Jan. 25, 2026

"THE JACKET THAT SET HER FREE: LINDY CHAMBERLAIN'S 32-YEAR FIGHT FOR JUSTICE - PART 2"

Show Notes
Transcript

Reid Carter concludes the Azaria Chamberlain story on Australia Day. Lindy gives birth to daughter Kahlia in prison - the baby taken from her within hours. February 1986: A climber falls to his death at Uluru. Search party finds Azaria's matinee jacket near dingo lairs - the jacket police said didn't exist. Lindy released immediately. Royal Commission dismantles every piece of forensic evidence. Meryl Streep wins Best Actress at Cannes playing Lindy. "A dingo ate my baby" becomes cruel pop culture joke. June 2012: Fourth inquest finally rules dingo killed Azaria. Thirty-two years for the truth. Next weekend: Port Arthur.

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WEBVTT

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Caalaruga Shark Media. Good morning, I'm Reed Carter. Sunday, January

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twenty fifth, twenty twenty six. Tomorrow is Australia Day. Yesterday

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we covered the night that destroyed the Chamberlain family. August seventeenth,

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nineteen eighty A Dingo takes nine week old Azaria from

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a tent at Oolarou. Her mother, Lindy says she saw

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it happen. Nobody believes her. October nineteen eighty two, Lindy

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Chamberlain convicted of murder based on forensic evidence that was

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completely wrong. Blood in the car that was actually spray

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on coating from the factory, handprints on the jumpsuit that

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didn't exist, cat hair that was actually dingo fur. She

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was pregnant when they led her away in handcuffs, seven

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months along with her fourth child. Today, what happened next?

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November seventeenth, nineteen eighty two, bar him a prison Darwin.

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Lyndy Chamberlain, convicted murderer, gives birth to a daughter. She

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names her Kalia. Holds her for a few hours, then

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the baby is taken away given to foster care. Because

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convicted murderers don't get to raise their children Lindy would

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spend the next three years fighting, filing appeals, writing letters,

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trying to prove what she'd said all along, that a

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dingo took her baby, that she was innocent. Her appeals failed,

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Federal court, High Court, every door slammed shut. But then

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in February nineteen eighty six, something extraordinary happened. A British

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tourist named David Brett was climbing Ooluru. He fell died

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on impact. Search parties went looking for his body. They

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found it at the base of the rock, in an

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area riddled with dingo layers. And there near the dens

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where dingoes raised their pups, searchers found something else, a

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baby's matinee jacket, white weathered, the jacket Lindy had always

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said Azaria was wearing, the jacket police insisted didn't exist.

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The jacket that proved everything I'm read Carter. This is

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Celebrity Trials Today, Part two. The evidence that freed Lindy Chamberlain,

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the Royal Commission that exposed the junk science, the Hollywood

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movie that made her story global, and the thirty two

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years it took to get one simple truth on a

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death certificate. A dingo killed Azaria Chamberlain. This is how

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her mother finally proved it. Barrymar Prison, Darwin Maximum Security.

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Lindy Chamberlain arrived there on October twenty ninth, nineteen eighty two,

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directly from the courthouse. No time to say goodbye to

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her sons, no time to prepare, just handcuffs and a

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prison van. She was seven months pregnant. For the next

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two months, Lindy lived in a cell while her baby

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grew inside her eight prison food, followed prison rules, wore

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prison clothes. A convicted child killer. That's how the guard

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saw her. That's how much of Australia saw her. November seventeenth,

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nineteen eighty two, Lyndy went into labor. She was transferred

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to a hospital in Darwin under heavy guard, gave birth

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to a healthy girl, named her Kalia. For a few

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precious hours, Lindy held her daughter, fed her, looked into

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her eyes, the same eyes she'd looked into with Azaria

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two years earlier, before the dingo came. Then they took

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Kalia away prison regulations. A convicted murderer cannot raise a

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child behind bars. The baby was placed in foster care.

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Lindy was returned to her cell alone, her arms empty.

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For the second time. Michael Chamberlain, who had received a

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suspended sentence, was allowed to take custody of Caalia after

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several weeks. He raised her, along with Aiden and Reagan,

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brought the children to visit their mother in prison when

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he could picture that three children visiting their mother behind bars.

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Aiden was eight years old, Reagan was six. Kayleea was

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an infant who didn't know her mother at all. Lindy

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spent her days in prison doing what prisoners do, working, reading, waiting,

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but she also spent her time fighting, writing letters, coordinating

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with supporters on the outside, refusing to accept that this

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was how her story ended. The appeals moved through the system.

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Federal Court of Australia dismissed. High Court of Australia dismissed

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every legal avenue, every argument, every piece of evidence the

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defense presented. Rejected. The forensic evidence was too strong, the

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court said, the expert testimony too convincing. Lindy Chamberlain had

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murdered her daughter. The jury had spoken case closed. Outside

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the prison walls, something interesting was happening. Not everyone believed

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the verdict. Not everyone accepted that Lindy was guilty. A

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group called the Chamberlain Innocence Committee form supporters who believed

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the forensic evidence was flawed, who believed the trial had

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been unfair, who believed a dingo really had taken Azaria.

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They wrote letters, organized protests, demanded a new inquiry, kept

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the case in the public eye. Some Australians thought they

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were crazy conspiracy theorists defending a child killer. But the

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committee kept finding problems with the evidence, kept raising questions

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that nobody could answer. Why did the blood test react

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with so many surfaces in the car, Why did the

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damage pattern on the jumpsuit look exactly like what a

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dingo's teeth would cause. Why did every single camper present

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that night believe Lindy's story? And where was the matinee jacket?

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Lindy had always insisted Azaria was wearing a jacket over

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her jumpsuit, a little knitted cardigan. She had dressed her

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daughter in it because the knights at Uluru were cold.

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Police said the jacket didn't exist, said Lyndy invented it

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to a explain why there was no dingo saliva on

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the jumpsuit. If the jacket existed, where was it? Lindy

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couldn't answer that she only knew what she knew. Her

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daughter had been wearing a jacket. The dingo had taken

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her daughter somewhere out there in the red dirt and

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rocks around Oolaro. That jacket was waiting to be found

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for three years. It waited. Then David Brett went climbing.

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February second, nineteen eighty six, Uluru. David Brett, a British tourist,

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decided to climb the rock. It's a controversial thing to do.

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The local Anangu people consider Uluru sacred. They've long asked

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tourists not to climb it, But in nineteen eighty six

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climbing was still permitted and Brett went up. He never

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came down alive. Brett fell from a significant height died

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on impact. His body landed at the base of the

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rock in a remote area that wasn't free equently visited.

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Search parties went out to recover his remains. They searched

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the rocky terrain, the caves, the crevices, and they found

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Brett's body in an area that was riddled with dingo lairs,

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dens where the wild dogs raised their young, where they

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brought their kills. One of the searchers noticed something among

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the rocks, something that didn't belong. A piece of fabric

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weathered faded by years of sun and rain, a baby's

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matinee jacket. The searcher picked it up, examined it, realized

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what it might be called for. A supervisor word reached,

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the police reached, the prosecutors reached the Chief Minister of

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the Northern Territory tests confirmed it. The jacket was Azaria Chamberlain's,

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the jacket Lindy had always said her daughter was wearing,

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the jacket police had insisted didn't exist. It was found

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exactly where you'd expect a dingo to drop it, near

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the lairs in the hunting ground where the wild dogs

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brought their prey. February seventh, nineteen eighty six, five days

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after the jacket was discovered, the Chief Minister of the

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Northern Territory ordered Lyndy Chamberlain's immediate release. She had served

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three years, one month, and nine days. Lindy walked out

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of Bearma Prison a free woman, Cameras everywhere, reporters shouting questions,

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the whole country watching again, just like at the trial,

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but this time she wasn't being led away in handcuffs.

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This time she was walking toward her family, toward Michael,

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toward her children. The case was officially reopened. Here's what

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the jacket proved. Lindy had been telling the truth about

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everything she said. Azaria was wearing a jacket. Police called

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her a liar. The jacket was real. She said a

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dingo took her baby. Police said that was impossible. The

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jacket was found in a dingo's territory near the lairs,

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exactly where a dingo would have dropped part of its prey.

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If Lindy was telling the truth about the jacket, she

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was probably telling the truth about everything else. And if

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she was telling the truth, then the forensic evidence that

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convicted her must have been wrong. The Northern Territory government

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announced a royal Commission, a formal inquiry into the Chamberlain convictions.

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Justice Trevor Morling would preside his job examine every piece

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of evidence determine whether the convictions should stand. The answers

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he found would expose one of the worst forensic failures

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in Australian history. The Morling Royal Commission began in nineteen

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eighty six. Justice Trevor Morling spent months reviewing the evidence,

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re examining the forensics, interviewing witnesses, testing the prosecution's theories.

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What he found was devas dating. Let's go through it.

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Every piece of evidence that convicted Lindy Chamberlain, every scientific test,

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every expert opinion, systematically dismantled. The blood under the dashboard.

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At trial, forensic biologist joy Cool testified that she'd found

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fetal hemoglobin under the dashboard of the Chamberlain's car, arterial

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spray pattern proof that Azaria's throat had been cut in

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the front seat. The Royal Commission had independent scientists examined

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that spray pattern. They identified it conclusively. It was Deulux duffix,

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a sound deadening compound sprayed on during the manufacture of

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the vehicle, standard automotive material applied at the factory, not blood.

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Never was blood. The test Joycool used wasn't specific enough

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to distinguish between fetal hemoglobin and automotive chemicals. She got

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a positive result and assumed it was blood. It wasn't.

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Further investigation found that twenty three percent and of Holden

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Torontos from that era had the same compound in the

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same location. If Cool had tested any of those cars,

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she would have gotten the same positive result for fetal

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blood the blood throughout the car. Cool had found positive

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reactions for blood in multiple locations seats, carpets, door handles,

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camera bag, zipper. The Royal Commission determined that the orthotalideine

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test COOL used reacts with copper. The Chamberlains lived in

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Mount Isa, a copper mining town. Their car was covered

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in copper dust from years of driving through mining country.

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Every positive blood test was actually detecting copper residue. The

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Royal Commission's conclusion there was no blood evidence in the

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Chamberlain's car none. Zero. The foundation of the prosecution's case

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was built on chemical false positives and misidentified automotive spray.

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The handprint on the jumpsuit. Professor James Cameron, the British

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forensic pathologist, testified at trial that he he could see

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the imprint of a small adult hand on Azaria's jumpsuit,

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visible in ultraviolet photographs, proof that someone had gripped the

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baby while killing her. The Royal Commission had other experts

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examined the same photographs. They saw nothing, no handprint, no impression,

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nothing that Cameron claimed to see. Cameron's methodology was questioned.

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His interpretation was challenged. The Royal Commission found that his

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evidence was unreliable. The handprint didn't exist. Cameron saw what

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he expected to see, what the prosecution needed him to see,

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and presented his interpretation as fact the cutthroat theory. Cameron

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also testified that the damage to Azaria's jumpsuit showed blade marks,

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a deliberate cut. Someone had slashed the baby's throat. The

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Royal Commission examined the fabric damage extensively. They consulted experts

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in animal attacks, experts in textile damage, forensic scientists who

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could distinguish between blade cuts and tooth tears. Their conclusion,

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the damage was entirely consistent with a dingo attack. Canine

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teeth are extremely sharp. The puncture patterns, the tearing, the

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location of the damage all matched what you'd expect from

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a wild dog seizing prey by the neck. There was

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no blade damage, no scissors, no knife, just teeth the

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cat hair. At trial, doctor Harding testified that hares found

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on Azaria's jumpsuit were cat hair. The Chamberlains had owned

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a cat. This supposedly proved the clothes had been in

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the home, not taken by a dingo. After the trial,

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doctor Hans Brunner, a genuine expert in animal hair identification,

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examined the same samples using proper scientific methodology microscopic analysis

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comparison with known samples. His conclusion the hair was canine,

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dog or dingo, impossible to distinguish, but definitely not cat.

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Harding had made a basic identification error. The missing body

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one question the prosecution never adequately answered. If Lindy killed

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Azaria in the car, where was the body. The prosecution

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theorized that Lindy hid the body in a camera bag

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then disposed of it somewhere in the outback, but no

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body was ever found, no grave, no remains, nothing. The

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Royal Commission noted that dingoes are efficient predators. A nine

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week old baby would be small prey. A dingo could

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consume or scatter such remains completely, leaving nothing for searchers

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to find. The absence of a body wasn't evidence of murder,

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It was consistent with predation. Justice Morling's conclusion. After reviewing

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all the evidence, Justice Morling found that there was reasonable

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doubt about the Chamberlain's guilt. He wrote that the evidence

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affords considerable support for the view that a dingo may

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have taken Azaria. He didn't quite say, lynd he was innocent.

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That wasn't his job. His job was to determine whether

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the convictions were safe. They weren't. September fifteenth, nineteen eighty eight,

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the Northern Territory Court of Criminal Appeals reviewed the Royal

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Commission's findings. Their ruling was unanimous. All convictions against Lyndy

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and Michael Chamberlain were quashed, overturned, erased. Lyndy Chamberlain was

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officially exonerated, not just released from prison, not just pardoned. Exonerated,

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the court found that she should never have been convicted

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in the first place. The evidence didn't support the verdict.

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The forensics were wrong. In nineteen ninety two, the Chamberlains

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were awarded one point three million dollars in compensation for

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wrongful imprisonment, a fraction of what they'd lost, but official

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acknowledgment that the system had failed them. Michael Chamberlain called

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the forensic evidence one of the worst perversions of forensic

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science in Australian history. He was an exaggerating. Every single

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piece of scientific evidence presented at trial was wrong. Blood

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that wasn't blood hand prints that weren't handprints, cat hair

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that wasn't cat hair, expert testimony that was expert fantasy,

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and an innocent woman spent three years in prison because

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of it. We'll be right back with the Hollywood movie

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that told Lindy's story, the pop culture jokes that haunted

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her for decades, and the thirty two years it took

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to get the truth on a death certificate. Nineteen eighty five,

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while Lindy Chamberlain was still fighting for her freedom, Australian

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journalist John Bryson published a book. He called it Evil

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Angels the Case of Lyndy Chamberlain. Bryson had investigated the

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case exhaustively, interviewed witnesses, examined evidence, disposed the forensic failures.

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His book made a compelling case that Lyndy was innocent,

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that the prosecution's evidence was flawed, that Australia had convicted

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the wrong person. The book caught Hollywood's attention. The same

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year Lyndy was officially exonerated, a film adaptation was released,

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directed by Fred Schapisi, starring two of the biggest names

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in cinema, Meryl Streep as Lyndy Chamberlain, Sam Neil as

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Michael Chamberlain. The film was released in Australia as Evil Angels. Internationally,

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it was called a Cry in the Dark. Streep immersed

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herself in the role, mastered Lyndy's New Zealand Australian accent

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captured her dry humor, her stubborn resilience, her refusal to

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perform grief the way the public expected. The performance was extraordinary.

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Streep won Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival. She

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was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Sam

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Neil won the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actor.

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The film won five AFI Awards total, including Best Picture

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and Best Director. It was acclaimed as one of the

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finest Australian films ever made. But here's the uncomfortable truth

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about the movie. It came out just two months after

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Lindy was exonerated. The convictions had been overturned in September

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nineteen eighty eight. The film was released in November nineteen

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eighty eight for Australian audiences. The timing was awkward. Many

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had believed Lindy was guilty, had called her a murderer,

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had made jokes about her now they were being asked

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to watch a film that portrayed her as an innocent

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victim of injustice. The film underperformed at the Australian box office.

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Some theorized that guilt kept audiences away. They didn't want

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to confront what they'd believed, what they'd said, how they'd

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treated a grieving mother. Internationally, the film did better. American

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and British audiences less invested in the original case could

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appreciate it as a compelling true crime drama. But the

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film also did something else, something that would haunt Lyndy

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Chamberlain for decades. It made her cry famous. The Dingo's

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got my baby. That's what Lindy actually said, according to witnesses,

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My god, my god, the Dingo's got my baby. But

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the film and the media coverage and the public consciousness

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transformed it, simplified it mocked it. A dingo ate my baby.

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That phrase became a punchline, a joke, something comedians referenced

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for easy laughs, something sitcom characters said when they wanted

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to sound Australian. Seinfeld did it, Elaine says the line

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in a broad Australian accent, played for laughs studio audience Howling,

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The Simpsons Did It, Family Guy Did It, Buffy the

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Vampire Slayer, Frasier, Tropic Thunder, The Rugrats movie, Baby Daddy,

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dozens of shows and films, all making the same joke.

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A mother's anguished cry as her baby was taken by

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a wild animal turned into a comedy bit. Lindy Chamberlain

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watched this happen, watched her trauma become a punchline, watched

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people laugh at the worst moment of her life. In interviews,

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she's spoken about it, how it felt to see her

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pain mocked, how it felt to have people quote the

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line at her, laughing, not understanding what they were trivializing.

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She lost her daughter, she lost her freedom, she lost

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years of her life, and then she had to watch

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the world turn it into a joke. Some people are

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just cruel. They don't think about what they're saying, don't

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consider that the punchline was once a scream of terror

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from a mother watching her baby disappear into the darkness.

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But Lindy Chamberlain survived it, survived the mockery like she

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survived the prison, like she survived the trial, like she

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survived everything. She remarried in nineteen ninety two became Lindy Chamberlain.

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Creton continued advocating for the wrongfully convicted, continued speaking about

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her case, continued fighting for the one thing she still

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didn't have the truth on her daughter's death certificate. Here's

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something that will make your blood boil. Lindy Chamberlain was

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exonerated in nineteen eighty eight, the convictions overturned, the forensic

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evidence debunked. She was paid compensation for wrongful imprisonment, but

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death certificate still didn't say how she died. A third

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inquest was held in nineteen ninety five, seven years after exoneration.

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The coroner reviewed the evidence again and returned an open finding.

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Open meaning the cause of death was undetermined, meaning the

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coroner wouldn't officially rule that a dingo killed Azaria, meaning

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Lindy still didn't have official recognition of what happened to

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her daughter. The Royal Commission had found considerable support for

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the dingo theory. The courts had overturned the convictions, but

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nobody would put it on paper. Nobody would write the

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words Azaria Chamberlain was killed by a dingo. Lindy spent

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the next seventeen years pushing for another inquest for a

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final ruling for the truth. What changed things evidence from

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other dingo attacks you see. In the decades after Azaria's death,

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dingoes attacked other children in Australia. Some of those attacks

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were fatal. Fraser Island, Queensland, nine year old Clinton Gage

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was killed by dingoes while walking with his brother. Two

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dingoes attacked him dragged him into the bush. He died

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from his injuries. That attack proved something that many Australians

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had denied in nineteen eighty dingoes will attack and kill children.

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It's rare, but it happens. The Queensland government began tracking

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dingo attacks more carefully, compiled statistics documented incidents where dingoes approached,

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bit or attacked humans. The evidence mounted. In twousand and two. Twelve,

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Lindy Chamberlain and Michael Chamberlain applied for a fourth inquest.

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They argued that the new evidence about dingo attacks on

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children supported their case that it was time finally to

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rule definitively on how Azaria died. Coroner Elizabeth Morris agreed

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to hear the case. February twenty twelve. The fourth coronial

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Inquest into the death of Azaria. Chamberlain began in Darwin.

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Thirty two years after the baby disappeared, new evidence was

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presented statistics on dingo attacks, expert testimony on dingo behavior,

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documentation of incidents where dingoes had attacked infants and children.

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The evidence showed a clear pattern. Dingoes are opportunistic predators.

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They will approach humans, especially children. They will attack if

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they sense vulnerability. A nine week old baby alone in

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a tent would be exactly the kind of prey a

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dingo might target. June twelfth, twenty twelve, coroner Elizabeth Morris

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delivered her fine. Azaria Chamberlain died at Ayrs Rock on

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the seventeenth of August nineteen eighty. The cause of her

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death was as a result of being attacked and taken

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by a dingo. That's it. That's what Lindy had been

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saying for thirty two years. A dingo killed her daughter.

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Morris offered condolences to the family, called Azaria special and

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dearly loved, acknowledged the decades of suffering they had endured.

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A new death certificate was issued cause of death dingo attack.

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Lindy Chamberlain stood outside the courthouse holding the amended death certificate.

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Michael Chamberlain stood beside her. They'd been divorced since nineteen

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ninety one, but they'd come together for this moment for

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their daughter. Thirty two years, four inquests, one trial, one

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royal commission, countless appeals, prison, exoneration, mockery, pain, all of it. Finally,

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officially OWA no longer will Australia be able to say

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that dingoes are not dangerous and only attack if provoked.

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Lindy said, we live in a beautiful country, but it

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is dangerous. She wasn't bitter. She was relieved. Thirty two

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years of fighting and finally officially the truth. Michael Chamberlain

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died on January ninth, twenty seventeen, leukemia. He was seventy

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two years old. He spent the last decades of his

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life trying to move past what happened. Left the ministry,

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became a teacher, remarried, but he never fully escaped the

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Azaria case, never fully escaped the suspicion that followed him

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even after exoneration. In interviews, he spoke about the toll,

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the marriage that couldn't survive, the children who grew up

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with their mother in prison, the career that was derailed,

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the life that was stolen. He called the forensic evidence

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one of the worst perversions of forensic science in Australian history.

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He donated the family's hold in Toronto to the National

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Museum of Australia let them display the car that had

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been at the center of so much wrongful prosecution, a symbol,

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he said, of gross injustice, but also the triumph of

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Australian justice when it finally corrected itself. Lindy Chamberlain Creighton

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is still alive, still speaking about her case, still advocating

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for the wrongfully convicted. The Chamberlain Collection at the National

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Museum of Australia includes the car, the camping equipment, Azaria's clothing, photographs, documents.

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The curators say it represents multiple aspects of Australian history,

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attitudes toward women, religion, the outback, indigenous knowledge, forensic science,

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media ethics. Forensic recruits from the Australian Federal Police visit

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the collection as part of their training. They study what

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went wrong, learn from the mistakes so that the joy

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cool the next James Cameron doesn't send another innocent person

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to prison. The Azaria Chamberlain case is now a textbook

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example of trial by media How public opinion shaped by

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relentless coverage and rumor, can prejudice a case before it

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reaches the jury. Forensic failure, How expert testimony presented with

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absolute confidence can be completely wrong. How tests can produce

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false positives. How scientists can see what they expect to

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see rather than what's actually there. Religious prejudice, How misunderstanding

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of minority beliefs can be weaponized. How different becomes suspicious

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becomes guilty. The danger of public grief expectations. How a

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woman who doesn't cry enough, who seems too composed, who

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wears sunglasses, can be condemned for not performing sorrow the

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way strangers expect. Lindy Chamberlain didn't cry on camera, so

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