The unsolved murder of an Aboriginal teenager who was found dead in the 1980s will be reviewed by the NSW State Crime Command’s homicide squad, the Oxley command crime manager has announced.

Mark Haines, 17, was found dead on train tracks outside Tamworth in 1988. Family members today gathered outside the Tamworth police station to demand answers to why the police had failed to follow up on fresh leads in the case.

The case was reopened last year after new evidence was revealed.

Greens MP David Shoebridge last year used a parliamentary speech to lobby for the case to be placed with the homicide squad in Sydney.

Mr Shoebridge says he and the family have welcomed the announcement but says it wouldn’t have happened without pressure.

 

Mr Shoebridge says the review needs to be meaningful.