attended Wednesday's news conference.

"I admire and respect you for your patience, resolve and the faith that I know you've maintained over these many years," Gulluni said.

"Sadly, the parents of Theresa and Mark are deceased and never knew either answers or justice for the brutality that was inflicted on their children," he added.