Mother of the dingo baby, born in Whakatane, New Zealand. The disappearance of her nine-week-old daughter, Azaria, at Uluru (Ayers Rock), in 1980, made her the subject of national obsession in Australia. Married to pastor Michael Chamberlain (who was tried with her, and whom she has since divorced), she claimed the baby was taken by a dingo. She was found guilty of murder, and gaoled, but released in 1986 when a baby's jacket was found at the base of the rock. A judicial inquiry found that forensic evidence used in the 1982 trial was unreliable, and that the dingo story was probably correct. In 1988 the Northern Territory Court of Criminal Appeal quashed all convictions against the couple, and they received A$1 million in compensation. The saga is recounted in John Bryson's Evil Angels (1985), and was later filmed, and her autobiography Through My Eyes appeared in 1990.
Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton (born 4 March 1948, née Alice Lynne Murchison) was at the center of one of Australia's most publicised murder trials, in which she was convicted of killing her baby daughter, Azaria.
Early life
Lindy Chamberlain was born in Whakatane, New Zealand and moved to Australia with her family in 1949.
In the 1970s Michael and Lindy Chamberlain had two sons, Aidan (born October 2, 1973) and Reagan (born April 16, 1976).
Azaria Chamberlain's disappearance
Michael and Lindy Chamberlain's first daughter, Azaria, was born on June 10, 1980. When Azaria was two months old, Michael and Lindy Chamberlain took their three children on a camping trip to Uluru, arriving on August 16, 1980.
Conviction, imprisonment and release
Although the initial coronial inquiry supported Chamberlain's account of Azaria's disappearance, Chamberlain was later prosecuted for the murder of her child on the basis of the finding of the baby's jumpsuit and of what appeared to be blood found in the Chamberlain's car. On the basis of this evidence Lindy Chamberlain's life sentence was remitted by the Northern Territory Government and a Royal Commission began in 1987.
Subsequent life
In 1990, Chamberlain published Through My Eyes: an autobiography (ISBN 0-85561-331-9).
Film and TV
In the 1983 Australian TV movie about the case, Who Killed Baby Azaria?, Lindy Chamberlain was played by Elaine Hudson. In the 1988 film A Cry in the Dark (also called Evil Angels), the role was taken by Meryl Streep, while Miranda Otto played her in the 2004 Australian TV mini-series, Through My Eyes: The Lindy Chamberlain Story.
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