Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton


Alice Lynne "Lindy" Chamberlain-Creighton is a New Zealand-born Australian woman who was falsely convicted in one of Australia's most publicised and notorious murder trials and miscarriages of justice. Accused of killing her nine-week-old daughter, Azaria, while camping at Uluru in 1980, she maintained that she saw a dingo leave the tent where Azaria was sleeping. The prosecution case was circumstantial and depended upon forensic evidence that was eventually found to be deeply flawed.
Chamberlain was convicted on 29 October 1982, and her appeals to the Federal Court of Australia, and High Court of Australia, were dismissed. On 7 February 1986, after the discovery of new evidence clothing the same as Azaria wore Chamberlain was released from prison on remission. She and her husband Michael Chamberlain, co-accused, were officially pardoned in 1987, and their convictions were quashed by the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory in 1988. In 1992, the Australian government paid Chamberlain $1.3 million in compensation. In 2012, a fourth coroner's inquest found that Azaria died "as a result of being attacked and taken by a dingo".

Early life and family

Alice Lynne Murchison, known as "Lindy" from a young age, was born on 4 March 1948 in Whakatāne, New Zealand, the daughter of Avis and Cliff Murchison. The family were members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, with her father working as a church pastor.
In 1949, the family moved to Australia and based themselves in Victoria, with regular moves as Lindy's father transferred to pastor new churches. She received her education in Victoria and gained her Matriculation in Benalla in 1965. During holiday times, she worked as a shop assistant, a clerk, and waitressing. In later times, she found work as a receptionist and as a bookkeeper.
On 18 November 1969, she married an Adventist pastor, the New Zealand-born Michael Chamberlain, and for the first five years after their marriage they lived in Tasmania with Michael pastoring to churches there. This is where Aiden, her first child, was born in 1973. During these 5 years, Lindy gained her certificate from Launceston Technical College in dressmaking, tailoring and drafting. The new family then moved to Queensland, with Lindy later giving birth to her second child in Bowen in 1976 and, after living in Innisfail, they moved to Mount Isa in Northern Queensland.
Friends of Lindy's were aware that she had always wanted a girl and on 11 June 1980 the Chamberlain's first daughter, Azaria, was born. At this time in 1980, and when their daughter Azaria went missing, Michael Chamberlain was serving as minister of Mount Isa's Seventh-day Adventist church with Lindy being highly involved in the church as well as doing the normal duties of a clergyman's wife. She was also using her dressmaking skills to specialise in making wedding dresses to order.
Her second daughter and fourth child, Kahlia, was born in November 1982 at the Darwin Hospital while Lindy was in the custody of Darwin Prison after being falsely convicted of Azaria's murder. Lindy's new baby daughter was taken from her at birth prior to her return to prison to continue serving her mandatory life sentence with hard labour.

Azaria's disappearance

When Azaria was 9 weeks old, the family went on a camping trip to Uluru, arriving on 16 August 1980. On the night of 17 August, Chamberlain reported that the child had been taken from their tent by a dingo. A massive search was organised; Azaria was not found but the jumpsuit she had been wearing was discovered about a week later about from the tent, bloodstained about the neck, indicating the probable death of the missing child. A matinee jacket the child had been wearing was not found at the time. From the day Azaria went missing, Lindy and Michael Chamberlain maintained a dingo took their child. Early on in the case, the facts showed that for the two years before Azaria went missing, Uluru chief ranger Derek Roff had been writing to the government urging a dingo cull and warning of imminent human tragedy. Roff noted that dingoes in the area were becoming increasingly aggressive, approaching and sometimes biting people.

Conviction, imprisonment and release

The initial inquiry, held in Alice Springs, Northern Territory, by Alice Springs magistrate and coroner Dennis Barritt in December 1980 and January 1981, supported the Chamberlains' account of Azaria's disappearance, finding a dingo took the child. The Supreme Court quashed the findings of the initial inquest and ordered a second inquest in December 1981, with the taking of evidence concluded in February 1982. By an indictment presented to the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory in September 1982, Chamberlain was charged with Azaria's murder. Michael Chamberlain was charged with being an accessory after the fact. On 29 October 1982 the Chamberlains were both found guilty as charged.

First inquest

As is common in cases where someone dies in unusual or suspicious circumstances, a coronial inquest was held to attempt to determine the manner and cause of death. The first of many inquests was held from 15 December 1980 to 20 February 1981 in Alice Springs. The coroner, Stipendiary Magistrate Denis Barritt, found that a dingo snatched and killed Azaria Chamberlain. The parents, Michael and Lindy Chamberlain, were not implicated in any way with the disappearance of their child.

Second inquest

In committing the Chamberlains for trial, the coroner who performed the second inquest and recorded the findings as to the cause and manner of Azaria's death stated that although the evidence was to a large degree circumstantial, a properly instructed jury could arrive at a verdict with regard to the clothing evidence. He surmised that the Chamberlains knew dingoes were in the area, attempted to simulate a dingo attack, recovered Azaria's buried body, removed her clothing, damaged the clothing by cutting, rubbed the clothing in vegetation, and deposited the clothing for later recovery. On this basis and that of blood evidence of unknown origin found in the Chamberlains' car, the Chamberlains were prosecuted and convicted for the murder of their two-month-old baby, with Lindy sentenced to life imprisonment without parole
and Michael Chamberlain suspended for three years as an accessory to murder. The stain assumed to have been blood that was found in the Chamberlains' car was later determined to be most likely a sound-deadening compound from a manufacturing overspray.

Prosecution claims

The prosecution's theory was that in a five- to ten-minute absence from the camp fire, Lindy returned to her tent, stopped her young son Aidan from following her, changed into tracksuit pants, took Azaria to her car, obtained and used scissors to cut Azaria's throat, either the carotid arteries or jugular veins. All experts stated there was an absence of evidence of arterial bleeding on the jumpsuit and death would have taken up to 20 minutes if the jugular was cut. The prosecution continued that she then waited for Azaria to die, hid the body in a camera case in the car, cleaned the blood from everything including the outside of the camera case, removed her tracksuit pants, obtained baked beans for her son from the car, returned to the tent, left blood splashes there, and then brought her son Aidan back to the campfire without attracting the attention of other campers. Camper Greg Lowe gave evidence that he observed her go to the tent with Azaria and Aidan and then walk to the car with her left arm around Aidan and her right arm unimpeded. She then returned to the tent and immediately claimed that she saw a dingo taking her baby with evidence implicating a dingo being purely coincidental. It was claimed she was fortunate that no one noticed alleged blood on Chamberlain's clothes in the hours after the disappearance. Chamberlain opening the car where the body was allegedly hidden to give a dog the scent of Azaria from her clothes in the car was called a daring act. She also must have done it without her husband's knowledge or he was also incredibly daring since he left his children in her care afterwards. He told the police that he had given them the wrong camera case and then gave them the one that was allegedly used to conceal the body.
In the second inquest, concerning the clothing evidence alone:
  1. The clothing of the deceased child had been buried prior to its finding and probably contained the body of the child when buried.
  2. Soil type of a pH found on the clothing is consistent with the pH of the soil at the camp and also with the consistency of the soil in clothing and at the site and is inconsistent with the type of soil and pH in the area in which the clothing was found.
  3. There is no evidence on the clothing of dragging or catching nor the presence of saliva. It was argued that the absence of saliva was not remarkable as a witness gave evidence of heavy rain in the area. The clothing was not subjected to heavy rain as there is evidence that heavy rain would have adversely affected the bloodstaining on the clothing and this is not the case. This lack of presence of saliva and dragging is inconsistent with a dingo carrying the body a distance of some four kilometres.
  4. The jumpsuit was completely done up by studs to the neck which remained closed while the child was bleeding.
  5. After the blood had dried the two top studs were undone prior to the clothing being buried whilst containing the body of the child.
  6. There is evidence provided by fluorescent examination to suggest the presence of a palm print of a small adult right hand and some evidence of the presence of a left hand caused by a person holding the child when that person's hands were contaminated with wet blood.
  7. Single holes or indentations which appear in the clothing could be consistent with teeth marks of an animal but the absence of tissue stains in conjunction with those holes make it inconsistent with an animal holding the body of the child. The evidence clearly establishes that the clothing has been cut and in places torn by a person or persons and in particular the cut on the collar was made after the bloodstaining had occurred, It was argued that one area of damage in the general area of the elbow may be consistent with an animal tearing, but the evidence is very strong that such a tearing by an animal would be inconsistent because of the lack of evidence of the presence of tissue staining which would inevitably be involved if an animal had caused the damage to the clothing.
  8. Vegetation contamination on the clothing is inconsistent with vegetation found at the scene and inconsistent with the likely contamination which would have occurred if the clothing with a body in it had been carried by an animal. This supports the view that the vegetation contamination was caused by human intervention.
  9. The clothes as found were not strewn around the area and this is inconsistent with an animal being responsible for their placement.
  10. The clothing was found adjacent to a path near the base of a rock and adjacent to a dingo's lair.
  11. Scissors were found in the Chamberlain's car on which there was present human fetal blood staining on the cutting edge and on the hinge areas. There is evidence to support that when comparable scissors are used to cut through blood that blood would be deposited on the cutting edge. An inference can be drawn that these scissors were used to cut the deceased's clothing. There is no weight to the argument that the subject scissors were unable to cut clothing as this was after the stud had been removed from the scissors to enable certain tests.
From this evidence it was concluded that both Chamberlains were implicated in covering their crime.
The prosecution's expert testimony for forensic evidence included that of James Cameron, a scientist who had also given crucial evidence in a case in England which was later overturned when his expert evidence was proved wrong. With regard to the timing of the baby's cry and Chamberlain's whereabouts, the prosecution also claimed that the Chamberlains convinced fellow camper and witness Sally Lowe to say that she heard Azaria cry after Chamberlain returned to the camp fire.