Monday, May 6, 2013

Dingo Ate My Baby Case




Lindy & Azaria Chamberlain

Police Interview
with
Lindy Chamberlain



Conducted by
Detective Graeme Charlwood
on October 1, 1980

(Portion of interview concerning
the day of Azaria's disappearance)

Charlwood: 'What I'll do first, I'll just get you to go through what happened from 
here to the incident so that I - '
Chamberlain: 'From the time we left here?'
Charlwood: 'Well, just very briefly.'
Chamberlain: 'Fine. Okay.'
Charlwood: 'So we can work out, leading up to Ayers Rock, then in 
some depth there. Just so that I can get a clear picture 
of what happened, and then we can get another statement.'

Chamberlain: 'Yes, all right.'

Charlwood: 'We could start on the statement first, but then things 
could get out of sequence, I guess. During this, I'll just make
 some notes, so my memory's clearer. So, you left on what day?'

Chamberlain: 
'I was just trying to work it out.  
We left Wednesday morning. We would have left Tuesday,
 but the dry-cleaner's had the blankets, and we had to wait 
till the following morning. So we left here, I suppose it would 
have been about nine, and we headed more or less straight through.
 Stopped at Tennant Creek for a while had a look around. Camped at 
the Oevil's Marbles that night.  We actually camped out that night. 
 She slept in the car.
And the following day on to Alice Springs, Stayed at Heavitree Gap,
 in our other tent. Looked around town that day, and we had 
a petrol-pump fault, which we had to get fixed. Fixed it up 
on Friday. Stayed there that night. We were going to stay 
the following night, but the rodeo was on and it was rowdy, 
so we decided to take off. We left, probably about lunchtime 
Saturday. We got there just after sunset. We tried to beat the sunset, 
to get the sunset on the Rock, but we missed out that night. 
We pulled in at the ranger station. I suppose it was three quarters 
of an hour after the actual sunset by the time we got there, at a guess. 
It was dark, anyway. You know, the glow had gone. The camping-ground 
was crowded out. There were, I don't know how many, bus-tours. 
It could have been anything up to eleven of them there, I guess....
The next day my husband got up with the sunrise. 
And then we took off around the Rock at about, I guess, ten by the 
time we started. Maybe it was a little bit later than that. We went around,
 had a look at the Brain. That side around.  We came back. No, we stayed,
 went up the Climb. My husband went up the Climb, and I waited down
 with the kiddies. Then he took Aidan and Reagan up. Then we took some
 photographs. No, the photographs we took of Azaria were in between him 
coming down and the boys going up....Then he came down - so we all
 came – Reagan was down there with me....He'd had it, by this time,
 because he climbed the hard section three times in the one day. 
He was feeling tired. And on the way home I said to Michael I'd 
promised the kids they could have a look at the water out there, 
because they reckoned there wasn't any. We were going into Maggie 
Springs, and we were sort of looking to see where it was, and we saw the
 bus pulled in just ahead of us. No, it pulled in just after us. We pulled in, 
saw the sign, then the bus pulled up, and actually they got into 
the Echo Cave before we did.
And there were some tourists there, and a couple about, I suppose, 
mid forties, with a child of, I'd say, eight, and another about ten or twelve, 
walking around the rocks. We met them at the back of that Fertility Cave, 
and we were standing there talking and looking around, and wondering
 what the Aboriginal legend of the rock above was, and where the 
Echo part of it was. And I looked ­-I sort of sensed as though 
I was being watched - and I looked up. I would have been standing 
about where the corner of this desk is, I think. On a rock, just 
above, there was a dingo looking down over the top at us.'


Charlwood:  'This is, what, sort of right at the back of the Fertility Cave?'

Chamberlain:  'Yes.  Well, you could get in it either way. But we 
had come through the cave. Half of us went through, and half of us
 went back again. Michael went back around the other way, and the 
kids wanted to know what the cave was.
And I said, "Look what's watching us." And we all stood there for 

at least four minutes, maybe longer, watching this dog. There was 
a crevice just beneath where it was, and Reagan was moving around, 
and it struck me at the time it was odd, because he said, "Where is it,
 Mummy, I can't see?" The dog would usually follow movements with 
its eyes, but it didn't seem to take its eyes off me. It made me feel a bit
 creepy, which I thought of after. Azaria was with me at the time. 
She was with me - unwrapped and awake – sitting across my shoulder, 
looking about....'

Charlwood: 'What time was that?'

Chamberlain: 'Sunset was six-thirty. I would have been 
bathing them some­where between quarter to six and six o'clock, 
I should think.... Meanwhile Michael started to look after tea. 
Then I picked the baby out of the carry basket in the car, 
took the carry-basket into the tent, and then carried her down 
to the campsite. She had wind. I was patting her, walked
 around with her for a while.'

Charlwood: 'And what time was that?'

Chamberlain: 'It was dark. Between seven and eight. 
She finally went to sleep. At a rough guess, 
she would've been asleep half, or three-quarters, of an hour 
before I put her down. Another young couple arrived there 
and were using the opposite stove to cook their tea on.'

Charlwood: 'This is in the barbecue area, directly down from your camp?'

Chamberlain: 'Yes. They had a little eighteen-months-old baby girl. And there was a dingo in the area, actually. It had been there the night before. We'd been talking a bit about them, because the hikers that had been camped around there the night before said to us, "Don't leave any food out, because they scrounge for it." And we'd read the notices in the toilets, and I'd only seen them that afternoon. We were actually watching this dingo, when Aidan spied some sort of animal. He didn't know what it was. It turned out to be a little kangaroo-mouse. The husband of the young couple was sitting on the fence, about that far from the railing that goes around it.'
There was a post in between us. And all of a sudden he said, "I think that mouse is here by this post." Before Aidan got there with the torch, this dingo pounced in, right between us. Say, so far from his feet and so far from mine. We'd had no idea it was there. It was so quiet, and was gone. About a quarter of an hour after that, Michael and Aidan had both finished tea, and Aidan said he was tired and wanted to go to sleep. I hadn't had my tea; I wasn't very hungry. Michael said, "You'd better put her down and have your tea." So I said to Aidan, "It's time I put Bubby down." I was thinking to myself, I'll spoil her. He said, "I'll come up with you." I had the tent zipped up with Reagan there, because of what
The day before we'd had a rubbish bag beside the stove, and we'd gone away to get something or other, and come straight back. And an animal, a camp dog or a dingo, I don't know which, had tipped it all out, spread it all over the ground and made a real mess. I'd got a plastic bag, so I jammed it as tight as I could in a sort of open-fireplace by the tent.'
Charlwood: 'Ground-level?'
Chamberlain: 'Yes. Over by that concrete...thing'.
Charlwood:  'Yes.'
Chamberlain: 'Michael said he'd seen a dingo the day before doing the same thing to others. We picked all that up and put it back. Of course, because of this I thought, well, they're scavenging for anything. If they go for nappies, you know?
The kids' shoes were all along the front of the tent. Reagan was inside. I zipped it up. When I came back, I walked up with Aidan. We both climbed in the tent. And he got his parka off and dumped it near the door of the tent, where Reagan's was, and started to get himself into bed. I put Azaria down and tucked her in. I put her down in the things I had her wrapped in, and just put a blanket over the top.'
Charlwood: 'She was, at that time, wearing what?' 
Chamberlain: 'The clothes or the blankets?'
Charlwood: 'Clothes. '
Chamberlain:  'She was wearing a throwaway nappy, a sing let, white stretch. suit - it was all white, with white booties underneath - and a little white matinee-jacket, with very pale lemon edging around the collar and cuffs.  It was one of those matinee-jackets that's just got two or three buttons on the yoke, and then none coming down, and the button holes were a bit loose. She was wrapped up as I showed you this morning, in the blue bunny-rug and the larger of the two blankets. She slept with her arms up, and her head on the side, and her arms would be this angle, and her head back that way.'
Charlwood: 'She had her arms level with her head?'
Chamberlain: 'Yes, or slightly back a bit. And then Aidan said, "Is that all the tea I'm getting?" He's at that stage, where, periodically, he decides he's got hollow legs, because he eats a huge feast, and he's still hungry. So I said, "Well, I'll get you some more. What would you like?" He didn't know. He rather likes baked beans.
So I went out to the car - which reminds me, Michael had a slide taken about midday, that day, with the car parked where it was, and the tent set up - yes, I went back to the car and got the baked beans out, came back to the tent. Actually, .the car door would hit the tent, so I was right beside the tent at that stage. I saw nothing in the area. Anywhere. There was not a sight or a sound of a thing.
For some reason or other, I didn't zip the tent up again. I was planning to get his food and then bring back the tray with me and let him have it in the tent. I had decided by then I didn't want anything much, probably just watch him, and then go straight to bed. And I walked back to the barbecue area. I can't remember now if we climbed the fence, but I think we might have. I was going to chase him, and he went one way, and I went the other, to see who got back fastest.
We climbed over the fence, on the right side of the gas bottle. Walked around on the side where we had our things, and the can opener was sitting right on top. I put the can of beans down, picked up the can-opener. And my husband said to me, "Bubby cried." I sort of paused, and said to him, "Are you sure?" She was sound asleep. He said, well, he heard a cry. And the other fellow sort of indicated that he'd heard something, whether he heard a cry or not I don't know. So I said, "Well, I'd better go and see." I put the can-opener down, walked back across the gas bottles, climbed the fence, and I was halfway between the fence and the post, on the way to the tent, and I saw the dingo coming out of the tent. And it had its head down, and it was in the light from about there up. Because the tent was being - You've probably got all the measurements, but say the tent was about that far back from the post-and-rail fence, and the bushes came right up to the fence, and standing back further, you could see into the tent. When you got close up, the shadow was shining right down to the front of the tent, from this post-and-rail. It was sort of obscuring the view just where I was standing then, because there was this biggish bush in front of me. And, when I saw it, it was going like this to get out. 

And I thought, It's got Michael's shoes, because his shoes were right beside the door. It was a young dingo, and my first thought was either it was a young one, or still a puppy. It would've been so high at the shoulder. Gold. Its coat was in beautiful condition. It wasn't one of the mangy ones around there. The light was blinking on it, so it must have been a shiny coat, and it wasn't dusty, or anything like that. Around its neck it was, I'd say, like a rust. It put its head down.'
Charlwood: 'When you first saw the dingo, it was still inside the tent?'
Chamberlain: 'It was still inside the tent, its head was out, and it was trying to get something through the doorway and swinging its head around, now with its head down. That's what made me think it was a shoe, and I thought, He's got it by the shoelace, and it'd be swinging, and he can't get it through the door. The dog wanted to get out. It was unzipped, not only down the middle, but at both sides, across the bottom.
And I yelled at it, because I thought it would drop the shoe. As soon as I saw it, I started to run. And I yelled. I can't remember what I said. But I think I said, "Get out." Or, "Go." I think I said, "Go on," to it. Sort of yelled, "Go on, get out."
Then I realized. I thought to myself, the kids. There's no food in there. The shoes. And I thought, well, she cried. So he must have disturbed her. And then it sort of flashed through my mind that they're wild. When she first went to sleep, she would sleep very heavily, and he would have to actually touch her to disturb her. I thought, well, a wild dog. It could have bitten her. The only thing visible is her head. She'll need, she'll need, first-aid. As soon as I reached the front of the tent, I could see the blankets scattered. Instinct told me that she wasn't there, the dog had her, but my head told me it wasn't possible. Dingoes don't do such things, and this was, you know, just beyond the realms of reason. And I dived into the tent just to make sure. I could see from the door that she wasn't there. But my mind wouldn't accept it. And I dived in, actually felt in the cradle for her, to make sure she wasn't there. And as I backed out of the tent I felt with my hands, in the blankets that were scattered, and the sleeping-bag, just in case I frightened it off, and he dropped her, and one of the blankets was completely covering her. Being so tiny she didn't make much of a bundle. And if he dropped her? Anyway, and I briefly glanced at Reagan on the way out, and he had his sleeping-bag hood up. No damage to the sleeping bag. There was no skin showing anywhere on him, and I remember it flashing through my mind, well, he's all right, because the dog couldn't see anything of him.
And I backed to the door of the tent, feeling as I went, and as I stood up in the opening, I called out to Michael that the dingo's got the baby. And as I was calling this, I started to run in the direction that the dingo had gone, because as it came out of the tent - as I was running towards it - it went out the tent and across in front of the car, which from my direction was right, and ran off into the darkness. It was under the shadow of the fence at that stage, and I didn't look at it again. My interest was what was in the tent, because immediately my thought was to get out after it. I felt within myself that she was dead, because if she was alive I'd have heard a whimper, or a cry, or something, unless by some miracle she was unconscious and still alive. And Michael called to me as I was running across there and said, "What?" So I said something to him. And again, "The dingo's got the baby, quickly!"
And that was all in the matter of the time coming out of the tent and around at the other corner of the car. The dingo was standing in the shadow of the car, at the back, the back left-hand corner of the car. And as soon as I peered around the corner, it took off. It was standing with its back to me, with its head slightly turned at that stage. I couldn't tell you whether it had anything in its mouth or not. My mind refused to accept the thought that it had her in its mouth, although I knew that must be it. I didn't know what I was going to do when I caught it, but I was going to.'
Charlwood: 'At that stage, you could only see the back of the dingo and its head, when it was at the back of the car?'
Chamberlain: 'Well, I could see all the dog in the shadow. I was standing here, and it would have been slightly on an angle, with its head partly turned, and it took off at an angle. Say that's the car, here. I was coming around, here. It was there. The road was here. It took off across there [demonstrating]. I took off, up this way, and when I got to here, in the meantime Michael came from the barbecue, straight through this way and caught me: "Where?" And I said, "That way!" And he went up in the dark, and he ran out without his torch. I'd stopped, because I realized there was dead silence. You couldn't see a thing, you couldn't hear a thing. The light from the barbecue didn't show anymore, there. I realized that there was just no hope of finding it. We needed a torch. We'd searched for ours earlier. Couldn't find the little one we were using. We went to get our big one out. We've got one of those Big Jims. Something had been packed on the button and flattened the battery, and the one we had was just about flat. That's why we were looking, because I realized that our torch was useless, and it sort of went through my mind, Nobody's going to believe me. They'll all think I'm either drunk or I'm joking if I go to the tents and tell them to come. It's just going to take too long. I needed help now. So I just stood there and yelled as loud as I could, "Has anybody got a torch?" because the dingo had the baby. "Has anybody got a torch!"
It was almost as if people had them on their laps. There were three torches that came almost immediately. They must have been sitting beside their torches, came out and called to me as they sort of ran towards me, "Which way?" And I said, "It's gone in there," and pointed to the direction as they went in. Michael realized he couldn't see and rushed back to the car. By this time, the lady in the tent beside us called out, "Have you gone for the police?" And I said to her, "No, it's only just happened, and we need a torch. We've got to look for her, if someone could go?" And she said, "Well, would you like my husband to go?" And I said, "Yes." And she ran back for her torch and for her husband, and she came back and she said, "He's going straight around for the police and ranger." Michael was back by this time, and we offered him the torch. It was one of those fluorescent ones. And the only thing that did penetrate into his mind at the time was that they don't give enough beam. They shoot around, but it's not a beam. And we went to our car and looked for a torch, and asked people if they had torches could they go and look....' About that time, Michael went back out, with a torch. They would've spent, I don't know, quite a few minutes out there. Say ten, fifteen minutes. Then the police arrived and the ranger was there within two or three minutes after him.
By this time, there would've been anything from thirty to fifty people out with torches, looking. Then the police went around and got more, and they just kept coming from the bus tours. Within the hour there would have been about two hundred or more, out in different directions. And Michael said, "Did you check to make sure she's not there?" And I said, "Yes, she's not there, but do you want to come back and look with me, just to make doubly sure that there's nothing I've missed?" And we checked the tent again. And as we were crawling out of the tent the second time - he had the torch this time, and he was using it everywhere, just to make sure that there was nothing - he shone the torch on the end of his sleeping-bag, and I saw the drops of blood which I hadn't seen before.'
Charlwood:  'This was on the one that he was sleeping in? His sleeping-bag?'
Chamberlain:   'His sleeping-bag.'
Charlwood:  'On Michael's?'
Chamberlain: 'There were only half a dozen of them or so. We didn't see anything else at that stage, and he said to me, "Look, Honey, she's bleeding, so I don't think there will be any hope." She also had a very - a very - tail end of a cold. She was just sniffling, and it had been very, very cold when I changed her nappy earlier on. Because of the cold she had, and the temperature - which had frozen the water around - we had a saucepan half full of water the night before, and it had frozen ice on the top of it. I said to him, "With the cold she's got, if she's alive anywhere, we've got maybe three quarters of an hour, an hour and a half, for them to find her, or she'll be - she'll be either - have very bad pneumonia, or she'll be frozen to death, with no blankets on or anything. After about two hours we just hoped that we would never - We initially said to the police if they found anything of her, it didn't matter what it was, we wanted to see her. Then we decided that, if they found her, we'd like to see something of her clothes, but we didn't particularly want to see her, in a morbid state at all. As the night wore on, the ranger said he felt that they wouldn't find anything. He said we'd be very lucky to find clothes; it'd probably taken it back to its den. Very occasionally they would savage without killing. Then he was asking heights -  And I said to Michael that I had no reason to say that, except for a mother's instinct that I felt it was a female that had taken her that it was like the first dingo we had seen at Maggie Springs that afternoon. And Michael said to me, "Now listen, you be careful. It's one thing to say what you saw, and it's another thing saying what you suppose to be. If you go around saying it's the same as that dingo, there seem to be dozens of dingoes around here, and they all look alike, you know. You're getting into the realms of probability." So I never said anything about that then. Although the next day, when Inspector Gilroy came and talked to us, and he asked me to describe the dog at the barbecue, I said to him, "Well, it was so like that one I'd seen at Maggie Springs, even when I saw it coming out of the tent, I thought, Oh, you're the rascal we saw this afternoon. But it's a bit far away, I guess. They're too alike, around here. And when they said, afterwards, that they'd found the clothes near Maggie Springs, I said to the inspector, "Can you tell me if they were found just behind the opening of that cave? What do you call this cave?'
Charlwood: 'The Fertility Cave.’
Chamberlain: 'And the inspector said, "Oh, it wasn't far from there, as a matter of fact." He said, "You're thinking what I'm thinking. I remember you saying to me that it was so like that dog, and your husband shutting you up." And then afterwards, discussing different things with the ranger. He was talking about that, the different habits, the different heights, and etcetera. To my mind it was a female. Of course, you know, it's supposition. Of course, you probably know more about that than me, by now.'
Charlwood:  'No. I don't know a great deal about the dingo. What, then, was the baby wearing when it was taken from the tent?'
Chamberlain:  'I've ready explained to you, before. The booties, stretch-suit, the singlet, a throwaway nappy, and the matinee­-jacket. '
Charlwood:  'The matinee-jacket.'
Chamberlain: 'They've got them all back, except that matinee-jacket, and it wasn't a tight one. It had light elastic around the wrists and the buttons were loosish. So there is as much chance of it being off on a bush, on the way from the Rock somewhere, as there would be down a den, and left away from the other clothes, I should think.'
[Short break.  Charlwood is joined by Sgt. Morris.]
Chamberlain: 'When will the inquest be?' 
Charlwood: 'The coroner hasn't fixed a date yet.'
Sergeant Morris: 'You know what the finding will be?'
Charlwood:  'So, on the Sunday night?'
Chamberlain:  'Michael said, by his watch, when it happened it was about eight-thirty.'  So the searching went on into the night. At midnight the ranger came back and said, "I feel that there's not much chance of finding her," What went on from there?'
Charlwood: 'So the searching went on into the night. At midnight the ranger came back and said, "I feel that there's not much chance of finding her," What went on from there?'
Chamberlain: 'Was it the ranger, or the police? I don't think we saw the ranger again that night at all. The police came back two or three times. We didn't see the ranger until the following morning. We'd seen both police, off and on, and they said that by the habits of the dingoes in that area there wasn't much hope of finding her at all, and it's cold.  Now, Aidan - which I missed out, before - Aidan, as I came back to the tent, I hadn't realized that he was following her, following me. But as I saw the dog, I'd glanced back to the others as I told them. They looked up, and I said that a dingo was in the tent, and I glanced back, and noticed Aidan was four foot, six foot, behind me, following me back where he went then I don't know. He wasn't near the tent. He must have been coming, but he didn't get into the tent when I was there - Reagan is still there. Reagan is still there - and - I knew Aidan was there, and - he came running out from around the car. He must have been near the tent, or looked in the tent. I don't know. As I came back, these people were starting to come everywhere, and he arrived, to me, just before the lady who asked if I was sending for the police.
Aidan is actually the type of child that when, well, if he cuts his foot he goes hysterical, and he didn't that night. In fact, it amazed me. Shock, I suppose. He came running out, and he screamed at me, and he said, "Mummy, don't let the dingo eat our baby!" He put into words what my mind wouldn't accept. There's no doubt in my mind that he was quite aware of what had happened, and what was going on. I explained to him, then, that I wanted him to stay back. I didn't know whether to stay with him, or go and look for her, or what. And the Western Australian lady said to me, "Don't worry about him. I'll look after him. If you want to go out with your husband and look, you can." And we went looking, and Aidan was still standing around there, but I was cold, and he had taken his parka off to go to bed already, and I said to him, "I want you to go and get into bed," and I told him what was happening. And I said, "There is nothing we can do, the policeman's coming soon, get into bed." Because if Reagan woke up he would be frightened. Reagan slept through the lot. And I said, "I want you to be there so Reagan's all right, because he knows you." Aidan didn't want me to go away, so I said, "I'll be just out there, where I can see what's happening. If I go away, the other lady is going to stay right there on the fence, where you can see." Well, he was still awake around the twelve o'clock mark, I should think. I thought he was asleep a couple of times, when I nicked in to get tissues and all, popped back and checked him each time.
I went out with Michael. We both went together, looking, and we came back about every half hour to check if the police had come back, or if anybody had found anything. And we stayed close then, in case they wanted us, back and forth. We could hear them. People were doing other things. We were out by ourselves.
We stayed out, ourselves, until somewhere between eleven and eleven-thirty, if not longer. But we didn't want to look any more after that. Michael said, "I'll quite down, someone else might, but I don't want to." I think perhaps too, the initial shock was wearing off, and he sort of realized just what he might find, and didn't want to, so he stayed and sat on the fence. Then Bobbie, the nurse, went around to find a motel room for us.'
Charlwood: 'When did she arrive?'
Chamberlain: 'When?'
Charlwood: 'Yes.'
Chamberlain: 'Could have been anything between nine and ten o'clock. That's a wild guess. She stayed with us for a while and then she went away.'
Charlwood:  'Where had she gone?'
Chamberlain: 'She went somewhere, to the motel, I think. Then she came back, and she said she had a place for us. And the policeman was coming over to pick up our stuff. I think it was quite a while, somewhere between twelve and twelve-thirty we packed up. We decided to pack the lot. I went with the policeman, and took some things in the back of his car, and the rest we just threw in the back of our car. I took the kids in their sleeping bags. And Michael grabbed the last few things, and came in our car. The Western Australian lady, and the other lady, said they would tidy up our dishes at the barbecue for us, and send them over in the morning. They sent everything back except the tin of baked beans, which I thought was rather diplomatic of them. And I think we finally settled, by the time we were all ready, at about half past one, or just before. I was the last one. It was half past one when I looked at my watch, just before we climbed into bed....'

104 comments:

Shelley said...

So I just glanced at this. The volume of words for something that should have been such a short story.

So much information. Outside of analyzing the words about the Dingo taking the baby, we have tons of information that is not needed.

I am very excited to see your breakdown.

Anonymous said...

Multiple coroners confirm the baby was eaten by a dingo, and hardcore forensic evidence discovered after the mother's conviction proved a dingo dragged her baby off and ate her baby, the forensic evidence is what led to the mother's release

Why are people vilifying the mother as a murderer when hardcore forensic science proves otherwise?

Anonymous said...

Science long proved dingos ate her baby:

http://www.nt.gov.au/justice/courtsupp/coroner/findings/other/chamberlain_findings.pdf

Excruciating Headache said...

Trial commentary:

http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/chamberlain/chamberlainaccount.html

Not hard evidence but an interesting read.

Anon, sometimes I think the crowd gets a little bloodthirsty.

Missy said...

Her story is believable. She doesn't skim over the period of time that the baby went missing, or drop pronouns during that period. Her account is very detailed. She speaks consistenly in the past tense, without emotions placed in the story. She does speak of some of the thoughts she had about what might have happened, but doesn't use emotions, which would have been a red flag considering she was telling this account soon after the incident.

"I put the can-opener down, walked back across the gas bottles, climbed the fence, and I was halfway between the fence and the post, on the way to the tent, and I saw the dingo coming out of the tent. And it had its head down, and it was in the light from about there up." .... "It was still inside the tent, its head was out, and it was trying to get something through the doorway and swinging its head around, now with its head down. That's what made me think it was a shoe, and I thought, He's got it by the shoelace, and it'd be swinging, and he can't get it through the door. The dog wanted to get out. It was unzipped, not only down the middle, but at both sides, across the bottom."

I don't understand why people have trouble beleiving the dingo took the baby, it would have seen an infant as food...

Rose said...

I agree. Forensic evidence aside, this woman is clearly telling a narrative FROM MEMORY. People who disbelieve that a wild animal could never eat a baby clearly grew up in areas without wild animals. I grew up in a small Alaska town on the edge of the National Forest. The danger wild animals pose to humans IS REAL, especially around camp ground areas where careless people leave out food. The reason people have trouble believing her story is because people desperately want to believe their own misinformation about wild animals.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like the scene from Quigly Down Under to me.

CanadianGirl said...

No one is saying that this mother is lying. Her statements were posted for analysis. You need to analyze true statements and false statements and everything else in between.
It's a crazy story, but no one would doubt that a dingo could grab a baby, drag it away and eat it!!! Hell, even wild dogs can do that!

mountain mama said...

Proper use of pronouns throughout the interview except a few lines in the beginning. I'm not saying she's guilty but the lack of pronouns stands out when they were used everywhere else.

" Stopped at Tennant Creek for a while had a look around. Camped at
the Oevil's Marbles that night. We actually camped out that night.
She slept in the car.
And the following day on to Alice Springs, Stayed at Heavitree Gap,
in our other tent. Looked around town that day, and we had
a petrol-pump fault, which we had to get fixed. Fixed it up
on Friday. Stayed there that night.

Lemon said...

Charlwood:…So, you left on what day?
Chamberlain: 583 words.

Whether a dingo, or a Yeti, ate the baby it is obvious the answer is outside the bounds of the question.

Anonymous said...

"So much information"

Investigators always ask parents of missing children for as much information and details as possible, prodding parents to tell them every little thing they can recall no matter how unimportant or irrelevant

The more details provided the better




Anonymous said...

Needed information..not.story telling

John Mc Gowan said...

We left Wednesday morning. We would have left Tuesday,
but the dry-cleaner's had the blankets, and we had to wait
till the following morning.

Im wondering if this comes under the "Water and Coverings"

Excruciating Headache said...

Lemon, I agree that Lindy is a little wordy but the interviewer asked for a statement.

Charlwood: 'What I'll do first, I'll just get you to go through what happened from
here to the incident so that I -

Chamberlain: 'From the time we left here?'
Charlwood: 'Well, just very briefly.'
Chamberlain: 'Fine. Okay.'
Charlwood: 'So we can work out, leading up to Ayers Rock, then in
some depth there. Just so that I can get a clear picture
of what happened, and then we can get another statement.'

From his choice of words, I assumed he wanted a narrative. His instructions aren't at all clear, though. Yetis and Yowies aside, he didn't establish any boundaries for his question.

"Just very briefly". How brief is brief? Is it unreasonable for a person to use 583 words when recounting the four day period before her daughter died?


Apple said...

Chamberlain: 'I was just trying to work it out.
We left Wednesday morning. We would have left Tuesday,
but the dry-cleaner's had the blankets, and we had to wait
till the following morning. So we left here, I suppose it would
have been about nine, and we headed more or less straight through.
Stopped at Tennant Creek for a while had a look around. Camped at
the Oevil's Marbles that night. We actually camped out that night.
She slept in the car.
------------
I was just trying to work it out
Left
Left
So we left
I suppose
About nine
More or less
Dropped pronouns
Actually
She (no name)
This statement is rich for SA, i will try it tonight.

Statement Analysis Blog said...

The analysis is coming.

I sometimes put a statement out for readers to work on before I get to it.

Some of the comments are indicators that this was a good plan on my part.

John Mc Gowan said...

Hi Peter,

She checks, and corrects(Spontaneously) herself a few times in her statement.

Some analysts say this is a sign of truthfulness.I wandering if you feel the same?

Thanks..

Anonymous said...

I saw many red flags which I'll have to go back to copy, but what caught me is the beginning of her account. In the beginning she starts off with pronouns then drops them for their stay in one place then starts using them again. I always thought she was innocent, but this story makes me feel (right now) that something happened to her daughter before they ever got to the park where the dingo was.
Did something happened at Tennant Creek? And then again Oevil's Marbles?

"Chamberlain:
Stopped at Tennant Creek for a while had a look around. Camped at
the Oevil's Marbles that night. We actually camped out that night.

She slept in the car.

And the following day on to Alice Springs, Stayed at Heavitree Gap,
in our other tent. Looked around town that day, and we had a petrol-pump fault, which we had to get fixed. Fixed it up on Friday. Stayed there that night. We were going to stay the following night, but the rodeo was on and it was rowdy, so we decided to take off."

Anonymous said...

Some reg flags for me.

"I suppose it was three quarters of an hour after the actual sunset by the time we got there." Three quarters = 3 is the Liar's number?

She said the dingo/dog was creepy when she saw it earlier but was not panicked or even concerned when she saw the dingo leave the tent.

She described the dingo as " Gold. Its coat was in beautiful condition. It wasn't one of the mangy ones around there." Why would she say the dingo that took her baby had a BEAUTIFUL coat?

"And I dived in, actually felt in the cradle for her, to make sure she wasn't there." She made sure she WASN't there, not to make sure WAS there. And described in the negative.

Tania Cadogan said...

Plenty of red flags with dropped pronouns, no use of the baby's name,comes to conclusion there is no hope of finding her alive etc within a couple of hours.

What stands out immediately is this phrase the dingo's got the baby

Note the article THE and not A and also note the aticle in relation to the baby she is THE BABY
Not my or our or even the baby's name.

What i am seeing is a lot of distancing between mom and baby, temporal lacuna and no name for the baby.

A dingo did not take her baby, a dingo may have been blamed as it would have been attracted to the smell of blood and thus taken either the baby or it's clothes.

The mom shows deception with her unexpected language and behavior.

This is just a quickie as i am whacked after a long and busy day

Anonymous said...

At first she knew the name 'Fertility Cave' and then she didn't remember the same of 'Fertility Cave.'

Why is this?

Tania Cadogan said...

I felt within myself that she was dead, because if she was alive I'd have heard a whimper, or a cry, or something, unless by some miracle she was unconscious and still alive.

Where is her maternal instinct?

Where is the instinctive denial that precludes a mom accepting their child is dead regardless of cause of death or passage of time?

The dingo took my baby, she must be dead, oh well never mind.

We have no proof a dingo took Azaria, we only have evidence showing a dingo may have come in contact with discarded clothing, Her body was never found and given the area it was conveniently the perfect place for a crime.

I am not buying her story, there are way too many red flags both language and behavior wise

Anonymous said...

Her body was never found

Because a dingo ate the body....

OldPsychNurse said...

They couldn’t go on their camping trip on the day they originally planned because the baby’s blankets were at the dry cleaners? Really? Who has their baby’s blankets dry cleaned? Dry cleaning fluid must destroy incriminating bodily fluids.

OldPsychNurse said...

This account unnecessarily mentions the words "unwrapped" and "cold" several times when describing their daughter. (The parents left their cold, dead daughter unwrapped for dingos to find her. Sickening.)

Anonymous said...

The dingo was stalking the scent of the baby. It was only a matter of time until he/she snatched the baby and carried it back to its' den, or wherever. Anyone can take a few questionable words and twist them around to make of them whatever they wish. The dingo ate the baby. The end.

Unknown said...

You make some excellent points. Telling to me is "She slept in the car". Then her next sentence begins with "And" - that tells me she left out information there. Maybe a lot of info. Perhaps the evening was cool and they left the car running, the baby died?

Excruciating Headache said...

Azaria's mother saw a dingo take her baby. That was her first clue that something was wrong.

Her mother considered her unwrapped and cold because a dingo dragged her baby off. How did she know she was dead? Well, common sense would lead one to believe that the case. Fanatically religious people are different than the rest of us. It doesn't make them murderers.

Calling a baby "the baby"... When my young daughter fell down the stairs years ago, her brothers screamed, "Mom! The baby!!! The baby fell down the stairs!" I did not analyze their statements and suspect them of malfeasance. We did not, as a family, feel a need to distance ourselves from our baby. She had, in actuality, fallen down the stairs. Baby gates sometimes fail. No conspiracy. She (the baby) is alive and healthy today.

And OldPsychNurse, you disappoint me. As a nurse myself, I have heard a LOT of weird crap that I later learned to be true. As a mother, I have dry-cleaned many a garment to protect my family from bacterial and parasitic infections. Hot dryers are great, but they aren't helpful for large items such as blankets, pillows and sleeping bags. Don't get me started on bed bugs. LOL

I have really enjoyed some of this blog, but the prevailing attitude seems to be "guilty until proven innocent". Posting seems pretty much pointless unless the poster sits at the Mean Girls' Table. If the goal is the creation of a mutual admiration society, you've nailed it.

Regards! I'll probably be back, much to your dismay. I'm content to sit with the outcasts.

EH

Lemon said...

"Azaria's mother saw a dingo take her baby."

Are you sure that's what she said she saw? :)

Coughing said...

Science did prove it but she DOES give unnecessary information and she explains unnecessary things...such as why they didn't leave the day before and after the fact the dingo made her feel creepy she realized. It is odd that she mentions the dingo being unable to take its eyes off of her, she anthropomorphizes it as if it is a predatory human. As if the dingo singled her out for persecution. That is fantasy after the fact. Out of a very large crowd. And then watched her for a very long time, plotting her movements, not being distracted by foods, other humans, babies. That's unrealistic--I work in a zoological field and that beggars the imagination. It makes sense to her after the fact, but that is not realistic.
Despite that she evidently is telling the truth. No point in arguing with forensics.

Anonymous said...

Sometimes "dropped pronouns" appear as if the transcriber were putting periods where commas would have done just fine. If I were to tell you what all my family did yesterday I wouldn't put a "we" in front of every single thing, sometimes there would be "lists" and if other people heard me speaking, some might transcribe that with commas, while others would put a period and say "ah ha, she dropped a pronoun."

Lemon said...

"But we didn't want to look any more after that."

The above statement would fall into the 'unexpected' category, I believe.

Anonymous said...

Excruciating Headache, I very much enjoy your well-thought out posts and your intellect. You are not among the outcasts, but several of us anons are, that's why we post as anon. Any time we post in any other way we are attacked as if we are idiots or evil, or both.

I also wanted you to know that you are the first one to post here who has even made sense consistently concerning the Zimmerman stalking murder of Trayvon Martin.

To take it even further; yes, flat out cold-bloodied murder by a lunatic wanna-be-mentally challenged play cop who stalked his prey Travon Martin down like a mad dog on the prowl. He fully intended to see Trayvon dead, and did.

I'm just sorry poor scared-out-of-his-mind Trayvon wasn't able to get in more punches than he did, sorry he wasn't able to get the gun away from Zimmerman. Poor guy, it was HIS death scream that we heard on the redacted tape; NOT lying dirtbag Zimmermans.

Unknown said...

Coughing - do you find it odd that a dingo would drag baby clothes only in a cave? What about a baby but eat every last remnant, including bones? The reason I ask is because I can't understand why the jacket was found and not one shred of body, skull, bone etc was found. And the disposable diaper? I addressed you because you said you have some zoology background. Thx! And to anonymous speaking of transcribing - that's actually a pretty interesting point you make.

Anonymous said...

interesting to compare this to amanda knox statement,. this woman is telling the truth -- and even when she had no way of telling the time she tries to tell us her best guess. she gives as specific infomartion as she can even though they were in dark woods in the night in middle of a terrifying trauma.

knoc on the other hand gives options for what may have happened but insists she can not say the time that they happened or in what order.

Deejay said...

It is not weird that Lindy remembers the Dingo looking at her. By the time she tells this - she knew what had happened to the baby.
I don't see many alibi building words. It is chronological. The panic/confusion around the disappearance is described.

I think she was not as overtly emotional as some might expect- hysterics,crying, etc.

Deejay said...

EH- I also notice that people seem to find everyone guilty. I chalk it up to inexperience with SA nuances.

The Trayvon M. case made me so mad I quit reading here for a while. That poor kid was murdered by a viliante...

Anonymous said...

I find it very bizarre that she said they went to sleep around 1:30 at the motel room.

REALLY? You can sleep knowing your baby is out there just eaten by dingo's

I don't think so.

That was a dead give-away for me.

I don't believe the dingo story.

Blood in the car. Lots of it. How did LOTS of blood get in the car?

Dingo's may have eaten the baby after she was already killed.

They knew dingo's would smell the blood and eat the remains.

Large amounts of blood in the car was blamed on a person they supposedly helped give first aid to years ago. The blood wasn't that old.

Not buying it.

Anonymous said...

She never once said she SAW the baby in the dingo's mouth yet she looked straight at it. It was close enough to her (according to her description) to see what was in it's mouth yet she says "HER HEART told her so.

She said at one point she thought it was a shoe. A shoe and a baby look quite different.
Also the that blankets were left in the tent which means the baby was not covered in anything when dingo carried her off, this would make her visible.

If she doesn't say she saw the baby in Dingo's mouth, neither can we. It was only in her heart.

She refers to her as "baby" and does not call her by name. Suspicious.

She also uses some phrases like Amanda Knox such as "In my mind".

Anonymous said...

I agree.

They went to sleep at 1:30.

Baby goes missing around 8:30 9:00 and they go to sleep 5 hours later.

I doubt they believed she was missing. They knew where she was; buried by them

Anonymous said...

There were also multiple professionals for the prosecutors that said the way the baby's clothes were cut did NOT come from dingo's.

brosnanfan said...

Is a dingo a relative of the hyena?

I have read that hyenas will eat anything, whether it be dead, alive, rotted, whatever.

If this baby died at the hands of her parents, whether purposefully or accidentally, what would have been the purpose of covering up the death with a "dingo kidnapping"?

I'm not sure one way or the other, but I am leaning towards thinking that at the very least, the mother has some guilty knowledge of how the baby died. Such a lengthy, wordy statement; so many little extra details that really aren't pertinent to the story.

Charlotte from Denmark said...

I believe that a dingo, dog, rhino, snake or lion could have eaten a baby. I just don't think that is the case here.

John Mc Gowan said...

The Trial Transcript in
Crown v Lindy and Michael Chamberlain.


("The Dingo Trial"):
Selected Excerpts


September 13 to October 29, 1982.


The Prosecution Case
Opening Statement by Ian Barker, Queen's Counsel
Sally Lowe
Judy West
Amy Whittacker
Murray Haby
Derek Roff
Joy Kuhl
Professor James Cameron

The Defence Case

Lindy Chamberlain
Professor Barry Boettcher
Les Harris, dingo expert
Professor Vernon Plueckhahn
Michael Chamberlain.

http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/chamberlain/chamberlaintranscript.html

Anonymous said...

"DOES give unnecessary information and she explains unnecessary things"


INVESTIGATORS ALWAYS ASK PARENTS OF MISSING CHILDREN FOR AS MUCH INFORMATION AS POSSIBLE AND TO RELATE ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING NO MATTER HOW IRRELEVANT OR UNNECESSARY OR BANAL THE INFORMATION MIGHT SEEM

Anonymous said...

SHE DRY-CLEANED THE BLANKETS BECAUSE HER AND HER FAMILY WERE CAMPING THROUGH AUSTRALIA YOU MORONS

Unknown said...

Sigh... Why do some find it necessary to insult when they disagree? There's nothing wrong with disagreeing - are you 12? All you have to do is state your case and move on.

Anonymous said...

As of last night when I had stopped reading comments, this had not yet been mentioned as a possibility, but the baby could have been dead before the dingo ate it, even before the camping trip, its decomposing odor attracting the dingo and the dingo still could have eaten the baby, thus having a truthful account.

Also, I find the way she is speaking to be quite common of people from Australia/New Zealand; I am surprised there are not more dropped words, including pronouns.

Lastly (for the moment, at least), per the comment about laundered blankets and concealing DNA evidence, this was 1980 so I'm not so sure that would have been on the forefront of the mother's mind, particularly if she were thinking of having a dingo take her baby.

Mind you, I offer point number one as a theory, I do not find, even with her description of body posture when describing the baby as sleeping, to be enough evidence to conclude via Statement Analysis whether or not the baby was dead before the dingo ate the baby.

Anonymous said...

As of last night when I had stopped reading comments, this had not yet been mentioned as a possibility, but the baby could have been dead before the dingo ate it, even before the camping trip, its decomposing odor attracting the dingo and the dingo still could have eaten the baby, thus having a truthful account.

Also, I find the way she is speaking to be quite common of people from Australia/New Zealand; I am surprised there are not more dropped words, including pronouns.

Lastly (for the moment, at least), per the comment about laundered blankets and concealing DNA evidence, this was 1980 so I'm not so sure that would have been on the forefront of the mother's mind, particularly if she were thinking of having a dingo take her baby.

Mind you, I offer point number one as a theory, I do not find, even with her description of body posture when describing the baby as sleeping, to be enough evidence to conclude via Statement Analysis whether or not the baby was dead before the dingo ate the baby.

Anonymous said...

In SA, lights going on and off mean something and I am wondering if it would apply to torches/flashlights? I know they had to use them therefore torches would be in her story naturally.

This part of her statement has some interesting remarks.

We went to get our big one out. We've got one of those Big Jims. Something had been packed on the button and flattened the battery, and the one we had was just about flat. That's why we were looking, because I realized that our torch was useless, and it sort of went through my mind, Nobody's going to believe me. They'll all think I'm either drunk or I'm joking if I go to the tents and tell them to come. It's just going to take too long. I needed help now. So I just stood there and yelled as loud as I could, "Has anybody got a torch?" because the dingo had the baby. "Has anybody got a torch!"


She is explaining why they did something (look for their torch) then says “nobody’s going to believe me. They’ll all think I’m drunk” (explaining why she yelled “has anybody got a torch?”) Then explains again (because the dingo had the baby). She also said “just stood there.” Stood can indicate tension.

John Mc Gowan said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
John Mc Gowan said...

"They'll all think I'm either "DRUNK" or I'm JOKING if I go to the tents and tell them to come".



Interesting choice of words.

Order is important..

I would ask,if she uses alcohol frequently,and how her internal subjective dictionary defines DRUNK.


Also,on gods green planet,why would anybody JOKE about a dingo grabbing their baby

charlotte from denmark said...

She is either guilty of killing her baby, or she is a stone cold woman who didn't love her baby, and was just happy she died.

No loving mother talks like this about her missing, helpless baby.

On another note, I saw the photos of Azaria, and she must have been an advanced baby, standing on her feet (her mother holding her hands only, not under her arms) at barely two months old.

I have four children, youngest is 15 months, and I dont remember any of them being this advanced.

Anonymous said...

No mother sleeps the night they find out their baby has died, whether they murdered them or someone took them.

She sounds very detached when giving her statement to police.

She killed the baby in the tent knowing the dingos would come for the remains.

TO Annon: 2:20 just b/c a few said dingos ate her baby, which they probably did, after she was killed by mother, doesn't mean she didn't do it herself.

There are many people who get away with murder: Casey Anthony ring a bell?
























































































.......

OldPsychNurse said...

Dry cleaning babies blankets (unless they are family heirlooms) is a ridiculous expense. Even wool baby blankets can be washed in cold water. In addition, the survival time for a rhinovirus/adenovirus outside of its warm, humid host's nasopharynx/pharynx is <24 hours. No competent health practitioner has ever told anyone to dry clean their baby's blankets to which will be against the baby's skin and it's toxic fumes inhaled. None. Dry cleaning fluid is a well-known carcinogen and has been since the 1980s.

It's a red flag that all the baby's blankets were sent to the dry cleaners and this delayed the couple's camping trip.

OldPsychNurse said...

Dry cleaning babies blankets (unless they are family heirlooms) is a ridiculous expense. Even wool baby blankets can be washed in cold water. In addition, the survival time for a rhinovirus/adenovirus outside of its warm, humid host's nasopharynx/pharynx is <24 hours. No competent health practitioner has ever told anyone to dry clean their baby's blankets to which will be against the baby's skin and it's toxic fumes inhaled. None. Dry cleaning fluid is a well-known carcinogen and has been since the 1980s.

It's a red flag that all the baby's blankets were sent to the dry cleaners and this delayed the couple's camping trip.

Anonymous said...

Peter and others,

Here is something I find interesting to consider when reviewing changes in tenses related to verbs/nouns, etc.

"Very little deception research has examined temporal
adjustments in deceptive communication. If deceptive behavior fluctuates rather than
remaining stable over the course of an interaction, then much of what has been written
about verbal or nonverbal indicators of deception may be inaccurate. For example,
verbal and nonverbal indicators of deception that are identified in meta-analyses of the
extant literature (DePaulo et al., 2003; Zuckerman & Driver, 1985) may be accurate
only in depicting the opening seconds or minutes of a deceptive episode but not
the later ones. Thus, a first question addressed in the current investigation is whether
deceptive behavior differs depending on time."

And this article goes on to further discuss this point, as well as others. It is an interesting read.

Taken from:
The Dynamic Nature of Deceptive Verbal Communication
Journal of Language and Social Psychology 2006; 25; 76
Judee K. Burgoon and Tiantian Qin
DOI: 10.1177/0261927X05284482

Coughing said...

Swallowing clothing whole, unlikely. Many animals will eat a diaper. The dingo most likely would have died if it had eaten a jacket.
Dingoes are scavengers when food is scarce. The baby may have already been dead. I go back...now I read guilt in her words about the dingo following her with his eyes. As scavengers they have an acute sense of smell. He may have smelled death on her.
I know what forensic science 'proves' but I keep going back to her story and arive at forensic science needing interpretation, and she received a sympathetic analysis from the latest round.
This baby was most likely dead and the dingo, if ever there was one, smelled it on her. You cannot hide the smell of death from wild animals. Ask the Anthony family.

Coughing said...

And with your caps-filled proclamation you prove to everyone to have missed the point of SA entirely.
You have either learned nothing or read nothing that Peter has taught us.

Ivanna-Anna said...

I think she's innocent.

There is no "proper" introduction to Azaria BUT the introduction is not in this interview. This is not the first time she talks about the baby to the investigator -- she mentions talking to him earlier that day.

She does not mention Azaria by her name often BUT this is natural. She was a young baby -- Her mum had carried her for 9 months and thought of her as a baby (did she even know the baby's sex before she was born?) and possibly called her "baby." I don't know about Australia, but in Finland we often don't even reveal the baby's name until baptism (at around 2 months) and then it takes some time to get used to the newly given name.

She did not want to believe Azaria had been taken: Her instincts told her one thing, her head another. She could see but her mind wouldn't accept it. This indicates she was not involved with her death.

She kept correcting herself; an indication she was telling the truth.

She did mention water but I don't think it was odd. They were in an area where it was not expected, it was a big thing to the kids and they had talked about it.

She dropped pronouns in the beginning BUT that's not odd. She admitted she was trying to remember what happened during these first days of the trip. She didn't commit because she was unsure.

She mentioned "leaving" in the beginning. That's understandable. They were held back, they wanted to start the journey but could not. They had to spend an extra night. And FINALLY they were able to leave the starting point and start the journey.

Anonymous said...

"Very little deception research has examined temporal
adjustments in deceptive communication..and then? ...and? ...since....for. Sudden changes in tense, the use of leave, left, dropping pronouns...
Read all about it in the archives!!!!

Anonymous said...

The dingo did not take the baby. It is unbelievable the dingo took the baby and the mother did not go running after it, instead pondered about people thinking she was drunk or joking? I have always thought this story was ridiculous since I heard of it years ago. I still do, the dingo did not take her baby. She killed the baby.

Anonymous said...

Please help find Ayla
Anonymous said...
The dingo did not take the baby
She killed the baby.
May 7, 2013 at 3:51 PM

Where did she say this in her statement?

Anonymous said...

HUH! Forensic science also said the THE GLOVE DIDN'T FIT!

Come on people!

Anonymous said...

Chamberlain: 'Well, I could see all the dog in the shadow. I was standing here, and it would have been slightly on an angle, with its head partly turned, and it took off at an angle. Say that's the car, here. I was coming around, here. It was there. The road was here. It took off across there [demonstrating]. I took off, up this way, and when I got to here, in the meantime Michael came from the barbecue, straight through this way and caught me: "Where?" And I said, "That way!" And he went up in the dark, and he ran out without his torch. I'd stopped, because I realized there was dead silence. You couldn't see a thing, you couldn't hear a thing. The light from the barbecue didn't show anymore, there. I realized that there was just no hope of finding it. We needed a torch. We'd searched for ours earlier. Couldn't find the little one we were using. We went to get our big one out. We've got one of those Big Jims. Something had been packed on the button and flattened the battery, and the one we had was just about flat. That's why we were looking, because I realized that our torch was useless, and it sort of went through my mind, Nobody's going to believe me. They'll all think I'm either drunk or I'm joking if I go to the tents and tell them to come. It's just going to take too long. I needed help now. So I just stood there and yelled as loud as I could, "Has anybody got a torch?" because the dingo had the baby. "Has anybody got a torch!"

Anonymous said...

Ivanna-Anna - I agree with your comment about the mom calling her 'the baby': " I don't know about Australia, but in Finland we often don't even reveal the baby's name until baptism (at around 2 months) and then it takes some time to get used to the newly given name."

It took me months to call my kids by their names as I was so used to calling each of them "the baby" prior to birth, especially at doctors visits... "the baby is fine", "the baby is growing normally", "the baby is kicking", etc.

Now, on the other hand I was a working mom with a stay-at-home-husband & he did not take as long to call the kids by name. There was a level of detachment between me & the kids which may be part of the reason it took me so long to call them by name. I was not the primary caregiver to the babies, even in those first few weeks my husband did the majority of the work. I noticed that I was still saying "the baby" long after he was consistantly calling them by name.

So this coudl go either way, it coudl be a normal reference to a new baby, or it could signal a detachment between the mother & the baby. I'd be curious if the father also said "the baby" instead of calling her by name.

Anonymous said...

I think Lindy Chamberlain is an odd woman but it's not a crime to be odd. She's throwing everything that she can think of from that day into her statement. Innocent people will keep thinking about everything they saw, every little detail. The guilty will stop the flow of information 'that's all I know.' The dropped pronouns at the beginning of her statement are not sinister to me. He asked when they left and she has to think backwards because she's thinking of when the baby disappeared. That part, the preparing to leave, is not important to her so she dropped the pronouns. We did a bunch of stupid crap, drove here and there and then got to where we were going. That's what that part of the statement says to me.

Everybody who says that Mrs. Chamberlain never says the baby's name once, she calls her "Bubby" twice in the statement. Bubby is a pet name, far more personal than even the given name. Azaria is a weird name, hard to say, hard to make a nickname for. When my kids were infants I had half a dozen pet names for them. It's such a long statement it'll be interesting to hear Peter's analysis. Anon J

Anonymous said...

Those of you who believe the dingo killed and ate her baby: I would like to know how you would explain the saturation of the blood in and under the front seat of their car as well as center console.

I am from New Zealand - it's true we drop pronouns all the time, BUT NOT when we are in a serious state of explaining something with such importance.

Anonymous said...

Lindy Chamberlain, the Australian mother who spent three years in jail for the murder of her two-month-old daughter Azaria, has been officially cleared of the crime 32-years after Azaria disappeared.

32 years to clear her? Wow, there must have been some serious doubt.

~ABC said...

LC said...
We left Wednesday morning.
We would have left Tuesday, but the dry-cleaner's had the blankets, and we had to wait till the following morning....

Why was that important to mention? Is it alibi building for some future question as to why the blankets were in whatever condition they were in? Also, why dry clean them before a camping trip? To make sure nothing was left on the blankets from some past incident?

This works too
We left Wednesday morning about nine, and we headed more or less straight through.

truth please said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sg-e73-4gAc

you tube video on baby Azaria very interesting. Father claims to be a minister of the Gospel. Both mother and father say "this is God's will". Father is immediately enthralled with the media wanting his story and speaks with them very shortly after. He also thanks the searchers very quickly even when nothing was found.

Keep in mind the theory is: the dingo went into the tent, broke the babies neck and carried her off. There was blood IN the tent, BUT THERE WAS NOT ONE DROP OF BLOOD ON ANY TRAIL FOR MILES.

Azaria's sleeper (baby outfit) was in full tacked everywhere but the neck area, which was slightly cut and torn and blood soaked. No blood on rest of the suit and NO RIPS/CUTS suggesting teeth marks.

So the theory would have to be that the dingo was able to carry a bleeding baby off in it's mouth leaving no blood trail whatsoever, and this same wild dingo carefully undressed her before consuming???

I have seen pictures of the sleeper outfit & matinee jacket...looks carefully removed to me.

Anonymous said...

ABC - I agree. Something sensitive about the blankets. I think they were laundered again right after the it happened. She said the nurse at the camp site told her to send them to the cleaners.

Tremendous amount of blood was found in Chamberlains car. Forensic scientist claimed it was that of a baby or small child. Can't remember the scientific name of what is found in only baby/child blood.

Father reacted strangely afterward. I think the "is that bubby crying" was part of the alibi building for everyone else to see.

What religion were they practicing?

~ABC said...

Anon @ 7:39 PM

They were/are ? Seventh-day Adventist.

I don't know very much about this case. When I read the statement Peter posted all I could think was WHOA too much info. It was a wall of information. I'm not sure what that means if anything. I will say at this point I don't believe the dingo story. There's more to it.

OldPsychNurse said...

@Anonymous (2 about this post)
The coroner found fetal hemoglobin in the car. This predominates for the first three months of life in "normal" infant and then begins to decreases after that time (3 months is the figure my brain recalls after such a HORRIBLE performance by my fave hockey team-it might be a tad longer time though). Fetal hemoglobin is only found in adults with Sickle Cell Anemia and a very minuscule percentage of people that have this genetic trait. There is also a higher percentage of stem cells in fetal blood than in adults. This is how the blood in the car was identified as a baby's blood and not an adult blood.

Lemon said...

"Instinct told me that she wasn't there, the dog had her, but my head told me it wasn't possible. Dingoes don't do such things, and this was, you know, just beyond the realms of reason. And I dived into the tent just to make sure. I could see from the door that she wasn't there. But my mind wouldn't accept it." - LC
___________

"Instinct told me" - wasn't possible (in negative)
"my head told me" - wasn't possible (in negative)
"beyond the realms of reason"
"my mind" - wouldn't accept it (in negative)

LC speaks of instinct (told her), her head (told her), and her mind…all in the negative. "Instinct" told her the "dog had her". She does not say she saw the dog had her. She does not say she saw the dingo had her. If she can't say it, we can't say it for her.

Shouldn't she be telling us what she DID see with her eyes?

John Mc Gowan said...

We LEFT Wednesday morning about nine, and we headed more or less straight through.

LEFT=
70% likely due to rushing, time, traffic, but 30% likely related to missing serious information.


I. Left

Regarding the word "left";

Some people go to the store.

"I went to Sears."

Some people leave to go to the store.

"I left my house and went to Sears."

Both end up at the store, but for the second person's statement, the location from which he departed, is what is on his mind. He felt the need, in less than a second, to use the additional words, "left my house and" in his sentence. It takes more effort and the subject is not saying the same thing as the first subject, but this is not something generally picked up without training.

People use the word "left" as a means of mentioning the place where their mind is. It is like a way to get that place into a sentence.

http://statement-analysis.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/the-genius-of-simplicity-in-analysis.html

John Mc Gowan said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
John Mc Gowan said...

Stopped at Tennant Creek for a while had a look around.

Dropped pronoun,lack of commitment to stopping off at Tennant Creek.

What were they looking at?If they don,t tell us we cant say it for them.

Unless iv'e missed it, there is no reliable Denial..

Red Ryder said...

The splattered material initially identified as fetal blood under the dashboard of the car was retested and found to be factory installed sound deadener. For some reason it tests very similar to fetal blood. Strange.

Anonymous said...

Comment deleted

This comment has been removed by the author.

May 8, 2013 at 2:44 AM

-No, that comment was typed by the author aka "Comment deleted". :))

OldPsychNurse said...

Factory installed sound deadener is everywhere including a deceased child's clothing? It also resembles hemoglobin under a microscope? (Nope.)

The coroner's findings into the second inquest:
http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/chamberlain/galvinfindings.html

OldPsychNurse said...

-use of negatives
-Some sentences/run on that start with "and" and "because"= leaving out info
-equivocations
-answering questions with questions
-non-committal verbs (i.g., I think)
-ridiculously long, and unnecessary description of what occurred that date with little detail about the actual "abduction" of her child by the dingo

Shayna said...

Unexpected and uncaring sounding for a mother of a missing 10 week old carried off before my very eyes. I would have imagined her bleeding, cold, wanting her mommy and would have searched through the night for anything, a drop of blood, diaper remnants. Going to sleep in a motel room five hours later is bizarre.

Lemon said...

It is bizarre. If my CAT was missing I wouldn't be able to go to sleep five hours later. I wouldn't say I "didn't want to look any more after that."

Unknown said...

Interesting article and comments from a detective who investigated the case:

http://www.ntnews.com.au/article/2012/02/17/289261_ntnews.html

John Mc Gowan said...

Karen K. said...
Interesting article.

Hi Karen,

This part was interesting reading..

"The jacket was inside out when the package was opened for the first time at Forensic Section, again in her presence. In a nutshell, the jacket was inside out with a button stuck to the button hole ...

"There was no damage consistent with a canine attack and it would appear the jacket was removed and turned inside out while buttoned up."

Mrs Chamberlain was released in 1986 after the jacket was found, partially buried.

Mr Marchant said "a few rough experiments" carried out by late forensics experts Joy Kuhl and Brian Nieman showed the jacket could not be removed from a doll by pulling it over the head and turning it inside out.

But that could be done if the doll had no head.

"So what happened?" Mr Marchant said.

"Don't know. Was not there. Pure conjecture.

"But perhaps the dingo while running off with the child, stopped, undid the jacket, took it off, buttoned it up again, turned it inside out, buried it and then made off ... with the child."

He said the first coroner, the late Dinny Barret, found there had been human involvement in the disappearance of Azari



Ivanna-Anna said...

I'm a scientist. I've done most of my lab career in academic research laboratories, but I've also worked in a company that analyses lab samples sent by hospitals and clinics. I have further specialized in managing biomedical and biological data (evaluating, comparing, verifying, and collating data that originates from different scientific sources).

In short, my message is: when you do statement analysis, forget about lab results.

"In long," my message is:
In scientific tests, we have the possibility of human error. We have contamination, problems with reagents, problems with equipment (they don't work properly, they are not used properly, or they are used for wrong experiments), and problems resulting from sample storage -- just to name a few. If nothing goes wrong up to the point when the results are revealed, there is the possibility that the results are interpreted wrongly (by mistake or on purpose) or that the person looking for something interprets the results in his/her expected direction (he/she is often unaware of doing this). Unbiased test results arise from blind studies where several labs are given samples for testing without being told what they are investigating exactly or what to expect the results to be.

Lab tests can be invaluable in criminal investigations, but unless we have been involved in every stage of the testing and analysis, we don't know how trustworthy the results are. This is just one of the reasons we need to keep statement analysis separate from other aspects of the investigation. Do not let lab test results affect your statement analysis process.

In the Azaria case, there were errors with the tests. Here's one example:

Joy Kuhl tested the scissors and samples from the car and said she found foetal blood. However, she made the chemical test with an antiserum that was not able to distinguish between foetal/infant blood and adult blood as it was bi-specific (it reacted immunologically with both foetal/infant and adult haemoglobin). In fact, she had come to this very conclusion herself, but was told to report there were "definite indications [that the blood was from an infant]."

We don't have access to the samples (they would enable us to do our own tests), or even to the unanalysed test results (they would be found in the laboratory records). We have 33 years worth of rumours -- and plenty of statements.

(Which reminds me:
Here's a link to an interview of Derek Roff, the chief ranger at Uluru between 1968 and 1985. In a memo to his bosses, he had outlined the threat by dingoes and proposed a cull http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2012/s3523826.htm)

~ABC said...

Thank you Ivanna-Anna for the reminder and explanation of how imperfect science is. There are few, if any, absolutes in this world.

Ivanna-Anna said...

Thanks, ~ABC.

For about 20 years, I was sure Lindy Chamberlain was guilty. I based this on hearing that Azaria's clothes had been neatly folded. After Googling & reading about the case most of the the day today, I've realised there were no neatly folded clothes.

The scissors I mentioned earlier (the ones Kuhl tested with the wrong reagent)... it seems the scissors were not even in the car during the Chamberlains' trip. It seems they tested the wrong pair of scissors.

With statement analysis, we can help those who have been let down by scientific experts/witnesses -- but only if we don't allow their claims to sway us when we analyse.

Anonymous said...

The first part of Lindy's statement sounds to me like she is stepping inside of her memory, so to speak, as she tries to recall every detail as it happened. "Chamberlain: 'I was just trying to work it out.
We left Wednesday morning..."

________________________________

Also, does "dry cleaning" in Australia mean the very same thing that it means in the US? It doesn't say that the blanket was the baby's blanket. Maybe it was something (dust on a sleeping bag, maybe?) that they wanted to freshen up before taking along with a new baby. It could have been too big for their washing machine at home. We would need to evaluate her internal definitions.
_________________________________
And I said, "Look what's watching us." And we all stood there for
at least four minutes, maybe longer, watching this dog. There was a crevice just beneath where it was, and Reagan was moving around,
and it struck me at the time it was odd, because he said, "Where is it,
Mummy, I can't see?" The dog would usually follow movements with
its eyes, but it didn't seem to take its eyes off me. It made me feel a bit creepy, which I thought of after. Azaria was with me at the time. She was with me - unwrapped and awake – sitting across my shoulder, looking about....'

The dog was watching "us." The dog would follow movement with its eyes. She was holding Azaria who was awake and looking around/moving in her arms. It made her feel "creepy" when she thought of it later.

___________________________________

"She slept with her arms up."

That might make the inside out article of clothing come off easier and turn inside out as something pulled her out of it.

__________________________________
"They had a little eighteen-months-old baby girl. And there was a dingo in the area, actually. It had been there the night before. We'd been talking a bit about them, because the hikers that had been camped around there the night before said to us, "Don't leave any food out, because they scrounge for it." And we'd read the notices in the toilets, and I'd only seen them that afternoon. We were actually watching this dingo, when Aidan spied some sort of animal. He didn't know what it was. It turned out to be a little kangaroo-mouse. The husband of the young couple was sitting on the fence, about that far from the railing that goes around it.'
There was a post in between us. And all of a sudden he said, "I think that mouse is here by this post." Before Aidan got there with the torch, this dingo pounced in, right between us. Say, so far from his feet and so far from mine. We'd had no idea it was there. It was so quiet, and was gone."

Warnings of dingos in the area. One was there the day before according to the campers that were already there. They saw a mouse get pounced on before they were aware a dingo was there.

__________________________________

Anonymous said...

"And my husband said to me, "Bubby cried." I sort of paused, and said to him, "Are you sure?" She was sound asleep. He said, well, he heard a cry. And the other fellow sort of indicated that he'd heard something, whether he heard a cry or not I don't know."

Lindy's husband and the other fellow said in one case and indicated in the other that they had both heard something.

__________________________________

"It was a young dingo, and my first thought was either it was a young one, or still a puppy. It would've been so high at the shoulder. Gold. Its coat was in beautiful condition. It wasn't one of the mangy ones around there. The light was blinking on it, so it must have been a shiny coat, and it wasn't dusty, or anything like that. Around its neck it was, I'd say, like a rust. It put its head down.'"

She is going through thought by thought what went through her head as it happened. I doubt she would be complimenting the dingo after she knew it took her baby, but at this point, she is recalling what was going through her mind.

____________________________________

Instinct told me that she wasn't there, the dog had her, but my head told me it wasn't possible. Dingoes don't do such things, and this was, you know, just beyond the realms of reason. And I dived into the tent just to make sure. I could see from the door that she wasn't there. But my mind wouldn't accept it.

She's going on instinct. Her mind wouldn't let her "accept it."

__________________________________

Nobody's going to believe me. They'll all think I'm either drunk or I'm joking if I go to the tents and tell them to come. It's just going to take too long. I needed help now. So I just stood there and yelled as loud as I could, "Has anybody got a torch?" because the dingo had the baby.

They had just got done talking about the dingos not long before... Since they did not know her well, they very well could assumed she was being dramatic and pulling a prank.

___________________________________

And I said to her, "No, it's only just happened, and we need a torch. We've got to look for her, if someone could go?" And she said, "Well, would you like my husband to go?" And I said, "Yes." And she ran back for her torch and for her husband, and she came back and she said, "He's going straight around for the police and ranger." Michael was back by this time, and we offered him the torch. It was one of those fluorescent ones. And the only thing that did penetrate into his mind at the time was that they don't give enough beam. They shoot around, but it's not a beam. And we went to our car and looked for a torch, and asked people if they had torches could they go and look....' About that time, Michael went back out, with a torch. They would've spent, I don't know, quite a few minutes out there. Say ten, fifteen minutes. Then the police arrived and the ranger was there within two or three minutes after him.
By this time, there would've been anything from thirty to fifty people out with torches, looking.

Lindy agreed for police and ranger help immediately. It was pitch black out and they were out without much light except flashlights. That kind of darkness, outside of any city, can be impossible to navigate. When help did arrive, 30 to 50 people were out searching. Any dingo tracks would have been
destroyed.
____________________________________






__________________________________

Anon "I" said...

After about two hours we just hoped that we would never - We initially said to the police if they found anything of her, it didn't matter what it was, we wanted to see her. Then we decided that, if they found her, we'd like to see something of her clothes, but we didn't particularly want to see her, in a morbid state at all.

Under the cold conditions and the fact there was blood in the tent and the obvious dingo, the likelihood of her surviving was close to zero. No matter what was found, they wanted to see it. No matter what... and, they didn't truly want to see her dead. But, if that was their only choice, they wanted to see her.

___________________________________

As the night wore on, the ranger said he felt that they wouldn't find anything. He said we'd be very lucky to find clothes; it'd probably taken it back to its den. Very occasionally they would savage without killing.

The experienced ranger told them Azaria's survival was unlikely. They had reason to believe she was dead.

_________________________________
Then he was asking heights - And I said to Michael that I had no reason to say that, except for a mother's instinct that I felt it was a female that had taken her that it was like the first dingo we had seen at Maggie Springs that afternoon. And Michael said to me, "Now listen, you be careful. It's one thing to say what you saw, and it's another thing saying what you suppose to be. If you go around saying it's the same as that dingo, there seem to be dozens of dingoes around here, and they all look alike, you know. You're getting into the realms of probability." So I never said anything about that then. Although the next day, when Inspector Gilroy came and talked to us, and he asked me to describe the dog at the barbecue, I said to him, "Well, it was so like that one I'd seen at Maggie Springs, even when I saw it coming out of the tent, I thought, Oh, you're the rascal we saw this afternoon. But it's a bit far away, I guess. They're too alike, around here. And when they said, afterwards, that they'd found the clothes near Maggie Springs, I said to the inspector, "Can you tell me if they were found just behind the opening of that cave? What do you call this cave?'
Charlwood: 'The Fertility Cave.’
Chamberlain: 'And the inspector said, "Oh, it wasn't far from there, as a matter of fact." He said, "You're thinking what I'm thinking. I remember you saying to me that it was so like that dog, and your husband shutting you up."

Again, she is reacting with pure instinctual feelings. Even the ranger seems to verify her suspicions.

Aidan is actually the type of child that when, well, if he cuts his foot he goes hysterical, and he didn't that night. In fact, it amazed me. Shock, I suppose. He came running out, and he screamed at me, and he said, "Mummy, don't let the dingo eat our baby!" He put into words what my mind wouldn't accept.

Another person (child) aware and in shock. She wouldn't let her mind accept what he was saying.

Anon "I"

____________________________________

Anon "I" said...

Well, he was still awake around the twelve o'clock mark, I should think. I thought he was asleep a couple of times, when I nicked in to get tissues and all, popped back and checked him each time.

It's very late and she went in to get tissues at risk of waking her son/s. She is probably feeling numb at this point (in her recall of events) since she doesn't mention tears, just tissues.

___________________________________

We both went together, looking, and we came back about every half hour to check if the police had come back, or if anybody had found anything. And we stayed close then, in case they wanted us, back and forth. We could hear them. People were doing other things. We were out by ourselves.

They were looking long after others had stopped.

Nobody's going to believe me. They'll all think I'm either drunk or I'm joking if I go to the tents and tell them to come. It's just going to take too long. I needed help now. So I just stood there and yelled as loud as I could, "Has anybody got a torch?" because the dingo had the baby.

They had just got done talking about the dingos not long before... Since they did not know her well, they very well could assumed she was being dramatic and pulling a prank.

Anon "I" said...

___________________________________

And I said to her, "No, it's only just happened, and we need a torch. We've got to look for her, if someone could go?" And she said, "Well, would you like my husband to go?" And I said, "Yes." And she ran back for her torch and for her husband, and she came back and she said, "He's going straight around for the police and ranger." Michael was back by this time, and we offered him the torch. It was one of those fluorescent ones. And the only thing that did penetrate into his mind at the time was that they don't give enough beam. They shoot around, but it's not a beam. And we went to our car and looked for a torch, and asked people if they had torches could they go and look....' About that time, Michael went back out, with a torch. They would've spent, I don't know, quite a few minutes out there. Say ten, fifteen minutes. Then the police arrived and the ranger was there within two or three minutes after him.
By this time, there would've been anything from thirty to fifty people out with torches, looking.

Lindy agreed for police and ranger help immediately. It was pitch black out and they were out without much light except flashlights. That kind of darkness, outside of any city, can be impossible to navigate. When help did arrive, 30 to 50 people were out searching. Any dingo tracks would have been
destroyed.
____________________________________

After about two hours we just hoped that we would never - We initially said to the police if they found anything of her, it didn't matter what it was, we wanted to see her. Then we decided that, if they found her, we'd like to see something of her clothes, but we didn't particularly want to see her, in a morbid state at all.

Under the cold conditions and the fact there was blood in the tent and the obvious dingo, the likelihood of her surviving was close to zero. No matter what was found, they wanted to see it. No matter what... and, they didn't truly want to see her dead. But, if that was their only choice, they wanted to see her.

___________________________________

As the night wore on, the ranger said he felt that they wouldn't find anything. He said we'd be very lucky to find clothes; it'd probably taken it back to its den. Very occasionally they would savage without killing.

The experienced ranger told them Azaria's survival was unlikely. They had reason to believe she was dead.

Anon "I" said...

Then he was asking heights - And I said to Michael that I had no reason to say that, except for a mother's instinct that I felt it was a female that had taken her that it was like the first dingo we had seen at Maggie Springs that afternoon. And Michael said to me, "Now listen, you be careful. It's one thing to say what you saw, and it's another thing saying what you suppose to be. If you go around saying it's the same as that dingo, there seem to be dozens of dingoes around here, and they all look alike, you know. You're getting into the realms of probability." So I never said anything about that then. Although the next day, when Inspector Gilroy came and talked to us, and he asked me to describe the dog at the barbecue, I said to him, "Well, it was so like that one I'd seen at Maggie Springs, even when I saw it coming out of the tent, I thought, Oh, you're the rascal we saw this afternoon. But it's a bit far away, I guess. They're too alike, around here. And when they said, afterwards, that they'd found the clothes near Maggie Springs, I said to the inspector, "Can you tell me if they were found just behind the opening of that cave? What do you call this cave?'
Charlwood: 'The Fertility Cave.’
Chamberlain: 'And the inspector said, "Oh, it wasn't far from there, as a matter of fact." He said, "You're thinking what I'm thinking. I remember you saying to me that it was so like that dog, and your husband shutting you up."

Again, she is reacting with pure instinctual feelings. Even the ranger seems to verify her suspicions.

Aidan is actually the type of child that when, well, if he cuts his foot he goes hysterical, and he didn't that night. In fact, it amazed me. Shock, I suppose. He came running out, and he screamed at me, and he said, "Mummy, don't let the dingo eat our baby!" He put into words what my mind wouldn't accept.

Another person (child) aware and in shock. She wouldn't let her mind accept what he was saying.

____________________________________
Well, he was still awake around the twelve o'clock mark, I should think. I thought he was asleep a couple of times, when I nicked in to get tissues and all, popped back and checked him each time.

It's very late and she went in to get tissues at risk of waking her son/s. She is probably feeling numb at this point (in her recall of events) since she doesn't mention tears, just tissues.

___________________________________

We both went together, looking, and we came back about every half hour to check if the police had come back, or if anybody had found anything. And we stayed close then, in case they wanted us, back and forth. We could hear them. People were doing other things. We were out by ourselves.

They were looking long after others had stopped.

Anon "I" said...

___________________________________

But we didn't want to look any more after that. Michael said, "I'll quite down, someone else might, but I don't want to." I think perhaps too, the initial shock was wearing off, and he sort of realized just what he might find, and didn't want to, so he stayed and sat on the fence. Then Bobbie, the nurse, went around to find a motel room for us.'

After all this time and effort looking, the chance they would find her alive was zero. They didn't want to look anymore because the numbness was wearing off and they were coming to grips with the fact that if they found her, it was going to be hellish.


____________________________________

'She went somewhere, to the motel, I think. Then she came back, and she said she had a place for us. And the policeman was coming over to pick up our stuff. I think it was quite a while, somewhere between twelve and twelve-thirty we packed up. We decided to pack the lot. I went with the policeman, and took some things in the back of his car, and the rest we just threw in the back of our car. I took the kids in their sleeping bags. And Michael grabbed the last few things, and came in our car. The Western Australian lady, and the other lady, said they would tidy up our dishes at the barbecue for us, and send them over in the morning. They sent everything back except the tin of baked beans, which I thought was rather diplomatic of them. And I think we finally settled, by the time we were all ready, at about half past one, or just before. I was the last one. It was half past one when I looked at my watch, just before we climbed into bed....'


They had been up all day long, caring for their three children, carrying Azaria even, and hiking in the cave. They were probably exhausted when they put the kids to bed and when their horror began.
A motel room had been secured for them the police was coming to get their stuff even. She acknowledges how they hastily left the campsite and recalls the kindness of the people doing the dishes and returning things to them. She was the last one in bed. She never mentions that she actually slept.

Anon "I" said...

Sorry for the repeats. The computer kept telling me I was too wordy and I had to keep breaking it into pieces which I apparently am not very good at doing yet. :)

Unknown said...

Does anyone else think that social media and the natural evolution of language renders the 'dropped pronoun' factor much less meaningful?

Take a look at posts on Facebook, Livejournal, Instagram, and so on. A quick look at my feeds shows that easily one third to one half of posts have dropped pronouns. It is partially lazy typing and partially an intentional style.

Then, have a listen to a group of younger people, and you will likely notice the pattern verbally as well.

Age-wise, this is noticeable in the under-30 group and even more so in the under-20 group. The other factor is social media use; it is more common among heavy users.

It's such a strong trend that I find it hard to place tremendous weight on dropped pronouns.

Unknown said...

Peter, I look forward to reading your analysis on the Chamberlain case.

While we wait, I'd like to share a good explanation of the case blunders. It's by The Hon. J.S. Winneke, who gave a talk on the Chamberlain case at an International Legal and Medical Conference in 2009.

The text can be accessed here: http://www.lmconference.com.au/papers/2009/winneke.html but here are the main conclusions:

1) That it was not possible to determine from the stains on Azaria’s recovered clothing that she had died from a cut throat. Indeed it was highly likely that the bleeding was of a ‘post mortem character’ rather than ‘ante-mortem’.

2) There were no blood stains on the clothing which represented human handprints’ anything like them. [it was not a handprint, and it was sand, not blood]

3) The so-called ‘blood-spray’ under the dashboard was not foetal blood but ‘sound deadener’. [The car was tested with ortho-tolidine, a chemical that has been used to monitor swimming pool water for excess chlorine, and to test for myoglobin, haemoglobin, and glucose presence in urine.]

4) There was minimal blood in the car; what there was, was not foetal and was quite consistent with what one would find in any family car. [Besides the above mentioned false-positive (sound deadener), ortho-tolidine also reacted to copper dust in the car (the Chamberlains were from a copper mining town).]

5) There was no foetal blood on the scissors, the chamois, the towel or the camera bag and that it was more probable than not that the scissors were not even in the car at the Rock.

Anonymous said...

First of all the clothes were found with the nappy diaper in a small area, but no skull or bones were EVER RECOVERED IN 30 YEARS, someone who was working there at the time told me that the ranger had a dingo pet and it is supposed the baby showed up at his house in the dingos mouth, then he disposed of the baby and planted the clothes in uluru, the police were very sceptical because they had searched that area.

Anonymous said...

her evidence is cold unemotional and too detailed.
Why do liars always give too much detail?

Anonymous said...

alternative theory is that baby Azaria could have been both murdered and taken by dingo if her body had been left in the tent.

Habundia said...

Their trip was delayed by a day because baby blankets were at the dry cleaner, yet at the park, she tells us, Azaria (if spelled correct) was 'uncovered and awake'.(when the dingo looked at her)
Later on she was 'uncovered' again in the statement, when the dingo again was present.

'Scientific evidence proved she was eaten by a dingo'
If no body was ever found in 30 years how on earth could there have been found scientific evidence?

My guts tells me (I know that's not SA) the dingo probably ate the child but was not the one who killed it.

I've heard about this story too before reading this blog and have always doubted the story.
I am curious to read on and see the analysis of Peter about this wealth of information given to some single sentences questions.

D_Train said...

Reading back over these comments in 2020. There’s going to be an interview with Lindy Chamberlain on Australian tv next week. Perhaps I can post the transcript for comparison..