BEST OF 2020: Blood On The Tracks: What Happened To Mark Haines

True Crime Conversations

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples should be aware that this episode contains the names of people who have passed away.

In 1988 the death of Mark Haines just outside of Tamworth in regional NSW was barely investigated by local police. The 17-year-old’s body was found on train tracks outside of town, but law enforcement treated his death as less than suspicious. You have only to pull on the threads of the case to find that the truth could be very far from that.

Allan Clarke is a Muruwari man and an award winning investigative journalist, producer and presenter. Allan worked closely with Mark Haines’ family and friends for five years fighting for justice, and answers, culminating in the investigation of the case for the ABC podcast Unravel: Blood On The Tracks.

Allan joins this episode to explore the case, the mis-steps by law enforcement, and the racial prejudices that hindered initial, and even ongoing, investigations.

This episode was originally published on June 11th and is part of our 2020 Best Of series.

CREDITS:
Guest: Allan Clarke
Host: Jessie Stephens
Producer and editor: Elise Cooper

RESEARCH

• Unravel: Blood On The Tracks, ABC Podcasts https://bit.ly/unravel-podcast
• ‘Footsteps On The Tracks’ by Allan Clarke https://bit.ly/footsteps-allan-clarke
• State Crime Command will investigate Mark Haines death
• ‘Blood on the Tracks Pt 1: Murder or misadventure, who killed Mark Haines?’ Australian Story, ABC TV https://bit.ly/aus-story-part-1
• 'Blood on the Tracks Pt 2: Unraveling Tamworth's body on the train tracks mystery’ Australian Story, ABC TV https://bit.ly/aus-story-part-2
• Mark Haines’ family 2017 petition for the state government to offer a reward for information relating to Mark Haines’ death https://bit.ly/markhaines-family-plea

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