Did a Dingo Really Get Her Baby? Case Reopened

Did a Dingo Really Get Her Baby? A Case Reopened

By Marina Kamenev / Sydney Friday, Oct. 15, 2010


A photo taken in August 1980 shows Lindy Chamberlain holding her daughter Azaria in Australia's Northern Territory

On the evening of Aug. 17, 1980, Lindy Chamberlain heard a cry coming from her tent. Lindy, her husband Michael and their three children were camping in Ayers Rock (now called Uluru) in Australia's Northern Territory. Lindy had put her 10-week-old daughter Azaria to sleep in their tent. After the cry, Lindy rushed back to check on her and saw a dingo leaving the area, clenching something in its jaws. Azaria was no longer in the tent, and Lindy screamed the now infamous line, "A dingo's got my baby!"

What followed was Australia's most famous saga, the subject of the 1988 film A Cry in the Dark. It's also a saga that's yet to come to a close. Lindy Chamberlain, whose version of events was initially believed, was later found guilty of killing Azaria after charges were pressed following a second inquest in 1981. Michael Chamberlain was found guilty of being an accomplice to murder. The evidence in that inquest was based on traces of fetal hemoglobin, which exists only in infants six months and younger, that were found in the Chamberlains' car and on Azaria's jumpsuit, which had blood around its collar and a human-size handprint.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2025730,00.html?hpt=T2#ixzz12ocLnwjv