A decades-old double-murder cold case in Massachusetts was solved thanks to a fingerprint gathered from a taxicab license application, according to Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gulluni at a Wednesday press conference.
In a Facebook post, Gulluni said Timothy Scott Joley, 71, of Clearwater, FL, was arrested on Oct. 30 in connection to the 1978 double-murder of two Springfield, MA residents. According to Gulluni, in 1978, a Massachusetts police officer noticed a 1967 green Dodge pickup truck parked at a rest area with its driver’s side window damaged. Nearby, the officer found the bodies of 18-year-old Theresa Marcoux and 20-year-old Mark Harnish, shot and killed.
No firearm was discovered at the scene, but investigators found a bloody fingerprint on the passenger-side vent window of Harnish’s truck, Gulluni said. Harnish and Marcoux attended a friend’s party that night, and a witness reported hearing several gunshots in the area around 4am. Several shell casings were also recovered, and ballistics determined they were all fired from the same gun.
“Investigators concluded that Theresa and Mark had been shot while in the passenger compartment of the pickup truck, and their bodies were moved to the area where their remains were later discovered,” Gulluni said.
The print didn’t match Harnish or Marcoux
Investigators determined the print gathered at the crime scene didn’t match Harnish or Marcoux. They also couldn’t find a match in the Massachusetts Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) or while manually matching the print to some 70,000 known fingerprint cards. With that, the case went cold.
According to Gulluni, however, the Hampden District Attorney’s Office received a tip just last month naming Joley, who lived in Springfield when the murders happened. Joley was a licensed gun owner who “purchased a Colt handgun approximately one month before” the teenagers were killed, Gulluni’s post said.
In 2000, Joley applied for a taxicab driver’s license, and authorities matched a print lifted from the paperwork with the fingerprint found on the passenger-side window decades earlier.
No motive has so far been determined
At the Wednesday press conference, Gulluni said investigators had not yet determined a motive for the crime, and Joley otherwise has no significant criminal record. After his arrest, Joley waived extradition and was scheduled to return to Massachusetts to face charges.
At the press conference, Gulluni called Marcoux “someone who loved to laugh and always had a smile on her face,” and who worked at a Springfield hardware store in the pet department. As for Harnish, he was “a quiet, polite young man who had been working at a car repair shop in town,” Gulluni added.
Harnish and Marcoux’s parents died before their children’s murders were solved. But two members of the victims’ extended families were at Gulluni’s press conference.
Referring to the victims’ families, Gulluni said, “I admire and respect you for your patience, resolve, and the faith that I know you’ve maintained over these many years. While we may have crossed a hill today, and we can see justice, there are many more uphill battles ahead.”
Published: Nov 14, 2024 02:53 pm