Mothers Who Murder Read Free

tents, chatting with Sally and Greg Lowe, another young couple also holidaying with a young toddler. At about 8 pm Lindy left to put Azaria to bed in the tent with her sleeping brother, Reagan. Ten minutes later Lindy returned to the group. A short time later a baby’s cry came from the direction of the tent. This was heard by a number of the group collected around the barbeques, including Mrs Lowe, who said that she was sure it was the cry of a baby, as opposed to that of a child, and that it had come from the Chamberlains’ tent. Lindy walked back to the tent to check on her sleeping children. Once there she cried out in distress: ‘My God, the dingo’s got my baby!’ Immediately raising the alarm, Lindy reported to the other campers that she’d seen a dingo leaving the tent carrying what she presumed to be Azaria. As the Chamberlains and other campers started searching the campsite and beyond for Azaria, Sally Lowe went to the Chamberlains’ tent to check on the still-sleeping Reagan. There she saw a pool of what appeared to be blood on the floor, which she later said led her to believe that Azaria was already dead. A large quantity of blood (for a baby 4 ) was found in the tent, on the mattress, on a torn blanket and on the tent itself near the basket in which Azaria had been sleeping. The ranger saw the blood and dingo tracks leading away from the tent into the bush.
    A huge search was initiated, comprising over 300 people, but Azaria was never found. Aboriginal and white trackers followed the dingo prints found outside the tent as far as they could, until the tracks mixed with humanshoe prints on the road. Murray Haby, a fellow camper, found drag marks in the sand, which were also witnessed by the trackers, and two shallow depressions that appeared to show areas where the dingo had set Azaria down to rest. The depressions contained the imprint of a knitted garment, and next to one there were dark patches in the sand, which the trackers took to be the child’s blood. The expert tracker stated that the dingo was walking as though it was carrying an additional load, and that he was sure the dog was carrying the baby. A week later, on 24 August, Azaria’s torn nappy and terry towelling jumpsuit (covered in a considerable amount of blood and heavily torn), booties and singlet were found by a tourist, near a boulder at Uluru. The find was reported to the police and the evidence recovered.
    No other sign of Azaria was to be found until February 1986, when police, investigating the death of a tourist named David Brett, found evidence that would lead to Lindy’s release. Brett’s body was discovered eight days after the Englishman accidentally fell to his death following an evening climb on Uluru. When police searched the area looking for Brett’s missing body parts as he had been predated by the dingoes (there were lots of dens in the area) they also discovered Azaria’s matinee jacket – which for years the police had denied existed – not far from the site where the other clothes had been found near the dingo den. This was five and a half years after Azaria’s disappearance. As Lindy got used to life in prison, the Australian public had to wake up to the fact that Lindy Chamberlain might be innocent. This evidence proved crucial in supporting Lindy’s appeal case. Seven days after the jacket had been found Lindy remained in prison, until media pressure wasbrought to bear and she was released, her life sentence remitted and an inquiry into the case was announced by the Northern Territory Government.
    THE INVESTIGATION: THE HOW AND THE WHY
    A number of police were involved in the Chamberlain investigation over the years. Initially, Inspector Michael Gilroy, Frank Morris, James Noble and John Lincoln were assigned the case. On 28 August 1980, Detective Sergeant Graeme Charlwood took over the investigation. 5
    When investigating missing persons’ cases such as this, suspicion will always fall on the person who