Australia Australia - Azaria Chamberlain, 9 wks, Uluru, NT, 17 Aug 1980

Just coming to post this!

It's possible that it could have been a dingo but I don't see where just saying something without any evidence to back it up makes it a fact. The child has not even been found and only one of the suspects claimed they saw a dingo. What do we really know now that we didn't know when the arrests were made?

Coroner rules dingo to blame for Australian baby's death
CNN) -- A coroner ruled Tuesday that a dingo, a wild dog native to Australia, caused the death of a baby more than 30 years ago.
Azaria Chamberlain was just two months old when she disappeared from a tent during a family holiday to Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock, sparking one of the country's most sensational and enduring murder mysteries.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/11/world/asia/australia-dingo-inquest/index.html

STANDREID said:

It's possible that it could have been a dingo but I don't see where just saying something without any evidence to back it up makes it a fact. The child has not even been found and only one of the suspects claimed they saw a dingo. What do we really know now that we didn't know when the arrests were made?

Click to expand...

IIRC they later found the childs clothes in a dingo's lair.

There wasn't much doubt what happened, this is just the official closing of the case.

According to what I've seen, the clothing was found in an area inhabited by dingos which could be about anywhere in that region.

I'm sorry if Lindy was wrongly accused but one fellow from Australia that I occasionally exchange posts with still thinks she did it. He says dingos don't attack humans unless they're cornered. A 20 pound baby does seem like quite a load for a dog smaller than collie to run off with.

Now maybe the parents and Azaria can be at Peace.

Guilty people hide, innocent people try to clear their name.

It has been asserted that the area where the clothing was found had already been searched. If that's true, what would you guess?

A former policeman has just released a statement that says that, "The clothes were put there at the dingo's lair to sort of lead people off the scent." He also said, "There has been human intervention; there is a number of ways we know that." This person, Frank Morris, did not say the Chamberlains were responsible only that some human had tampered with the evidence.

Back in the day, our local media was nuts about her doing it.
She didn't come across as a particularly likeable character, hard and aggressive (but then I can understand why she might have been like that given the circumstances).

There was never any evidence that a person was involved. That is kind of the point.
Everything presented as evidence was entirely consistent with a dingo or two having taken the baby. From the drag marks, the bite marks on the clothes, the tracks, what people heard, what people saw.

When Azaria's jacket was found 6-7 years later, it was next to a dingo lair quite some distance from where the Chamberlain's were camping in a remote area around Uluru.

The discovery of the jacket proved that Lindy wasn't lying as to what Azaria was wearing on the night.

The evidence against the Chamberlains was quite pathetic and I think most observers were astounded when she was convicted.

The delays in blaming a dingo until now have largely been relating to precedent. There had never been any other dingo attacks and people found it hard to accept a one off like this. However over the last 32 years there have been quite a few incidents involving dingoes attacking people, even killing a child.

We have had quite a few cases here where family pets have attacked and killed children.
A dingo attacking and killing a child is in effect no different, aside from the fact that they are wild dogs rather than someone's pet. And being wild, it's hard to point the finger at an individual canine and say "He did it".

There is no doubt that Azaria was taken by a dingo and eaten by dingoes.
No body will ever be found because, well, Australia is the same size as the USA and the part of Australia where this happened is desert and largely uninhabited. It was also 32 years ago.

The death of Azaria Chamberlain is a bit like the death of Princess Diana or the death of JFK to us here in Australia. Everyone has an opinion and seemingly, no amount of evidence is going to change those opinions.

Three other dingo attacks helped solve mystery of Azaria Chamberlain's death

Thirty-two years after a 9-week-old infant vanished from an Outback campsite in a case that bitterly divided Australians and inspired a Meryl Streep film, the nation overwhelmingly welcomed a ruling that finally closed the mystery.

A coroner in the northern city of Darwin concluded Tuesday that a dingo, or wild dog, had taken Azaria Chamberlain from her parents' tent near Ayers Rock, the red monolith in the Australian desert now known by its Aboriginal name Uluru.

More: http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Late...e-mystery-of-Azaria-Chamberlain-s-death-video



Dingo took Azaria Chamberlain, coroner finds

A DINGO was responsible for the death of Azaria Chamberlain in 1980, a Northern Territory coroner has found.

Coroner Elizabeth Morris told a packed courtroom today that a dingo was to blame for the attack at Uluru, which originally saw Azaria's mother Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton jailed for murder and her husband Michael given a suspended sentence for being an accessory after the fact.

Both were later exonerated after a royal commission in 1987.

[snip]

Mr Chamberlain has picked up Azaria's death certificate, which was changed as a result of the decision.

The certificate's previous cause of death was stated as unknown; now it reads the death was "as a result of being attacked and taken by a dingo".

More: http://www.news.com.au/national-old/dingo-took-azaria-coroner-finds/story-e6frfkvr-1226392715293

I've been so culturally influenced (brainwashed?) by the line, 'A dingo ate my baby' that I can no longer think critically about what happened. 'Thanks Gran''.

Bohemian said:

AZARIA WOMAN? LIVED HERE

Click to expand...

Apparently, NT police say this .....

It is disappointing that it received so much media attention given that we had advised the media that she was a vulnerable person.
A dingo ate their ethics
Media Watch - 26 Sep 2005

.

Frank Cole, who says he shot the dingo that snatched their baby at Uluru in 1980 but stayed silent about it for 24 years.
Michael Chamberlain says he can recall events which would support Mr Cole's story.
If Frank Cole had spoken out 24 years ago, Lindy Chamberlain might never have gone to jail for the murder of her baby Azaria, and her then husband Michael might never have been convicted as an accessory after the fact.

The World Today - Chamberlains say they bear no grudge towards Frank Cole

they'll get you said:

Frank Cole, who says he shot the dingo that snatched their baby at Uluru in 1980 but stayed silent about it for 24 years.
Michael Chamberlain says he can recall events which would support Mr Cole's story.
If Frank Cole had spoken out 24 years ago, Lindy Chamberlain might never have gone to jail for the murder of her baby Azaria, and her then husband Michael might never have been convicted as an accessory after the fact.

The World Today - Chamberlains say they bear no grudge towards Frank Cole

Click to expand...

It is really hard to imagine that they just took the baby - all the way from NT - and buried her in some backyard in Melbourne.

Was Azaria deceased when dropped by the dingo? Was she shot during the incident? Just because a dingo picks up their 'prey' does not mean that the 'prey' is instantly killed.

Why would someone(s) do something like that?? Hide it for years and years. Just so they didn't get in trouble for shooting on Crown land? Seems very whacky, to me.
This was someone's child.

Accident prompted Azaria story, says neighbour

STANDREID said:

A 20 pound baby does seem like quite a load for a dog smaller than collie to run off with.

Click to expand...

20lb sounds unrealistic. Typically a baby gains 1lb per month between birth and 6 months, so if Azaria was 9 weeks old she would probably only be about 2lb over her birth weight. That suggests 10lb as the likely weight at the time she disappeared.

A distinguishing feature of the dingo is the jaw’s ability to open extensively wide, they would have no problem carrying 10 lbs.

What a total cockup that was.
I remember the Crown’s forensic biologist, the late Joy Kuhl finding foetal blood spatter in the passenger side footwell under the carpet.
It wasn’t at all!
It was soundproofing compound applied at the time of manufacture.

OMG I feel deep sorrow for the Chamberlains family! How could those children not have been life long affected.

Blood expert remembers Azaria case

PROFESSOR Barry Boettcher has no doubts that a dingo killed Azaria Chamberlain on the night of August 17, 1980.

Goosewhisperer said:

A distinguishing feature of the dingo is the jaw’s ability to open extensively wide, they would have no problem carrying 10 lbs.

Click to expand...

Your are right Goosewhisperer. These are strong wild dogs and like bears, when they are not frightened of humans THEN they become bloody dangerous.

Where are Frank Cole's friends who he claims he made a pact with? Surely, at least one of those friends would have come forward by now, IF a pact was indeed made? I can't understand why it took Frank Cole so long to come forward. I mean, he shot a Dingo who he claims had a baby in it's jaws, what did he do with the baby? I can't believe him and his friends sat in silence and watched an innocent couple/family suffer and go through hell all those years ago. WHY?

Those Dingo's......

I saw first hand how nasty one can be. A guy had one on a leash at one of the theme parks in the Gold Coast (MovieWorld mid/late 1990's). It was supposed to be tame, yeah right!!! My niece was about 4 at the time, she was sitting in her stroller holding her doll and the dingo went straight for her doll (approx. size of a newborn baby) and tried to snatch it (the sound and look of those jaws when it snapped, absolutely terrifying) off her. It happened so fast. It didn't go for my niece, it went for her doll. The guy was an employee there, walking around so folks could get up and close with a Dingo. Never again!