Michael Chamberlain, whose life was smeared with sensationalist media coverage and years of being on trial, died on Monday at the age of 72. The Chamberlain family became an international sensation after their nine-week-old daughter Azaria was snatched and killed by a dingo in Australia in 1980. Chamberlain died at Gosford Hospital, family lawyer Stuart Tipple told ABC.
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One of Australia's most sensational legal cases
Chamberlain's daughter had disappeared from their family tent in August 1980 when the family was out camping. The family had said that they had several encounters with dingoes after they set the camp. They even fed one a piece of bread crust. An initial inquest after the disappearance of Azaria in 1981 had concluded that the child was taken by a dingo, however, another inquest conducted in Darwin in 1982 overturned the findings and convicted the mother, Lindy Chamberlain, for her daughter's murder and was given a life sentence. Azaria's father, Michael, was also convicted for being an accessory and was given an eighteen-month suspended sentence.
Three inquests were held between 1980 and 1995
The case gradually became a mystery that gripped Australia. There were no concrete proofs of where the child had disappeared and the prosecution had devised a theory stating that the Chamberlains had killed their daughter and then faked her death.
There were three inquests made in the case between 1980 and 1995, the first inquest had concluded that Azaria was taken by a dingo, the other one charged the parents with murder and convicted them and the third inquest held in 1995, did not make a finding.
Exoneration of the Chamberlains
Lindy Chamberlain had been convicted for more than three years when new evidence in the case forced a royal commission to open the case and ultimately exonerate the mother and the father of all the charges. The authorities, while investigating another murder case in Uluru, found crucial evidence -- a piece of Azaria's clothing -- which put the piece in the puzzle and solved the mystery. The couple was immediately exonerated in 1988 by the Northern Territory Criminal Court of Appeal.
Separation of the Chamberlains
After their exoneration, the relationship between Lindy and Michael began deteriorating which finally led to their separation and divorce in 1991. Michael later married Ingrid Bergner three years later and had a girl named Zahra. Michael Chamberlain has published three books and one of them includes the account of his daughter's disappearance in Uluru titled Beyond Azaria: Black Light White Light.
'A Cry in the Dark'-- a movie, starring Meryl Streep, on the incident
The case garnered such international intrigue that a movie was made on the Chamberlains' tragedy starring Meryl Streep as Lindy Chamberlain. Streep's performance in the movie also won her an Oscar nomination. The film was released less than two months after the Chamberlains were exonerated from all charges. The film, known as Evil Agels in Australia and New Zealand, was one of the most expensive and elaborate ever shot in Australia at the time, with 350 speaking cast and 4,000 extras.
