The Most Misunderstood Case of Australian History

Dingo Attack

On August 17, 1980, a woman was heard screaming at night at a campsite near the famous Ayers Rock, Uluru in Australia. "My God, my God, Dingo picked up my baby!"

 Soon people gathered there. Upon interrogation, it was found out that the daughter of this woman has been taken away by a dingo (wild dog). After much searching, the girl was not found.

 But later a new debate erupted across the city that the woman had killed her own child and blamed the dingo.

 The murder came to light after investigators found a girl's jumpsuit a week later, some distance from the campsite(bloodstained about the neck) The girl was also wearing a matinee jacket, but it was not found.

  The woman was tried. Circumstances and known evidence were against Chamberlain. A jury of three women and nine men convicted the woman of killing her two-month-old daughter.

 The woman's name was Lindy Chamberlain Creighton.

The missing girl was named Azaria.

 Since Azaria's disappearance, Chamberlain and her husband have stated everywhere that their daughter has been taken away by a dingo.

 Two years before the incident, the local police chief, Derek, had written a letter to the government stating that dingo was rampant in the area and that reports of humans attacked by dingo were being received from various areas. It was possible that Chamberlain's daughter had actually been picked up by the dingo, but unfortunately, there were no eyewitnesses.

  A preliminary investigation in January 1981 confirmed Chamberlain's statement and confirmed that Azaria had indeed taken the dingo. But in December 1981, the Supreme Court declared the first information to be weak and ordered a fresh inquiry. In September 1982, Chamberlain was charged with Azaria's murder, and on October 29, 1982, both Chamberlain and her husband were found guilty.

 According to the details

 Chamberlain knew there were dingos in the area. She pretended a fake attack of the dingo. The girl's clothes were stained with blood and thrown away and cut off from her neck so that everyone would understand that these were bite marks. Investigators found traces of blood in Chamberlain's car. In presence of the evidence, Chamberlain was sentenced to life in prison without bail for the murder of his daughter, while Michael was suspended for three years as a co-accused.

 At the time their daughter Azaria went missing, Chamberlain's husband served as minister of Mount Isa's Seventh-day Adventist church.

 Evidence that a dingo took Azaria Chamberlain

 Camper Sally Lowe and Lindy's husband, Michael, testified that Chamberlain was with them at the barbecue when they heard a baby crying.

 Witness Judith West, whose camp was 30 meters away, also said she heard a sound her husband's dogs made when he was slaughtering sheep.

 Chamberlain stated that she heard the baby crying and walked towards the tent. She was just a short distance from the tent when she saw a dingo coming out of the tent. She started giving voices to the unsuspecting Michael.

 "Michael ... Michael Dingo picked up our baby."

 Saying this, Chamberlain hurried to the tent. So that they can take care of their child.

  But when she entered the tent, Azaria was not inside. She got out and ran to where the dingo had gone according to her. While running, she asked her husband to bring a flashlight.

 Police Detective Sergeant John Lincoln testified that he took pictures of large footprints a few centimeters from Azaria's bed and observed that there was blood on the outside of the tent. He collected samples but they were not tested.

 Camper Sally Lowe testified that she entered the tent after the incident to fetch Chamberlain's son, Reagan, and found a large amount of blood.

 But according to police constable Frank Morris, only a few drops of blood were found in the tent.

 Les Harris, then president of the Dingo Foundation, said he had been researching dingo for years. According to him, it is possible that dingo could carry a two-month-old baby's head in its mouth over a long distance. He also showed some pictures of a dingo holding a small child-sized doll in its jaws.

 However, forensic expert Professor James Cameron presented evidence that, based on a study of dingo jaw sculptures, he could easily say that dingo cannot lift a child in its mouth, it is impossible for him.

 Release on new evidence

  Things changed on February 2, 1986, when police found Azaria's matinee jacket half-buried in the ground a short distance from a dingo's den. Five days later, on February 7, 1986, the missing jacket proved to be the last proof of Chamberlain's innocence, and Chamberlain was released.

 In September 1988, all charges against Chamberlain were quashed by the Supreme Court. The case was later investigated, but no evidence was ever found against Chamberlain proving her to be her daughter's killer.

 After her release, Govt apologized to both her and her husband. In 1992, the Australian government paid 1.3 $ million in compensation for Chamberlain's unwarranted imprisonment.