The murders of 18-year-old Theresa Marcoux and 20-year-old Mark Harnish have remained a mystery for 46 years, but now a man named Timothy Joley has been arrested in connection with their deaths on November 19, 1978.
Hampden District Attorney/FacebookTimothy Joley, 71, has been arrested for the 1978 double murder of Theresa Marcoux and Mark Harnish.
On Nov. 19, 1978, Theresa Marcoux and Mark Harnish were found dead on the side of a road in West Springfield, Massachusetts. They’d been shot to death in Harnish’s pickup truck, and their killer had dumped their bodies nearby before fleeing the scene.
At the time, detectives discovered a single bloody fingerprint on the truck’s passenger window. However, despite comparing the print to tens of thousands of others on file, they were never able to find a match — until now.
Last month, a tip came in suggesting that a man named Timothy Scott Joley was involved in the murders of Marcoux and Harnish. Investigators were able to track down a taxi license application Joley had submitted in 2000 that included his fingerprints, and they were shocked to discover that his left thumb was a match for the print found at the crime scene. Now, Joley has been arrested and charged with homicide, a development that will hopefully bring an end to this 46-year-old cold case.
The Murders Of Theresa Marcoux And Mark Harnish
On Nov. 19, 1978, the remains of 18-year-old Theresa Marcoux and 20-year-old Mark Harnish were discovered off Route 5 in West Springfield, Massachusetts. An officer with the West Springfield Police Department was patrolling the area when he noticed Harnish’s green Dodge pickup truck parked near the road and stopped to investigate.
The officer saw that the truck had a damaged window and spotted blood in and around the vehicle. Then, just over a guardrail, he found the bodies of Marcoux and Harnish, who “appeared to have sustained gunshot wounds,” according to a Facebook post by Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gulluni.
Hampden District Attorney/FacebookMark Harnish and Theresa Marcoux, the victims of the grisly double murder that shocked residents of West Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1978.
The police department launched an investigation and determined that Marcoux and Harnish had last been seen leaving a friend’s party at 12:30 a.m. on Nov. 19. Evidence suggested that they’d been killed in the early morning hours, and a resident claimed to have heard several gunshots around 4 a.m.
Detectives did find one bloody fingerprint on the passenger-side window of the truck, but their trail ended there. They entered the print into the Massachusetts Automated Fingerprint Identification System and ultimately compared it to more than 70,000 other fingerprints, but they never found a match, and the case went cold.
Now, 46 years later, an unexpected tip has led to an arrest at last.
An Unexpected Lead Cracks The Case Wide Open
In October 2024, an unidentified individual contacted the West Springfield Police Department with a lead in the case. They claimed that a man named Timothy Scott Joley was involved in the murders of Marcoux and Harnish.
Officers tracked down a taxi license application Joley submitted in 2000 that had required him to be fingerprinted. The investigators discovered that Joley’s left thumb was a perfect match for the bloody print found on the pickup truck in 1978.
Hampden District Attorney/FacebookThe fingerprint was found on the passenger-side window of Mark Harnish’s green Dodge pickup truck.
“Investigators have also learned that Joley was a licensed gun owner in November 1978 and that he purchased a Colt handgun approximately one month before the murders,” the Hampden District Attorney’s Facebook post stated.
So, who was Timothy Joley? According to investigators, Joley lived in Springfield at the time of the killings. He did not have any notable criminal background and did not seem to have a relationship with the victims. At the time of the murders, he would have been 25 years old.
Joley, who now resides in Clearwater, Florida, has been arrested and charged with the double murder. On Nov. 5, Joley appeared in court and waived extradition. He will return to Massachusetts soon to face charges in the case.
Whether Harnish and Marcoux will finally receive justice remains uncertain as Joley’s case now moves through the legal system. District Attorney Gulluni reflected on the progress, stating, “While we may have crossed a hill today and can see justice, there are many more uphill battles ahead.”
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