Fourth inquest launched into Lindy Chamberlain's missing daughter which will take in fresh evidence about dog attacks
An Australian coroner is to launch a new inquest into the death of baby Azaria Chamberlain in a move that could finally end a 31-year dispute over whether she was killed by a dingo.
Elizabeth Morris, the coroner for the Northern Territory, has said she will open a fourth inquiry into the world-famous case, which centred on the disappearance and presumed death of nine-week-old Azaria in 1980 as her family camped in the shadow of Uluru, formerly known as Ayers Rock.
The case divided Australia and was turned into a film, A Cry in the Dark, which earned an Oscar nomination for Meryl Streep in the role of the accused mother.
In October 1982 Lindy Chamberlain, who now goes by the name of Chamberlain-Creighton, was found guilty of murdering her daughter after a jury dismissed her claim that a dingo took the baby.
She was later freed and her conviction quashed after new evidence emerged supporting her story. However, the official coroner's record still states that the cause of death remains "unknown".
A legal team representing Chamberlain-Creighton and her former husband, Michael Chamberlain, have now cited 10 serious dingo attacks on people since 1980, two of them fatal, as new evidence which will be heard at the inquiry starting on 24 February.
Michael Chamberlain said he was surprised and grateful the coroner had announced a fresh investigation. "At long last there's a meaningful attempt … to determine the proper cause and truth about how my daughter died," he said.
"I don't think people open inquests without thinking there's good reason for it and that means there'd have to be a change from the status quo of the open finding in 1995. It's now looking at dingoes, not people, as to the cause of death."
Azaria's body has never been found but her bloodstained clothes were and formed the main basis of an investigation that split the country into those who believed Azaria had been killed by her mother, possibly in a warped religious ritual, and those who believed she was killed by a wild dog or dogs in a tragic accident.
Chamberlain-Creighton gave evidence that she had seen a dingo near the family's tent. Initial media coverage of the incident focused on whether dingoes were physically able to carry a baby off or even inclined to do so and quickly shifted onto the parents as suspects.
"Close shots of the Chamberlains in interviews came nearer and nearer," John Bryson, a barrister who has closely followed the incident has said.
"Then 'Seventh Day Adventists believe in child sacrifice' and 'Baby Azaria was always dressed in black to represent a devil's child'. And 'the Chamberlains' bible had a child-sacrifice passage underlined in red'. And 'the name Azaria means sacrifice in the wilderness'. And on and on."
At her trial in 1982 Lindy Chamberlain said in her defence that dingo saliva was not found on Azaria's jumpsuit because the baby was wearing a jacket on top. No jacket was found in the initial searches but in 1986, while Mrs Chamberlain was serving a life sentence, an Englishman, David Brett, fell to his death from Uluru, landing beside the jacket which was half-buried close to dingo lairs.
Within days Chamberlain was released and a Royal Commission later exonerated her and her husband who had also been convicted as an accessory to the murder. The three previous inquests resulted in mixed verdicts, the first stating that a dingo had taken the baby.
Then further investigations, involving a British pathologist, suggested the wounds could not have been caused by a dingo and indicated a cut throat. That inquiry concluded that Chamberlain-Creighton should be sent for trial for murdering Azaria. The third returned an open verdict.
John Lawrence, a lawyer involved in the Royal Commission, said the new inquest would be a final legal chapter that would conclude a dingo was responsible.
"I think that the void will be filled by the new evidence on the dingo," he told Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio.
Last year, on the 30th anniversary of Azaria's disappearance, Chamberlain-Creighton pleaded in an open letter on her website for her daughter's death certificate to state that a dingo was to blame.
"She deserves justice," she wrote. "Come on Australia. Surely you cannot be proud of the fact that you can let yourself be duped again and again and come back for more of the same. We used to be a proud nation who saw through corruption and were willing to give a fair go. How many times do you have to be hoodwinked and led along by the nose before you demand something better from our courts, police force, politicians and media?"
Bryson said: "I think it is time really for it to be at an end. The people involved have been through enough. It has not been yet put to bed and so we hope that this coroner will."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/20/dingo-baby-lindy-chamberlain-inquest
Showing posts with label dingo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dingo. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Dingoes Didn't Run Tasmanian Tigers Out of Australia
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| Though highly similar in their skull anatomy, specialized for a carnivorous diet, the thylacine, front, and the dingo very likely had different hunting styles. Researchers analyzing skeletons of the forelimbs found important differences CREDIT: Carl Buell |
Date: 03 May 2011 Time: 07:01 PM ET
The extinct thylacine, more commonly known as the "Tasmanian tiger" or "marsupial wolf," hunted more like a cat than a
The thylacine had the striped coat of a tiger, the body of a dog and like other marsupials (including kangaroos and opossums) carried its young in a pouch. These carnivores were last seen in
Researchers hypothesized that the dingoes were a main cause of the thylacine decline in Australia, because the two species were in direct competition -- using the same hunting strategies to hunt the same prey. [Top 10 Creatures of Cryptozoology]
"Dingoes are a species of wolves, they are runners," study researcher Borja Figuerido of Brown University said. "If the thylacines are ambushers, the hypothesis of the extinction of the thylacine outcompeted by dingoes is less probable."
Elbow joints connected to...
By looking at the elbow joint bones of the thylacine and 31 other mammals, the researchers noticed they resembled those of cats, which can rotate their paws upward to pounce and attack prey. Dogs and wolves don't have this rotation capability.
"These anatomical characters reveal something about the hunting strategies of the thylacine. They are more ambushers than previously suspected," Figueirido said. "Ambush predators usually manipulate the prey with the forearms, they have very good mobility. Running predators lack this ability, because the elbow is locked."
The limited rotation of their arm bones makes dogs and wolves (including dingoes) faster runners, which changed their hunting behaviors. Dogs and wolves hunt in packs, following their prey over longer distances. The researchers determined that the thylacine was more of a solitary, ambush-style predator, similar to cats.
Mammalian cousins
Marsupial mammals, found mainly in Australia and other areas of the Southern Hemisphere, are similar to placental mammals (such as humans, dogs and cats), but their evolution diverged from ours during the Cretaceous Period, the earliest example of a marsupial appearing about 125 million years ago.
The evolution of these two groups of mammals is an example of convergent evolution, where two separate groups in different locations evolve similar morphologies to deal with similar habitats. The thylacine was thought to be the marsupial equivalent, or ecomorph, of the wolf, with similar body size and eating habits.
Now, Figueirido said, "this designation will need to be revised."
The study was published today (May 3) in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biology Letters.
http://www.livescience.com/14006-thylacine-hunting-behavior.html
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Dingo baby case re-opens in Australia with new inquest
Australia is launching a new inquiry into the 1980 death of baby Azaria Chamberlain, whose parents always said she was killed by a dingo.
Lindy and Michael Chamberlain were convicted over the 10-week old baby's death in 1982 but later cleared after evidence indicated a dingo attack.
A third inquest, held in 1995, recorded an open verdict, but the parents say that has left room for doubt.
Mr Chamberlain said he had been told an inquest could take place in early 2011.
Both he and his now former wife, Mrs Chamberlain-Creighton, had been asked to submit new evidence to the Northern Territories registrar of births, deaths and marriages, he said.
Mr Chamberlain told ABC News there would always be people who "out of prejudice and lack of knowledge or lack of facts" would blame him and his former wife.
He said the open verdict in 1995 had "sullied the waters" and "made us look like we might have been potentially guilty again".
"It's justice for Azaria. Her spirit does not rest because the truth was never told about how she actually died," he said.
Mr Chamberlain said his lawyers were now gathering evidence about other dingo attacks, including the killing of a nine-year-old child by two dingoes in 2001.
"They confuse human prey with animal prey and look upon them as fair game no matter what they are, a kangaroo, a calf, a lamb, a wallaby or a baby," he said.
Any inquest should also investigate the original police investigation, said Mr Chamberlain, following long-standing accusations from both parents that the forensics teams lost or mishandled evidence.
Chance discovery
Virtually ever since Azaria disappeared from a campsite near Uluru (Ayers Rock) in 1980, Australia has been engrossed by the question of whether she was taken by a dingo, says the BBC's Nick Bryant in Sydney.
Two years after her death, Mrs Chamberlain-Creighton was found guilty of her baby's murder and sentenced to life imprisonment, while Mr Chamberlain was found guilty of being an accessory.
Both were later exonerated on all charges, after the chance discovery of a fragment of Azaria's clothing in an area dotted with dingo lairs.
In August this year, Mrs Chamberlain-Creighton issued an emotional open letter calling for the dingo attack to be officially acknowledged.
Three coronial inquests, two appeals and a Royal Commission have so far failed to conclusively find the cause of Azaria's death.
But while her parents have been exonerated by law, they remain the victims of innuendo and gossip, says our correspondent, and as long as the cause of death officially remains unknown, the rumours will continue.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11511581
(Via CFZ Australia)
Dingo baby case re-opens in Australia with new inquest
Australia is launching a new inquiry into the 1980 death of baby Azaria Chamberlain, whose parents always said she was killed by a dingo.
Lindy and Michael Chamberlain were convicted over the 10-week old baby's death in 1982 but later cleared after evidence indicated a dingo attack.
A third inquest, held in 1995, recorded an open verdict, but the parents say that has left room for doubt.
Mr Chamberlain said he had been told an inquest could take place in early 2011.
Both he and his now former wife, Mrs Chamberlain-Creighton, had been asked to submit new evidence to the Northern Territories registrar of births, deaths and marriages, he said.
Mr Chamberlain told ABC News there would always be people who "out of prejudice and lack of knowledge or lack of facts" would blame him and his former wife.
He said the open verdict in 1995 had "sullied the waters" and "made us look like we might have been potentially guilty again".
"It's justice for Azaria. Her spirit does not rest because the truth was never told about how she actually died," he said.
Mr Chamberlain said his lawyers were now gathering evidence about other dingo attacks, including the killing of a nine-year-old child by two dingoes in 2001.
"They confuse human prey with animal prey and look upon them as fair game no matter what they are, a kangaroo, a calf, a lamb, a wallaby or a baby," he said.
Any inquest should also investigate the original police investigation, said Mr Chamberlain, following long-standing accusations from both parents that the forensics teams lost or mishandled evidence.
Chance discovery
Virtually ever since Azaria disappeared from a campsite near Uluru (Ayers Rock) in 1980, Australia has been engrossed by the question of whether she was taken by a dingo, says the BBC's Nick Bryant in Sydney.
Two years after her death, Mrs Chamberlain-Creighton was found guilty of her baby's murder and sentenced to life imprisonment, while Mr Chamberlain was found guilty of being an accessory.
Both were later exonerated on all charges, after the chance discovery of a fragment of Azaria's clothing in an area dotted with dingo lairs.
In August this year, Mrs Chamberlain-Creighton issued an emotional open letter calling for the dingo attack to be officially acknowledged.
Three coronial inquests, two appeals and a Royal Commission have so far failed to conclusively find the cause of Azaria's death.
But while her parents have been exonerated by law, they remain the victims of innuendo and gossip, says our correspondent, and as long as the cause of death officially remains unknown, the rumours will continue.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11511581
(Via CFZ Australia)
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