The Death of Azaria Chamberlain

On 17 August 1980 two-month-old Azaria Chamberlain disappeared from a campground near Australia’s famous Ayer’s Rock. Azaria was in a bassinet in her family’s tent when Lindy Chamberlain, her mother, saw a dingo leaving the tent and slinking off into the darkness. Lindy then discovered that Azaria was gone. “My God, my God, the dingo’s got my baby!” she cried.

Lindy was charged with murdering her daughter even though Azaria’s body had never been found, and Lindy had no motive for the crime. What was believed to be blood was found in the Chamberlain’s car, and biologists believed that it belonged to an infant and had flowed downward, suggesting that the child was killed with scissors.

On 9 October 1982, Lindy was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. In 1986, a hiker fell off Ayer’s Rock and died. Authorities found his body in an area full of dingo lairs, where they also found Azaria’s missing matinee jacket. Lindy was released from prison and later awarded 1.3 million dollars in compensation for wrongful imprisonment. The legal case is one of the most famous in Australia’s history. In 1988, the movie A Cry in the Dark was released starring Meryl Streep. The film is about Azaria’s disappearance and Lindy’s conviction. In 1990, Lindy published Through My Eyes, a book about her experiences.

Azaria’s Disappearance

The Chamberlains arrived at the campground late on 16 August. The next morning, Michael Chamberlain, Azaria’s father, took her two brothers to climb a portion of Ayer’s Rock. Lindy explored a cave while holding Azaria in her arms. She confronted a dingo, a wild Australian dog, just outside the cave. She would later tell police that she thought the dingo was staring at the baby.

That evening the Chamberlains gathered with other campers around barbecues near their tent. Michael was conversing with another couple, Greg and Sally Lowe, who were also camping with an infant. When Sally went to throw away some trash, a dingo followed her. Other dingoes aggressively approached the campers that evening.

Lindy put Azaria in her bassinet in the tent. Her four-year-old brother Reagan was already asleep inside. Lindy then joined the campers who were sitting on benches near the barbecues. When she heard a baby cry, she ran to the tent and discovered an empty bassinet. Before she went into the tent, she saw a dingo exit and disappear into the darkness. Lindy cried, “My God, my God, the dingo’s got my baby!”

The first investigator on the scene was Frank Morris. He shined a light on the floor of the tent and spotted blood on one of the rugs. He discovered dingo tracks leading out of the tent, but they disappeared when they reached a road. About three hundred people searched for Azaria but did not find her body.

Other investigators were assigned to the case. Some, including Frank Morris, doubted Lindy’s story even amidst reports of dingoes attacking children on the campgrounds. The investigators did not think that a dingo was capable of carrying a ten-pound baby hundreds of yards.

A week after Azaria went missing, a man named Wally Goodman was taking pictures of wildflowers near Ayer’s Rock. He walked along an animal path and spotted shredded clothes near a boulder, which turned out to be a torn nappy (diaper) and a baby’s jumpsuit. Goodman reported his discovery to Frank Morris.

Details soon surfaced that made Lindy appear suspicious. An investigator discovered that the Chamberlain family had hiked in the area where the diaper and jumpsuit were found. A doctor who had recently seen Azaria said that the child was dressed in all black, which he considered strange. Stories of Azaria’s disappearance printed in newspapers reported rumours that the Chamberlains killed their baby as a religious sacrifice. Newspaper articles also speculated that Azaria might have been killed to atone for sins of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, to which the Chamberlains belonged.

The Trial and Sentencing

During the first inquest on 16 December 1980, Denis Barritt, the magistrate and coroner, concluded that Azaria had been killed by a wild dingo, and her parents were in no way responsible for the crime. However, this finding was quashed based on the discovery of new evidence—large quantities of blood in the Chamberlain’s automobile.

During a second inquest, Des Sturgess, a barrister assisting the coroner, said that based on the blood in the Torana, the family’s car, Lindy Chamberlain took Azaria from the campground and murdered her in the car with a sharp instrument, probably scissors. According to Sturgess, tears found in Azaria’s jumpsuit were more consistent with scissors than a dingo bite. A biologist testified that she had discovered a child’s blood beneath the passenger seat of the Torana.

After this, Lindy was charged with first-degree murder, and Michael was charged with assisting her after the crime. At the trial, the prosecution told jurors that Azaria’s throat had been cut. They acknowledged that the Chamberlains had picked up a bleeding hitchhiker but claimed that the blood in the car was not his.

The defence called Sally Lowe to the stand, who was with the Chamberlains at the campground that night. Lowe testified that she had heard a baby scream. Lindy had stepped away from them for six to ten minutes, she said, which was not long enough to kill the baby and dispose of her body. Many experts on both sides testified, with one dingo specialist arguing that a baby’s head could not fit in a dingo’s jaw and the tears in Azaria’s clothing were not consistent with a dingo.

The jury found Lindy, who was pregnant at the time, guilty of first-degree murder. She was sentenced to life in prison. Michael was sentenced to eighteen months for assisting her, but his sentence was suspended.

While Lindy was imprisoned, new evidence inspired a growing Free Lindy movement. Reports revealed that paint emulsion—not blood—was in the family’s car. However, it wasn’t until an English hiker named David Brett fell off Ayer’s Rock that Lindy would be freed. His body was discovered eight days after his fall in an area full of dingo lairs. Investigators discovered Azaria’s missing jacket in one of the lairs. In 2012, at another inquest, after considering new evidence on the frequency of dingo attacks on humans, including three fatal attacks on children, Coroner Elizabeth Morris concluded that Azaria had been killed by a dingo.

Bibliography

Anabel, Anita. “New Details Revealed in Documentary About the Death of Azaria Chamberlain.” The Latch, 29 Sept. 2020. thelatch.com.au/lindy-chamberlain-story/. Accessed 12 Dec. 2020.

Chamberlain, Lindy. Through My Eyes: An Autobiography. W. Heinemann Australia, 1990.

Chamberlain, Michael. Heart of Stone: My Quest for Justice for Azaria. New Holland Publishing, 2012.

Courtney, Rebecca. “The Azaria Chamberlain Case.” Australian Geographic, 7 Nov. 2013, www.australiangeographic.com.au/blogs/on-this-day/2013/11/on-this-day-azaria-chamberlain/. Accessed 13 Dec. 2020.

Glover, April. “Lindy Chamberlain case: Explosive new details.” New Idea 3 Dec. 2019, www.newidea.com.au/lindy-chamberlain-case-baby-azaria-new-detail-revealed. Accessed 13 Dec. 2020.

Gorman, James. “After 32 Years, Coroner Confirms Dingo Killed Australian Baby.” The New York Times, 11 June 2020, www.nytimes.com/2012/06/12/world/asia/after-32-years-coroner-confirms-dingo-killed-australian-baby.html. Accessed 13 Dec. 2020.

Jenson, Sophie. “Azaria Chamberlain case leaves lasting legacy.” The Canberra Times, 14 Aug. 2020, www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6877071/azaria-case-leaves-lasting-legacy/. Accessed 13 Dec. 2020.

Linder, Douglas O. “The Trial of Lindy and Michael Chamberlain (“The Dingo Trial”), Famous Trials, www.famous-trials.com/dingo/457-home. Accessed 13 Dec. 2020.

“The Story.” Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton, lindychamberlain.com/the-story/. Accessed 13 Dec. 2020.