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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
Arrest made in connection to decades-old Massachusetts double murder
case
By Maria Aguilar Prieto, CNN
Updated:
4:26 AM EST, Sat November 16, 2024
Source: CNN
Forty-six years after a double homicide case in western Massachusetts
went cold, an unexpected tip has led to an arrest, officials Wednesday.
Authorities charged 71-year-old Timothy Joley with two counts of murder
on October 29 in connection to the 1978 deaths of Theresa Marcoux, 18,
and Mark Harnish, 20.
Marcoux and Harnish were last seen leaving a friend’s party in the
early hours of November 17, 1978.
Two days later, a police officer found Harnish’s green Dodge pickup
truck parked at a rest stop in West Springfield. The window on the
driver’s side was damaged and there was blood in and around the
vehicle. The officer found the two victims’ remains over a guardrail
not far from the truck, Hampden County District Attorney Anthony
Gulluni said during a news conference Wednesday.
An autopsy determined both victims had died of multiple gunshot wounds,
and a ballistics report showed all shots had been fired from the same
gun. Investigators concluded Marcoux and Harnish had been shot dead in
the passenger compartment of the truck before their bodies were moved
to the guardrail.
A witness who lived nearby reported hearing multiple gunshots at around
4 a.m., Gulluni said. Police never recovered a gun.
Investigators at the time found a fingerprint on the passenger vent
window of the pickup truck that did not belong to Marcoux or Harnish,
Gulluni said. It was entered into the Massachusetts Automated
Fingerprint Identification System. It was also manually compared to
around 70,000 known fingerprints, he said.
No identification was made, and the case went cold.
A break in the case came in October, when the Hampden County District
Attorney’s Office received a call naming Joley as a potential person
of interest. Investigators found that Joley, who resides in Clearwater,
Florida, lived in Springfield, Massachusetts, around the time of the
killings.
Investigators obtained a fingerprint identification card for Joley from
the Springfield Police Department, which had it on file after he had
been fingerprinted in 2000 for a taxicab license. A comparative
analysis verified Joley’s fingerprint matched the one recovered from
the murder site, Gulluni said.
“Investigators also learned that Joley was a licensed gun owner in
November of 1978, and that he purchased a Colt handgun approximately
one month before the murders,” Gulluni said.
The Springfield District Court issued a two-count murder complaint and
arrest warrant on October 29, and authorities arrested Joley at his
home in Clearwater on October 30. He is being held without bond at the
Pinellas County Jail and will be moved to Massachusetts in the coming
weeks, according to Gulluni.
Joley has not publicly commented on his arrest, and it is unclear
whether he has an attorney.
Joley does not have a significant criminal record, the district
attorney’s office said, and investigators are unaware of any motive
or connection between the suspect and the victims.
Gulluni addressed members from Marcoux and Harnish’s family present
at the news conference.
“I admire and respect you for your patience, resolve and the faith
that I know you’ve maintained over these many years. I thank you for
being here today,” he said. “While we may have crested a hill today
and we can see justice in the distance, there are many more uphill
battles ahead.”
He said both victims’ parents are now dead.
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