The Crime Book

238

A DINGO’S

GOT MY BABY!

THE DEATH OF AZARIA CHAMBERLAIN,

17 AUGUST 1980

M

ichael Chamberlain’s

account of his wife’s

distress on realizing that

their baby daughter Azaria had

been taken by a dingo did not

match her calm demeanour when

she was interviewed by police.

As they surveyed the couple’s

campsite in the shadow of Uluru

(Ayers Rock), they felt that

something did not add up.

Shreds of evidence

The police developed their own

theory. They posited that Lindy,

sitting in the front seat of the family

car, had held her daughter Azaria in

her lap and stabbed her with a pair

of scissors until she died. This

explained blood found on the car’s

dashboard, and the shredded bits

of clothing on the ground nearby.

The absence of a body did nothing

to make them doubt this version of

events. The empty outback was the

perfect place to hide a small body.

The police ignored evidence

that did not support their theory.

Other campers had heard a dog

growl, and there were paw prints,

dog hairs, and drag marks in and

around the tent. Furthermore,

Michael was a pastor and they

had no motive for killing the baby.

A dingo in Australia. While attacks on

humans and livestock have led to culls,

their “vulnerable” status and ability to

deter predatory foxes have led to calls

for dingoes to be reintroduced.

IN CONTEXT

LOCATION

Uluru campsite, Northern

Territory, Australia

THEME

Accused parents

BEFORE

1665 Anne Greene, an English

servant girl, is hanged for the

murder of her baby, conceived

during rape. She insisted that

the child was stillborn.

AFTER

1999 Sally Clark is falsely

convicted of murdering her

two infants after “expert”

testimony on the improbability

of two successive “cot deaths”.

2015 Purvi Patel is sentenced

to 20 years by an Indiana court

after her “miscarried” 24-week

foetus is found in a dumpster.

I am here to tell you that you

can get justice even when you

think that all is lost.

Michael Chamberlain

238-239_Dingo_Baby.indd 238 02/12/2016 15:04

239

See also: The Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping 178–85

MURDER CASES

Tests run by the court’s forensic

scientist Joy Kuhl endorsed the

police view and, on 29 October

1982, Lindy was convicted of her

daughter’s murder and imprisoned.

Michael, the court found, had been

an accessory after the fact, helping

his wife to conceal her crime. He

was freed on bail.

Doubts were later cast on the

conviction by the chance discovery

of a baby’s jacket outside a nearby

dingo den in 1986. Consequently,

Lindy Chamberlain was released

on “compassionate” grounds. In

1988, the convictions against her

and her husband were overturned,

but even then an ugly question

mark remained. It was not lifted

by a fresh inquest in 1995, which

returned an inconclusive “open”

verdict on Azaria’s death.

Not until 2012 was a coroner

satisfied that the child had been

killed by a dingo – the crucial

evidence that Kuhl had identified

as “foetal haemoglobin”, a young

baby’s blood, in the family car was

revealed through improved

scientific testing to actually be a

mixture of milk, copper oxide, and

other chemicals spilled in the

vehicle during manufacture.

Furthermore, a “bloody” handprint

on a scrap of baby clothing, which

had damned Lindy in 1982, turned

out not to be blood at all.

Dingo in the dock

Australia’s native wild dog, the

dingo, has never been considered

harmless – dingo attacks on

livestock mean farmers label them

a pest. At the time of Azaria’s

disappearance, however, there were

no recorded cases of dingoes

hurting children. Perhaps the

Australian public preferred to

believe that a mother had killed

her baby rather than that a part of

Australia’s national identity – the

dingo – was something to fear.

In the years following Azaria’s

disappearance, several serious

dingo attacks were reported, some

of which were fatal. In 1998, on

Fraser Island, off the coast of

Queensland, a father snatched his

infant daughter back as she was

being dragged away by dingoes;

three years later, nine-year-old

Clinton Gage did not survive his

mauling on Fraser Island.

Once the idea that Lindy had

killed her daughter had been

established, all facts related to

the case appeared to support

a guilty verdict. The seeming

impartiality of forensic analysis

was in fact skewed to suit the

preconceptions of the investigators.

Both police and the public judged

Lindy for the “unnatural” way she

reacted. These views were unjust

but deeply entrenched. It took

other dingo attacks and new

forensic evidence for the courts to

completely exonerate the couple. ■

The Chamberlains hold a picture of

Azaria after the first coroner’s inquest

declares their innocence in 1981. State

police rejected the verdict, and pushed

for Lindy’s conviction.

No longer will Australia be

able to say that dingoes are

not dangerous.

Lindy Chamberlain-

Creighton

238-239_Dingo_Baby.indd 239 13/12/2016 10:09