The dingo did take the baby!!!

[Witsec7]

Holy crap, after all these years.

 

 

Quote

A coroner has found that a dingo took a baby who vanished in the Australian Outback more than 32 years ago in a notorious case that split the nation over suspicions that the infant was murdered.

 

Tuesday's ruling in the northern city of Darwin is from the fourth coroner's inquest into the disappearance of 9-week-old Azaria Chamberlain in 1980 from a campsite near Ayers Rock, the red monolith in the Australian desert now known by its Aboriginal name Uluru.

 

The mother, Lindy, was convicted and later cleared of murdering Azaria and has always maintained that a wild dog took her. She and her ex-husband, Michael Chamberlain, were in court to hear the finding.

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wire ... ngo-death/

 

Can we hear some Australian views on this please.

[Patsy]

I thought that that was the case, but I didn't know if it would be satisfactorily proven.

Growing up, I seem to remember hearing a few details about the case at times in my life when these speculations would already have been disproven.

One thing that has likely changed the public's mind is that there have been several dingo attacks in the decades since, including dingoes dragging off babies. At the time, I think people thought it was a ludicrous suggestion. I'd be curious to know if there were any particular discoveries that led to a different decision, or if the original court case should have come to the same conclusion. From what I hear, it wasn't just that not all the evidence was available - some of the forensics stuff was bungled or not investigated as completely as it could have been, and who knows how much the media led the trial.

[Mela99]

I wonder if Australia has restitution for wrongful convictions. Either way, this is pretty awesome.

[princessjo1988]

Australian here - and yes, always thought that that 'dingo did it'.

In my family history - my great, great uncle was killed by dingos - or at least finished off - they only ever found his boot. So I could see how it could be true. Personally, I think there needs to be a controlled cull in some areas here - they are at pest proportions, and are interbreeding with domestic dog breeds, leading in some cases, to more vicious varieties - which have already killed other children.

Ultimately, I don't think we will ever know the full story - there was some suspicion because the clothes were barely ripped, and appeared to be folded when found. However, I think it pretty much be concluded that the dingo killed her.

[BlackHawk]

You know, I never knew this was based on a real case! I grew up using the excuse "The Dingo did it!" when I didn't want to get in trouble cause I had heard my brothers using it. It always got a laugh from my mom. Either way I feel kinda weird knowing now that there is some truth in that a child died... puts a whole new spin on it really.

I agree with princessjo... we will probably never know what happened.

Edit: Leaving out words from sentences makes the sentence not understandable! Sorry bout that!

[Patsy]

Yeah, it bothers me when people joke 'Hurr maybe the dingo took your baby'. Um. That was a real baby. What's funny about comparing things to the case?

[freejoytoo]

I remember Oz's band on Buffy was called Dingo Ate my Baby and I had no idea what it was referring to - I didn't think it was referring to anything. It's not something very nice to joke about.

[Hane]

I was an adult with a baby when this story was big news, and read the book "A Cry in the Dark" and saw the movie based on it. I never doubted Lindy's innocence. She was excoriated, at the time, for not being "emotional" enough during her trial, and for her religion. Seventh-Day Adventists are fairly common in many parts of the US (there's a congregation near my own church), but were considered a suspicious cult in Australia during the days following Azaria's disappearance. An urban myth circulated in Australia that her name meant "sacrifice in the desert."

[Hevcoh]

I served my LDS mission in Darwin and it was a topic that came up every once in a while when I was talking to people. I had the impression that locals thought she was innocent, but some admitted that first they were made to believe she killed the baby. Of course it happened before I was born, and my then 19-year-old self wasn't entirely sure why this topic kept coming up when we were teaching about eternal families.

[lilwriter85]

I was an adult with a baby when this story was big news, and read the book "A Cry in the Dark" and saw the movie based on it. I never doubted Lindy's innocence. She was excoriated, at the time, for not being "emotional" enough during her trial, and for her religion. Seventh-Day Adventists are fairly common in many parts of the US (there's a congregation near my own church), but were considered a suspicious cult in Australia during the days following Azaria's disappearance. An urban myth circulated in Australia that her name meant "sacrifice in the desert."

I remember reading about the cult myths about the SDA in relation to Lindy and Michael.

[bionicmlle]

I remember reading about the cult myths about the SDA in relation to Lindy and Michael.

My husband's family is Australian and are friends of Lindy Chamberlain -- the Australian perspectives on SDAs during that time were quite alarming, including human sacrifice, cannibalism, etc. I'm glad there has been a final determination about what happened to Azaria. I grew up SDA and don't remember eating any babies...

[Vex]

I almost took this case as one of my forensic science case studies... but I chose the Bogle-Chandler case instead (I swear, Australia has some of the world's most incredible forensic mysteries). I think most Australians couldn't really help but follow this case through the years, and I've always felt that Lindy was innocent so I was very glad to see her officially cleared. Like Hevcoh said, it seems like a lot of people were led to believe she was guilty early on in the case by the media, but these days see Lindy as being innocent. I watched her media release about the ruling and I really felt for her. She went through hell and she can finally start to really heal now.