Warning: This story contains the name and images of a deceased Indigenous person.

The uncle of an Indigenous teenager found dead on rural train tracks 37 years ago says he discovered blood in the boot of a nearby car wreck.

His uncle Don Craigie told an inquest on Thursday that the white Torana stayed beside the train line for weeks.

“After the six weeks, (police) are not even interested in this car,” Craigie said.

He said he decided to bust open the boot, where he found a vinyl mat and a spare tyre that appeared to have blood on them.

“I’ve hunted rabbits, goannas, kangaroos, pigs – I know the sight of blood,” he said.

A detective later quickly swabbed the items and ruled the blood was not human, Craigie said.

He and his brothers also walked on an overpass to try and understand how Haines had come to lie on the tracks.

Craigie remembered thinking: “There’s no way he could have got across here”.

The inquest is re-examining Haines’ death after an initial police investigation concluded he lay on the tracks either deliberately or in a dazed state after being in the car crash.

His family has never believed that version, nor accepted an open finding handed down after a 1988 inquest.

The Gomeroi teenager’s body was discovered with a folded towel or blanket under his head, surrounded by cardboard boxes.

Deputy State Coroner Harriet Grahame will consider the adequacy of the first police investigation, which the family believes was hindered by racism.

Craigie said a resettlement area for Indigenous families in the Tamworth suburb of Coledale was given the racist descriptor of “Vegemite valley” when his nephew was growing up.

“I believe it was the police and the taxi drivers that started up this Vegemite valley,” he said.

“You’d jump in a taxi and say Coledale, and they’d say Vegemite valley or ‘veggie’.”

Craigie also gave a vivid description of the day he found out his nephew had died.

He was standing at a taxi rank in Moree, about 250 kilometres north of Tamworth, when his brother drove up to him and delivered the news.

“It was raining, pissing down all around the area,” Craigie recalled.

“He pulled up and said something to the effect of ‘Mark’s dead’.

“I just felt something come over me, I nearly collapsed.”

The inquest is due to conclude on Friday before the coroner considers her findings.

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