Police officer believes someone was involved in Gomeroi teen Mark Haines’ death

A police officer involved in re-investigating the death of Gomeroi teenager Mark Haines has told an inquest he’s always believed someone was involved.

Mark Haines was 17 when his body was found on train tracks just outside Tamworth in northern NSW in January 1988.

Police found a stolen car next to the rail line, which appeared to have crashed and rolled.

Mr Haines’ family never believed the findings of an initial police investigation, which ruled the 17-year-old had lain on the tracks either deliberately or in a dazed state after a car crash.

A coroner handed down an open finding after a subsequent inquest.

Mr Haines’ family, led by his uncle Don Craigie, has campaigned for decades to re-examine the circumstances of his death, with a fresh inquest beginning in April 2024.

Detective Craig Dunn, who was involved in re-investigating the circumstances of Mr Haines’ death from 2016 told the latest inquest he did not believe Mark had lain himself on the tracks.

“I always believed that there’s someone involved, either death by misadventure, which is my belief, or someone has killed him and put him on the tracks,” he said on Wednesday.

Mr Dunn said while police not seizing the car found near Mr Haines’ body was “odd” he understands, given the rain, that it was not searched for fingerprints.

Asked if Mr Haines had been from a prominent family in Tamworth whether the scene of his death would have been treated differently, Mr Dunn said he could not comment.

While he said he had “no great problem” with how the initial investigation into Mr Haines’ death was conducted, he did wish a few people had been interviewed at the time.

He sought to speak to a number of people about the teenager’s death in 2018 but said their memories would have been clearer if they’d been contacted sooner.

“If a couple of people had been spoken to there’s some questions that I have that would have been answered,” he said.

During his investigations Mr Dunn had disposed of a lighter contained amongst documents in a box.

Mr Dunn had sent the lighter to be tested for any DNA evidence.

When the swab did not return any DNA, the lighter was destroyed.

Mr Dunn said officers were under pressure to get rid of exhibits in evidence as there were a large volume of these kinds of items contained in a storage facility.

“In hindsight I probably shouldn’t have thrown it out,” he said.

Mr Dunn acknowledged the frustration over the investigation felt by Mr Haines’ family, who still do not have answers almost four decades after his death.

But he said the process of investigating a death takes time.

“I’d like to figure out what happened to Mark,” Mr Dunn said.

“Of course it’s frustrating not knowing what happened.”

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