A fingerprint on a decades-old taxi application led to the arrest of a man accused of fatally shooting two people and leaving their bodies along a Massachusetts roadway in 1978, officials said.
Timothy Scott Joley, 71, was arrested last month at his home in Clearwater, Florida, in connection with the murders of Theresa Marcoux, 18, and Mark Harnish, 20, Hampden County District Attorney Anthony Gulluni announced Wednesday on Facebook.
Their bodies were found on Nov. 19, 1978, off a roadway in West Springfield.
Joley was taken into custody on a two-count murder complaint and arrest warrant and faces extradition to Massachusetts. It's not clear whether if he has an attorney.
It was only in the last month that Joley was linked to the decadeslong cold case. Gulluni said an unidentified person provided investigators with Joley's name and information about his alleged involvement in the deaths.
Investigators learned that Joley was living in Springfield around the time of the murders and had a fingerprint identification card on file with Springfield police, Gulluni said at a news conference. His fingerprints were on file as part of a taxi license application he submitted in 2000.
Joley's fingerprint identification card was compared to a print found on Harnish's green Dodge pickup truck, which was parked in a roadway rest area near where the bodies were discovered. Investigators determined that the print on the car was from Joley's left thumb, the district attorney said.
Investigators also learned that he was a licensed gun owner in November 1978 and that he bought a Colt handgun about a month before the murders.
Gulluni said Joley's criminal history showed "nothing of real significance." He said the person who came forward to provide investigators with Joley's name was crucial.
"We were able to take that name and turn it into something very significant," he said at the news conference. "It is really so critical. One piece of information or one name that someone provides can really change the course of a case."
Gulluni said the case now has "renewed hope."
"There's a good possibility for justice," he told reporters.
Marcoux, who was working as a clerk at a hardware store at the time of her death, and Harnish, who worked at a car repair shop, were last seen alive on the morning of the murders. Gulluni said they had left a party thrown by friends.
An officer on patrol who saw Harnish's truck parked on Route 5 and Riverdale Street discovered their bodies. The driver's side window of the truck was damaged, and there was blood "in and around the vehicle," Gulluni said on Facebook. Investigators believe that the victims were shot while they were in the passenger compartment of the truck and that their bodies were moved to the area where their remains were discovered later.
An autopsy determined they each suffered multiple gunshot wounds, he said. A motive remains unclear.
Relatives of Marcoux and Harnish were at the news conference but did not speak. Marcoux was described as "someone who loved to laugh and always had a smile on her face." Harnish was "known as a quiet, polite young man," Gulluni said.
"Tragically, their young lives were cut far too short by a horrendous act of violence," he said.