Meryl
Streep plays Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton in the movie version of this tragic
story.
"A
Cry In The Dark" made a deep impression on me long before Lindy's
legal exoneration.
***
Anti-Lindy
hysteria swept across Australia despite no convincing evidence that Azaria's
mother was involved.
If we
can't catch "the goat," a scapegoat will do just fine.
***
After 32 Years, Coroner Confirms Dingo Killed Australian Baby
By JAMES GORMAN
Published: June 11, 2012
Thirty-two years after Azaria Chamberlain, 9 weeks old, disappeared from a campsite in Australia, the coroner in the fourth inquest into her death announced on Tuesday that the baby died as a result of being taken by a dingo, an Australian wild dog.
Patrina Malone/European Pressphoto Agency
Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton, with her ex-husband, Michael Chamberlain, right, spoke to the media after a coroner ruled that their baby, Azaria, was taken by a dingo in 1980.
Related
IHT Rendezvous: The Dingo Took Her Baby (June 11, 2012)
Australia’s Changing View of the Dingo (March 6, 2012)
European Pressphoto Agency
Lindy Chamberlain's tent, where her daughter Azaria went missing in 1980 near Uluru, Australia.
The ruling signified the end of three decades of struggle for the Chamberlain family. At first, Azaria’s mother, Lindy Chamberlain, was convicted of murdering her daughter and was sent to prison.
That verdict was later overturned and Ms. Chamberlain set free, but subsequent inquests were unable to reach a determination on how Azaria died, despite growing evidence that Ms. Chamberlain was truthful in her statement that a dingo was responsible for the death at the campsite in central Australia.
The coroner, Elizabeth Morris, with tears in her eyes, addressed the Chamberlain family in a courtroom in Darwin, Australia.
“Please accept my sincere sympathies on the death of your special daughter,” Ms. Morris said. “I am so sorry. Time does not remove the pain and sadness of the death of a child.”
She said of Azaria, “The cause of her death was the result of being taken by a dingo.”
The death of Azaria and the arrest and conviction of her mother became an international saga with the making of the 1988 movie “Cry in the Dark,” in which Meryl Streep played Ms. Chamberlain.
At the time of the death, many Australians could not believe a dingo, a small wild dog, would attack a human. Many Australians also turned against Ms. Chamberlain because, some suggested, she had not shown the kind of grief expected of a mother who had lost her child. The strain on the family was enormous, and she and her husband, Michael Chamberlain, divorced. But she never stopped pursuing vindication in a coroner’s ruling.
In recent years, a dingo attacked and killed at least one victim, a young boy.
When testimony was being given in the inquest in February, Australian observers noted a change in the nation’s attitude toward the dingo. Adrian Peace, an honorary associate professor of anthropology at the University of Queensland, said, “The demonization of Mrs. Chamberlain has been replaced by the demonization of the dingo.”
After the ruling was announced, Ms. Chamberlain smiled and cried and hugged friends and family members, including her ex-husband. “Obviously we are relieved and delighted to come to the end of this saga,” she said, adding, “No longer will Australia be able to say dingoes are not dangerous and only attack if provoked.”
Michael Chamberlain said afterward, “I am here to tell you that you can get justice even when you think that all is lost, but truth must be on your side.”
Christine Kenneally contributed reporting from Melbourne, Australia.
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