Every Town - Australia's Biggest Mystery: Inside Lindy Chamberlain's 'Dingo Ate My Baby' Case

Episode Date: May 26, 2023

How would it feel to be a devoted mother who is not only charged but also convicted for the murder of your innocent, 9-week-old daughter? This happened to Lindy Chamberlain and ultimately those wrongful convictions against her were overturned by the high court after decades of controversial probes and trials…all  because the mother had claimed that baby Azaria was snatched and killed by a dingo, which is a variety of wild dog in Australia.💥 Watch On Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/scarymysteries🎧 Our Other Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1235579💀 Follow Our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scarymysteries 💀 Follow Our Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andrew.fitzg👁 Follow Our TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@andrewfitzgerald💥 Follow Our Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scarymysteriesofficial🗣 Business Inquiries: [e-mail] Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you love true crime, grab your favorite mug and pour yourself a dose of creepy true crime every single morning with a morning cup of murder. This short daily show is the perfect podcast to incorporate into your morning routine because in less than 15 minutes, you'll hear about a true crime that took place on a day's date in history. Each day's dark history lesson will kickstart your morning with intriguing tales of murder, abduction, serial killers, cults, and everything in between.

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Ultimately, those wrongful convictions against her were overturned by the high court after decades of controversial probes and trials. All because the mother had claimed that baby Azaria was snatched up and killed by a dingo. which is a variety of wild dog in Australia. I'm Andrew and welcome to another episode of Everytown, guys. The case of New Zealand-born Australian wife and mother, Lindy Chamberlain-Ragged on for 32 years and had to go through four inquests, one trial, two appeals, and one by the Royal Commission. It was a murder mystery that captured world headlines

and made the Chamberlain's front-page news. The case also paved the way for Australians to realize the dangers that dingoes may impose on people in their communities. But what actually happened on the night of August 17, 1980, that led to the disappearance of baby Azaria and the conviction of her mother Lindy? The protagonist and likewise the perceived antagonist in this story is Alice Lynn, Chamberlain Crayton, more commonly known as Lindy, who was born on March 4, 1948, and we were Wauqueton on the North Island of New Zealand. Her family moved to Victoria, Australia in 1969,

and both of her parents were Seventh-day Adventist church members. Her father, Cliff Murchison, was a pastor, so the family moved around a bit to different churches trying to recruit new members about once a year. At their church, Lindy met Adventist pastor and Michael Chamberlain, whom her family really liked. Romance soon blossomed between the two. and on November 18th of 1969, they got married. Wanted to establish their marriage and family, Lindy and Michael, soon relocated to Tasmania, where they lived for five years while pasturing churches.

Their first child was Aidan Lee, born on October 2, 1973. And during this time, Lindy furthered her career when she received a dressmaking, tailoring, and drafting certificate from a local technical college. Soon, they moved to Northern Queensland and the Chamberlains were blessed with another child born on April 16th of 76. They named him Regan Michael and Lindy being a hard-working woman specialized in making maid-to-order wedding dresses,

aside from doing the duties of a preacher's wife and being active at her local church. Upon entering the new decade, the Chamberlain brood moved to Innisfail and then on to Mount Isa Queensland. And on June 18, 1980, a Zaria Chamberlain. Chamberlain was born into the world. Ten years of a blessed marriage with three adorable kids, the Chamberlains decided it was time for vacation. They didn't want to do anything extravagant, though. And this little trip would go on to shape the rest of their lives in a very negative way.

The family decided to go camping and exploring around Ayers Rock and Aluru, which is an improbable formation of stone that protrudes and rises 1,100 feet out of the dry aboriginal desert. of Central Australia. They left their home at Mount Isa in August of 1980 and headed southwest for what was supposed to be an enjoyable family getaway. After three days of traveling, the chamber lanes finally arrived late at night on August 16th at the Ayers Rock compound where the area was filled with other campers. The next morning, her husband and their two sons climbed portions of the Ayers Rock, while Lindy, having just given birth a few months before, kept it more low-key and explored a formation called Fertility Cave. She was cradling, a zaria in her arms,

and that was the first time she noticed it. Looking up outside of the cave, she saw a dingo above, just staring at her. Later on, during the investigation, Wendy would go on to tell police that in that moment, she felt that the wild dog was after her baby girl. Perhaps it's a mother's instinct to feel that way, when encountering any animal, people included,

making you feel uneasy. or, as we would come to find out, the dingo may have been stalking and hunting for some easy prey, and it was nine-month-old Azaria. When the sun had set, the chamberlains gathered around a barbecue pit with other campers, including Greg and Sally Lowe, another young couple with an infant of their own. Around 8 p.m. Mrs. Lowe through the meal scraps and leftovers into a nearby garbage bin in there, noticed a dingo following only five paces behind her. The dingoes became a sort of source of entertainment for the campers.

Around that same time, Mr. Chamberlain entertained his son Aden by tossing breadcrust to one of the wild dogs that was roaming near the barbecue pit. Then he called out to Michael telling him, you shouldn't encourage them. At the same moment when a dingo pounce on a mouse that Aidan was chasing. The mother of three told the rest of the group that it was time to put his area down for the night and retreated to their tent to prepare her baby's bed. Around 10 minutes later, Lindy left the baby inside the tent with her sleeping brother Regan to rejoin the other campers on the barbecue bench. The night seemed fine, and everyone was enjoying each other's company, laughing and making smores.

That is, until they heard a baby's cry coming from the direction of the Chamberlain's tent. Lindy jumped up, and as soon as she reached their tent, her cry reverberated over the entire camp area. My God, my God, the dingoes got my baby. This was beyond a mother's worst nightmare, but the problem was not everyone believed her. The simple account was that three people heard the cry Baby Azaria when she disappeared that fateful night from the tent at Ayers Rock. Lindy then claimed she saw dingo coming out of the tent and tracks of the wild dog were seen inside and outside of it. The first investigator to arrive at the scene was Frank M. Morris, who shone alight on the tent's floor and found blood scattered on one of the rugs.

Mr. Morris then followed paw prints from the tent's entrance towards the road, but that's where they faded. Meanwhile, the oldest child, Aidan, wailed to Mrs. Lowe as he showed her an empty bassinet. He cried, The dingo has our bubby in its tummy. A massive search was organized with nearly 300 campers, both men and women armed with torches and whatever weapons they could muster. They formed a human chain to search for tracks or pieces of his area's clothing. But her father Michael, who had decided not to join the chain, had already concluded in his mind what had happened to his daughter. He told a fellow camper,

She's probably dead now, and then somewhat inappropriately added, I am the minister of the gospel. As if his words were the first, final say. But he was correct in that Azaria was not found that night or ever, for that matter. A little jumpsuit, though, that she had been wearing was found a week later, about four kilometers from the tent at Ayers Rock. Bloodstained, as it was around the neck area. From the time the little girl disappeared, Michael and Lindy stood by their story, with her baby daughter it was taken and most

likely eaten by a dingo. Two years prior to Azaria's disappearance, Alora chief ranger, Derek Rolf, had written the government encouraging them to perform a dingo call, warning of incoming human tragedy. A dingo call is where meat laced with toxic powder is given to them in order to cut down their population. Rolf had noted that the dingoes in the area have become increasingly aggressive and had little to no fear of people. Now many people believed in his area's case as a clear killing of a toddler by a dingo, although, as mentioned, not everyone was on the same page. The prosecution believed it was Lindy who murdered her daughter with Michael as her accomplice. And this then became the trial of the century in Australia, and it lasted for more than

three decades. The Chamberlain couple went through an initial inquiry held by the Alice Springs magistrate and coroner Dennis Barrett from December of 1980 through January. of 81. The inquiry believed in the Chamberlain's account that a dingo snatched their child, but Ashley McNay, for the Northern Territory prosecution, argued that the evidence suggested the bloodstained clothes were put in place, not dragged by a dingo, and that they also showed signs of being removed from the baby by a human. Moreover, he added the damage to the clothes was inconsistent with being caused by a dingo. Mr. McNay questioned Lindy, but he generally failed to depict her as a mother with either the will or motive to kill her own child.

Coroner Barrett's announcement of his findings was aired live on television, and he concluded that the evidence found that Azaria met her death when attacked by a wild dingo whilst asleep in her family's tent. Neither of her parents were found, as he put it, in any degree whatsoever responsible for her death. Still, the number of oddities concerning Azaria's clothing convinced the coroner that the body of Azaria was taken from the possession of the dingo and disposed of by an unknown method by a person or a person's name unknown. The findings of coroner Barrett should have been enough to discourage investigators from prying further into proving that Lindy was her daughter's murderer, but they weren't. So in September of 81, police conducted a search of the Chamberlain's home prompted partially by findings of British forensic expert James Cameron,

who concluded, based on the examination of the baby's clothes, that no dingo was involved in his area's disappearance whatsoever. Sounds strange to me that everyone is all of a sudden an expert on how exactly the clothing should look when a dingo pulls a baby from them. Still, though, two months later, the Attorney General for the Northern Territory, Chief Minister Evergram, filed a motion to quash the findings of the first inquest

based on newly discovered evidence. Authorities were finally convinced to push for a second inquest because of the presence of a large amount of blood found in the Chamberlain's vehicle. The findings of the initial inquest became a TV event as it was shown live, a first of its kind in Australia. In a surprising twist of events and by an indictment presented to the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory in September of 82, Lindy Chamberlain was charged with his area's murder, while Michael was charged with being an accessory after the fact. The media focus was so intense that it drew people to the sensationalism of the case, while the trial itself was scrutinized for being biased, unprofessional, and unfair. Expectedly, the trial was full of confusion with such intense coverage of a strange and tragic story.

At times, it could be felt as if people just didn't want to believe in the possibility that a woman, wild animal could kill a human. Ultimately, after that intensity died down and it was time for a verdict. On October 29, 1982, that day became perhaps the second most devastating moment in the Chamberlain's couple's life as they were both found guilty as charged. While inside and outside the prison, Lindy and thousands of others fought to clear her name. Lindy's fourth child, Kalia, was born on November 17, 1982 in Darwin Hospital, while Lindy, was a little bit of was in custody of Darwin Prison, where she said, Let them try to make something out of that.

And she regained temporary freedom when she was released on bail pending her appeal, which the federal court rejected in April of 83. Likewise, her appeal to set aside her conviction was refused by the Australian High Court 10 months later. All the efforts to free Lindy didn't materialize, so he was back on Block J of Burima Prison after that. During the second inquest, Lindy and Michael were committed for trial. The coroner who performed the second inquest

and recorded findings of the cause and manner of Azaria's death said that although the evidence, to some degree, may be largely circumstantial, the ball could be in the jury's hands. When duly instructed, they could arrive at a verdict with regard to the clothing evidence. Now, this is a huge assumption, but this is how crazy this case was.

because remember, the girl's body was never found, just a single item of clothing. So this corner somehow surmised that with Lindy and Michael's familiarity of the presence of the dingoes in the area, they then tried to simulate the dog's attack on their own child. To do so, they removed Azaria's buried body, took off her clothing and cut it, soiled it in vegetation, and deposited her clothes for later discovery. Another basis for the jury's persecution and conviction of the Chamberlains was the blood which had an unknown origin found in their car. Thus all this led to the jury's decision to convict Lindy to life in prison without parole. Michael was, on the other hand, suspended for three years as an accessory to the murder.

Now get this. Eventually the bloodstained-like substance that was found in the Chamberlain's car was later determined to be most likely a sound. deadening compound from a manufacturing overspray. The report about this helped initiate the Free Lindy Movement, wearing over 100,000 Australians signed petitions calling for her release. Truly, this case was so sensational, but even people high up literally lost their minds. The decision to grant Lindy Freedom came after a significant discovery

of Azaria's white matinee jacket in January of 1986. by a stroke of luck, sort of. An English hiker named David Brett unintentionally fell off Ayers Rock one evening while climbing and killed himself. A week later, David's remains were discovered below the cliff in an area known to be full of dingoes. The police scoured that area,

hoping to find more bones of the missing victim. Instead, they found his area's missing matinee jacket, which she was wearing on the night in question. The chief minister, Ben ordered, Lindy's release from prison despite the skepticism of the prosecutors. On September 15th of 1988, the Northern Territory Court of Criminal Appeals unanimously rejected all convictions against Lindy and Michael. Perhaps to gain more public sympathy, a film entitled A Cry in the Dark was released

starring Merrill Streep as Lindy. A Royal Commission was then established to review all the evidence, and a third inquest in 1995 resulted in an open finding, while the fourth one on June 12 of 2012 declared that the findings from coroner Elizabeth Morris showed his area had been taken and killed by a dingo. During all these trying years, the couple ended up getting divorced with Lindy, marrying Rick Creighton, also a Seventh-day Adventist member on December 20th of 1992. After a release, she was paid $1.3 million for false imprisonment.

A paper inquest into Azari's demise before coroner Joe Louns concluded that the cause of her death could not be concluded. And finally with all this, it was then that the public in the world seemed to finally agree that Lindy Chamberlain had not killed her young baby. Since meeting and marrying Rick, Lindy is at a relatively satisfying life. He was very happily married and residing in Australia's Hunter Valley. She's since written a book about her harrowing experience that dives into grief and forgiveness. At 75 years old, her life is still surrounded by media interest after all these years. Through seminars, lectures, and keynote addresses, Lindy uses these as a tool to help herself and others in dealing with stress, grief, and moving on.

She also talks heavily about the media's responsibilities and news reporting and the lawyer's role in seeking the truth and being impartial. Moreover, Lindy's firsthand experience about prison life within and outside the confines of the cells makes her a person to rely on about real struggle and sacrifices, loss, and survival. That's going to do it, guys, for this week's episode of Everytown. Hope you liked it. Please remember to subscribe and let other people know about us. Remember if you want more content from us that you're not going to be.

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