(Image source: The Courier-Mail )

 

BY MALLORY PERRYMAN

 

Two parents want an Australian court to make it official — a dingo killed their baby.

 

BBC has the background on the notorious 30-year-old case that’s back in court this week.

 

“Azaria Chamberlain was nine weeks old when she disappeared in August 1980. The family were camping here... when Mrs. Chamberlain made the sensational claim — it was a dingo that snatched her baby from their tent.”

 

Police didn’t buy Lindy Chamberlain's story — and she was convicted of murdering her daughter. But as ABC reports — emerging evidence eventually cleared the mother of all charges. 

 

“Two appeals were lost but a Royal Commission eventually quashed the Chamberlain’s convictions. A third inquest, 17 years ago, controversially left an open-finding on the cause of Azaria’s death.”

 

Azaria's death certificate now lists her cause of death as "unknown”  — and that’s what the Chamberlain parents want changed. 

 

“[Lindy] and her ex-husband, Michael Chamberlain, hope that fresh evidence they have gathered about dingo attacks on children will convince [the coroner].” ( The London Evening Standard )

 

USA Today has a summary of the new evidence...

 

“Court testimony today showed that there have been 239 recorded attacks by dingoes in Queensland from 1990 to 2011, and at least three children had died from dingo attacks since 1982.”

 

This is the fourth inquest into the baby’s death. The last three have been inconclusive. A reporter who covered the original trial for The Australian says — it’s high time the court gave this case some closure. 

 

“The trial prosecution … produced no murder motive, no body and no plausible weapon. It has become increasingly obvious a dingo did it. Officialdom should now simply say so.”

 

But a blogger for Gather points out — even if a dingo becomes the official cause of death...

 

“...Lindy Chamberlain was guilty in the court of public opinion while some decried injustice. When she was released her support grew, but still there are many who think she is guilty.”

 

The coroner ended the meeting without issuing a decision. She hasn’t indicated when she will release her findings.