Blood On The Tracks 02 | Foul Play

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If you're an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person, we want you to know that this series contains the name of someone who has died.

January in Tamworth means one thing, the annual country music festival.

Tourists are pouring into town, stages are being set up in the main street and hundreds of buskers are tuning their guitars.

The city lives for it.

It's a time to party.

But the family of Mark Haynes isn't celebrating.

I couldn't believe it was him, that this has really happened.

I had to go to the morgue myself and have a look at him myself.

Duck walks around to the morgue at the back of Tamworth Hospital.

Well, I just remember walking through a couple of big swinging doors

and

well, I can see this person laying out with a sheet over him.

I had to take a closer look and really look real hard to realise it was Mark.

I just said, oh, Mark,

it just broke me.

I cried.

That boy was like my own son.

I'm Alan Clark.

Welcome to Unravel.

I'm your host for season one, Blood on the Tracks, an investigation into the death of Aboriginal teenager Mark Haynes.

If this is your first time listening, it's best you start from the first episode.

Mark's death comes as a shock to his family.

The news ripples through town.

Some people think it was suicide.

Others think it was a drunk Aboriginal teen up to no good, case closed.

But there's so much more to this story than that.

We just got into theme park and our names got mentioned across the speaker.

That's Jack Craigie, one of Mark's uncles.

The morning that Mark's found dead, Jack's at Wonderland, a theme park in western Sydney, with Mark's cousins.

The kids haven't even gone on their first ride yet.

You know, we were shocked

who would know that we're here and

what our

names is getting called out.

The family go into an office where two policemen are waiting for them.

And they said there's been an accident.

Mark's been found on railway tracks.

And you were with his mum and dad.

I mean, how did they react?

Oh, Josie just, she just went quiet.

So first thing she said we've got to get to Tamworth.

They begin the five hour drive north to Tamworth.

We end up getting a broken windscreen and driving all the way through the putty road all the way to Tamworth with a broken windscreen saturated, wet, miserable, you know, you can imagine.

The rest of Mark's family is spread out across New South Wales.

Mark's uncle Duck is in in Mauree, about three hours drive from Tamworth.

We was standing outside the taxi ramp.

We're standing there just out of the rain.

The next minute my brother pulls up, we jump out of the car and we come back.

Mark's been found out.

Just hot.

Oh, hot, cold sweat just swept over me.

I almost collapsed.

Duck gets a ride to Tamworth.

Like the rest of the family, he remembers the pouring rain.

There was a kangaroo on the side of the road.

It was so bloody wet, it birthly couldn't hop.

You know, it just stood there.

It rained.

It was bad.

Back in Tamworth, the bad news is spreading fast.

Mark's best friend, Jason Wand, or Wannie, has just started his shift at Coles.

I think I might have been just stacking boxes or something something like that, all bludging.

He gets the news from a friend.

And Kelly came out the back, was crying,

came up to me

and

told me that Mark had been killed.

Her parents had just called her.

And I remember

having

great difficulty believing her.

Like I asked her several times what happened, what happened.

Family and friends gather at Mark Sarnie's place.

His cousin leah is in shock want to come around and like we were just all messed up you know and i got the photo albums out you know all the family photo albums and we were just going through photos

mark's mate who we're calling greg arrives as well he's the fella leia saw outside the nightclub the night before but i think he

come to the place because he well

might have heard the news you know like it gets around quick.

He was a close friend of mine and Mark's

and we sat out the back,

I don't know for how long, but I remember we were all sort of crying, hugging,

talking about Mark.

As the people arrive at the house and catch up on the latest, they hear that Mark's body was found on the tracks about seven kilometers out of town.

Trying to fathom how he found himself

in this situation where he was found outside of Tamworth.

So all of these different thoughts were racing through my head.

Yeah, a million questions.

Why, how, who, what.

It's not just the family that's confused by what's been found out on the tracks.

It was out of the ordinary.

The jigsaw puzzles didn't fit.

Glenn Bryant is the first man on the scene after the train runs over Mark's body.

He's spent most of his life working for the railways.

Starting out as a cleaner, Glenn's worked his way up to assistant stationmaster.

The scene he's looking at will stick in his mind because of how unusual it is.

Normally the ones who bodies you go down and pick up air are either pretty well chopped up

or at least they're missing something or other.

They're missing some digit or an arm or whatever it may be.

But Mark's body isn't missing any limbs.

He just has a big head injury and some cuts.

The police get there about 10 minutes after Glenn.

The younger constable asked me, was the person alive?

And I said, well, no, he's dead.

Glenn's expecting the police to be interested in the strange things he's noticed.

The lack of blood at the scene, the lack of mud on Mark's sneakers, the towel placed under the head, the unusual head injury.

But to Glenn, they don't seem too concerned.

I think their attitude was that the person had committed suicide, so they didn't sort of go too far into it.

And you thought that was strange because you thought the whole scene was strange.

When I first got there, yes.

Of course, again, as we said, the mud and the lack of blood and all that stuff.

I think it was the same.

I just found it quite strange.

And the police's attitude was that after suicide don't worry about it.

I've asked the police about these claims but they haven't given me a response.

At the scene the constables do start collecting some of the items scattered around Mark's body.

What specifically did you see them pick up and put in a bag?

I saw him pick up the comb and his ID and they put that in a clear plastic bag.

The black comb is taken from Mark's pocket.

The ID is someone else's birth certificate that Mark had used to get into a nightclub the night before.

Police also pick up a pink cigarette lighter.

It's not long before they're finished collecting evidence.

you know, body bag and then they

stretch over there.

I think we helped them carry it down to the ambulance and put the ambulance.

Less than an hour after Mark's body was found, the ambulance leaves, the police leave, and the train gets going again.

So I'm walking down the section of train track where Mark's body was found.

When the police left here that morning, shortly after, they got a call about a stolen car.

So, this car had been stolen the night before and it was found crashed about a kilometer in front of me from where I'm standing towards town, basically off the side of this little dirt road I'm on right now in the long grass.

The bloke who owned the car has a yarn with the cops and solves one of those mysteries of the scene where Mark was found.

He says that there were a bunch of Christmas and wedding presents in the back of the car.

So that would explain why when Mark's body was found out here, there were bits of Christmas wrapping paper.

and broken bits of presents like a sock, a watch face and a teapot.

So the police think, oh, okay, there's a stolen car not far from Mark's body.

They start to come up with a bit of a theory and then they go to the family and tell them about this theory.

And they come in and sat down table and just telling us that he might have crashed the car and

ended up with head injuries and walked onto the track disorientated.

His uncles, Duck and Craig, can't believe what they're hearing.

They come up with this here theory that Mark more than likely stole this motor vehicle.

He's a 17-year-old boy who went drinking with mates and decided to get up to some mischief.

Went for a joyride.

Mark lost control of the car, rolled it, hit his head.

They reckon he had a concussion and got out of the car.

Was disorientated and wandered up the track.

Allegedly carrying a a box or two of stolen goods.

He's taken a towel, put it under his head.

And laid down and the train's hit him.

The theory is absurd to the family.

That's a scenario that never sat with the family from day one.

For the family, there's one glaring problem with the police theory.

Everyone knew that Mark couldn't drive.

That's why I piped up and said, no way.

I said to the cop, he could not drive a car.

I said, said, I tried to teach him in my HQ because I was going to try and, you know, show him.

And he said, no, no, I'm not driving.

No.

I said, well, you know, just go on the dirt road and you can have a little go and learn.

I'll learn you.

But he didn't want it.

So he never drove no car.

Wannie also tried to teach Mark to drive.

And we sort of got him in and showed him the basics.

And

he just, yeah, the car,

kangaroo hopped.

I mean, he stalled it.

He couldn't work out what the clutch was doing, what the accelerators was doing.

He absolutely had no idea what he was doing.

He was so uncoordinated to the point where

I was basically rolling on the floor, pissing myself laughing.

And

Mark cracked it, got a little bit upset, jumped out of the car.

And I remember he slammed the car door and swore and sort of stormed off.

But as Mark does, came back five minutes later, laughing, thinking it was funny.

This was just two weeks before he died and the stolen car that was found near mark's body it was a manual

going from what i saw that day and this is we're talking about two weeks later that he was meant to have driven a manual car

no no way

the uncles decide to head out to where mark's body was found They rattle along the dirt road and they spot the car on the side of the tracks.

There was a small white car and it was overturned.

The windscreen was popped out.

We can see that it was not covered by the police for further examination.

It's a white Tirana.

The uncles decide to leave the car alone.

So I didn't want to go near it because there could be footprints, anything around.

So no, we stayed up by the road.

They get to the section of tracks where their nephew's body was found that morning.

And it's what's missing that strikes them the most.

Well, what we didn't see was any blood.

So there was some paper and stuff that were there.

Couldn't see any blood or any marks or any.

Generally, what you see nowadays is that police mark spots where people die with pain or whatever.

There was none of that.

you know, we couldn't pinpoint exactly where the spot was.

As the uncles look at the scene, they're thinking about the theory that Mark went went out there alone in the stolen car.

And they realize for this theory to work, Mark would have had to cross a narrow railbridge carrying an armful of presents.

There was mud on both sides of the track, so the only way to keep his shoes clean would have been to walk along the railway.

So Duck decides to walk it for himself.

and cross that narrow railbridge.

And I said to the boys there, I said, right out of them, I'm going to get up here and attempt.

I'm going to see if I can walk across this bridge without carrying a box or two.

The rail bridge is between the crash car and where Mark's body was found.

It's about 10 meters long and there's an 8 to 10 meter drop if you fall off it.

I stepped out onto the first sleeper and there was gaps about a foot wide or something, if not wider.

It's not a pedestrian bridge, it's made for for trains.

There are big gaps between the railway sleepers.

There's no handrail and the morning of Mark's death it was raining.

I got onto, you know, gingerly stepped onto the second one and this is without carrying a box or two.

Duck doesn't make it far.

And I got on there and I turned around me brothers and that was down the bottom up there.

I said, look, no way, no way he was able to walk across here let alone carry a box or two because here I am here

you know and and I'm bloody fired up and you know and I'm bloody well willing to bloody give it a go and I can't get past the second sleeper.

So Mark couldn't drive and they reckon there's no way he could have crossed that railbridge concussed carrying presents in the dark.

The whole idea that Mark went out there alone, the uncles believe they've destroyed that

That was their story, you know what I mean?

But it wasn't our story.

You believed it was foul play?

It was foul play, and it was a cover-up right from the word go.

Here ye, here ye, here ye, the Mayor of Tamworth, Alderman, David John.

Fellow citizens, visitors to Country Music Capital,

you are about to embark on 11 days of fun and frivolity.

We'll have bucking frogs and lots of dancing feet.

So get out your hats and let's make this the happiest festival ever.

For this is the year of our final centenary.

Let the music and the fun begin.

While the family's mourning and marks bodies in the morgue, The Tamworth Country Music Festival is in full swing.

Thousands of people fill the the streets to listen to the likes of Slim Dusty and John Williamson, pies and tinnies in hand.

It's a whole town sort of partying.

And Mark's laying

in a freezer, in a fridge.

It was surreal.

You know, and having sort of

duck and them running around,

you know.

So desperately seeking the answers and,

you know, these fireworks going off in the background.

The festival rolls into Australia Day.

It's 1988, so it's a big one.

The bicentenary, celebrating two centuries of colonisation.

The sound of just some of the events in Sydney today, the site of European settlement 200 years ago.

It was a day of pageantry and stirring spectacle as the first fleet and then the tall ships filled Sydney Harbour in stately procession.

As hundreds of people were bicentenary celebrations all over the country, including Tamworth.

You know, occupation of our lands for 200 years and our boy laying there in the morgue for two weeks.

You know, we felt like no one was interested.

They were all interested in partying.

All right, all Australia.

They weren't interested in a dead black boy.

In the days and weeks after Mark's death, his uncles go out to the train tracks again and again, looking around for clues.

We picked up bits of cardboards and wrapping paper and we picked up a comb

and a pink cigarette lighter.

Remember Glenn Bryant, the West Temworth Assistant Station Master at the time, saw the police pick up this comb from the scene.

I saw him pick up the comb and his ID.

Now the family is finding the very same objects again.

They take the comb and a pink cigarette lighter to the police station.

The police reacted by saying, ah, we thought we placed these in the evidence bag.

And you distinctly remember them saying that,

you know, they thought they had taken this into evidence?

Yes, yes.

The family can't believe what's happening.

The cops are meant to have taken these items back to the station.

Instead, they were either dropped or purposely left behind.

I've repeatedly asked the police about this mistake.

but they haven't responded.

The family is worried the police have missed or ignored other vital evidence.

Two weeks after Mark was found dead, the stolen car still sits wedged in the long grass near the tracks.

The police haven't impounded it or covered it, so the family decide to take a closer look.

So look, the boot has never been open.

There's only one way to find out if there's anything in there.

And I got hold of a jimmy bar or whatever and I jimmied it open.

And it looked like to me and my brothers that there were stains on the mat and the tyre

and they were dark stains like thick uh

yeah yeah like uh like cordial like blood

well because it was a uh a dark mat a black mat but you can see there was something else over it They're hoping this is a breakthrough.

They go straight to the police station and Uncle Jack hands it over.

I told him, I said, this Matt is from that Tirana that's out on the Royal Road.

And I said to him, I said, I think this is blood on here.

He said, it could be animal blood.

The police say they did test the mat for blood and that it came back negative.

The family want to know why the police didn't take the mat and get it tested in the first place.

They've now taken in three pieces of potential evidence.

The comb, the cigarette lighter and the car mat.

So I felt that, you know, no matter what information I give them, you know, I could give them a smoking gun.

You know, they'll say, yeah, well, they're smoking, you know, so what?

The family feel like the police have failed to do their job.

You know, they just wanted to say, well, you know, if the black boy is out there, stolen motor vehicle in the vicinity, one-on-one makes two.

Yeah, okay, that's what happened.

There's one conversation that Duck had with a local police officer that stuck with him for three decades.

And I still remember what he was saying to me.

You never know what a 17-year-old boy would do.

You never know what a 17-year-old Aboriginal boy would do.

Meaning

Mark.

Well,

this is what I was assuming, that he was saying, well,

okay, well, you know, must be all Aboriginals are bloody goddamn thieves.

This is what the way I was picking it up off him.

As a black follower who grew up in a small community where the tension between my own mob and the police was high,

I can say

that

what Duck and his family says doesn't surprise me at all.

And when Mark's body was found out on those tracks in 1988, there was actually a Royal Commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody happening, and that Royal Commission found widespread institutionalised racism within the police force here in New South Wales.

As an Indigenous Affairs reporter, I've travelled to many, many Aboriginal communities across the country and I can tell you that the number of black families who say they feel invisible within the justice system and ignored by the police is the rule, not the exception.

And people say, why do you continue to investigate Mark's death?

Why do you keep pursuing it?

And it's pretty simple.

I ask myself this question.

As a curry person, If I was found dead tomorrow, in suspicious circumstances, would my family have to spend 10, 10, 20, 30 years trying to find out what happened to me?

And that's a really chilling, scary thought.

Mark's family is growing restless.

The manual car, the lack of blood at the scene, to them, it says someone someone else must have been involved in his death.

And by now they've completely lost faith in the police.

If they're going to find out the truth about what happened to Mark, they feel like it's up to them.

Duck has a chat with a police officer that confirms this for him.

So anyway, I looked at him and he said, look, no one's going to talk to us, you know.

If anyone says anything to you, if you're out there, if they're saying stuff to you, well, you know,

you know, you let us know and stuff or words to that effect.

Duck reckons he meant the black community wasn't talking to the cops.

So, Duck, never afraid of a fight, hits the streets.

I was going to do it, you know, with or without his permission or encouragement, but

he knew I was going to do it.

He said, Well, you know, they're not going to talk to us, they'll talk to you.

So, I just done what any

family would do for their loved ones.

Question what has happened.

In the next episode of Unravel, Duck and Jack launch their own investigation and they go pub to pub, club to club, asking questions.

But pretty soon the uncles hit serious trouble.

All I can feel is these punches and kicks.

Did you fear for your life?

Of course, because there's no one else in the street.

No one.

And if you haven't already, don't forget to subscribe to Unravel wherever you get your podcasts or download the ABC Listen app.

If you know anything about this case, write to us.

Our email is unraveltruecrime at abc.net.au.

To follow the investigation and see a 360 video of the spot where Mark was found, search for ABC True Crime.