NSW coroner finds 1988 death of Indigenous teenager near Tamworth was not suicide

A New South Wales coroner has handed down findings into the death of a Gomeroy teenager whose body was discovered on train tracks just south of Tamworth in January 1988. The wreck of a stolen car was found nearby, and police initially concluded that the teenager had taken the car and died on the tracks. Today, Deputy Coroner Harriet Graham came to a different conclusion, saying the circumstances were highly suspicious and that, based on the evidence, she was satisfied the death was not suicide. The coroner apologised to the family of the Indigenous teenager, who had long searched for answers. The inquest had previously heard from two witnesses that a close friend of the teenager had made admissions about the circumstances surrounding the death.

A coroner in New South Wales has handed down findings into the death of a Gomeroy teenager near Tamworth, almost four decades after his body was discovered, concluding that the circumstances surrounding the death were highly suspicious and that the young man did not take his own life. As the findings were delivered, the coroner apologised to the family of the Indigenous teenager, who had long been searching for answers.

The case dates back to January 1988. According to ABC News, the body of the Gomeroy teenager was discovered on train tracks just south of Tamworth. Near the scene, investigators found the wreck of a stolen car, a detail that would shape the way the death was treated for years to come.

At the time, police initially concluded that the teenager had taken the stolen car and had died on the tracks. That conclusion stood for decades, leaving the young man's family without a full account of what had happened to him on that night near Tamworth.

Revisiting the case, Deputy Coroner Harriet Graham came to a very different conclusion. She told the inquest that the circumstances of the death were highly suspicious, and said that, based on the evidence before her, she was satisfied that the teenager's death was not a suicide, directly challenging the original finding.

The shift in conclusion carried a personal note. The coroner apologised to the family of the Indigenous teenager, acknowledging the long and painful wait they had endured for the matter to be properly examined and for the original account of the death to be revisited.

The inquest had also heard evidence pointing in a different direction from the initial police conclusion. Two witnesses previously told the inquest that a close friend of the teenager had made admissions about the circumstances surrounding the death, an account the coroner weighed as part of her findings.

For the family, the findings mark a significant moment after years of uncertainty. The coronial conclusion that the death was not suicide, and that the circumstances remain highly suspicious, reframes a case that had long been treated as settled, and leaves open serious questions about how the teenager came to die on the tracks near Tamworth in 1988.

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