Azaria Chamberlain disappearance

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Nine-week-old Australian baby Azaria Chamberlain disappeared on the night of 17 August 1980 on a camping trip with her family. Her parents, Lindy and Michael Chamberlain, reported that she had been taken from their tent by a dingo. An initial inquest, highly critical of the police investigation, supported this assertion. The findings of the inquest were broadcast live on television - a first in Australia. Subsequently, after a further investigation and second inquest, Azaria's parents were tried and convicted of her murder, on 29 October 1982.

The media focus for the trial was extraordinarily intense and sensational. The Chamberlains made several unsuccessful appeals, including the final High Court appeal. After all legal options had been exhausted, the chance discovery of a piece of Azaria's clothing in an area full of dingo lairs led to Lindy Chamberlain's release from prison, on "compassionate grounds." She was later exonerated of all charges. While the case is officially unsolved, the report of a dingo attack is generally accepted. Recent deadly dingo attacks in other areas of Australia have strengthened the case for the dingo theory.

The story has been made into a TV movie, a feature film and a TV miniseries. There have also been numerous books about the case. Outside of Australia, the incident is often referred to as the Dingo Baby case. The case has given rise to the meme, "the dingo's got my baby," and variations on that theme.

[edit] Azaria

Azaria Chantel Loren Chamberlain (June 11 1980 - August 17 1980) was born at the Mount Isa Maternity Hospital in Queensland, Australia, daughter of Lindy and Michael Chamberlain. She weighed nearly 3kg at birth and was 47cm long.

[edit] Disappearance of Azaria

Pastor Michael Chamberlain, his wife Lindy, their two boys, Aidan and Reagan, and their new little daughter, Azaria, left their home in Mount Isa for a camping and sightseeing trip to various Northern Territory landmarks, including Ayers Rock. They arrived on the evening of Saturday, August 16 1980.

On the night of August 17, Lindy Chamberlain raised the alarm that a dingo had just been seen leaving the family tent and that Azaria, who had been sleeping in her bassinette, was missing. Three hundred people formed a human chain during the night and searched the sand dunes near the campsite. Azaria was never found.

One week later, a Victorian tourist, Wally Goodwin, discovered Azaria's heavily blood-stained singlet, jumpsuit, booties and nappy near a dingo lair.

[edit] Coronial inquests

The initial Coroner's inquest into the disappearance was opened on December 15 1980 before Denis Barritt, SM. On February 20 1981, in the first live telecast of Australian court proceedings, Justice Barritt reported that the likely cause was a dingo attack. In addition to this finding, Mr. Barritt also concluded that subsequent to the attack, "the body of Azaria was taken from the possession of the dingo, and disposed of by an unknown method, by a person or persons, name unknown."

The Northern Territory Police and prosecutors were unsatisfied with this finding. Investigations continued, leading to a second inquest.

The second inquest was held in September 1981. Based on ultraviolet photographs of the Azaria's jumpsuit, Dr James Cameron of the London Hospital Medical College alleged that "there was an incised wound around the neck - in other words a cut throat," and that there was an imprint of the hand of a small adult on the jumpsuit, visible in the photographs.

Following this and other findings, the Chamberlains were charged with Azaria's murder and taken into custody.

[edit] Case against Lindy Chamberlain

Main article: Lindy Chamberlain

The Crown alleged that Lindy Chamberlain had cut Azaria's throat in the front seat of the family car. The key evidence supporting this allegation was the jumpsuit and the finding of the second inquest, as well as a highly contentious forensic report claiming to have found evidence of foetal haemoglobin in stains found on the front seat of the Chamberlains' 1977 Torana hatchback. Foetal haemoglobin is present in infants six months or younger - Azaria Chamberlain was nine weeks old at the time.

In defence, eyewitness evidence was presented of dingos having been seen in the area on the evening of 17 August 1980. All witnesses claimed to believe the Chamberlains' story. One witness also reported having heard a baby's cry after the time when the prosecution alleged Azaria had been murdered. Evidence was also presented that adult blood also passed the test used for foetal haemoglobin.

The defence's case was rejected by the jury. Lindy Chamberlain was convicted of murder on 29 October 1982 and sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labour. Michael Chamberlain was found guilty as an accessory to the murder, and was given an 18-month suspended sentence.

[edit] Appeals

An appeal was made to the High Court in November 1983. Asked to quash the convictions on the ground that the verdicts were unsafe and unsatisfactory, in February 1984 the Court refused the appeal by majority. The mixed findings of the judges, however, gave encouragement to the Chamberlains' supporters.

[edit] Release and acquittal

The final resolution of the case was triggered by a chance discovery.

In early 1986, English tourist David Brett fell to his death from Ayers Rock during an evening climb. Because of the vast size of the rock and the scrubby nature of the surrounding terrain, it was eight days before Brett's remains were discovered, lying below the bluff where he had lost his footing, in an area full of dingo lairs. As police searched the area, looking for missing bones that might have been carried off by dingoes, they discovered a small item of clothing. It was quickly identified as the crucial missing piece of evidence from the Chamberlain case — Azaria's matinée jacket.

The NT Chief Minister ordered Lindy's immediate release, and the case was reopened. On September 15 1988, the NT Court of Criminal Appeals unanimously overturned all convictions against Lindy and Michael Chamberlain. The exoneration was based on a rejection of the two key points of the prosecution's case — particularly the alleged foetal haemoglobin evidence — and of bias and invalid assumptions made during the initial trial.

The questionable nature of the forensic evidence in the Chamberlain trial, and the weight given to it, raised concerns about such procedures and about expert testimony in criminal cases. The prosecution successfully argued that the pivotal haemoglobin tests indicated the presence of foetal haemoglobin in the Chamberlains' car, and that it was a significant factor in the original conviction. But it was later shown that these tests were highly unreliable, and that similar tests conducted on a 'sound deadener' sprayed on during manufacture of the car, had yielded virtually identical results.

Two years after they were exonerated, the Chamberlains were awarded AU$1.3 million in compensation for wrongful imprisonment, a sum that covered approximately one-tenth of their legal expenses.

[edit] Media involvement and bias

The Chamberlain trial was the most publicised in Australian history. Given that most of the evidence presented in the case against Lindy Chamberlain was later rejected, the case is now used as an example of how media and bias can adversely affect a trial.

Public and media opinion during the trial had been significantly against the Chamberlains. Much was made of the fact that the Chamberlains were Seventh-day Adventists (including false allegations that the church was in fact a strange cult that had killed babies as part of bizarre religious ceremonies)<ref>A Cry in the Night / Fiona Steel (2005)</ref>), that the family took a newborn baby to a remote desert location, and that Mrs Chamberlain showed little emotion during the proceedings.

Police had received an anonymous tip from a man, claiming to be Azaria's doctor in Mount Isa, that the name Azaria meant "sacrifice in the wilderness" (it actually means "blessed of God"). The caller did not give his name. Claims were made that Lindy Chamberlain was a witch. Another rumour that gained some currency in Australia at the time was that the real culprit was the Chamberlains' son, Aidan, and that his parents were covering up for his guilt.

[edit] Evil Angels

Main article: A Cry in the Dark

The story has been written into many different books and accounts. Perhaps the best known is John Bryson's book Evil Angels published in 1985. In 1987, Australian film director Fred Schepisi adapted the book into a feature of the same name (retitled A Cry in the Dark outside of Australia). It starred Meryl Streep as Lindy and Sam Neill as Michael Chamberlain. There was some criticism at the time of the casting of an American as Lindy, however most critics were impressed with Streep's performance, and Lindy commended the accuracy of movie and Streep's portrayal. The story had already been told in an earlier Australian TV docu-drama, Who Killed Baby Azaria? (1983), with Elaine Hudson as Lindy and John Hamblin as Michael, and has since been dramatised as a TV miniseries, Through My Eyes (2004), with Miranda Otto and Craig McLachlan as the Chamberlains. This miniseries was based on Lindy's book of the same name.

[edit] Subsequent events

In 1995, a third inquest into the death by Coroner John Lowndes delivered an open finding, leaving the case officially unsolved.

In July 2004, Frank Cole, a Melbourne pensioner, claimed that he had shot a dingo in 1980 and found a baby in its mouth. After interviewing Mr. Cole on the matter, police decided not to reopen the case.

The Chamberlains' claim that a dingo had taken Azaria was originally greeted with skepticism by many. Several factors led to this, including a lack of knowledge about dingos and their behaviour, and the fact that these animals generally live in remote areas and are therefore rarely seen by most Australians. Combined with the historical human partiality for domesticated dogs, dingos were not perceived as a dangerous species.

However, since the Chamberlain case, proven cases of attacks on humans by dingos have brought about a dramatic change in public opinion. It is now widely accepted that, as the first inquest concluded, baby Azaria probably was killed by a dingo, and that her body could easily have been removed and eaten by a dingo, leaving little or no trace.

Crucial to the change in public opinion was a string of attacks by dingoes on Fraser Island, off the Queensland coast, the last refuge in Australia for isolated pure-breed wild dingos. In the wake of these attacks, most of which took place in the late 1990s, it emerged that there have been at least 400 documented dingo attacks on Fraser Island alone. Most were against children, but at least two were on adults.

Notably, in April 1998, in a scenario strikingly similar to the story told by Lindy Chamberlain, a 13-month old girl was grabbed by a dingo and dragged from a picnic blanket at the Waddy Point camping area. Fortunately, in this case, the child was dropped when her father intervened.

[edit] Popular media

Facets of the Chamberlain case have moved into popular usage, and almost immediately after Azaria's disappearance, morbid jokes about the case began to circulate in Australia and elsewhere. Partly due to the intense publicity, but mostly because of the subsequent movie, the concept of a dingo taking a baby has become a stock pop-culture reference.

Most references centre on quotations (or misquotations) of the statement Lindy Chamberlain was reported to have made immediately after her daughter's disappearance -- "The dingo's got my baby!" -- and from the subsequent quotation of this line in A Cry in the Dark.

• Oz, the werewolf and onetime beau of Willow in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, is in a band named Dingoes Ate My Baby.
• On an episode of Seinfeld entitled "The Stranded", Elaine Benes is stuck in a conversation with a pretentious woman who at one point says, "Tell my fiance I am looking for him. I have lost my fiance, the poor baby!" Elaine responds, in a heavy Australian accent, "Maybe the dingo ate your baby."
• In the September 2000 issue of Maxim magazine, a sidebar entitled "Five Reasons to Hate Australians" lists baby-eating dingoes as #4.
• A mini-tour of Australia in 2001 by musician Ben Folds was titled "A dingo took my band", which jokingly referred to Folds' dissolution of his previous group, Ben Folds Five.
• Many references have also been made in The Simpsons. In the episode "Bart vs. Australia," Bart says "Hey, I think I hear a dingo eatin' your baby." In the episode "Lisa Gets an 'A'", Lisa becomes addicted to a game called Dash Dingo (itself a parody of Crash Bandicoot) which makes reference to a dingo devouring a baby.
• Many references were made in the 1990s cartoon Rocko's Modern Life as the main character, Rocko, a wallaby, was a recent Australian immigrant to America.
• In the Drawn Together episode "Requiem for a Reality Show", Spanky Ham is trying to bully Wooldoor Sockbat into helping him trap and kill a bunch of woodland creatures for food. At one point Spanky says, "We'll eat like dingoes in a maternity ward!"
• On the episode, "Anti-Thesis" of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, when asked what happened to Nicole Wallace, Elizabeth Hitchens (who is Nicole Wallace using an assumed identity) responds, "Got carried off by dingoes. It happens a lot in Australia".
• On an episode of The Tick animated series, an escaped villain by the name of Mr. Mental infiltrates The Tick's life by using his powers to appear as a baby. Government agents, attempting to recapture him without revealing their identity, use holographic projectors to appear as wild dingoes to take Mr. Mental back.
• On an episode of Frasier entitled "Flour Child," Eddie, the dog, is tearing apart Niles's flour 'baby' when Daphne says, "That dingo's got your baby!"
• In a The Far Side cartoon, a dingo farm is seen next to a day care centre, with the dingoes leaning eagerly against the fence and the caption "Trouble brewing."
• In an episode of Space Goofs, when the aliens are taking care of a baby, at one point it makes a mess in its diaper that envelops the entire house in a horrid smell. Gorgeous, one of the aliens, remarks that "It's not even fit for a dingo to eat!"
• The French singer, Alain Barriere, wrote a song called "Vous allez faire comment?". The song asks how can the government ever repay Lindy Chamberlain for her wrongful imprisonment.
• In the Clone High episode "Raisin the Stakes", Gandhi is confronted by Daniel Feldspar, "The stereotypical Australian dragon," who states "I'm gonna eat you like a dingo eats a baby."
• In Rugrats: The Movie, when the children disappear at the beginning of the film, a swarm of news reporters confront Stu Pickles, the father of two of the missing children, outside his home. One of the reporters then during the press siege then shouts "Is it true a dingo ate your baby?," causing Stu to abruptly end questioning and flee back into his home."
• In May 2006 Australian Muscle Car magazine ran a story on the Chamberlain's 1977 Holden Torana hatchback they had at the time of the 1980 Azaria killing. Apparently it is currently under restoration by a Chamberlain family member and will reportedly, due to the Chamberlain issue, be worth a lot of money.
• In the Family Guy episode "Mother Tucker", Dingo and the Baby is the name of a radio talk show hosted by Brian and Stewie.
• In the Bro Town episode Honky the Wonderhorse, one of the characters yells "Run like a dingo with a baby!" to encourage the horse during a race.

[edit] Current

The cause of Azaria's disappearance has not been officially determined. The last and final official inquest listed the cause of her death as "undetermined." A body has never been found, only various items of bloodstained clothing. The Chamberlains who were originally convicted have been officially exonerated by the Court and eventually received some financial compensation. It is estimated that their legal fees exceeded five million Australian Dollars.

In August 2005, a 25-year old woman named Erin Horsburgh claimed that she was Azaria Chamberlain, but her claims were rejected by the authorities and the ABC's Mediawatch program, who stated that none of the reports linking Horsburgh to the Chamberlain case had any substance.

The Chamberlains divorced in 1991 and Lindy Chamberlain has since remarried. She and her new husband lived for a time in the United States but have since returned to Australia.

[edit] See also

• Crime in the Northern Territory

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

Categories: 1980 in Australia | Australian culture | Crime in the Northern Territory | Disappeared people | History of the Northern Territory