Chamberlain dingo trial

A: 'If it had gone around the car. But if it had gone in between, that would be a different matter. Q: 'You have heard quite a lot of evidence, have you not, about the presence of blood in the car?

Q: 'And you heard Mrs. Kuhl say that she received positive reactions for blood from the carpet from the driver's side? A: 'Children crawling around the car, or people moving. Or from people Michael had fixed up, with injuries. I don't know. A: 'I don't mean he carried them in the car. I mean he stopped to assist at the accident site, and then he -'. A: 'He could easily have done that. It is quite possible to have some on your hands when you get in. Justice Muirhead: 'You are not being asked, Mrs.

Chamberlain, whether you accept the validity of the findings. It is merely that, if there were positive reactions, what have you to say about it? A: 'I know Mr. Lenehan's blood was on that side of the car. And a number of other incidents I have related here in court, but other than that. I don't know anything about it. A: 'That had been used to clean up the car, and wipe down the car, on various occasions.

One of the car towels had been on my knee when I was nursing Mr. A: 'There could've, quite possibly, been some blood on Michael's hands that night, from collecting the gear out of the tent.

Zip up his camera-bag, it could easily get on the zip. A: 'He wouldn't have put any gear in the camera-bag, but he may have zipped it up before he traveled. Q: 'There were large areas in both the front two compartments which reacted to the positive screening tests for blood, the orthotolidine tests.

Now, if indeed that reaction was for blood, can you account for it? Phillips: 'Your Honor, I do not want to intervene, but did not Mrs. Kuhl specifically say that after four days she could not prove the presence of blood in the bag? Muirhead: 'If it were blood, and if the orthotolidine test did give a positive reaction. Put the question again. Q: 'She said screening-tests of the vinyl surfaces gave consistently positive results in both the front compartment and centre compartment.

You cannot account for that? A: 'She had projectile vomiting. I've never analyzed it to see what's in it but it's - rather painful. Q: 'Do you suggest that the vomit could account for the presence of blood? For the positive reaction in the camera-case? A: 'The face washers, were used to wipe up vomit at some stage.

But whether they had blood in them, I don't know. I'm just saying it's possible. A: 'I couldn't tell you, now, whether it was shaking its head as it was going through, or before it was through.

Its obvious movement was shaking the fly screen at some stage. It was all in a matter of a few seconds, from the time I first saw it to the time I was in the back of the tent, very very fast and moving. Q: 'Your evidence is that you saw it shaking its head vigorously, and it was moving the fly screen in the process.

A: 'I don't know whether its head was shaking the fly screen, or whether what it had in its mouth was hitting against the fly screen. There was blood on the pole. It doesn't really surprise me there was none there. It would depend which angle the animal was, or which angle the wounds were. Chamberlain, you say this child was in the mouth of a dingo which was vigorously shaking its head at the entrance to the tent. That is what you firmly believe, is that right? A: 'Look, Mr. Barker, I wasn't there.

I can only go on the evidence of my own eyes. We are talking about my baby daughter, not some object. Q: 'I would like to remind you of some evidence given by Constable Morris. He told us this: "Mrs. Chamberlain said that originally she was at the barbecue-site and she'd seen a dingo near the tent.

It had what seemed to be something in its mouth. She hadn't taken a great deal of notice of it, because she'd seen dogs and dingoes earlier in the day around the campsite, around the rubbish bins, and tourists feeding them to try to get photographs etcetera, and didn't take undue notice until she returned to the tent-site a short while later, and then suddenly realized that the dingo or dog must have taken her baby.

A: 'I - I don't recall his evidence greatly. That is not, to my knowledge, what I told him. It may have been the impression he got. Q: 'Did you tell him you had seen a dingo near the tent, and it had what appeared to be something in its mouth? A: 'I told - I told him I had seen a dingo in the tent with — appearing to have something in its mouth, yes.

Q: 'Is this the case: when you first saw the dingo you did not take much notice because you had seen them around the camp earlier in the day? A: 'Yes, that's probably it. For the first half second or something like that, I thought it had a shoe.

I didn't really take much notice. That's why I just yelled at it to get out of the tent. A: 'I just don't remember telling him anything about it. I don't know whether I did or I didn't. A: 'It's possible, but I don't see why I would have, because it doesn't connect with any of my memories of what happened. A: 'I can remember him running across, at one stage, and saying, "What was the baby dressed in? There just wasn't an opportunity to give him a full description.

He had to let the searchers know basically what they were looking for. A: 'I think we've been over this a number of times before. I told him I saw nothing in its mouth. A: 'To - to my remembrance I, yes, I know we had several discussions on his impression, and my impression.

A: 'I did mention it. But I don't know if he was close enough to have heard. He was on the move. Phillips: 'Your Honor, I object to selected passages being put. My recollection is, when he was cross-examined, the constable clearly said that he may be mistaken.

Q: 'I would like to remind you of what you told Inspector Gilroy the day after all this happened. Now, what you say there, do you not, is that you found the the baby was missing when you entered the tent, not when you were running towards it? Q: 'Is it?

What you say there is, do you not, you called to your husband that the dingo had the baby when you emerged from the tent? Not before you went into it? Q: 'Why did you say to him: "I dived straight in the tent first to see if there was anything I could do. Q: 'You dived into the tent, did you not, and saw that she was gone? Is this what you told Gilroy? A: 'Mr. Barker, that interview was a short interview, to give them some facts to work on. He told me they were coming back to take a statement with all details in it.

I don't pretend that everything in there is exactly one after the other as it happened. I was totally confused, and still in shock, when that was taken. A: 'I am saying that it may not specifically be lined up, one thing after the other. It may be jumbled. I'm not saying it's incorrect.

I'm saying it may be in the wrong order. Q: 'I suggest to you that it is not merely a matter of jumbling. It is simply incapable of being reconciled with what you say here.

Do you understand that? Chamberlain, is it not the case that your husband declined to search actively on that Sunday night because he knew that the baby was dead, and he knew that you had killed her?

Q: 'I suggest to you that the reason that you and your husband stayed near the car whilst people were searching was that, for some portion of that night at least, the child's body was in the car. Testimony of Barry Boettcher, examined by John Phillips. Q: 'Had you been supplied, too, with a copy of her deposition, her sworn evidence, made at the second inquest? Q: 'During the course of this trial, I think everyone is aware, you were present during Mrs. Kuhl's evidence?

Q: 'Professor Boettcher, in your opinion, should it be concluded, on the results of any of the tests performed by Mrs. Kuhl, that fetal hemoglobin was present in any of the samples tested by her? It is my opinion that such a conclusion should not be reached from the results presented by Mrs. The beta globin chain is found only in adult hemoglobin.

Fetal hemoglobin contains both alpha and gamma hemoglobin chains, and if one is testing a blood sample that has some fetal and some adult material in it, one expects that, if you obtain a reaction with anti-fetal hemoglobin anti-serum, that should be directed only at the gamma chain, which is found only in fetal hemoglobin. If you perform a test on the same sample with an anti-hemoglobin serum which is specific for the alpha chain which is found in both adult hemoglobin and fetal hemoglobin, you would also expect to get a positive reaction Testimony of Les Harris,examined by Andrew Kirkham.

Stationary or slow-moving prey is usually taken head-on, because that is the way the dingo has constructed the situation and, if we are talking about small mammals, it will take the entire head.

It will seize the entire head in its jaws, and in one motion it simply closes its jaws, and it will crush that skull. Usually they will accompany this with a sharp shake, which is calculated to break the neck of the animal at the same time Q: 'With your knowledge of dingo behavior and capacity, are you able to offer an opinion as to whether a dingo would be capable of grasping and carrying the child?

A: 'Yes, it would. There is enough showing that the dingo would make the assessment that it was a mammal, and therefore viable prey. I would envisage that a dingo would, immediately after the instant of identification, make seizure, which would be of the entire head, and it would close its jaws sufficiently to render that mammal immobile.

As a continuous operation, it would then continue by making off with the acquired prey. It would have made the seizure by head, and it would be unlikely that it would change its grip in any way.

That would have been enough to immobilize the prey. Q: Would the dingo [have spent much time in the tent, given what we know was happening around the Chamberlain's tent]? A: 'No, particularly not in those circumstances A dingo, a pair of dingoes, will have a territory, and they take their life-time's food supply from that territory. What makes the Ayers Rock area unique is that there has been an artificial food supply provided by tourists, and a number of dingoes forage in one area, and that is very rare.

To our knowledge it doesn't happen normally in dingo society. Barker: 'Your Honor, the man is not a pathologist dealing with the body of a baby We have already been told that the dingo grabs the head, crushes, and shakes A: 'No, there's been very little, and it's characteristic of a kill in the field that little bleeding takes place. Q: 'We've heard evidence that a dingo in the Chamberlain tent was seen to shake its head, in the vicinity of the entrance. A: 'No, that's quite consistent, because they are observed to also shake it after they have made the seizure, and the shake is obviously intended to break the neck.

Testimony of Professor Vernon Plueckhahn. Plueckhahn: 'Depending on the vessels punctured at the time; If It's a vein punctured as such, a tooth could well form a plug. It depends on how tight he gripped. Barker: 'You don't agree with Professor Cameron that there is evidence of the impression of a human hand?

Plueckhahn: 'As I've said before, 'with due respect to his eminence-I'm sorry, that's the wrong word-to his prominence, with due respect to that, his opinion, I cannot postulate, even with proper-with full examination, having viewed it also under ultraviolet light without his photographs, and all that sort of thing, and seen it, I cannot in the wildest imagination from this, see the imprint of a hand. And as I've said, I've tried to convince myself there could be. Judge Muirhead: 'With imprints, you include impression, do you?

There is nothing in this, looking at it, which would even remotely suggest to me that it is any part of the human hand. If I really want to I could say it was an emu's foot, or something or rather like that, which is more like it, but I wouldn't conceive that-that doesn't conceive anything to me. Testimony of Michael Chamberlain, cross-examined by Ian Barker. Q: 'And do you tell us that you are unable to say just what she told you about the child's disappearance?

Q: 'Could it be because you knew that the dingo did not take her, and that she was dead at the hands of your wife? Q: 'Did you say to Constable Morris something like this, on the occasion he came back to make some inquiries: 'It was the will of God; there was nothing that you or I or anybody else could do about it'? Q: 'I suggest you couldn't see then, and you can't see now, why your wife would not have seen a baby dressed in white being carried in the mouth of a dingo out of the tent, and past the front of it.

Chamberlain, your wife, I suggest, told you that the story of the dingo was false, very soon after the child was killed. Q: 'She told you she was going to suggest that the dingo at the tent was the same as the dingo she saw at the Rock. Q: 'She told you that she was going to suggest that the dingo at the tent was the same as the dingo she saw at the Rock.

Q: 'Did she say, 'Why don't we go to the algas so the boys will stop playing up? Q: 'Look, didn't it occur to you that there might have been a remote possibility, however remote, that the child was still alive on Monday morning? Chamberlain was away from the barbecue area? People came from all directions. It was a small baby. In fact the opposite. She sort of had a new-mum glow about her. It's hard to describe. Did she appear a loving mother to you? Definitely yes. She was a little tired, but she still managed to be quite cheerful and happy.

She seemed to be solely concerned with feeding Aidan some more food. I'm not sure, but I believe it was a can-opener, yes. You couldn't see any part of the - ' Q: 'Of the fabric of the tent itself? There were spots on Reagan's sleeping-bag, to the right in the tent. Chamberlain during the time you were there? Chamberlain was with her husband? You could see inside the car too, from the light The only light was from the barbecue area, and then later from the police vehicle.

Also the expression it made on its face. Going from experience with other babies. I heard it growl. Chamberlain call out. Chamberlain while the search went on? Chamberlain walk away, together, while you were there.

No more. Q: 'So you had been inside the tent. What did it look like in there? No, they had nothing. Q: 'What was it [Michael] was saying? Q: 'Did you ever meet Mrs. Chamberlain prior to arriving at Ayers Rock? Chamberlain at the barbecue? She was sitting. Chamberlain was dandling her on her knee. Chamberlain appear in any way grouchy or unhappy? She was a bit tired, I thought, but she wasn't grouchy or unhappy.

It was the sort of growl our dogs give when Bill is killing on the farm and he gives them - ' Q: 'You may have a little difficulty making the jury hear you. Chamberlain standing in that light? Justice Muirhead: 'Your assumption from that, I suppose, 'was that the car was locked? Whittacker urged her to go. And the bush-nurse. Chamberlain say anything? Chamberlain, following on the conversation?

Chamberlain, did she say anything to you about the dingo? Q: 'Did anyone switch on the lights of the car? I don't recall seeing the door open at any other time. Chamberlain arrived at your tent, what was his demeanor? Chamberlain, did she, to your mind, exhibit signs of shock?

It was Mrs. Chamberlain reply? A: 'To use the imperial, about seven inches by five or six. A: 'Yes, Sir, three areas Kuhl, that is a demonstration electrophoresis plate? Who is to take responsibility for this? It is standard procedure in our laboratory. We have not the facilities for that It was used as an indication of the relative amounts.

One night, Lindy Chamberlain put two of her children, 4-year-old Reagan and 9-week-old Azaria, to bed in their tent. When she returned, the story goes, she cried, "The dingo's got my baby! According to Lindy, when she got to the tent she saw a dingo with a bundle in its mouth. She wasn't close enough to see what it was, but when she checked on the children she saw that her daughter Azaria was missing [source: Haberman ].

As the cry went out, she and her husband, Michael, along with other campers, began searching for the child. A nearby camper, Sally Lowe, went into the tent to check on the still-sleeping Reagan. Seeing a pool of wet blood on the floor of the tent, she thought that Azaria was probably already dead [source: Linder ].

When a tourist found the baby's jumpsuit, it was only slightly torn and bloody, but mostly intact. Though an initial investigation backed up Lindy Chamberlain's claim of a wild dog attacking her daughter, it was not long before the parents themselves stood accused [source: Haberman ]. The baby had been wearing other clothes that weren't found at the time [source: Latson ]. Throughout the case, the local police improperly handled blood spatter and other evidence.

Forensics investigators found "blood stains" in the family car and concluded that Lindy had taken Azaria there to cut her throat. Later analysis revealed that the stains came from a spilled drink and a sound-deadening compound that came with the car. One expert identified a "bloody hand print" on Azaria's jumpsuit that later analysis revealed to be red desert sand.

However, in , expert testimony — and public opinion — proved enough to convict Lindy Chamberlain of murder and her husband of being an accessory to murder. The prosecution called a London odontologist teeth guy for an expert opinion on the mouth of a dingo.

HOWEVER, the defense rebutted this claim by showing a photo taken of a dingo with the head of a human-sized baby doll fitting snugly in its jaw. The odontologist said that he may have been mistaken.

It was also brought up that when dingoes attack their prey, they tend to grab it by the head, then shake it in their mouth in order to break its neck.

This would produce a minimal amount of blood. The prosecution presented the following theory: Lindy left the communal barbecue area with Aidan and Azaria and walked her son to the tent.

She then came back to the tent, cleaned herself off, and planted the blood in the tent. After that, she went back to the communal barbecue. The issue the defense took with this? An important question still remained: why would Lindy kill her child? Some said that Azaria was intended as a sacrifice for the sins of the church that Michael pastored for. Michael obviously denied this, but those watching his testimony felt he was very nonchalant and not acting like a grieving father.

Many witnesses were also called to testify about their personal relationships and opinions of the Chamberlain family. They called them a loving and happy family, nothing out of the ordinary. Sally Lowe even said that Lindy had a new-mom glow to her. Their job was to prove that Lindy Chamberlain had murdered her daughter. Many people in the courtroom fully expected an acquittal, particularly after this remark.

The first round of juror votes read three for guilty, three for not guilty, and three for undecided. They debated for six hours and fifteen minutes before coming out with a verdict.

Lindy was found guilty for the murder of her daughter. She was sentenced to life in prison with hard labor. It was unheard of to find someone guilty of murder with no body, no murder weapon, no witnesses, and no motive. Michael was found guilty of accessory after the fact and given a suspended sentence of 18 months.

Just a month after starting her sentence at Berrimah Prison, Lindy gave birth to a healthy baby girl named Kahlia. While many were satisfied that Lindy was in jail, there were still people who felt confident that Lindy was innocent and were hell-bent on proving it.

The Chamberlains had lived in a mining town and he thought something in the air was causing it. He traveled to their hometown and quickly noticed that there was dust everywhere.

He immediately took samples from several different places in the town. The spots were not blood spatter, they were paint over spray from when the car was built.

The dust from their hometown was everywhere throughout their vehicle and had caused the spots to test positive for fetal blood. In February of , an English hiker was climbing Ayers Rock when he fell to his death.

As search and rescue attempted to recover his body, one of the team members saw a piece of clothing partially buried in the sand.

He said he immediately knew what it was. On February 7th, , Lindy was released. Though their prison time was over, the Chamberlains still had to clear the names. They eventually received 1. Michael and Lindy ultimately divorced. Lindy remarried and Michael died in after battling leukemia.

Reagan, the child who was asleep in the tent with Azaria when she disappeared, still has memories of that night. He said that he and his brother suffered endless ridicule from classmates about the case and their missing sister.

Only you can imprison your mind Lindy Chamberlain — Creighton lindychamberlain. Michael Chamberlain, who claimed dingo killed his baby in Australia, dies at 72 washingtonpost. Azaria case timeline theage. Search the blog. Skip to content After the sun had set on August 16th, at Ayers Rock in Central Australia, year-old Lindy Chamberlain ran from the tent at her campsite towards the communal barbecue area, screaming that a dingo had her baby. Who Were Lindy and Azaria? Michael and Lindy Chamberlain.

The Vacation. The Chamberlains tent setup at Ayers Rock. You can see how similiar dingos look to domesticated dogs. The Investigation. Lindy and Azaria at Ayers Rock.