It was on Starz! yesterday. I always stop to watch for the performance of Nick Tate.
Posted on 07/06/2004 9:27:04 AM PDT by presidio9
A distraught mother's scream 24 years ago that a dingo snatched her baby from a campsite near Ayers Rock in the Australian Outback ignited one of Australia's most enduring mysteries.
An elderly man's claim that he retrieved the infant's bloodied body from the jaws of the wild dog has revived the case and -- if true -- could finally lead to the discovery of Azaria Chamberlain's body.
Two-month-old Azaria disappeared from a campsite near the giant Ayers Rock monolith, also known by its Aboriginal name Uluru, in 1980.
Her mother, Lindy Chamberlain, now remarried and known as Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton, was convicted of murdering her infant but later released from prison and cleared of the crime after fresh evidence supported her claim that a dingo took the child.
The mystery took a startling turn Sunday when a newspaper in the southern city of Melbourne published claims by 87-year-old Frank Cole that he shot the dog with Azaria's body still in its jaws while on a camping trip with three friends in August 1980.
Cole told the Sunday Herald Sun that he did not tell police what he did, fearing he would be fined for shooting the dog, having thought it was a rabbit he could use for pet food.
He said one of his friends took Azaria's body and never said what he did with it. All three of Cole's friends from the camping trip have since died, he said.
Cole said he believed one of the men could have buried the baby's body in his Melbourne garden.
Police said Monday they would investigate the claims, which Cole said he made to clear his conscience.
"I think that we now need to make some inquiries to determine whether or not it's a valid statement or whatever it might be," said Christine Nixon, police commissioner in Victoria state, of which Melbourne is the capital.
"This is a matter that the whole of Australia has watched for many years, and it seems to me that we need to just go and establish the fundamentals, whether or not there's anything that we should be concerned about," Nixon said.
Lindy Chamberlain, who served four years in prison after being convicted of murder in 1982 and before being cleared of the killing, said through a spokeswoman Sunday that she was aware of Cole's claims and believed they were a matter for police.
Australians avidly followed her trial in the 1980s and were split over whether to believe her story.
"The Dingo Did It" and "The Dingo Is Innocent," were common bumper stickers while she was on trial.
Azaria was the first recorded fatality attributed to a dingo attack in Australia and there has been only one fatal dingo attack since.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
- Elaine Benes
Dingo Pingo.
Ummm . . . Does not compute.
Rabbits are an invasive species "down under"; Dingoes are not. Shooting a rabbit wasn't seen as a bad thing back then. Today, however, the authorities would probably get their collective knickers in a twist over the use of a gun rather than the quarry.
Lemme see... The guy shoots a dingo dragging a child's body in its mouth, and the guy was WORRIED he'd get in trouble for doing so?
Riiiiight.
They made a movie out of this case about 15 years ago, starring Sam Neill. Maybe it'll pop up again on TV, due to this recent publicity.
I'm not saying I believe the old man's story, but IF true, what if he also hit the baby? Then perhaps burying it makes a little more sense. Because what are we talking about, at most a misdemeanor charge -- vs. being a hero of sorts?
I followed this trial the first time around (and even saw the execreble movie).
Dingos are also an invasive species, having been introduced by the aboriginies thousands of years ago. There are no placental mammals indigenous to Australia. They have been responsible for several marsupial extinctions and there is no a problem to control them, but I'm not sure that that was the case twenty years ago.
Read later.
Yep, especially if he was using a shotgun the chances he hit the baby are up.
"I'd luhve you to meet my fiaaaahnce. Muhy buhyby should be here any minute..."
It was on Starz! yesterday. I always stop to watch for the performance of Nick Tate.
My first thought, too.
Why else would they bury the baby?
Why else would he be trying to "clear his conscience?"
This just doesn't sound right. Even if Dingos were on the Australian version of the Endangered Species list, doesn't a human baby (dead or alive) trump a darned dog?
I mean, are the authorities down there that stupid?
I cannot believe you asked this, when there are tv ads, tugging at our heartstrings, about the plight of baby seals, while we have the horror of partial birth abortion.
What was I thinking? How species-ist of me!
I have no trouble believing a dingo would carry off a 2 month old baby. I have a little more trouble believing the old mans story that he would be in trouble for shooting the dingo. He knew the mother was convicted & sent to jail & he never said anything. He is a monster & should have died with his secret now that he can not help the mother.
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