"Dingo baby" case reopened

Twenty-eight years after Lindy Chamberlain was convicted of murdering her daughter and blaming it on a dingo, she’s asking for a new coroner’s inquiry.

Chamberlain was convicted in 1982 of killing her daughter Azaria in the Australian outback. She claimed that a wild dog had snatched the baby from her tent, but blood found in Chamberlain’s car led to her conviction. Four years later, Chamberlain was cleared of the crime when a piece of Azaria’s clothing was found near a dingo’s den. The incident spawned the 1988 movie A Cry in the Dark and the phrase “A dingo’s got my baby!” The case has always lacked closure as three coroner’s inquests failed to conclusively determine the cause of Azaria’s death, still listed as “unknown” on her death certificate. Chamberlain’s lawyer has now successfully petitioned the government to launch a fourth investigation in 2011.