Crime

Arrest made in 1978 Western Mass. double murder

Authorities arrested Timothy Scott Joley in relation to the 46-year-old murder of Theresa Marcoux and Mark Harnish in West Springfield.

Mark Harnish, 20, and Theresa Marcoux, 18, were found shot to death in West Springfield on Nov. 19, 1978. Hampden District Attorney’s Office

By Eva Levin

November 13, 2024

2 minutes to read

Authorities have arrested a man for his alleged involvement in a 46-year-old double homicide cold case, prosecutors said.

In a press conference on Wednesday, Hampden County District Attorney Anthony Gulluni named a new suspect, Timothy Scott Joley, in the 1978 murder of Theresa Marcoux and Mark Harnish in West Springfield.

“This pursuit of justice is never easy, and it sometimes takes a long and circuitous route,” Gullini said.

71-year-old allegedly responsible for 1978 double homicide

During the conference, Gullini outlined the circumstances surrounding the decades-old murder.

In the early morning of Nov. 17, 1978, an officer on patrol found a pickup truck parked in a roadway on Route 5, Gullini said. The truck’s driver side window was damaged and blood was splattered all around the vehicle. The officer found the bodies of 18-year-old Marcoux and 20-year-old Harnish outside of the truck. Gullini said both bodies had multiple gunshot wounds.

“When investigators processed the pickup truck, they located a latent print, in what appeared to be blood on the passenger window of the truck,” Gullini said.

He said law enforcement entered the print into a forensic processing system, and manually compared it to more than 70,000 other known fingerprints over the four decades. As of October 2024, Gullini said, the print returned no matches.

“In just the last month, my office received information from an individual who provided investigators with a name,” Gullini said. “The name of Timothy Scott Joley.”

Gullini said investigators soon discovered that Joley lived in West Springfield at the time of the murder. Joley also allegedly purchased a Colt handgun about a month before the murders, Gullini said. In addition, Gullini said the fingerprint they had on file matched with one Joley gave when the applied for a taxicab license in 2000.

Prosecutors charged the suspect with two counts of murder on Oct. 29 and authorities arrested him the next day at his home in Clearwater, Florida, Gullini said. According to Gullini, law enforcement will return Joley to Massachusetts in the coming weeks to face charges.

Victims remembered as a girl who ‘loved to laugh’ and a ‘polite young man’

Marcoux and Harnish had both attended East Longmeadow High School, Gullini said. At the time of the murder, Gullini said, Marcoux was working at a hardware store and Harnish worked at a car repair shop.

“Tragiacally, their lives were cut far too short by a horrendous act of violence,” Gullini said.

During the conference, Gullini said there is no evidence to prove a motive or relationship between Joley and the victims. He thanked the victim’s family members, some of whom were in the audience of the press conference, for their “patience and resolve.”

“To all families who have lost a loved one to homicide: we do not forget,” he said. “It is our mission to seek justice for you and your lost loved one. We stand in your grief, we share in your loss, and we remain relentless in our efforts to bring offenders to justice.”