• Timothy Joley, 71, was arrested in connection with the deaths of 18-year-old Theresa Marcoux and 20-year-old Mark Harnish on November 19, 1978.
• Investigators were able to match fingerprints found on the victims’ pickup truck to the victim’s application for a taxi license in 2000.
• “Tragically, their young lives were cut too short by a horrific act of violence,” Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gullini said of the victims in a Facebook post announcing the update.

A 71-year-old Florida man is facing charges nearly 50 years after two people were found dead in Massachusetts.

On October 30, Timothy Joley was arrested at his Clearwater home in connection with the November 19, 1978 murders of 18-year-old Theresa Marcoux and 20-year-old Mark Harnish. Hampden District Attorney (DA), Anthony Gullini, confirmed Facebook mail

The bodies of Marcoux and Harnish, who both attended East Longmeadow High School, were found just off Route 5 in West Springfield almost 46 years ago, the post said.

“Prior to her death, Theresa was working as a clerk in the pet department of a local hardware store,” the prosecutor said of Marcoux.

Harnish, meanwhile, “was known as a quiet, polite young man who worked at an auto repair shop in town,” he added.

“Tragically, their young lives were cut very short due to a horrific act of violence,” Gullini continued.

Marcoux and Harnish’s remains were discovered after an officer with the West Springfield Police Department found Harnish’s 1967 green Dodge pickup truck parked in a highway rest area on Route 5/Riverdale Avenue.

The bodies lay “just above a nearby railing,” the Facebook post said.

Stating that the victims were last seen alive leaving a house at around 12.30 that morning, the police station said, “The police saw that the window on the driver’s side of the truck was damaged and noticed blood in and around the vehicle.” he added. party of friends – “looked like he had a gunshot wound.”

The prosecutor said no firearms were found at the scene, but “investigators concluded that Theresa and Mark were shot while in the passenger compartment of the pickup truck and their bodies were later transported to the area where their remains were found.”

According to the post, the medical examiner “stated the time of death was in the early morning hours of November 19.” A resident of the area also “reported hearing multiple gunshots around 4 a.m.”

Police added at the time that spent bullets were found in the passenger side of the pickup truck, as well as bullets left from the victims, and that “a latent trace of what appeared to be blood was found on the passenger side vent window.”

“As the investigation continued, this latent fingerprint was entered into the Massachusetts Automated Fingerprint Identification System (or AFIS) and was also manually compared to approximately 70,000 known fingerprint cards,” the post said, and two law enforcement investigators eventually identified Joley’s fingerprint. He was given an ID card and a match was made from his left thumb.

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Gullini said: press conference He said Wednesday, Nov. 13, that Joley, who was living in Springfield at the time of the murders, was fingerprinted when he applied for a taxi license in 2000, so his information was on file with the Springfield Police Department.

“Investigators also learned that Joley became a licensed gun owner in November 1978 and purchased a Colt revolver approximately a month before the murders,” the Facebook post said. The statement was included.

The prosecutor confirmed that “two separate murder complaints and arrest warrants for Joley” were issued by Springfield District Court on October 29, before his arrest the next day. He was held without bail in the Pinellas County Jail and waived extradition when he appeared before the county’s District Judge on Nov. 5.

The suspect “will return to Massachusetts in the coming weeks to face these charges,” according to the prosecutor. It’s unclear whether Joley has an attorney. The Hampden District Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond when contacted by PEOPLE.