Family of Mark Anthony Haines confident for answers from Tamworth coronial inquest

That's what his uncle Don Craigie told the Leader on what would have been Mark Anthony Haines' 53^rd birthday.

"We had big plans for this boy," Mr Craigie said.

He held a photo of his nephew's 17^th birthday cake, the last birthday Mark celebrated alive, when he visited his nephew's grave on Tuesday, September 12.

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More than 30 years after Mark was found dead on the railway line on the outskirts of Tamworth on January 16, 1988, no one has been charged in relation to the teenager's death.

A coronial inquest held in the same year returned an open finding.

Now, after 35 years of searching for answers and gathering evidence, Mr Craigie is counting down the days until a second coronial inquest opens in Tamworth, in April, 2024.

And he's confident the inquest will reveal how Mark ended up on the train tracks, and hopefully lead to an arrest.

"He [Mark] has been met with foul play," Mr Craigie said.

"They made a bad mistake, they got him [Mark] mixed up with someone else. I know what happened."

In the wake of the fresh inquest, NSW Police also doubled the reward to $1 million for any information that leads to an arrest in relation to Mark's death.

Mr Craigie, who said he was privy to the police information, said someone out there knows what happened to his nephew.

"Don't be surprised if you get a knock on the door by the police," he said.

"We know what's [evidence] there, and we know what's coming."

The coronial inquest is set to start in Tamworth on April 8, 2024.

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