Forty-six years after a double homicide case in western Massachusetts went cold, an unexpected tip has led to an arrest, officials announced 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.