Lindy Chamberlain
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| Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton | |
 Lindy Chamberlain with daughter Azaria in a photo taken by Michael Chamberlain shortly before the infant's disappearance
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| Born | March 4, 1948 Whakatane, New Zealand |
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| Known for | Azaria Chamberlain disappearance |
Alice Lynne (Lindy) Chamberlain-Creighton (born 4 March 1948, as Alice Lynne Murchison) was at the centre of one of Australia's most publicised murder trials, in which she was convicted of killing her baby daughter, Azaria. The conviction was later overturned.
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[edit] Early life
Lindy Chamberlain was born in Whakatane, New Zealand and moved to Australia with her family in 1949. She and her family were adherents to the Seventh-day Adventist Church and she married fellow Adventist and pastor Michael Chamberlain on November 18, 1969.
In the 1970s Michael and Lindy Chamberlain had two sons, Aidan (born October 2, 1973) and Reagan (born April 16, 1976). For the first five years after their marriage they lived in Tasmania, after which they moved to northern Queensland.
[edit] Azaria Chamberlain's disappearance
Michael and Lindy Chamberlain's first daughter, Azaria, was born on June 11, 1980. When Azaria was two months old, Michael and Lindy Chamberlain took their three children on a camping trip to Ayers Rock, arriving on August 16, 1980. On the night of August 17, Chamberlain reported that the child had been taken from her tent by a dingo. A massive search was organised, but Azaria's body was never found.
[edit] Conviction, imprisonment and release
Although the initial coronial inquiry supported Chamberlain's account of Azaria's disappearance, Chamberlain was later prosecuted for the murder of her child on the basis of the finding of the baby's jumpsuit and of tests that appeared to indicate the presence of blood found in the Chamberlains' car. She was convicted of murder on October 29, 1982 and sentenced to life imprisonment and her husband was convicted as an accessory to murder; the theory was that she slit the child's throat and hid the body.
Shortly after her conviction, she gave birth to her fourth child, Kahlia, on November 17, 1982. An appeal against her conviction was rejected by the High Court in February, 1984.
New evidence emerged on February 2, 1986 when a remaining item of Azaria's clothing was found partially buried near Uluru. Five days later she was released. The Northern Territory Government publicly said it was because "she had suffered enough." In view of inconsistencies in the earlier blood testing which gave rise to potential reasonable doubts about the safety of her conviction, Lindy Chamberlain's life sentence was remitted by the Northern Territory Government and a Royal Commission began to investigate the matter in 1987. Her conviction was overturned in September, 1988 and another inquest in 1995 returned an open verdict.
[edit] Subsequent life
In 1990, Chamberlain published Through My Eyes: an autobiography (ISBN 0-85561-331-9). It has recently been reprinted. She and Michael Chamberlain divorced in 1991. On December 20, 1992, Ms Chamberlain married John Creighton, nicknamed Rick, a publisher and fellow member of the Seventh-day Adventist church. She and Creighton now live in Australia. Lindy has recently been back in the media as she spoke publicly about the disappearance of Madeleine McCann and offered to comfort Madeleine's parents. She claimed that the world-famous case echoed hers and that she would speak to the McCanns if they wished but she added "words don't mean nothing, we all go through things in different ways".
[edit] Adaptations
In the 1983 Australian TV movie about the case, Who Killed Baby Azaria?, Lindy Chamberlain was played by Elaine Hudson. In the 1988 film A Cry in the Dark (also called Evil Angels), the role was played by Meryl Streep, while Miranda Otto played her in the 2004 Australian TV mini-series, Through My Eyes: The Lindy Chamberlain Story. Australian composer Moya Henderson wrote the opera Lindy to a libretto by Judith Rodriguez.[1]
[edit] References
Harry M. Miller Group. Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton
[edit] External links
- Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton's Official Website
- Michael Chamberlain's Official Website
- Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton Papers held by the National Library of Australia
- Papers of Chamberlain support groups, 1982-1986 held by the National Library of Australia
- A conversation with Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton held at the National Museum of Australia, 14 October 2007 (audio + transcript)
- Who Killed Baby Azaria? (1983) (TV, Network Ten) at the Internet Movie Database
- "Evil Angels" or "A Cry in the Dark" (1988) at the Internet Movie Database
- Through My Eyes (2004) (TV, Seven Network) at the Internet Movie Database
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