Chamberlain case, involving the disappearance of a 9-week-old Australian girl, attracted worldwide attention in the 1980’s. On Aug. 17, 1980, Azaria Chamberlain, the daughter of Alice Lynne (Lindy) Chamberlain and her husband, Michael, a pastor with the Seventh-day Adventist church, disappeared from a camp at Uluru (also known as Ayers Rock), Australia. At an inquest (legal inquiry) in February 1981, the coroner decided that the child, whose body was never found, had died when she was attacked and taken by a wild dingo.
In September 1981, the attorney-general of the Northern Territory ordered an investigation into Azaria’s death. After a second inquest, Lindy and Michael Chamberlain were committed for trial. The trial was held in the Darwin Supreme Court from Sept. 13 to Oct. 29, 1982. Lindy Chamberlain was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. Her husband received an 18-month suspended sentence for being an accessory (someone who helps commit a crime). Appeals to the federal court in February 1983 and to the High Court a year later were both rejected. Lindy Chamberlain was taken into custody on April 29, 1983, and transferred to Berrimah Jail, Darwin.
On Feb. 2, 1986, officials investigating a death in the area discovered a baby’s jacket at the base of Uluru. Lindy Chamberlain identified the jacket as belonging to Azaria. Five days later, the Northern Territory government cancelled Lindy Chamberlain’s life sentence and released her from jail.
Officials launched an investigation to determine whether the Northern Territory police had mishandled important evidence. On March 19, 1986, Justice Trevor Morling of the Federal Court of Australia was appointed to conduct a judicial inquiry. It began in Darwin on May 8, 1986, and continued throughout that year. In 1987, as a result of the Morling report, the Northern Territory government gave the Chamberlains a pardon. In 1988, the Chamberlains’ convictions were overturned and they were awarded 1.3 million Australian dollars in damages.
The Chamberlain case created worldwide controversy, much of which centered around the unfavorable way Lindy and Michael Chamberlain were portrayed in the media and the effect that this attention may have had on the trial. The case was dramatized for an Australian motion picture, Who Killed Baby Azaria? (1983). The Australian journalist and author John Bryson wrote an account of the case in Evil Angels (1986). Bryson’s book was made into an American motion picture, A Cry in the Dark (1988), which starred the American actor Meryl Streep and the New Zealand actor Sam Neill. Lindy Chamberlain wrote an autobiography, Through My Eyes, in 1990. Lindy and Michael Chamberlain divorced in 1991. Lindy remarried in 1992 and changed her name to Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton.
Although the Chamberlains had been pardoned, a further inquest in 1995 ruled the cause of Azaria’s death was inconclusive. A new inquest opened in February 2012. At the time of Azaria’s disappearance, it was believed that dingoes would only attack humans if they were provoked. Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton and Michael Chamberlain submitted additional evidence of dingoes attacking children unprovoked. In June 2012, the coroner ruled that a dingo was to blame for Azaria’s death.
