Blood On The Tracks 01 | Blood On The Tracks

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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.

It's just after dawn on a Saturday morning in Tamworth, a town in northern New South Wales.

A freight train driver eases his cargo out of the station to begin the journey south to Sydney.

He's scanning the horizon as the train picks up speed and leaves the city limits.

There's a light drizzle, so the driver can't see that well.

His eyes strain to make out something up ahead on the tracks.

He thinks it might be a pile of clothes.

Seconds go by.

The bundle is actually a person lying between the rails.

The driver pulls the emergency brake.

Stopping a 300-ton train quickly is impossible.

It screeches down the straight track.

The entire length of the train has gone over the body.

The driver doesn't want to get out.

He knows what's waiting for him a few hundred meters back.

I got a call from the driver on the train to say that he had passed over a body and I did ask him to go back and see if he could render any assistance.

But most train drivers won't go back and do that.

That's Glenn Bryant, the West Hamworth assistant station master at the time.

I thought to myself, well, I better go out just in case the person is still alive.

Glenn's no stranger to this.

He's already seen one lifeless body on the tracks.

He's hoping this time is different.

I had a rough idea where the body was because I think the train would have been doing about 80 or 90 kilometres an hour to thereabout, maybe a bit less than that.

I got off my bike and walked over to the rear of the train and that's where I found his body.

And

when I approached him I saw him laying in the forefoot.

In the forefoot.

That's train people speak for the space between the rails.

I first put my hand down to check his pulse and I thought at the time that I had found pulse but it wasn't pulse.

It would have had to be

I feel muscle spasms.

There was definitely no breathing and I did notice that he had some pretty severe head injuries.

The man's dead.

There's nothing Glenn can do.

He starts to look around and he spots some things that don't add up.

Then the lack of blood at the scene was one of the things that struck me first off.

I would have thought someone who had sustained that amount of head injuries, there would have been a lot more blood there than what there was.

Even weirder, something's been placed under the person's head.

And under his head there was a towel, it was a white towel, and just down below where the towel was, on the sleeper there was a bit of blood there about the size of 50 cent piece.

And that was all the blood that was there at the scene.

and it had not been raining heavy enough to wash it away.

Glenn looks down at the man's blue and white shoes.

They're kind of scuffed but they're clean.

Glenn's shoes are covered in mud and bits of wet grass.

Walking in probably 15-20 meters probably wouldn't even be that far and I was covered up to the knees with red mud on my blue railway trousers.

And you distinctly remember that.

I remember because I was living on my own those days, so I had to get my clothes washed, so I was batching.

I distinctly remember it, yes.

The closer Glenn looks at the scene, the less it makes sense.

And so we looked around the area where the body was, and there was no hair, there was no

bone fragments or flesh or anything.

It

had it been struck by a train, I would have thought it would have been a lot more like that.

But Glenn works for the railways.

It's not his job to solve this mystery.

When the police arrive, they see bits of blue cardboard and brightly coloured Christmas wrapping paper strewn along the side of the tracks, flapping in the wind.

Then they see some other strange stuff.

They see a sock, a watch face, and a broken teapot.

The police later find out the person on the tracks is just 17 years old.

His name is Mark Haynes.

I'm Alan Clark and this is Unravel, a new true crime podcast from the ABC.

In this season, I'm going to try and explain what happened on the tracks that morning back in 1988, just outside of Tamworth.

Hang on, this is unbelievable.

We can't believe this.

And we couldn't, to this day, believe that he went out there of his own volition.

Yeah, I think that obviously if he was a white boy, we certainly wouldn't be here today.

And, you know, we need to know what's happened, who was involved.

It was foul play, and it was a cover-up.

right from the word go.

After time everything sort of melds together and you're not sure what's a rumor and what's what's fiction.

It's a puzzle that Mark Haynes family have been trying to solve for more than 30 years.

For the last five years I've been investigating the case myself and I think I might have finally found some answers for them.

Tamworth sits on Gomeroy Country, a mighty Aboriginal nation that has a reputation for producing fearsome warriors.

The Gomorrai say they've been here since the start of time, and they're still here.

Mark was one of them.

I'm also Gomorrah and Murawari, two Aboriginal nations that bleed into each other in the ruby red dirt of far western New South Wales.

I've now spent so much time with Mark's family that they feel like my family, like Mob.

If Mark were alive today, I'd call him Uncle.

So I reckon if you're truly gonna understand this story, you have to understand the layout of Tamworth.

So right now I'm standing on the train tracks that split Tamworth into two.

They're actually the same train tracks that Mark was found dead on.

I'm turning to my right and that is the mostly white community.

So I can see over the road lots of single-story homes.

They're made of brick, lots of hedges and manicued lawns.

On the left of the tracks I can see

the suburb Caldow.

And Caldale in the 80s was mostly made up of Aboriginal families.

In fact today a lot of black fathers still live there and there's always been a tension between the two

and it's important that you understand that tension because it plays a very big part in this story.

You know the taxis and the police called it Vedumite Village for obvious reasons.

Yeah, that was the name of Caldale.

That's how the police and the taxi call it.

Where do you want to go?

Caldale?

Oh, you mean Vedumite Village.

Yeah, those were the attitudes back then.

That's Mark's uncle, Don Craigie, but no one calls him Don.

To his family, it's Uncle Duck.

No one can remember how he got that nickname.

If you ask him, he reckons it's because he's calm on the surface, but he's paddling furiously underneath.

When I first meet Duck, He takes me to his house and he hauls open the rusty door of his garage.

There's a huge old filing cabinet, it's ancient and inside are documents all about Mark.

Yeah, there's newspaper clippings

from 30 years ago and anything that's been immense.

He rummages through the files, picking up things to show me.

I noticed that Duck's a small guy, but he's strong.

As a young bloke, he was the best fighter on the Maury Aboriginal mission.

On the dusty roads of the mish, Duck took on men twice his size.

He doesn't punch on these days, but he's taken up Mark's fight.

Files.

Files on anything and everything.

Mark's files, community development files, legal files, the coronial inquest,

everything, the statements, and all the evidence that was given in the two days of inquest at two times.

Duck hands me a big bundle of inquest papers and I take them back to my hotel room.

The more I read, the more I think something's not right here.

In the hotel room that night, I had no idea that five years later I'd still be working on the case.

You know, he was a quiet boy, but everyone just took a shine to him because he's, you know, he was a happy-go-lucky boy.

He

had many friends, Aboriginal, non-Aboriginal.

Like I said, many a times I'd come home and he would be at home down in Coal Road there with his friends.

For Duck, Mark was more than a nephew.

And I can still see him sharing the bedroom with my two elder sons.

He shared, he slept on the top bunk and one of his sons slept in the other one and there was a single bed so he was virtually like my own son.

I felt that way.

I felt that I was responsible for him and what happened to him.

Yeah.

Yeah, he had this here.

He had this here way of talking.

He had this like a slow draw.

Remind me a bit about John Wayne.

He had this slow draw.

Oh, Uncle Doc,

you know.

yeah, it wasn't hurried or anything and it wasn't thing, but he just said this, yeah, yeah, this way about, yeah, oh Uncle Duck.

Oh, he was just alaric and he was

a good guy, just a good kid.

He was very well liked.

Mark was Kelly Elsley's first love.

She still wears a necklace he gave her.

And so early high school you were dating?

I was in about year eight, yeah, year eight, and he was in year 10.

So yes.

High school sweetheart, I always say he was my high school sweetheart.

Yeah, I don't think back then there was not one person that didn't say, you know, he had their back, even the Caldale community, the younger kids or, you know, his mates,

he was there.

He was

a good kid who cared for people.

Mark's best mate was Jason Wan, but everyone calls him Wannie.

Where we came from, like we were both from Caldale, obviously,

and grew up together and we used to call ourselves the Veggie Vandals.

We weren't vandals, but it was a cool thing to say

at that time.

Jason's not a black fellow, but he grew up on the same side of the tracks as Mark.

I guess the life of the party kind of, one of those kind of guys.

Always had people laughing.

Excellent smile, big smile.

Jason says Mark made friends all over the place, including on the footy field.

Mark was a centre or a winger.

He was a really, really good sportsman.

He was good at cricket.

He was really good at basketball.

And popular with girls.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

All the girls love Mark.

I mean,

you've seen him.

He's a good-looking boy.

Big smile, brilliant green eyes.

Yeah, all the girls love Mark.

Six months before he died, Mark caught the eye of a pretty white 17-year-old from the other side of the tracks and they started going out.

Her name was Tanya White.

She reminded me of Lady Di.

She had the same hair, same colour, same cut, same pointy nose

and

she was quite happy to be in our home.

I can still see them all sitting there in the lounge in Cull Road.

At that time it was odd to have interracial relationships, right, in Tamworth.

Yes it was in a way

It wasn't very common, but it did happen.

The night he died, Mark went out with Tanya and a group of mates.

They did what all teenagers do.

They drank, they smoked, and they tried to get into clubs to have a bit of a dance.

The events of that night would later be raked over by everyone, trying to work out what happened.

It all starts on a normal Friday Arvo in a typical country town.

Mark's at his auntie Barb's house in Caldale.

The sun disappears, Mark and his cousin Leah decide to hit the town.

They kick it off in their usual way.

Well, we had to walk, go down Wild Road and, you know, the walkway through the railway tracks, and then walk along over to where the old Workman's Club was because I was itching to play, have a go at the Pokies.

Leah's small, but she's not afraid of much.

She's a rugby player.

She tells it how it is.

Like Mark, she loves a good night out.

But this Friday, Mark's got more exciting places that he wants to be than the Workmen's Club.

The problem is Mark's not 18 yet, so he's got to borrow a birth certificate from Leah's boyfriend.

Back then, you didn't even need a photo ID to get into clubs.

And then, yeah,

Raymond and I, he gave the birth certificate to Mark so he can get in over at town or wherever he was going.

And me and Raymond crossed the road and went to the Workmen's Club.

And that's the last I seen him.

And I said, I'll try and get over town later, cuz.

never happened.

Earlier in the night, though, they're just hanging out in town drinking cheap grog.

One of the people Mark runs into is his ex, Kelly.

Around 10pm, she comes out of the cinema and sees Mark sitting on the town hall steps.

We'd walked up to the post office for mum to pick us up, and he just happened to be sitting there on the side steps in Fitzroy Street.

And

yeah, we just had a what are you doing Roman the street sort of

I said oh no watch it to you and so I'm waiting for mum to come pick me up for movies he said do you want me to wait or you know something along that and that was a bit cheeky and I went no I said do you want to lift home and he went no no I'll be right.

Kelly sees Mark sitting with the blonde fella.

Terry Souter, yeah.

And you're pretty sure he was with Terry Souter.

Terry was sitting to the right of Mark, I still remember that.

On the steps.

On the steps, yeah.

Terry's going to come up a fair bit in later episodes.

I want to be clear here though, I'm not accusing any of these people of anything.

It's just important that you know that these are the people who were with Mark during the last 12 hours of his life.

On a typical Friday night, everyone ends up at a club called Domino's.

They don't sell pizza.

It's a nightclub with pop 40 bangers, cheap beer, and it's the place to hook up.

Everything a teenager could want.

Domino's was a bit of an adventure for young guys like us.

We were obviously underage

and I think that was part of the attraction.

We knew that they were quite liberal in regards to

ID checks and everything like that.

I used to call it the meat markets.

Why'd you call it the meat markets?

Because it was just a dive of a place and you'd go there to pick up.

Yeah Domino's Domino's was pretty full-on back in the day.

There's a big mob of mates with Mark and Tanya that night.

Leah sees one of them out the front of Domino's around 1am.

She'd just finished at the Workmen's Club and she's waiting for a taxi across the road.

And that's when I see him

walking up and down outside Domino's.

And that's why I just yelled out,

What are you doing?

And he said, ah, nah, nothing.

And then the next minute the taxi came and I got in and then went home.

So you might be wondering what all the beeping's about.

Well, we're not going to reveal that boy's name and we've beeped it for legal reasons.

I'm going to call him Greg.

For now, all you need to know is that Mark was with Greg that night and they're all mates.

At this point, it's just a regular Friday night and everybody's having fun.

Of all the people who've spoken about that night, Tanya, Mark's girlfriend, is the last person on record to see him alive.

I've been wanting to speak with her for a long time.

Tanya didn't want to take part in this podcast, but she did tell the coroner's court her account of what happened that night.

Mark and Tanya leave the club with a couple of friends around 2am.

They all walk together for a bit before splitting up, and then Mark and Tanya are alone.

Tanya says Mark walks her to her house on the other side of town.

It's a long walk.

I've done it myself.

It's a beautiful clear night in Tamworth.

Overhead is just the most brilliant night sky.

You can make out the Milky Way.

It's actually streaking across the middle of the sky.

It's Tamworth suburbia really, you know, just regular

homes, intersections, just cars coming through.

It's really quiet, and this is where Tanya said goodbye to Mark.

She says that she said goodbye to Mark.

Mark walked up Wilbur Tree Street, which is directly in front of me, and she turned left and walked down to Kayuma Street where she lived.

And I've been to this spot many times over the past five years at night,

and it's a really sad thought to think

this was the final countdown.

So, whatever decision he made,

ultimately, it would lead to him being found on those train tracks.

Okay, by this stage in our retracing of Mark's movements, it's after 3 a.m.

Just over three hours later, Mark will be found dead on the train tracks.

Tanya remembers saying goodbye to Mark and around the same time, loud noises startle a woman sleeping in a house nearby.

I first was awoken with a loud bang or bashing on the caravan and I thought somebody was breaking in into the caravan.

I could hear two voices distinctly.

I'm going to call this witness Marie.

She didn't want me to use her real name.

She appeared at the inquest into Mark's death and told this very same story.

At the time, Marie thinks it's two boys.

That's because there's lots of swearing going on.

Later on, she thinks it could be a man and a woman having an argument.

Listening from her bedroom window, she can't figure out what the fight's about, but someone's really upset.

And when you said this young man was emotional, I mean, what type of emotion was he?

Was he angry, frustrated, distressed?

At the end of his tether, like, I can't take any more.

F off.

F off.

Leave me alone.

Leave me alone.

You know, like that.

F off.

I thought someone was hurting him.

Scared.

Marie wakes her husband up, but pretty soon the voices are gone.

Yes, they walked off into the night, but I was still very concerned.

There is no way I could go back to sleep, I can tell you that.

And then finally, I got up and

I thought, I'm going to look at the clock now.

It's 3.30 a.m.

This is the time that Tanya says she said goodbye to Mark.

Tanya later tells the coroner's court there was no argument between her and Mark that night.

After the noise dies down on the street, Marie climbs back into bed.

And I thought, I hope I can have some peace now.

but that peace is soon shattered next minute I heard this car come flat out up Churchill Street and I didn't think it would make the corner it almost hit the house I thought it was going to hit that house on the opposite side which is the top of Churchill Street corner and then it make a sound as it went around the corner Yes, as I said, I thought, oh, it didn't hit the house.

Then it next minute seemed to be coming to a very quick,

you know, like a

very like just still, just stopped, screeched on the brakes and stopped.

Sudden halt.

A sudden halt.

And how long did it sort of stay quiet for?

Oh, not very long at all.

Then it took off very, very quickly.

Yeah, up the hill.

There's been a lot of speculation that whoever was in that car picked up Mark and maybe even forced him to get in.

Marie says this was around 3.40 a.m.

Tanya says she got back to her house around 300 meters away at 3.37 a.m.

She says her mum was still up.

And that's it.

No one came forward with any information on what happened to Mark after that.

That's where the mystery begins.

The sun comes up and reveals Mark's body on the tracks.

There's bits of presents and wrapping paper strewn around him like confetti.

Ever since that morning, Duck and Mark's family have been trying to figure out what happened in those three hours.

There are so many things that don't add up.

In the next episode, the police figure out where all those presents and wrapping paper that was scattered around Mark's body came from.

And they come up with a theory about what happened that night.

But it's an explanation that doesn't cut it with the family.

What the bloody hell happened to you?

What the hell?

You know, I couldn't understand.

Could not believe.

Oh, it was shocking.

And the police tried to say that he might have crashed the car and ended up with head injuries and walked onto the track disorientated.

The red flags went straight up.

It was that car.

You know, me and Duck sort of looked at each other and said,

and the police are saying that he stole this car and drove it out here, crashed it.

walked across that railway line in the pouring rain.

Karen presents and he turned around and lied down, you know, in the middle of the track.

No,

that was their story, you know what I mean?

But it wasn't our story.

I and my entire family have, we have maintained our boy has met with foul play.

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.

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

Our season one story, Blood on the Tracks, is produced and reported by me, Alan Clark, with additional reporting from our senior investigative producer, Susie Smith.

Unravel's supervising producer is Tim Roxburgh with help from Alex Mann.

Producers Emma Lancaster and Ellen Leebeater.

Sound designer and composer is Martin Peralter.

Our digital team is led by Gina McEwen with Yalmi Gilfray.

Additional sound and vision from Greg Nelson.

Unravel's executive producer is Ian Walker.