Fingerprint on taxi license application led to arrest in 1978 double murder

Nearly 46 years after a double murder, fingerprints taken from a taxi license application led to the suspect’s arrest, authorities in Western Massachusetts announced Wednesday.

Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gulluni said the case began on Nov. 19, 1978, when police discovered 18-year-old Theresa Marcoux and 20-year-old Mark Harnish shot to death near Route 5 in West Springfield.

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

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

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

“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, no identification has been made,” Gulluni said Wednesday. He said the following at the press conference he held.

He later said that within the last month someone had linked 71-year-old Timothy Joley to the crime.

Joley, who lived in Springfield at the time of the murders, did not have a significant criminal record, Gulluni said.

Investigators obtained Joley’s fingerprint records from a 2000 taxi license application and matched his left fingerprint to one found on Harnish’s truck, Gulluni said.

Police also discovered Joley became a licensed gun owner in 1978 and purchased a Colt pistol about a month before the murders, Gulluni said.

Police said the bullets found at the scene came from a .38-caliber firearm.

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

Gulluni said the cause of the incident was unknown 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 his face,” and Harnish was “known as a quiet, polite young man.”

Gulluni praised the families of the victims who attended Wednesday’s press conference.

“I admire and respect you for your patience, your determination, and your faith that I know you have maintained throughout these many years,” Gulluni said.

“Sadly, Theresa and Mark’s parents are dead and they have never known answers or justice for the brutality inflicted on their children,” he added.