January 12, 2021 • 26 mins
The Lindy Tapes is a documentary six months in the making. It uncovers stunning new evidence in the now infamous Azaria Chamberlain case. ‘A dingo’s got my baby’- five words that will forever divide a nation. The tragic death of a baby girl in outback Australia that at one point in time became a T-Shirt slogan, a punchline. The trial one of the most publicised in our history. Incredibly, crucial parts of this story were never untold. Now, 40 years after baby Azaria’s disappearance and the greatest miscarriage of justice in Australian criminal history, a major investigation from the 7NEWS Spotlight team unearths the secret police tape recordings never broadcast. In part one of this investigation, journalist Denham Hitchcock looks back on this baffling case and unveils previously unheard police tapes and interviews.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
I had the feeling that I had let down the Chamberlains.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
I have been made over the years to realize what
a terrible, terrible injustice mister Chamberlain has received.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Somebody talk throughout a spree.
Speaker 4 (00:43):
David, it's Ross here, mate, yes, Ross, can you hear me?
Speaker 5 (00:45):
Right?
Speaker 6 (00:45):
And here you find mate?
Speaker 7 (00:46):
There we go.
Speaker 8 (00:47):
You might remember the news on this day.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
When it came.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
The announcement took everyone across the nation completely by surprise.
Speaker 9 (00:55):
The verdict came shortly before twenty to nine down. One time,
the jury had filed back into the witness box and
Acting Chief Justice James Muirhead said to the jury, how
do you find the accused?
Speaker 10 (01:05):
Alice Lynn?
Speaker 9 (01:06):
Chamberlain, the foreman of the jury's standing, said guilty.
Speaker 8 (01:12):
Young woman pregnant in the back of a police car,
in utter disbilit headed.
Speaker 9 (01:18):
For a floor by four meters sell in the women's
section of Darwin's beerrima jail.
Speaker 7 (01:22):
Well, I have.
Speaker 8 (01:23):
Found guilty of murdering her baby girl. The whole country
hated her.
Speaker 6 (01:30):
Right, she's guilty or she should stay there for good.
Speaker 5 (01:33):
Ah.
Speaker 8 (01:34):
No matter what, you would certainly have heard this.
Speaker 11 (01:37):
It wasn't time to go and tell people I just
yelled out as anyone got a talk.
Speaker 12 (01:41):
Lingo's got my baby?
Speaker 8 (01:44):
I think you know the Azaria Chamberlain story. I'm sorry,
but you're died.
Speaker 7 (01:51):
Probably might write your name for you.
Speaker 5 (01:56):
She's wish.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Became aware of it.
Speaker 13 (02:01):
Did something was there?
Speaker 3 (02:02):
And I turned this dingo just intently looking at me.
Speaker 13 (02:07):
I'll never forget it.
Speaker 6 (02:11):
Maybe what murdered it can and even supposed of it
that night.
Speaker 5 (02:14):
I think we've got it.
Speaker 8 (02:16):
I want to make sure I've heard that correctly. You
called the police and he said to you.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
It can't be done. She's been guilty anyhow, and you
hung up.
Speaker 14 (02:27):
Well, I took a photo of the dingo from inside
the van.
Speaker 8 (02:34):
Could this be the dingo that took Azariah Chandler?
Speaker 3 (02:37):
We think it was?
Speaker 10 (02:38):
Is?
Speaker 5 (02:40):
Please?
Speaker 1 (02:41):
I'm not the results you would get a forensic disaster,
a verdict.
Speaker 15 (02:45):
In missus Chamberlain's case. Guilty here a pack of bastards.
Speaker 10 (02:50):
There's boys a rainbow after every storm.
Speaker 13 (02:54):
There must be a rainbow somewhere else.
Speaker 8 (03:06):
If Australia has a spiritual center, it's here Ularu. Dreamtime
stories say it was shaped by spirits, the sandstones scarred
from their battles. After that came life and rebirth. But
the revelations from this sacred ground are not finished yet.
(03:29):
In nineteen eighty, a yellow holden Tarana pulled into a
dusty campsite here at Ularu. Inside was a family of five.
They'd come to see this magnificent site. The chamberlains were quiet, unassuming,
a pastor and his wife, two young boys, and a
nine week old baby, Azaria. How close was the chamberlain's
(03:57):
tent to or Campravan.
Speaker 14 (03:58):
Twenty thirty meters There was no oa other campsite between us.
Speaker 8 (04:05):
The night Azaria was taken, Murray Haby and his family
were at the same campsite. He is one of the
last surviving witnesses, and incredibly, parts of his story remain untold.
The numerous reports of dingo's being in the area around
that campsite. Did you see any that night?
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Yes, yes, we did.
Speaker 14 (04:28):
We saw one coming from it would have been southwest
corner of the camping ground. Then it came up to
our van and we threw a chop bannon out to it.
Speaker 8 (04:43):
The dingo is what's called an apex predator out here.
It's only enemy is us. But people found it impossible
to believe that a dingo would or could take a
baby from a tent. There were people who tried to
warn us, but nobody listened.
Speaker 16 (05:02):
Very recently, a number of children were reputedly attacked by
dogs in the camping area.
Speaker 8 (05:07):
This is Derek Roff, the very capable park ranger. At
the time, it wasn't well known, but dingoes had tried
to snatch young children before. It's just that nobody wanted
to hear it.
Speaker 16 (05:19):
Eventually, I determined that we'd really have to get rid
of some of the dingos, that they were being becoming
more and more of a problem.
Speaker 8 (05:26):
The following recording of Derek Roff is from the Northern
Territory Police Archives opened especially to Channel seven. It has
never been broadcast before.
Speaker 16 (05:37):
I requested permission to get some high powered rifle bullets
and we were going to shield a number of dingos.
I didn't get the bullets in a fortnight later, Azaria disappear.
Speaker 8 (05:54):
On the night Bazaria was taken, Murray Haby was in
his Campravan here. The chamberlains next door the west side.
To the north of them, Greg and Sally Lowe are
close behind near the communal barbecue area. At eight pm,
Lindy Chamberlain screams.
Speaker 14 (06:12):
She came up towards our van and I could see
she was distressed and she was calling out a dingo
had taken a baby. So I went out to her
and she said when I went to the tent, a
zari wasn't in the tent, and I saw a dingo
leaving the tent. I went back and got the torch
(06:33):
and took off in the direction she said.
Speaker 8 (06:38):
What police didn't know was Murray was an amateur animal
tracker had been for years.
Speaker 14 (06:45):
I found this track that was different to all the others.
It was heavier and it was obviously a bigger dog
or a dog carrying something. I followed that for about
one hundred meters. It put its load down and you
could see the depression in the sand. Important thing was
you could see the impression of a knitted garment and
(07:08):
there was a spot beside which looked like a wet spot,
as if it was either blood or salive or I
couldn't work out which. I kept following. The tracks came
to a car park. I lost the tracks in the
car path.
Speaker 6 (07:23):
The only clue has been the discovery of dog tracks.
Police say there's only a slender chance of finding Azaria alive.
Speaker 15 (07:31):
Did see them an extraordinary story. The whole thing was exotic.
It was an exotic location that was in the middle
of austrade.
Speaker 5 (07:38):
It was as rock. In the background.
Speaker 15 (07:40):
There was this very beautiful young woman telling what seemed
to be an incredible story. So it was a bit
like death on the Nile. It was exotic location, a
beautiful woman, and a suspicion about what you'd done.
Speaker 8 (07:54):
A dingo had come into a tent at a campground
and right under the noses of the parents snatched a baby,
or did it. Lindy and Michael gave this extraordinary interview
the day after it happened.
Speaker 10 (08:08):
When we saw the spots of blood in the tent.
As we looked, we realized it must have been a
very quick event. This morning, when we saw in the
blanket the sharp, ripped, jagged marks in that very thickly
woven blanket, we knew that that was what a powerful
beast and the sharp teeth.
Speaker 11 (08:24):
But there wasn't time to go and tell people.
Speaker 12 (08:25):
I just yelled out, as anyone got a talch, dingo's got.
Speaker 8 (08:29):
My baby there? It is a dingo's got my baby.
A mother's anguish, but the public and the police thought
something wasn't quite right. Lindy and Michaels seemed too composed,
too comfortable with the media, and the police watched these
interviews carefully.
Speaker 11 (08:48):
I yelled at the dog to scare it off, and
then it sort of registered on my mind as I
was running to the tent because I thought the keys
are in there. When I got in the tent was
just nothing, and I called for my husband. I didn't
really couldn't believe the evidence of my own eyes, and
(09:09):
I called to marble Lip that Dingo's got the baby.
Speaker 13 (09:13):
A cold shiveling up my spy.
Speaker 10 (09:14):
I thought, this is absolutely ridiculous, and I rushed into
the tent and we looked around quickly and.
Speaker 5 (09:20):
Couldn't see anything.
Speaker 10 (09:21):
I thought my hat and I rushed out into the blackness,
and I felt as hopeless as I ever felt.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
In my life.
Speaker 15 (09:30):
As I've always said, there's no rules to see how
people should behave after a traumatic event. Some people laugh,
some cry, some go to water some day.
Speaker 13 (09:39):
You can't judge.
Speaker 15 (09:40):
People's person will produce people from the way they react
to situations.
Speaker 8 (09:46):
We shouldn't, but we do, and the police are no different.
But they were also making crucial mistakes. This remarkable interview
is with the police forensic officer who worked the crime
scene at Airs Rock.
Speaker 13 (10:02):
Do you have any idea what you were dealing with?
Speaker 12 (10:04):
Not at first?
Speaker 3 (10:05):
No, you know, I wasn't sure about the case, so
I didn't.
Speaker 12 (10:08):
I had nothing to guide me apart from what I
did in the newspapers, and.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
So you had to rely on the newspapers to carry
out your forensic investigation to write a report.
Speaker 13 (10:19):
Yes, for the Northern Tertory Police Force.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
Yes.
Speaker 8 (10:22):
Mayra Foggerty examined the crime scene, collected the all important evidence.
She had been working in forensics for a total of
three months.
Speaker 12 (10:33):
I have a lot of sympathy for the Chamberlains. They were,
in effect of accused of murder.
Speaker 13 (10:39):
And in a roundabout way, you were a part responsible.
Speaker 12 (10:42):
For that in a roundabout way, yeah.
Speaker 13 (10:46):
Because of allowing an inexperienced.
Speaker 12 (10:49):
For allowing me to do something that I had no idea.
Speaker 16 (10:53):
Of how it to.
Speaker 8 (10:56):
If that sounds shocking, worse was to come the Chamberlain's.
We had a campground that was full of witnesses, but
their version of events what they saw did not fit
the police case that was already forming behind the scenes.
Speaker 14 (11:11):
Well, they told me they had an agenda. When the
two policemen came down to interview me at the Boxhell
police station before the trial.
Speaker 8 (11:21):
What did they tell you exactly?
Speaker 14 (11:23):
They said they're only looking for information that would convict
Lindy of murder.
Speaker 8 (11:29):
So I just told you that outright.
Speaker 14 (11:31):
Yes, I was flabbergasted, shook my head and I think
and my hearing this really meant to be finding the truth.
Speaker 8 (11:39):
Remember, Murray had seen a hungry dingo the very night
Azaria was taken. And how close? How close did he get?
Speaker 3 (11:48):
Six feet away? Two meters?
Speaker 16 (11:51):
Murray?
Speaker 8 (11:51):
Did you take any record of the dingo?
Speaker 14 (11:54):
Well, I took a photo of the dingo from inside
the van.
Speaker 8 (12:00):
You got some photos?
Speaker 14 (12:01):
Yes, I took two feathers of the dingo, Murray.
Speaker 8 (12:09):
This is an important question. How soon was this before
the incident took place?
Speaker 3 (12:16):
Half an hour? Yeah, it would have been half an hour, twenty.
Speaker 8 (12:19):
Minutes before, thirty minutes before Azaria was taken. Murray, this dingo,
this dingo that you have a photo of. Don I
know this is a big question, but could this be
the dingo that took Azaria? Chamberlain, we think it was yes.
Was this photo shown in the trial?
Speaker 14 (12:39):
It wasn't shown when I gave my evidence. When I
spoke to the barish before a few days before I
gave evidence, he said, I wanted to ask you anything
about that in court, which I was dumbfounded about, like
a lot of people were a bit naive and I
thought that they were trying to find the truth.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
No, when they really they've just trying to.
Speaker 5 (13:12):
Could you please tell me your full name?
Speaker 11 (13:13):
Under dress Alix Lynn Chamberlain, three Able Smith Parade, Sunset Mount.
Speaker 5 (13:20):
Ever do you actually see anything in the dingles Mouth?
Speaker 8 (13:27):
This is Lindy Chamberlain's first police interview. In those days,
the police in the Northern Territory recorded secret audio tapes
as they worked, not just interviews but everything they did,
including conversations with each other. This is the first time
they have ever been broadcast.
Speaker 11 (13:50):
No, I didn't see anything in the dingo's mouth because
that was below the level of the light.
Speaker 17 (13:56):
It's sort of had its head down.
Speaker 13 (14:00):
Flashed through my mind.
Speaker 11 (14:01):
It it's no good going to caravans and telling people
then you please come and help.
Speaker 12 (14:05):
So I just still there and screened out if anybody
got a torch because we didn't go Hoby.
Speaker 8 (14:12):
There will be some explosive police recordings later, but back
in nineteen eighty, what the Chamberlains didn't know I'm.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
Afraid I can't comment on what I'll be doing or
where I'll be going.
Speaker 8 (14:23):
Is that detectives led by Superintendent Graham Childwood didn't believe
their story at all.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
I think we'll probably find, perhaps not something new, but
more to substantiate what we've already got at the moment.
Speaker 8 (14:39):
And the media was quick to pick this up.
Speaker 4 (14:43):
It's against all Dingo habits.
Speaker 18 (14:46):
They keep well away from even the center man.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
I think most persons commenced believing that Missus Chamberlain was
probably guilty of murder. So we finaced a headwind of
magnificant proportions.
Speaker 8 (15:02):
Andrew Kirkham would later become part of the Chamberlain's defense team.
Highly intelligent, precise, and convinced of one thing. Did you
believe in the Chamberlains?
Speaker 13 (15:15):
We did? We did.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
You've only got to put yourself in their position. How
would you feel if you'd been charged with killing your
own child and you were innocent of the charge, but
you're being charged with murder and everybody thought you were guilty.
Speaker 13 (15:33):
It's terribly difficult to imagine.
Speaker 19 (15:36):
We are standing by now to cross live to the
Alice Springs Courthouse.
Speaker 8 (15:40):
Like any unusual death, the coroner held an inquest to
determine what happened. The findings would stop the nation.
Speaker 19 (15:48):
This is an historic television event being beamed to the
nation through Channel seven technical equipment. Mister Barrett is about
to enter the court room. Seven National News now takes
you to Alice Springs.
Speaker 20 (16:02):
I doth find that Azaria Chantall Loreen Chamberlain, a child
then of nine weeks of age, met her death when
attacked by a wild dingo. I further find that neither
the parents of the child nor either of their remaining
children were in any degree whatsoever responsible.
Speaker 8 (16:22):
For this debt, So Lindy and Michael innocent. The coroner
was scathing in his criticism of the police and their
treatment of the Chamberlain's but although he found a dingo
had killed Azaria, he also thought someone was involved in
covering it up. His closing remarks gave police the ammunition
(16:42):
they needed to continue their investigation.
Speaker 20 (16:46):
I find that after her death, the body of Azaria
was taken from the dingo and disposed of by a
person or person's name unknown.
Speaker 8 (17:00):
The first inquest absolved the Chamberlain's but there was a
catch at the end, the person or person's unknown.
Speaker 13 (17:10):
My own feeling is probably that the police considered that
the coroner was wrong, and if he was wrong, Missus
Chamberlain got away with murder.
Speaker 5 (17:24):
Just a moment. Just heard the news.
Speaker 6 (17:28):
It is wunning. What happened if we got the car?
Oh we know where news.
Speaker 7 (17:32):
I'm just interested.
Speaker 6 (17:33):
That's all cut on a hut roof.
Speaker 8 (17:37):
Determined to make their case stick, the Northern Territory Police
doubled down. They seize the Chamberlain's family car and they
send it for forensic analysis, and then they searched far
and wide for experts who would help them crack their case.
Azaria's body was never found, but her clothing was Photos
(17:57):
of Azaria's bloody and torn jumpsuit was sent to a
Professor Cameron in London. His expert opinion the tears and
the fabric were caused by scissors, not dingo teeth.
Speaker 19 (18:11):
Lindy and Michael Chamberlain's yellow Tarana was flown to a
police maintenance compound and Alice springs.
Speaker 8 (18:17):
Yesterday, but his key finding of what happened in the
passenger seat of the family car.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Was horrifying signs consistent with the baby having been decapitated.
Speaker 8 (18:29):
What a thing to suggest from photographs of a jumpsuit
that a mother had cut her own baby's throat.
Speaker 15 (18:36):
What a thing to suggest, Yes, it's a dreadful ind
to suggest he let his expertise run ahead of his competence.
Speaker 8 (18:44):
Google wasn't around in nineteen eighty, but a few phone
calls would have revealed Professor Cameron had a checkered history,
multiple cases of innocent men sent to prison on the
strength of his testimony. But back then the police didn't
bother to check, and his findings caused a media firestorm.
Speaker 20 (19:06):
We've got speech by Channel seven helicopter just landed.
Speaker 5 (19:10):
Channel papers down there.
Speaker 8 (19:22):
We found this interview on a camera tape in the
Channel seven volt.
Speaker 17 (19:26):
I've got to ask you this. I have from a
police source being told that there is no way a
dingo could have taken your child. The forensic tests show
that what's your reaction to that?
Speaker 13 (19:41):
No comment?
Speaker 17 (19:45):
Is there some other story? Could could an aboriginal lady
have your child? No, it was definitely a dinger.
Speaker 13 (19:54):
We stand by a story.
Speaker 17 (19:57):
Where the clothing was found and the way it was
arranged on the ground, it couldn't have been a dog.
Speaker 10 (20:03):
Hm.
Speaker 5 (20:04):
But we know nothing of this.
Speaker 13 (20:06):
In order the police on the case, so directly, I'm
going to ring the case. Well, I can't det alve
my source. Well, I'm going to bring them very shortly
because you won't tell me. No, I can't do that, Michael.
Speaker 8 (20:31):
But there were a few journalists who believed the Chamberlains
were innocent. Malcolm Brown was one. This bloke was another
good evening.
Speaker 18 (20:40):
I'm Kevin Hitchcock.
Speaker 9 (20:42):
I've been following the Azaria Chamberlain case for three and
a half years.
Speaker 8 (20:47):
He went on to do a documentary claiming the Chamberlains
were innocent that would see him heavily criticized, then much
later win multiple awards.
Speaker 18 (21:00):
God they dad, good they made.
Speaker 8 (21:02):
Are you ready for this?
Speaker 18 (21:03):
Yeah? I think so.
Speaker 8 (21:06):
My father broke his neck when I was fourteen, but
his mind is as sharp as ever. So nineteen eighty
do you remember where you were working?
Speaker 18 (21:16):
Yes, I was a senior reporter at Channel ten years
in Sydney and at home they had a rather precocious
four year old son.
Speaker 8 (21:27):
Mom told me I was very well behaved.
Speaker 18 (21:30):
I think she may have told a fibb.
Speaker 8 (21:33):
You spent a lot of time with the chamberlains. What
was your initial impression? Guilty or not guilty?
Speaker 18 (21:39):
Oh, not guilty. Just the behavior of them, The way
they spoke was like a conviction and punishment in the
public square in medieval times. She was accused of murdering
her baby daughter, and they didn't know how she got
rid of the body, so they said he must have helped,
(22:00):
so he was an accessory.
Speaker 8 (22:02):
Police did have a theory. It was formed early in
the investigation, spoken about quietly between each other and picked
up on the hidden tape recorders.
Speaker 6 (22:16):
We've been getting up a few hypotheses. One that the
baby was murdered in the car and he disposed of.
Speaker 7 (22:23):
It that night.
Speaker 6 (22:24):
What we were thinking that if that was the case,
he wouldn't move the baby in the he take the clothes,
and he'd believed the baby were at first place where
we're buried.
Speaker 18 (22:36):
That's horrific. They're searching for a murderer and they're looking
for evidence that will support their theory.
Speaker 8 (22:44):
How does that make you feel? Listening to those tapes today.
Speaker 18 (22:47):
It's appalling, Yeah, very upsetting.
Speaker 8 (22:54):
And police were about to get their smoking gun. Remember
the family hatchback well for end officer by the name
of Joy Cool had been testing samples taken from inside
the car. Her results shock a strap.
Speaker 7 (23:11):
Probably might brighten your day for you, as we've got
a beetle blood on a coil, which is on a
bloodstained area beneath the feet, and she had taken the
coil and come.
Speaker 5 (23:28):
Up with beetle. Neither the child was killed across the
area of the condole or was put there, Meli area.
We're two in a jump and I think we've gone
out down my mind here for a while to get
the doors.
Speaker 8 (23:46):
Okay, Fetal blood is only found in babies. This is
bombshell evidence. And it wasn't just a few drops either.
Twenty two separate places tested positive for fetal blood in
this car. You see, police were certain that Lindy had
(24:07):
committed an unspeakable act. She'd sat here in this passenger
seat and murdered Azariah. The blood sprang throughout the car,
the floor, the belt buckle, the handle, but most importantly
here underneath the glove box. The chamberlains became public enemy
number one. The forensic evidence was overwhelming, so a second
(24:31):
coroner's inquest was held. This would be very different than
the first. Can you talk to us for a moment, please,
Would you like to say anything about happy to return here?
Listen for the hostile reaction from people at the airport.
Remember these are innocent people, and inside the coroner's court
(25:01):
this is their nine week old daughter being talked about.
Speaker 16 (25:05):
Here.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
Missus Cole said blood was found on a pair of scissors.
An extract o that blood proved to be of fetal origin.
Speaker 4 (25:12):
The inquest was also told of fetal or baby's bloodstains
in the Chamberlain's car, said to have been sprayed from
a small artery while the heart was still beating.
Speaker 8 (25:22):
Is it a danger in a case like this to
be so focused on proving what you believe happened.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
There's always a danger in that, always a danger to me.
It's gest human nature. It's wonderful to say you should
be utterly detached. They thought they were doing their.
Speaker 13 (25:37):
Job, Professor Cameron.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
I'm sure they had a sense of rightness in it.
But I've lived long enough in the Lord to know
that what is apparently the case frequently isn't.
Speaker 8 (25:49):
The findings of the second inquest could not have been
more different. Lindy and Michael were arrested and charged.
Speaker 4 (25:57):
Lindy and Michael Chamberlain will go on trial. In a
sensational end to the second inquest, Missus Chamberlain will be
tried for murder Mister Chamberlain for assisting his wife to
escape punishment.
Speaker 8 (26:09):
The case would now be heard before a judge and jury.
It would be called the Trial of the century.
I had the feeling that I had let down the Chamberlains.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
I have been made over the years to realize what
a terrible, terrible injustice mister Chamberlain has received.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Somebody talk throughout a spree.
Speaker 4 (00:43):
David, it's Ross here, mate, yes, Ross, can you hear me?
Speaker 5 (00:45):
Right?
Speaker 6 (00:45):
And here you find mate?
Speaker 7 (00:46):
There we go.
Speaker 8 (00:47):
You might remember the news on this day.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
When it came.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
The announcement took everyone across the nation completely by surprise.
Speaker 9 (00:55):
The verdict came shortly before twenty to nine down. One time,
the jury had filed back into the witness box and
Acting Chief Justice James Muirhead said to the jury, how
do you find the accused?
Speaker 10 (01:05):
Alice Lynn?
Speaker 9 (01:06):
Chamberlain, the foreman of the jury's standing, said guilty.
Speaker 8 (01:12):
Young woman pregnant in the back of a police car,
in utter disbilit headed.
Speaker 9 (01:18):
For a floor by four meters sell in the women's
section of Darwin's beerrima jail.
Speaker 7 (01:22):
Well, I have.
Speaker 8 (01:23):
Found guilty of murdering her baby girl. The whole country
hated her.
Speaker 6 (01:30):
Right, she's guilty or she should stay there for good.
Speaker 5 (01:33):
Ah.
Speaker 8 (01:34):
No matter what, you would certainly have heard this.
Speaker 11 (01:37):
It wasn't time to go and tell people I just
yelled out as anyone got a talk.
Speaker 12 (01:41):
Lingo's got my baby?
Speaker 8 (01:44):
I think you know the Azaria Chamberlain story. I'm sorry,
but you're died.
Speaker 7 (01:51):
Probably might write your name for you.
Speaker 5 (01:56):
She's wish.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Became aware of it.
Speaker 13 (02:01):
Did something was there?
Speaker 3 (02:02):
And I turned this dingo just intently looking at me.
Speaker 13 (02:07):
I'll never forget it.
Speaker 6 (02:11):
Maybe what murdered it can and even supposed of it
that night.
Speaker 5 (02:14):
I think we've got it.
Speaker 8 (02:16):
I want to make sure I've heard that correctly. You
called the police and he said to you.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
It can't be done. She's been guilty anyhow, and you
hung up.
Speaker 14 (02:27):
Well, I took a photo of the dingo from inside
the van.
Speaker 8 (02:34):
Could this be the dingo that took Azariah Chandler?
Speaker 3 (02:37):
We think it was?
Speaker 10 (02:38):
Is?
Speaker 5 (02:40):
Please?
Speaker 1 (02:41):
I'm not the results you would get a forensic disaster,
a verdict.
Speaker 15 (02:45):
In missus Chamberlain's case. Guilty here a pack of bastards.
Speaker 10 (02:50):
There's boys a rainbow after every storm.
Speaker 13 (02:54):
There must be a rainbow somewhere else.
Speaker 8 (03:06):
If Australia has a spiritual center, it's here Ularu. Dreamtime
stories say it was shaped by spirits, the sandstones scarred
from their battles. After that came life and rebirth. But
the revelations from this sacred ground are not finished yet.
(03:29):
In nineteen eighty, a yellow holden Tarana pulled into a
dusty campsite here at Ularu. Inside was a family of five.
They'd come to see this magnificent site. The chamberlains were quiet, unassuming,
a pastor and his wife, two young boys, and a
nine week old baby, Azaria. How close was the chamberlain's
(03:57):
tent to or Campravan.
Speaker 14 (03:58):
Twenty thirty meters There was no oa other campsite between us.
Speaker 8 (04:05):
The night Azaria was taken, Murray Haby and his family
were at the same campsite. He is one of the
last surviving witnesses, and incredibly, parts of his story remain untold.
The numerous reports of dingo's being in the area around
that campsite. Did you see any that night?
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Yes, yes, we did.
Speaker 14 (04:28):
We saw one coming from it would have been southwest
corner of the camping ground. Then it came up to
our van and we threw a chop bannon out to it.
Speaker 8 (04:43):
The dingo is what's called an apex predator out here.
It's only enemy is us. But people found it impossible
to believe that a dingo would or could take a
baby from a tent. There were people who tried to
warn us, but nobody listened.
Speaker 16 (05:02):
Very recently, a number of children were reputedly attacked by
dogs in the camping area.
Speaker 8 (05:07):
This is Derek Roff, the very capable park ranger. At
the time, it wasn't well known, but dingoes had tried
to snatch young children before. It's just that nobody wanted
to hear it.
Speaker 16 (05:19):
Eventually, I determined that we'd really have to get rid
of some of the dingos, that they were being becoming
more and more of a problem.
Speaker 8 (05:26):
The following recording of Derek Roff is from the Northern
Territory Police Archives opened especially to Channel seven. It has
never been broadcast before.
Speaker 16 (05:37):
I requested permission to get some high powered rifle bullets
and we were going to shield a number of dingos.
I didn't get the bullets in a fortnight later, Azaria disappear.
Speaker 8 (05:54):
On the night Bazaria was taken, Murray Haby was in
his Campravan here. The chamberlains next door the west side.
To the north of them, Greg and Sally Lowe are
close behind near the communal barbecue area. At eight pm,
Lindy Chamberlain screams.
Speaker 14 (06:12):
She came up towards our van and I could see
she was distressed and she was calling out a dingo
had taken a baby. So I went out to her
and she said when I went to the tent, a
zari wasn't in the tent, and I saw a dingo
leaving the tent. I went back and got the torch
(06:33):
and took off in the direction she said.
Speaker 8 (06:38):
What police didn't know was Murray was an amateur animal
tracker had been for years.
Speaker 14 (06:45):
I found this track that was different to all the others.
It was heavier and it was obviously a bigger dog
or a dog carrying something. I followed that for about
one hundred meters. It put its load down and you
could see the depression in the sand. Important thing was
you could see the impression of a knitted garment and
(07:08):
there was a spot beside which looked like a wet spot,
as if it was either blood or salive or I
couldn't work out which. I kept following. The tracks came
to a car park. I lost the tracks in the
car path.
Speaker 6 (07:23):
The only clue has been the discovery of dog tracks.
Police say there's only a slender chance of finding Azaria alive.
Speaker 15 (07:31):
Did see them an extraordinary story. The whole thing was exotic.
It was an exotic location that was in the middle
of austrade.
Speaker 5 (07:38):
It was as rock. In the background.
Speaker 15 (07:40):
There was this very beautiful young woman telling what seemed
to be an incredible story. So it was a bit
like death on the Nile. It was exotic location, a
beautiful woman, and a suspicion about what you'd done.
Speaker 8 (07:54):
A dingo had come into a tent at a campground
and right under the noses of the parents snatched a baby,
or did it. Lindy and Michael gave this extraordinary interview
the day after it happened.
Speaker 10 (08:08):
When we saw the spots of blood in the tent.
As we looked, we realized it must have been a
very quick event. This morning, when we saw in the
blanket the sharp, ripped, jagged marks in that very thickly
woven blanket, we knew that that was what a powerful
beast and the sharp teeth.
Speaker 11 (08:24):
But there wasn't time to go and tell people.
Speaker 12 (08:25):
I just yelled out, as anyone got a talch, dingo's got.
Speaker 8 (08:29):
My baby there? It is a dingo's got my baby.
A mother's anguish, but the public and the police thought
something wasn't quite right. Lindy and Michaels seemed too composed,
too comfortable with the media, and the police watched these
interviews carefully.
Speaker 11 (08:48):
I yelled at the dog to scare it off, and
then it sort of registered on my mind as I
was running to the tent because I thought the keys
are in there. When I got in the tent was
just nothing, and I called for my husband. I didn't
really couldn't believe the evidence of my own eyes, and
(09:09):
I called to marble Lip that Dingo's got the baby.
Speaker 13 (09:13):
A cold shiveling up my spy.
Speaker 10 (09:14):
I thought, this is absolutely ridiculous, and I rushed into
the tent and we looked around quickly and.
Speaker 5 (09:20):
Couldn't see anything.
Speaker 10 (09:21):
I thought my hat and I rushed out into the blackness,
and I felt as hopeless as I ever felt.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
In my life.
Speaker 15 (09:30):
As I've always said, there's no rules to see how
people should behave after a traumatic event. Some people laugh,
some cry, some go to water some day.
Speaker 13 (09:39):
You can't judge.
Speaker 15 (09:40):
People's person will produce people from the way they react
to situations.
Speaker 8 (09:46):
We shouldn't, but we do, and the police are no different.
But they were also making crucial mistakes. This remarkable interview
is with the police forensic officer who worked the crime
scene at Airs Rock.
Speaker 13 (10:02):
Do you have any idea what you were dealing with?
Speaker 12 (10:04):
Not at first?
Speaker 3 (10:05):
No, you know, I wasn't sure about the case, so
I didn't.
Speaker 12 (10:08):
I had nothing to guide me apart from what I
did in the newspapers, and.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
So you had to rely on the newspapers to carry
out your forensic investigation to write a report.
Speaker 13 (10:19):
Yes, for the Northern Tertory Police Force.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
Yes.
Speaker 8 (10:22):
Mayra Foggerty examined the crime scene, collected the all important evidence.
She had been working in forensics for a total of
three months.
Speaker 12 (10:33):
I have a lot of sympathy for the Chamberlains. They were,
in effect of accused of murder.
Speaker 13 (10:39):
And in a roundabout way, you were a part responsible.
Speaker 12 (10:42):
For that in a roundabout way, yeah.
Speaker 13 (10:46):
Because of allowing an inexperienced.
Speaker 12 (10:49):
For allowing me to do something that I had no idea.
Speaker 16 (10:53):
Of how it to.
Speaker 8 (10:56):
If that sounds shocking, worse was to come the Chamberlain's.
We had a campground that was full of witnesses, but
their version of events what they saw did not fit
the police case that was already forming behind the scenes.
Speaker 14 (11:11):
Well, they told me they had an agenda. When the
two policemen came down to interview me at the Boxhell
police station before the trial.
Speaker 8 (11:21):
What did they tell you exactly?
Speaker 14 (11:23):
They said they're only looking for information that would convict
Lindy of murder.
Speaker 8 (11:29):
So I just told you that outright.
Speaker 14 (11:31):
Yes, I was flabbergasted, shook my head and I think
and my hearing this really meant to be finding the truth.
Speaker 8 (11:39):
Remember, Murray had seen a hungry dingo the very night
Azaria was taken. And how close? How close did he get?
Speaker 3 (11:48):
Six feet away? Two meters?
Speaker 16 (11:51):
Murray?
Speaker 8 (11:51):
Did you take any record of the dingo?
Speaker 14 (11:54):
Well, I took a photo of the dingo from inside
the van.
Speaker 8 (12:00):
You got some photos?
Speaker 14 (12:01):
Yes, I took two feathers of the dingo, Murray.
Speaker 8 (12:09):
This is an important question. How soon was this before
the incident took place?
Speaker 3 (12:16):
Half an hour? Yeah, it would have been half an hour, twenty.
Speaker 8 (12:19):
Minutes before, thirty minutes before Azaria was taken. Murray, this dingo,
this dingo that you have a photo of. Don I
know this is a big question, but could this be
the dingo that took Azaria? Chamberlain, we think it was yes.
Was this photo shown in the trial?
Speaker 14 (12:39):
It wasn't shown when I gave my evidence. When I
spoke to the barish before a few days before I
gave evidence, he said, I wanted to ask you anything
about that in court, which I was dumbfounded about, like
a lot of people were a bit naive and I
thought that they were trying to find the truth.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
No, when they really they've just trying to.
Speaker 5 (13:12):
Could you please tell me your full name?
Speaker 11 (13:13):
Under dress Alix Lynn Chamberlain, three Able Smith Parade, Sunset Mount.
Speaker 5 (13:20):
Ever do you actually see anything in the dingles Mouth?
Speaker 8 (13:27):
This is Lindy Chamberlain's first police interview. In those days,
the police in the Northern Territory recorded secret audio tapes
as they worked, not just interviews but everything they did,
including conversations with each other. This is the first time
they have ever been broadcast.
Speaker 11 (13:50):
No, I didn't see anything in the dingo's mouth because
that was below the level of the light.
Speaker 17 (13:56):
It's sort of had its head down.
Speaker 13 (14:00):
Flashed through my mind.
Speaker 11 (14:01):
It it's no good going to caravans and telling people
then you please come and help.
Speaker 12 (14:05):
So I just still there and screened out if anybody
got a torch because we didn't go Hoby.
Speaker 8 (14:12):
There will be some explosive police recordings later, but back
in nineteen eighty, what the Chamberlains didn't know I'm.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
Afraid I can't comment on what I'll be doing or
where I'll be going.
Speaker 8 (14:23):
Is that detectives led by Superintendent Graham Childwood didn't believe
their story at all.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
I think we'll probably find, perhaps not something new, but
more to substantiate what we've already got at the moment.
Speaker 8 (14:39):
And the media was quick to pick this up.
Speaker 4 (14:43):
It's against all Dingo habits.
Speaker 18 (14:46):
They keep well away from even the center man.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
I think most persons commenced believing that Missus Chamberlain was
probably guilty of murder. So we finaced a headwind of
magnificant proportions.
Speaker 8 (15:02):
Andrew Kirkham would later become part of the Chamberlain's defense team.
Highly intelligent, precise, and convinced of one thing. Did you
believe in the Chamberlains?
Speaker 13 (15:15):
We did? We did.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
You've only got to put yourself in their position. How
would you feel if you'd been charged with killing your
own child and you were innocent of the charge, but
you're being charged with murder and everybody thought you were guilty.
Speaker 13 (15:33):
It's terribly difficult to imagine.
Speaker 19 (15:36):
We are standing by now to cross live to the
Alice Springs Courthouse.
Speaker 8 (15:40):
Like any unusual death, the coroner held an inquest to
determine what happened. The findings would stop the nation.
Speaker 19 (15:48):
This is an historic television event being beamed to the
nation through Channel seven technical equipment. Mister Barrett is about
to enter the court room. Seven National News now takes
you to Alice Springs.
Speaker 20 (16:02):
I doth find that Azaria Chantall Loreen Chamberlain, a child
then of nine weeks of age, met her death when
attacked by a wild dingo. I further find that neither
the parents of the child nor either of their remaining
children were in any degree whatsoever responsible.
Speaker 8 (16:22):
For this debt, So Lindy and Michael innocent. The coroner
was scathing in his criticism of the police and their
treatment of the Chamberlain's but although he found a dingo
had killed Azaria, he also thought someone was involved in
covering it up. His closing remarks gave police the ammunition
(16:42):
they needed to continue their investigation.
Speaker 20 (16:46):
I find that after her death, the body of Azaria
was taken from the dingo and disposed of by a
person or person's name unknown.
Speaker 8 (17:00):
The first inquest absolved the Chamberlain's but there was a
catch at the end, the person or person's unknown.
Speaker 13 (17:10):
My own feeling is probably that the police considered that
the coroner was wrong, and if he was wrong, Missus
Chamberlain got away with murder.
Speaker 5 (17:24):
Just a moment. Just heard the news.
Speaker 6 (17:28):
It is wunning. What happened if we got the car?
Oh we know where news.
Speaker 7 (17:32):
I'm just interested.
Speaker 6 (17:33):
That's all cut on a hut roof.
Speaker 8 (17:37):
Determined to make their case stick, the Northern Territory Police
doubled down. They seize the Chamberlain's family car and they
send it for forensic analysis, and then they searched far
and wide for experts who would help them crack their case.
Azaria's body was never found, but her clothing was Photos
(17:57):
of Azaria's bloody and torn jumpsuit was sent to a
Professor Cameron in London. His expert opinion the tears and
the fabric were caused by scissors, not dingo teeth.
Speaker 19 (18:11):
Lindy and Michael Chamberlain's yellow Tarana was flown to a
police maintenance compound and Alice springs.
Speaker 8 (18:17):
Yesterday, but his key finding of what happened in the
passenger seat of the family car.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Was horrifying signs consistent with the baby having been decapitated.
Speaker 8 (18:29):
What a thing to suggest from photographs of a jumpsuit
that a mother had cut her own baby's throat.
Speaker 15 (18:36):
What a thing to suggest, Yes, it's a dreadful ind
to suggest he let his expertise run ahead of his competence.
Speaker 8 (18:44):
Google wasn't around in nineteen eighty, but a few phone
calls would have revealed Professor Cameron had a checkered history,
multiple cases of innocent men sent to prison on the
strength of his testimony. But back then the police didn't
bother to check, and his findings caused a media firestorm.
Speaker 20 (19:06):
We've got speech by Channel seven helicopter just landed.
Speaker 5 (19:10):
Channel papers down there.
Speaker 8 (19:22):
We found this interview on a camera tape in the
Channel seven volt.
Speaker 17 (19:26):
I've got to ask you this. I have from a
police source being told that there is no way a
dingo could have taken your child. The forensic tests show
that what's your reaction to that?
Speaker 13 (19:41):
No comment?
Speaker 17 (19:45):
Is there some other story? Could could an aboriginal lady
have your child? No, it was definitely a dinger.
Speaker 13 (19:54):
We stand by a story.
Speaker 17 (19:57):
Where the clothing was found and the way it was
arranged on the ground, it couldn't have been a dog.
Speaker 10 (20:03):
Hm.
Speaker 5 (20:04):
But we know nothing of this.
Speaker 13 (20:06):
In order the police on the case, so directly, I'm
going to ring the case. Well, I can't det alve
my source. Well, I'm going to bring them very shortly
because you won't tell me. No, I can't do that, Michael.
Speaker 8 (20:31):
But there were a few journalists who believed the Chamberlains
were innocent. Malcolm Brown was one. This bloke was another
good evening.
Speaker 18 (20:40):
I'm Kevin Hitchcock.
Speaker 9 (20:42):
I've been following the Azaria Chamberlain case for three and
a half years.
Speaker 8 (20:47):
He went on to do a documentary claiming the Chamberlains
were innocent that would see him heavily criticized, then much
later win multiple awards.
Speaker 18 (21:00):
God they dad, good they made.
Speaker 8 (21:02):
Are you ready for this?
Speaker 18 (21:03):
Yeah? I think so.
Speaker 8 (21:06):
My father broke his neck when I was fourteen, but
his mind is as sharp as ever. So nineteen eighty
do you remember where you were working?
Speaker 18 (21:16):
Yes, I was a senior reporter at Channel ten years
in Sydney and at home they had a rather precocious
four year old son.
Speaker 8 (21:27):
Mom told me I was very well behaved.
Speaker 18 (21:30):
I think she may have told a fibb.
Speaker 8 (21:33):
You spent a lot of time with the chamberlains. What
was your initial impression? Guilty or not guilty?
Speaker 18 (21:39):
Oh, not guilty. Just the behavior of them, The way
they spoke was like a conviction and punishment in the
public square in medieval times. She was accused of murdering
her baby daughter, and they didn't know how she got
rid of the body, so they said he must have helped,
(22:00):
so he was an accessory.
Speaker 8 (22:02):
Police did have a theory. It was formed early in
the investigation, spoken about quietly between each other and picked
up on the hidden tape recorders.
Speaker 6 (22:16):
We've been getting up a few hypotheses. One that the
baby was murdered in the car and he disposed of.
Speaker 7 (22:23):
It that night.
Speaker 6 (22:24):
What we were thinking that if that was the case,
he wouldn't move the baby in the he take the clothes,
and he'd believed the baby were at first place where
we're buried.
Speaker 18 (22:36):
That's horrific. They're searching for a murderer and they're looking
for evidence that will support their theory.
Speaker 8 (22:44):
How does that make you feel? Listening to those tapes today.
Speaker 18 (22:47):
It's appalling, Yeah, very upsetting.
Speaker 8 (22:54):
And police were about to get their smoking gun. Remember
the family hatchback well for end officer by the name
of Joy Cool had been testing samples taken from inside
the car. Her results shock a strap.
Speaker 7 (23:11):
Probably might brighten your day for you, as we've got
a beetle blood on a coil, which is on a
bloodstained area beneath the feet, and she had taken the
coil and come.
Speaker 5 (23:28):
Up with beetle. Neither the child was killed across the
area of the condole or was put there, Meli area.
We're two in a jump and I think we've gone
out down my mind here for a while to get
the doors.
Speaker 8 (23:46):
Okay, Fetal blood is only found in babies. This is
bombshell evidence. And it wasn't just a few drops either.
Twenty two separate places tested positive for fetal blood in
this car. You see, police were certain that Lindy had
(24:07):
committed an unspeakable act. She'd sat here in this passenger
seat and murdered Azariah. The blood sprang throughout the car,
the floor, the belt buckle, the handle, but most importantly
here underneath the glove box. The chamberlains became public enemy
number one. The forensic evidence was overwhelming, so a second
(24:31):
coroner's inquest was held. This would be very different than
the first. Can you talk to us for a moment, please,
Would you like to say anything about happy to return here?
Listen for the hostile reaction from people at the airport.
Remember these are innocent people, and inside the coroner's court
(25:01):
this is their nine week old daughter being talked about.
Speaker 16 (25:05):
Here.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
Missus Cole said blood was found on a pair of scissors.
An extract o that blood proved to be of fetal origin.
Speaker 4 (25:12):
The inquest was also told of fetal or baby's bloodstains
in the Chamberlain's car, said to have been sprayed from
a small artery while the heart was still beating.
Speaker 8 (25:22):
Is it a danger in a case like this to
be so focused on proving what you believe happened.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
There's always a danger in that, always a danger to me.
It's gest human nature. It's wonderful to say you should
be utterly detached. They thought they were doing their.
Speaker 13 (25:37):
Job, Professor Cameron.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
I'm sure they had a sense of rightness in it.
But I've lived long enough in the Lord to know
that what is apparently the case frequently isn't.
Speaker 8 (25:49):
The findings of the second inquest could not have been
more different. Lindy and Michael were arrested and charged.
Speaker 4 (25:57):
Lindy and Michael Chamberlain will go on trial. In a
sensational end to the second inquest, Missus Chamberlain will be
tried for murder Mister Chamberlain for assisting his wife to
escape punishment.
Speaker 8 (26:09):
The case would now be heard before a judge and jury.
It would be called the Trial of the century.
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