"A dingo's got my baby!"

[phrodeau]

It took three years in prison, the overturning of a murder conviction and four separate inquests, but Lindy Chamberlain's words are finally given credence.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/12/dingo-baby-azaria-lindy-chamberlain?newsfeed=true

When coroner Elizabeth Morris ruled that a dingo had taken baby Azaria Chamberlain from her cot in the Australian outback 32 years ago, there were smiles, tears of relief and loud applause from the packed gallery at Darwin magistrates court. But there were no surprises.

There had always been a sense of unreality in the conviction of Lindy Chamberlain, a Seventh-day Adventist pastor's wife and respected member of the community, for cutting the throat of her nine-week-old baby. To this day, nobody has ever advanced a plausible motive.

After Chamberlain's conviction, there were other instances of dingo attacks on children – including the fatal mauling of nine-year-old Clinton Gage on Queensland's Bribie Island in 2001 – and they provided the critical circumstantial evidence needed to end the Azaria mystery.

Chamberlain, though remarried, embraced her former husband Michael. They had both suffered the tragedy of Azaria's death and knew they would probably still be together had it not occurred.

Lindy embraced her son, Aidan, who was six on the night of 17 August 1980 at the Uluru campsite when Lindy let out the chilling cry: "A dingo's got my baby!" The two wept in each other's arms. Even Morris could barely stifle a sob when she said: "Mr and Mrs Chamberlain, please accept my sincere sympathy for the death of your special and loved daughter and sister."

It was the end of a case that had brought international attention over three decades and had been dramatised for television, film and stage. It had even been turned into an opera.

Morris announced that an amended death certificate had already been printed. Outside the court, Lindy Chamberlain said: "No longer will Australians be able to say dingoes are not dangerous and will only attack if provoked. We love this beautiful country but it is dangerous and we would ask all Australians to be aware of this and take appropriate steps and not wait for someone else to do it for them."

How different it was in November 1982, when a supreme court jury in Darwin found that Chamberlain was guilty of murder and her husband was guilty of being an accessory after the fact. For the six weeks of the trial, the atmosphere had been at fever pitch. Young people were parading in front of the court with T-shirts reading: "The dingo is innocent!"

When the verdicts were handed down, there was seemingly universal approval. Lindy got mandatory life imprisonment, consigned for what was to be three years in Berrimah prison. Michael feared he would be jailed too, but Justice James Muirhead, who clearly disagreed with the verdict, gave him a suspended sentence and put him on a bond. Michael, for the first time in the trial, cried.

The aftermath of the case brought introspection among Australians. There always was objective evidence of a dingo attack: a growl heard by other campers at Uluru shortly before Lindy Chamberlain raised the alarm; paw prints at the doorway of the tent; drag marks in the sand; canine hairs in the tent; and, of course, Lindy's own evidence that she had seen a dingo leave the tent.

Yet immediately there was scepticism and scorn. It seemed an unlikely story and the Chamberlains displayed an outwardly calm demeanour. That set the atmosphere for the vicious rumours that began to circulate, including the false claim that the name Azaria meant "Sacrifice in the Wilderness". The Chamberlains' religion was poorly understood and ugly rumours started about the sort of things Seventh-day Adventists did.

Denis Barritt, the first coroner, did his best to scotch the rumours by agreeing to broadcast his belief that a dingo had taken the baby. But his strident criticisms of the police gave some of them a motive to press on and prove him wrong. After police found forensic experts such as James Cameron, from the UK, and the Australian forensic biologist Joy Kuhl, to suggest foul play, the findings of the first inquest were quashed.

The second inquest produced evidence that infant blood was found in the Chamberlains' car, in a camera bag in the car, on a pair of scissors, and elsewhere. There was apparently evidence of the bloodied handprint of a small adult on Azaria's jumpsuit. The evidence looked compelling but, from the perspective of this writer, reporting on the story in late 1981, it appeared that state resources were being used to put two powerless individuals in the dock for a crime which, at worst, was one of inexplicable infanticide – an offence for which some women do not even go to jail.

The Chamberlains were tried and convicted. But afterwards it emerged there was no blood in their car or on their possessions. Ms Kuhl had done a presumptive test and been misled by a positive reaction to the presence of copper oxide, a material prevalent where the Chamberlains lived in Mt Isa, Queensland.

Cameron conceded in the royal commission that was eventually ordered that he had only assumed the handprint was blood – he had not tested it.

The Chamberlains, exonerated by the royal commission in 1987, were pardoned and compensated. They then fought long and hard against an intransigent Northern Territory administration, which only quashed their convictions several years after the coroner's verdict changed. A third inquest seven years ago succeeded only in returning an open verdict. On Tuesday, the tortuous saga ended, with Michael Chamberlain, standing on the courtroom steps in Darwin, declaring: "I am here to tell you that you can get justice even when you think that all is lost!"

 

[warrior queen]

There was actually another attack by dingoes at Uluru only a couple of weeks before, also on a child.
All tourists to the park who came by coach were notified and told to be aware of dingo activity.
Not one car full off families who entered the park or campsite were told of this.
Had the Chamberlains been told, things might have turned out very differently.

 

[semen4her]

There was actually another attack by dingoes at Uluru only a couple of weeks before, also on a child.
All tourists to the park who came by coach were notified and told to be aware of dingo activity.
Not one car full off families who entered the park or campsite were told of this.
Had the Chamberlains been told, things might have turned out very differently.

They had to keep the joke alive.

It's good for tourism.

 

[pointless]

fucking australia.

 

[Sean Renaud]

There was actually another attack by dingoes at Uluru only a couple of weeks before, also on a child.
All tourists to the park who came by coach were notified and told to be aware of dingo activity.
Not one car full off families who entered the park or campsite were told of this.
Had the Chamberlains been told, things might have turned out very differently.

Normally I feel bad thinking about any animal that has gone extinct purely because humans got pissy. If these things eat babies and nobody believed it for however many centuries you've been on that rock I can only imagine what shit those Tasmanian Tigers must have been up to.

 

[semen4her]

Normally I feel bad thinking about any animal that has gone extinct purely because humans got pissy. If these things eat babies and nobody believed it for however many centuries you've been on that rock I can only imagine what shit those Tasmanian Tigers must have been up to.

Turn the computer off.

 

[KingOrfeo]

Band name!

 

[christy1989]

Damn babies luring the poor dingos!
Seriously I had no idea where this saying came from. It was interesting! Thanks

 

[KRCummings]

I'm glad Meryl Streep can finally move on.

 

[GuiltyPleasure]

Who, in their right mind, leaves a baby alone in a tent?

 

[Joeybagadonuts]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghCTZF61ey0

 

[jomar]

Who, in their right mind, leaves a baby alone in a tent?

Who takes a nine-week old camping?

 

[warrior queen]

Who, in their right mind, leaves a baby alone in a tent?

The baby wasn't alone - her 6 yr old brother was with her.
He's blamed himself all these years for not closing the zipper on the tent.

 

[warrior queen]

Who takes a nine-week old camping?

I took my 8 week old firstborn with me on a round-the-world trip for 10 months.
First stop, Kwazulu in Africa. No running water, no electricity, nearest medical care a 3 hour drive away.
He was totally fine.

 

[phrodeau]

I didn't know about the rumors of Seventh Day Adventist weirdness before. I sure am glad that we're so much more enlightened and aware of other religious practices nowadays.

 

[Bert Notorius]

I had a lucid dream yesterday, well, my dark passenger had a lucid dream yesterday about defending the baby from an attacking dog. I can remember the image plain as day of me watching me, my left arm in the dog's mouth, my right arm thrusting my pocket knife between its ribs and into its heart.

 

[Balladeer08]

32 YEARS this stupid story has been in the headlines. Well past mandatory retirement age.

And now Mattell is going to release a special edition doll: "The dingoes ate my BARBIE".

 

[warrior queen]

32 YEARS this stupid story has been in the headlines. Well past mandatory retirement age.

And now Mattell is going to release a special edition doll: "The dingoes ate my BARBIE".

It might be a stupid story to you, but the death cerificate had an 'open' finding before this. Meaning an inquest/investigation could be restarted at any time.
It was never going to be over for the Chamberlains until a determination was made.
Now, finally, it's over.

 

[fair_warning]

32 YEARS this stupid story has been in the headlines. Well past mandatory retirement age.

Well now it's finally sorted. It's over. And I really don't think losing a child, in any circumstances is a 'stupid story', so fuck you, you tosspot.

 

[CHNOPS]

I took my 8 week old firstborn with me on a round-the-world trip for 10 months.
First stop, Kwazulu in Africa. No running water, no electricity, nearest medical care a 3 hour drive away.
He was totally fine.

That's nothing. When my wife went into labor, we both climbed onto motorcycles and rode them onto an overpass above some train tracks. With my wife enduring wave after wave of labor pain, we waited for the next train to come. When it did. we jumped from that overpass onto the top of the train. We carefully made our way to the dining car and sat on the roof above it. There, I helped my wife push our little boy Engine out of her brave vagina. With no cleaning supplies or tools on hand, I cut his umbilical cord with my teeth and held him up to the wind to dry.

Later, we all crawled down and in to the dining and ate a meal of microwaved Chicken Cordon Bleu and Doritos. Even Engine had some! He spent the night sleeping in the arms of a strange old man who coached basketball somewhere, and when we got to Cleveland, Ohio, we jumped off the train just short of the station and hitchhiked home. And he turned out just fine!

 

[warrior queen]

That's nothing. When my wife went into labor, we both climbed onto motorcycles and rode them onto an overpass above some train tracks. With my wife enduring wave after wave of labor pain, we waited for the next train to come. When it did. we jumped from that overpass onto the top of the train. We carefully made our way to the dining car and sat on the roof above it. There, I helped my wife push our little boy Engine out of her brave vagina. With no cleaning supplies or tools on hand, I cut his umbilical cord with my teeth and held him up to the wind to dry.

Later, we all crawled down and in to the dining and ate a meal of microwaved Chicken Cordon Bleu and Doritos. Even Engine had some! He spent the night sleeping in the arms of a strange old man who coached basketball somewhere, and when we got to Cleveland, Ohio, we jumped off the train just short of the station and hitchhiked home. And he turned out just fine!

Difference is - I actually did go to Africa (and more) with my little tiny baby.
And I have photographic evidence

 

[about_average]

And now Mattell is going to release a special edition doll: "The dingoes ate my BARBIE".

I don't think dingos eat barbies, they don't want to burn themselves on the hot coals.

 

[Balladeer08]

I don't think dingos eat barbies, they don't want to burn themselves on the hot coals.

LOL. I forgot "Barbie" has a different meaning down there. Makes a great visual.

Nice to see someone with a sense of humor.

And those who think the story is over, just because they currently have the ruling they want? Dream on. In 32 years, this has gone from being a story to being a cottage industry. The latest ruling seems more based on emotions than anything else. In all these years, with however many hundreds (thousands?) of people who have checked that area, and no one has found bones? I think the story is over when there is some definitive physical evidence. Which I haven't heard of yet.

 

[phrodeau]

LOL. I forgot "Barbie" has a different meaning down there. Makes a great visual.

Nice to see someone with a sense of humor.

And those who think the story is over, just because they currently have the ruling they want? Dream on. In 32 years, this has gone from being a story to being a cottage industry. The latest ruling seems more based on emotions than anything else. In all these years, with however many hundreds (thousands?) of people who have checked that area, and no one has found bones? I think the story is over when there is some definitive physical evidence. Which I haven't heard of yet.

Why do you think there would be bones to find?

 

[CHNOPS]

Difference is - I actually did go to Africa (and more) with my little tiny baby.
And I have photographic evidence

Reading it back now, it does sound kind of outrageous, but that's the true story of little Engine's birth. I don't have pictures, but I can link the Amtrak schedule instead, if that helps.