INTRODUCING — Blood On The Tracks

They said there's been an accident.

Mark's been found on railway tracks.

Just outside Tamworth, a 17-year-old Aboriginal boy is dead.

I just said, Oh, Mark,

it just broke me.

I uh

I cried, uh,

not Mark, my mark, not Mark.

He was gone.

Is it suicide?

Misadventure?

Or something more sinister?

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

And under his head, there was a towel.

It was a white tower.

And we picked up a comb

and a pink cigarette lighter.

And that's why I said, no, I'm sorry.

You could not drive a car.

No way.

The jigsaw puzzles didn't fit.

A million questions.

Why, how, who, what.

A country police investigation overshadowed by the politics of race.

You know how it is?

Young Aboriginal men, they just walk away, lie down on railway tracks and wait to get hit by a freight train.

That's actually their answer.

That was their story, you know what I mean?

But it wasn't our story.

A family on a 30-year fight for justice.

So, I just done what any

family would do for their loved ones.

Question what has happened.

I'm Alan Clark and I want to introduce you to Unravel, a new podcast from the ABC that follows journalists like me as we investigate unsolved crimes.

I've spent the past five years investigating the suspicious death of Aboriginal teenager Mark Haynes in Tamworth back in 1988.

And I think I'm close to finding some answers.

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

I said, well, where was you?

Where was you when my nephew was found dead?

I'll fight every one of you fools.

One at a time, or all at once, I don't care.

We don't call ourselves vigilantes.

We're here in search of the truth and still are.

He hasn't given up.

30 years later.

I just wish,

I just wish he'd fight and get his answers.

I just want him to have peace.

I want Mark to have peace.

So I'll just ask you one last time.

Did you have anything to do with Mark's death?

Join me on the journey and subscribe to Unravel wherever you get your podcasts or download the ABC Listen app.