A dingo Took My Baby!

By Light of Day

Morris walked Inspector Gilroy around the camping ground, pointing out the barbecue area where the Chamberlains had eaten. Outside the yellow and green tent, Morris showed Gilmore the track of dingo prints, which ran along the length of the tent. Something else took Gilmore's eye. On the sidewall was a stain no more than a hand span from the ground. On closer inspection, he saw the shape of a spray, the colour of blood. Again no photos were taken.

The Aboriginal trackers, who had resumed their search at dawn, returned to the camping ground. Their leader, Winmatti, an elderly man from the Pitjantjatjara tribe, described the day's events to Gilroy. Squatting down, he smoothed out the sand with a rough hand, drawing a simple map of the area as he talked.

He described how he and the other trackers, Barbara, Daisy Walkabout, Kitty Collins and Nuwe Minyintiri met at dawn there at the campsite. They began tracking the dingo at the ridge where the depression, probably made by the baby's arm or leg, was found the night before. As the trail climbed, it was lost and found again many times on the way up. It wasn't until they reached the very top, around some water tanks where the ground was much clearer, that they realised they had mistaken the tracks of the original beast for those of another.

They returned to the campsite to reinspect the tracks of the first dingo. Looking more closely they saw that this dingo was large. One front paw didn't touch the ground as heavily as the other, suggesting an old injury. They traced its tracks through many changes of direction, which shows its cunning spirit. It took them up the dune, beyond the marks of the baby, along the ridge and down again. From there, it traveled over the plain in a wide sweep, so it could easily see if anyone was following, toward the area known as Maggie Spring. He had moved out onto the roadway fast. Occasionally, he moved from the road and back into the scrub, probably to avoid passing cars. Soon his tracks were lost, blown away by the wind created by passing traffic.

Inspector Gilroy and Sergeant Lincoln knocked on the door of the Chamberlains' motel unit. Lindy answered the door and let them in. As Lincoln prepared the tape recorder, Gilroy introduced himself and explained that he needed her to run through the previous night's events. Lindy told him what happened. Like Morris, Inspector Gilroy found it difficult to understand whether or not there was anything in the dingo's mouth at the time. Lindy explained that she was unable to see whether there was anything in its mouth because its head was in shadow, so she couldn't say that it did or didn't.

Lincoln, too, was perplexed by this and wanted to know more details of the baby's size and weight. Lindy said that Azaria had been weighed nearly two weeks before they had left Mt. Iza, at just under 10 pounds. She would easily have been ten pounds by then, plus the weight of the clothes she was wearing — a jumpsuit, disposable nappy, singlet, booties and matinee jacket. Michael soon returned to the room and was included in the questioning, as he had not actually seen the dingo at the tent, he was unable to help clarify the details. Unfortunately, neither of the Chamberlains mentioned the Lowes or other witnesses to the event, a fact that would seriously cloud police perception of the case.

With no more questions, Gilroy and Lincoln left the Chamberlains. As they walked back to their vehicle, Lincoln expressed grave doubts about the dingo story. He suspected foul play from the start. Gilroy did not agree with his strong beliefs, putting them down to Lincoln's past experience as a city crime investigator on a number of unusual cases.

Lincoln expressed his theories more vehemently later that night at the local hotel where he discussed the case with Gilmore, Morris and De Luca, a reporter from Adelaide who had flown up that morning to interview the Chamberlains. Lincoln went so far as to fill a bucket with sand and attempted to carry it with his teeth. When he and the rest of the party were unable to do so for more than a minute, he felt himself and his theories to be justified.

This would be the first of many similar scenes around Australia as people argued the merits of the case. As news of the tragedy spread, so too did the rumours and innuendo. Many police involved in the case, most reporters and a growing segment of the Australian public could not believe that such a dreadful thing could have occurred. Dingoes just didn't do that sort of thing. There was something not quite right about this story. Most suspected foul play, and inventions as to the real story behind Azaria's disappearance were prolific and imaginative, rarely based on facts.

 

The Mystery Deepens

Exactly a week after Azaria's disappearance, on Sunday 24 August, a tourist from Victoria found her clothing. The first the Chamberlains heard of the discovery was from a friend who had heard the report on the radio.

Rock where Azaria's clothes found 

When the footage of the clothes was telecast, the Chamberlains watched in surprise as a policeman picked up the clothing in his bare hands. With total disregard for, what was obviously important evidence, the police officer turned the clothing towards the cameras to show the blood stains around the neckline of the jumpsuit and singlet that Azaria had been wearing on that tragic night. Surely, that was not the normal procedure for dealing with evidence needed for an upcoming inquest?

Azaria's jumpsuit 

Wally, a tourist from Victoria in southern Australia, was a keen bird photographer who had gone with his family to Ayers Rock to take some photos. They had pulled up at the side of the road and walked toward the base of the Rock. His daughter, who was ahead of them, suddenly screamed. When Wally reached her, he immediately recognized what had frightened her was a baby's jumpsuit.

Margo, Wally's wife, took the children back to the car as Wally investigated the clothing further. The reason his daughter had been startled by the clothing was because the jumpsuit was sitting up on its back, slightly concertinaed, with the feet rounded, pointing upwards as if the lower part of the baby's legs were still inside. All but the top three press studs were still done up. As Wally looked around the area, he could not see any signs of human footprints apart from his, but did note that the vegetation surrounding the area looked as if it had been rolled on. Wally considered taking a photograph of the garment, but concern that his film would be confiscated caused him to think twice.

Constable Morris was summoned to the scene. He noted that there was a dingo lair close by with dingo tracks clearly visible. Wally quickly regretted not taking those photos when Morris picked up the jumpsuit, undid the press studs and reached inside to check whether the booties were inside, as Lindy had reported they would be. Wally and his family left the scene without making an official statement. Once again, the area was not cordoned off, but left unprotected until late the next morning, when Winmatti and other Aboriginal trackers were brought in.

Perhaps if the evidence had been handled correctly, this find would have helped to solve the mystery of Azaria's disappearance. Instead, with the help of sensationalised media coverage, which omitted many of the facts, it served only to further fuel the controversy that had surrounded the case from the start.

The division between those who believed the Chamberlains' story and those who did not, grew stronger. Not a day went by without some discussion of Azaria's disappearance in the media. Emotions ran hot as people argued the case for or against the defence.

The "Azaria Chamberlain case" was big news. Journalists from every TV network, newspaper and magazine vied to be the first with the next scoop in the case, to create the next big headline before the others. The Australian public wanted blood and the media was more than happy to supply it.

The Chamberlains' phone rang ceaselessly with reporters wanting interviews. Photographers and camera crews kept vigil outside their front door. They could not leave their house without being bombarded by news crews and reporters, often being forced to run through neighbours' backyards in order to carry out their daily business, or take refuge in the homes of friends until the media gave up for the day.

Police received an anonymous tip from a man, claiming to be Azaria's doctor in Mt. Isa, that the name Azaria meant 'sacrifice in the desert'. The caller declined to give his name. Soon the fact that the Chamberlains were Seventh Day Adventists, and Michael was a minister, became the basis of media reports that they were members of a strange cult who had killed their baby as part of a bizarre religious ceremony.

Another paper claimed that Azaria had been injured in an accident a couple of weeks before her disappearance and suffered brain damage. Lindy and Michael had then killed her at Ayers Rock because she was imperfect. Along similar lines was the story that Azaria had been born a "Downs Syndrome" baby, so her parents murdered her.

Initially, Lindy and Michael attempted to defend themselves against the rumours and accusations, but quickly learned that few journalists could be trusted to record their interviews with accuracy. Every media appearance they made seemed to fuel the rumours even more, especially when they spoke openly about their faith and their beliefs as Seventh Day Adventists. Lindy was considered to be strange, too hard, too unmotherly. Why didn't she cry?