The family of Mark Anthony Haines, a teenager from Tamworth, has been searching for answers regarding his death for nearly 40 years. Haines, a 17-year-old Gomeroi boy, was found dead on a railway track just south of the city on January 16, 1988. Initially, police ruled his death a suicide, but his family has always believed he was not alone that night and was placed on the tracks.

The first coronial inquest into Haines' death, held in October 1988, returned an open finding. Recently, a new inquest was announced after the ABC podcast "Unravel: Blood on the Tracks" uncovered new information about the case. The podcast is being republished with updates from the inquest, which began on April 8, 2024, and concluded in mid-October 2025, 37 years after Haines' death.

The new evidence presented during the inquest has raised more questions than answers, challenging the official narrative surrounding Haines' death. New South Wales Deputy State Coroner Harriet Grahame is expected to deliver her findings in 2026.

On the morning of January 16, 1988, a freight train driver reported seeing a body on the tracks at 6:06 a.m. Local rail worker Glenn Bryant was the first to reach the scene. He noted that Haines' shoes were clean and observed a white towel placed under the teenager's head. Bryant described the towel as "well organized, damp but not wet and covered in blood."

An autopsy later revealed that Haines died from a severe head injury, including a subdural hematoma and a skull fracture. Police initially theorized that Haines had crashed a stolen vehicle found nearby and then laid down on the tracks. However, the inquest revealed that Haines could not drive, especially a manual vehicle like the stolen Torana.

Haines had been out drinking with friends before his death. His girlfriend, Tanya White, testified that she last saw him jogging home around 3:30 a.m. Shortly after, the white Holden Torana was stolen from the street where Haines was last seen. The car belonged to local petrol station owner David Sanderson, who reported it stolen.

Glenn Mannion, Haines' close friend, worked at Sanderson's petrol station at the time. He denied rumors of stealing the car for joyrides. However, a witness claimed to have seen a Torana driving erratically before Haines' death, allegedly driven by Mannion. Another witness testified that Mannion confessed, saying, "I rolled the car, and I think I killed [Mark]."

Mannion's former partner also recalled an alleged drunken confession in the mid-1990s, where he mentioned a towel being placed under Haines' head and a box over his body. Mannion denied these conversations ever took place.

From 2016 to 2024, Tamworth Senior Detective Craig Dunn led the investigation. He believed Haines was killed in a car accident and then placed on the tracks. In 2023, he enlisted the NSW Unsolved Homicide Unit to review the case, examining three theories: a cover-up after an accident, a deliberate act of violence, or the possibility that Haines took his own life. A detective from the Unsolved Homicide Squad suggested that the third theory was the most plausible, indicating that Haines may have intentionally ended his life or died during a thrill-seeking activity gone wrong.

Mark's uncle, Donald Craigie, expressed the family's ongoing anguish over the lack of answers. He stated, "We want to know how our Marky boy died," as they await the coroner's findings in 2026.