Clearwater man arrested in 1978 Massachusetts double murder cold case

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Nearly 46 years after a young couple was found shot to death at a Massachusetts rest stop, investigators say they now believe they know who is responsible for their murders.

Police arrested 71-year-old Timothy Joley at his Clearwater home on Oct. 30, 2024, for the 1978 murders of 18-year-old Theresa Marcoux and 20-year-old Mark Harnish.

According to Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gulluni, a Springfield, Massachusetts police officer was on patrol on Nov. 19, 1978, when he saw a 1967 green Dodge pickup truck parked in a roadway rest area off Route 5.

The officer saw that the driver’s side window was damaged and noticed blood in and around the vehicle.

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He then found the remains of Marcoux and Harnish just over a nearby guardrail. Both victims appeared to have gunshot wounds.

Pictured: Theresa Marcoux Courtesy of Hampden District Attorney.

Gulluni said painstaking efforts were made to document and photograph the scene and physical and biological evidence collected by investigators. The rest area was searched for evidence, but no firearm was recovered.

Investigators said the couple was shot while in the passenger compartment of the pickup truck and their bodies were moved to the area where they were later discovered.

The medical examiner said they both died in the early morning hours of November 19, 1978. A witness in the area also reported hearing multiple gunshots around 4 a.m.

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Gulluni said bullet casings were recovered from the victim’s remains and the passenger compartment of the pickup truck. After a ballistics examination, investigators determined that all the bullets were fired from the same gun.

When investigators processed the pickup truck, they found a latent fingerprint in what appeared to be blood in the front passenger window of the truck. The print did not belong to Marcoux or Harnish.

Pictured: Mark Harnish Courtesy Hampden District Attorney.

Over the years, that print was entered into the Massachusetts Automated Fingerprint Identification System and was also manually compared to about 70,000 known fingerprint cards.

As of Oct. 2024, Gulluni said there was no identification made.

However, in the last month, a tipster gave investigators a name – Timothy Scott Joley – and provided information about his purported involvement in the deaths of Marcoux and Harnish.

Once they had a name, investigators learned that Joley, who was living in Clearwater, Florida, lived in Springfield in 1978.

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Investigators got a fingerprint identification card for Joley from the Springfield Police Department, which was on file because he applied for a taxicab license in 2000.

Two law enforcement investigators who had extensive experience in fingerprint analysis were given Joley’s card and compared it to the latent print found in the pickup truck, and it was a match.

Timothy Joley mugshot courtesy of the Pinellas County Jail.

Investigators also learned that Joley was a licensed gun owner in November 1978 and that he bought a handgun about one month before the double murder.

Joley was arrested on Oct. 30 at his Clearwater home and is being held without bond in the Pinellas County Jail.

On Nov. 5, he went before a circuit court judge in Pinellas County and waived extradition. He will be returned to Massachusetts in the coming week to face the charges.

Gulluni said the motive for the double murder is still unknown and added that Joely was not on investigators’ radar until the tip came in.

"One piece of information or one name that someone provides can really change the course of a case," Gulluni said. "In this case, this was 40-some-odd years without answers and that person coming forward has really led us to a point where families have renewed hope and there’s a good possibility for justice."

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