A coroner has now ruled that a dingo did indeed eat a two-month old baby over thirty years ago, proving without a doubt that the little girl’s parents had nothing to do with her disappearance from their campsite in Australia.
Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton was charged with the murder of her baby daughter Azaria and sentenced to life in prison in 1982, while her husband Michael was charged with being an accessory after the fact. The court ruled on the scant evidence left behind–the baby’s bloodstained clothing–and charged that Lindy and her husband slit the baby’s throat with a pair of scissors before stashing her body away. The incident and trial gained national attention and eventually won Meryl Streep an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Lindy in the 1988 film “A Cry In The Dark”.
Lindy served four years of her sentence before being released on new evidence; a baby’s jacket found buried near a dingo lair around the area the family had camped in six years earlier. Now, she is relieved to have the case closed on the horrifying death of her baby girl, as she’s spent all these years trying to convince Australian officials that dingoes are dangerous even when unprovoked.
“The cause of her death was as the result of being attacked and taken by a dingo,” coroner Elizabeth Morris announced on Tuesday. “Dingos can and do cause harm to humans.”
The family finally got what they needed; an end to the decades-long legal battle and rocky emotional road they’ve been down since the murder. Not only did the wild dog take their baby, it also took the Chamberlain’s way of life. Grief and stress dissipated their marriage, but at the coroner’s announcement the former husband and wife hugged each other, grateful to have come out on the other side of such a terrible tragedy.
“If you know you are right, never give up on getting it right,” Michael Chamberlain said.