About 10:30 p.m., the tourists were called together; and, by order of Chief Constable Frank Morris and Chief Ranger Derek Roff, they were divided into three groups of 100 each and told to walk shoulder to shoulder throughout their assigned area. One group was sent east, one north, and the other south.

The police were careful not to send the campers toward the west. The rangers homes, which Ding considered home base, were in that direction. Because of Dings attacks over the previous two months on children, the rangers knew about the dingo attacks. They knew that the only dingo which had made most or all of the attacks was Ding, a staff family pet which had not been shot.

Ding had been positively identified by three people, as he walked toward the tent that night; and two trackers positively identified the tracks, carrying the baby away from the tent, as belonging to him. His footprints were larger than those of regular dingoes.

Holding the infant by the head, Ding immediately ran off—just as Lindy approached the tent and saw him leave.

Ding carried Azaria, by the head, to a location on the sandridge to the east of the camp, about 100 meters [109.4 yd] from the tent. Putting her down, the dingo picked her up at the center of gravity. For this reason, the only saliva was on a matinee jacket which was not found until 24 years after the Azaria attack. More on that jacket later in our story.

According to Lee Harris of the Dingo Foundation, Ding would have carried Azaria, by the head, a short distance; then he would set her down and picked up her body at the center of gravity. It is known that dingoes will do a 90o turn when under mild pursuit. The second dingo had also turned south upon reaching the sandridge. Ding may have circled the baby several times before heading south with the infant, as a warning to the other dingoes, to not steal his prey.

We know part of Dings travels that night, from information supplied by a private investigator who, shortly afterward, hired aborigines to track the animal. Those people, descendants of the original inhabitants of Australia, have uncanny tracking abilities in the desert sand. In addition, Ding had easily identifiable tracks. Because he was part dog, Ding was a somewhat larger dingo with bigger feet than regular dingoes.

According to two trackings that night and two more the next morning, Ding then carried his prey to the backyard of a home of an Ayers Rock ranger (the Cawood home, located a little southwest of the camp). This was Dings special home, where he had earlier been fed and cared for.

Something happened in the backyard of that home that particular night. Val Cawood had also been at the bar with her husband. As soon as the alert reached them, she immediately drove home—and found something in her backyard. Trackers later found Dings front paws sinking deeper into the sand, indicating that he was carrying something heavy, all the way to that backyard.

Val then went across the street and asked Lyn Beasey for assistance. Lyn quickly went next door and asked Margaret Morris, the constables wife, to baby-sit her children. She did this until early the next morning, when Lyn returned. Neither Val nor Lyn would ever say what they did in the backyard that night. The three women lived next to each other and had extremely close friendships; so much so that they tended to shut out others.

(John Beasey, was a full-time mechanic, working for Conservation Commission at Ayers Rock; and he was the first park worker to be told about the disappearance of the infant. Ian Cawood had lived most of his life at the park; and, at the time of the attack, he was a ranger (second in charge). Frank Morris was the constable in charge of the Ayers Rock Police Station. These three families, living close to one another, were at the center of the cover-up.)

About 10 p.m., Lyn went back home to change out of her clothes. They may have become dirty, although she claims that she needed to put on warmer clothing. We know it was very cold that night and the two women were outside in back of the Cawood home for many long hours during that time.

At about 11:30 p.m., Roberta Downs drove past the Cawood home. She was surprised to see three women in the backyard at that late hour: Val Cawood, Lyn Beasey, and Vals 18-year-old daughter, Debbie. Roberta was deeply concerned that the Chamberlains would have a difficult time sleeping on this very cold night; so she was headed to a motel to arrange sleeping accommodations for them, for the remainder of their stay at the park.

Later when a private researcher asked Val Cawood about what she wore that night, she inadvertently admitted that she burned the slacks she had worn. What spilled on those clothes that she needed to burn them?

At one point in the later trial, when Lindy was asked about the bloody handprints on the terrycloth jumpsuit, she said they could have been those of Mrs. Cawood. They were somewhat small handprints; and Mrs. Cawood was a woman of small stature.

Gradually, at the time and in later years, evidence accumulated that the body of baby Azaria was ultimately taken to an out-of-the-way part of the base of Ayers Rock. But did Ding take it there, or did Val or Lyn? It is highly significant that the native tracker said that, when Ding left the backside of the Cawood home that night, he was running fast and was not carrying a load. They did not afterward find animal tracks from the Cawood home carrying anything away.

Meanwhile when the first one to follow Ding (Murray Haby, who had found the clothing print in the sand) lost the dingo's track at the parking area, he decided to keep looking. Soon he found Dings tracks again. He followed them almost to the back fence of the Cawood home. But when he arrived there, Murray decided he was following the wrong animal; for surely, he reasoned, a wild animal would not go behind a private home. Thinking the tracks must be those of a domesticated dog, he turned back and rejoined the group searching to the east, north, and south.

That same night, Chief Ranger Derek Roff went to Nipper Winmatti, an aboriginal tracker, and asked him to track the dingo which had taken the infant. Months later, the Northern Territory Attorney General rejected the Winmatti evidence; for Roff later claimed that the tracker never searched for anything that night. This was said because what Winmatti discovered that night would have exonerated Lindy completely. The aborigines have an astounding ability to track movements in the sand.

Hurrying to the Chamberlain tent, Winmatti saw that two dingoes had been there; one was larger than regular dingoes and one was regular dingo size. The larger one sniffed at the back corner of the outside of the tent, smelling something inside.

Heading to the tent entrance, the large dingo went inside and stood over three-year-old Reagan. Winmatti saw the tracks over the boy. Then the tracks led to the back corner of the tent, where the dingo pulled the baby out of its carry basket. From then on, the front paws of the tracks sank deeply in the sand, as the dingo traveled. It was obviously carrying the baby. Just outside the tent door, the tracker saw a few drops of blood.

The deep tracks went around the side of the tent and southeast toward the sandhill. At this juncture, Winmatti ran home for warmer clothes. Arriving back, he followed the tracks to the sandhill, where they turned southwest for about 150 yards [137 m]. During this time, twice he saw drag marks for about 12 feet [3.65 m] on the left side of the dingo's tracks (caused by the baby's booties). Arriving at the place where Azaria had been put down, Winmatti saw what obviously was a cloth impression in the sand. Winmatti paused and named (for Roff, who accompanied him) the parts of the body which rested on the ground: the baby's bottom and her two feet.

He saw the tracks of the dingo in the three-meter [9.84 ft] circle. He also saw the second dingo tracks draw near. Obviously, the larger dingo was circling to warn off the intruder. Picking up the body, the large dingo headed south, along the sandridge.

As Winmatti followed the tracks, he noticed a scar in the dingo's front left paw. The dingo also had a slightly incorrect placing of its feet as it walked, indicating a muscle problem in its front leg.

A few days later, Winmatti saw Ding walking openly near the Cawood home. Examining his footprints in the sand, it was clear that they matched; Ding had taken the infant. The big red dingo with the white band around its neck was Ding. Winmatti told journalists and they printed his story. But the jury was never told about this, nor any discoveries by the three different trackers that night and the next morning: Murray Haby, Nipper Winmatti, and Nui Menigerie.

If they had been permitted to tell their stories, all three would have led the jury to the Cawood home and to the real killer: Ding.

Continuing to follow the tracks, they led Winmatti to the Anzac Pole, a flag pole and memorial to Australia's war dead, located close to Sunrise Hill parking area. But, beyond this point, the tracks had been trampled over by the searchers. Repeatedly, Winmatti tried to find them, but failed. It was not until ten hours later, in the daylight, that Winmatti found where the baby was taken.

When Winmatti told the officer in charge of Ayers Rock police station, Chief Constable Frank Morris, that the tracks went to Cawood's home, Morris thanked him for the information, handed him a carton of beer, and told him he need not tell anyone else. That effectively silenced the tracker for a time as the initial investigation proceeded. (Among his duties, Morris was required to enforce the liquor laws which said that no aborigines could have beer at Ayers Rock. He normally enforced this rule rigidly.)

At around 12:45 a.m., each of the three groups of searchers arrived back at Anzac Pole. There they saw an aborigine who was reading tracks. It was Nui Menigerie, a second native tracker. They also saw two park officials there with him. Menigerie had been asked by Stewart Mitchell (unaware of the cover-up plan), a park ranger, to search for the child.

About twenty of the searchers joined the tracker in his search. Among those who stayed to observe the tracker for awhile was Max Whittaker and his daughter Rosalie. Like the Lowes, the Whittaker's were tourists who had pitched their tent close to the Chamberlains. Although called to testify in court, the prosecutor was careful not to ask the Lowes and Whittaker's about the tracker or the fact that Derek Roff and one other park official was with him. (As for the defense attorney, he was a disaster; more about him later.) Indeed Roff denied, to the press, that any trackers had searched that fateful night!

With the help of a strong fluorescent flashlight in the hand of Rosalie Whittaker, Menigerie kept going. They traveled a quarter of a mile [.4 km] and, like Murray Haby, they tracked to Cawoods backyard, arriving there about 1:15 a.m.

Entering it, they found Val Cawood standing there. But after looking around very briefly, someone in authority called out, Okay, well call it quits! Well call the search off for the night. Hot chocolate is being served at the camping area. Come and have a drink. Meanwhile, well go and search the known dingo lairs.

The search party left; and, apparently, all was quiet again at the Cawood home. But then, between 2 to 3 a.m. Peter Elston, the commercial pilot at Ayers Rock, arrived. He was searching for Roberta Downs, his fiancι. Since, at this very late hour, a light was on at the Cawood house, he stopped there. Since most people entered it by the back door, he quietly walked around to the back—and found Val Cawood, Lyn Beasey, and Margaret Morris huddled around a spot in the back corner of the yard. It was the very same corner where Winmatti later claimed to have lost the deep tracks. Elston later told a private investigator that he saw a shovel in Vals hand.

When asked where Roberta was, they told him that she was with the Chamberlains at the Uluru Motel.

Elston says he could sense that the women did not want him there. So he blurted out, What are you doing? Not having time to think of something different to say, Val answered that they were searching the backyard because dingoes sometimes brought prey to a house. He watched them walk around for a few minutes; then he left there, in the middle of what was reported to have been a bitterly cold night.

When later individually questioned by private investigators, Lyn said she had only been on the Cawood's back veranda, had not gone into their backyard, and had not done any searching that night. Val said they searched all the backyards that night.

Just as happened most other days in the year, the next morning the sun came up with piercing beauty in a cloudless sky, turning Ayers Rock burning red, then brilliant gold. It was now 11 hours since Azaria had disappeared. As by prearrangement the previous night, several hundred tourists and nearly all the officials gathered outside the police station which, as you will recall, was next door to John Beasey's and Frank Morris homes, and across the road from Ian Cawood's house. Not one person had any doubt that a dingo had taken baby Azaria. Everyone grieved with Lindy and Michael; and all wanted to do what they could to help in this second search.

Although Nipper Winmatti (the aboriginal tracker) had followed Dings tracks the night before, this morning, he went back to the Chamberlain tent with his wife, Barbara, to see if he could learn more. She was also an excellent tracker. But most of the tracks around the tent had been obliterated by the tourists. Because the searchers had been kept away from that southwesterly area, they once again found the tracks intact on that part of the sandridge, along with the booties drag marks, the cloth imprint in the sand, and the heel marks dragging through the sand.

Once again they came to the area where Winmatti ended his search the night before. But now, in the daylight, bypassing the parking area at Anzac Pole, they followed a path that runs parallel to the road going toward the Cawood house. Once again, they found Dings heavy tracks, which led them to the backyard behind Cawoods home. Then they noticed something odd: Now the tracks totally stopped about one meter short of a horizontal metal bar (actually a piece of water pipe), supported by vertical pipes about two meters apart, with a couple strands of barbed wire underneath, which served as Cawood's back fence. Enough room for Ding to go in and out while keeping people out. It was obvious, as Winmatti looked over the fence, that all the tracks in the backyard had been carefully wiped out. The entire backyard had been worked over.

Winmatti and those with him arrived at the back fence at about 7 a.m., just as the searchers were assembling on the road in front. Upon seeing Winmatti, Derek Roff (chief ranger at Ayers Rock) and Ian Cawood (ranger, second in charge) came around to where Winmatti was standing.

When Winmatti told the two rangers that the tracks led to Cawood's backyard, Cawood became angry, accused him of lying, told him that the dingo carrying Azaria had gone south, and that was where he should do his tracking! Then Cawood offered Winmatti money if he could find any tracks in that backyard. It was an interesting comment.
Because they had to get several hundred people started on the mornings search, Cawood and Roff found it necessary to hurry away.
Left alone once again, Winmatti led his team around the outside of the rear fence to its other side. There he found the tracks again! They were the prints of the same dingo; but now the animal was traveling light and running, as though he had been chased off.

Ding had been tracked into the southeast corner of Cawood's backyard; and he left from the northeast corner. Apparently he left through the front entrance gate to the backyard, which was at that corner.

The aborigines followed the tracks for about half a kilometer [3/10th of a mile]; then they gave up. It was obvious to them where the baby had been taken; so they gave up the search for where the dingo had gone thereafter.

At this point, the matter of blame should be discussed. First, there were a few of the park officials. The Cawood's wanted a pet and had partly domesticated Ding, which was also a buddy to several of the other rangers. When the order went out to not feed dingoes, they obediently stopped feeding Ding. When Ding brought the dead baby to their backyard that night, they did what many in their situation would do: They decided to eliminate the evidence. A few close friends helped.
Keep in mind that Val's husband had earlier given assurance, to Max Cranwell, that he had taken care of Ding; this meant he had shot the dog. They could be blamed if Ding was found to be the culprit.

In addition, orders had earlier been issued not to make pets of the dingoes; for doing so would make them too familiar with humans. And they might come near their facilities and tents.—But they never imagined that their silence and initial cover-up would result in the imprisonment of the dead baby's mother! Fortunately, after Lindy was convicted and imprisoned, some of the other staff confided in a few investigative reporters.

From then on, they and several other ranger families lived in constant dread that their secret would be discovered—and they would be blamed for the death of Azaria.

What started out as a minor cover-up, in the eyes of the law, became a major crime—with a sentence of life imprisonment for the infants mother. This put incredible pressure on the eleven people to remain quiet. If they confessed in those early years, some of those eleven might have gone to jail instead.

Second, there were the main park officials. The order, to not feed the wild dogs, was a foolish one; this had started all the trouble. Either the animals should be fed or (if a ban was imposed) every dingo in the area should have been shot, when children began being attacked. Local officials knew that Ding was the one who had attacked four-year-old Amanda Cranwell. He had grabbed her by the head and neck and dragged her out of the family car! In the two months prior to the death of little Azaria, he had attacked other children of tourists. Ding was larger than the average dingo; and, in spite of his partial domestication, was apparently fiercer than other animals. His attacks were brazenly done, even in full daylight.

Yet the park officials had not shot Ding and the other dingoes in the area. Ding never tried to hide out; but he regularly walked the streets of the settlement. Several photographs had been taken of him and his distinctive markings during those two months before the August 17 killing. All through the initial cover-up, local park officials had no thought that it would lead to putting Lindy Chamberlain in prison.

The problem was that the evidence about Ding was so strong, that in order to cover over it, a human culprit had to be found. Because of that, the government stepped in.

This brings us to the third group: There were the officials, of the Northern Territory, who plotted the worst evils of all. They worked purposely, step by step, to get Lindy Chamberlain given a life sentence in prison: they did this in order to cover up a series of mistakes made within their territory.

Ayers Rock was the largest park in the Northern Territory and its primary money maker. They recently built an expensive airport as part of the park facilities, replacing the aerodrome landing strip (henceforth used only for private planes). Hundreds of thousands of tourists went there each year, especially during the winter while school was out (June to September); and thousands more came the rest of the year. When they arrived, they spent money.

Shortly after the dingo attack, the Northern Territory government moved the main Ayers Rock airport to a site that is adjacent to the massive Yulara Village, which is the new tourist complex. Costing $150 million, the Village is the biggest single investment ever attempted by the Northern Territory government. But it was understandable; since Ayers Rock brought the most money into its coffers.

They did not want tourists to think that wild dogs were going to kill their children, when they arrived at Ayers Rock.

If news of the dingo attacks and the dingo killing became well-known, tourism at the park would fall off dramatically; and the Territory would lose massive amounts of money each year. It really had nothing else to offer but thousands of square miles of desert, plus alligators in a few northern rivers.—With all this in mind, Territory officials set to work to frame Lindy Chamberlain as the killer of the infant.
There was a mystery regarding what happened that night behind the Cawood home. The conclusion of several private investigators was that the women had taken the baby from Ding, chased the animal off, and buried the body.

But why did they remain in the backyard most of the night? Why was the clothing found over by Ayers Rock later? Why did the clothing have regular soil on the clothes when found—when there is only sand over by the Rock? Why was the jumpsuit in such excellent condition, when it was first found?

In view of later findings and the final disclosure made a few months ago in 2004, I will suggest that this is what happened: The women took the baby from Ding, chased him off, and then buried the body, and guarded it that night, lest Ding return for it.

Either a dingo dug up the baby and carried it off, or the Cawood's secretly placed the infant over by the Rock to be found later—and remove suspicion from them. It was obvious that everyone knew that a dingo had taken the baby.

If Ding carried the baby off to the Rock, he had to do it within a day or two—for he was shot dead only a few days later. Yet the latest evidence reveals he was not the one discovered with the baby at the base of the Rock, a day or two before Goodwin found the jumpsuit. More on this later.

Additional tracking, done the day after the momentous event, showed that neither Ding nor any other dingo had yet carried the heavy infant away from the Cawood home. So, if a dingo carried the baby to the Rock, he only had perhaps three days at the most in which to do it.
It is highly significant that, when the clothing was later found in a remote area at the base of Ayers Rock, the same alkaline soil was on the clothing that was in the backyard of the Cawood residence.

Throughout the entire region for hundreds of square miles, everything was sand, except for some hauled-in dirt in the backyards of the staff homes.

It should be mentioned here that Lee Harris, president of the Dingo Foundation of Australia, later told an investigator that the only dingo which would take its prey to the Cawood home would be a dingo which was a pet at that house. He also said that the only human who could take prey from the mouth of a semi-domesticated dingo would be that dingo's master.

But there were still other unsolved factors which were not to be solved until over two decades later:

Why had the clothing been carefully taken off the infant—instead of being torn off by an animal intent on devouring the child? Why was the clothing found at the Rock, not in the Cawood backyard? Why was the terrycloth jumpsuit taken off at the Rockin a manner which could only be done by human hands? Lastly, if the clothing was found over by the Rock, why was no evidence ever found of the baby nearby? The answers are coming later in this present report.

A short time after Azaria disappeared, the tracker, Winmatti, saw Ding near the Cawood home. That was when he examined Dings footprints in the sand—and declared he was the one who had taken the infant. Where did he find him? between the BP store and the sandhill, out in the public, apparently in no hurry to go anywhere. Immediately, Winmatti ran to Ian Cawood, thinking he would want to shoot Ding (not knowing that Cawood would not want to do that). Grabbing his gun, Cawood ran across the campground. But arriving at a spot a little out of range of the dingo, Cawood shot at him. As might be expected, the bullet skipped on the ground and Ding ran off into the bush. Derek Roff later commented that Ding knew Cawood so well, he could have walked up to him and shot him through the head. A ranger told an investigator that Cawood was an excellent shot and never missed, even when out of range.

But Winmatti did not give up. He got his 40-year-old son, Colin; and, taking a couple camp dogs, they pursued Ding. Setting a camp dog on him, they hoped to kill the dingo; but he was extremely vicious. Then Colin hit him a glancing blow on the head with a nulla nulla, before he ran off. Thinking he would die soon after, they left.

Later that same day, on the main road close to Cawood's home, Peter Elston and Roberta Downs saw the police officer, Frank Morris, put a bullet through Dings head. Falling dead, Morris picked up the body, threw it on the back of his truck, and drove off. This would be the only justice done in the Azaria case for six long years.

It is of interest that Morris later denied having killed Ding after the Azaria attack. Keep in mind that Ding was supposed to have been shot by Cawood prior to the arrival of the Chamberlains to the park. Yet there were seven confirmed sightings of Ding after Cawood is supposed to have shot him.

On Thursday, August 21, the Chamberlains arrived home at Avondale. About 10 p.m. that evening, Lindy called her close friend, Jenny Ransom. They spoke until about 2 a.m. Lindy broke down and wept four or five times. Jenny recalls Lindys words: If I am true to the Lord, then I know that baby will be placed back in my arms just as beautiful as what she was on that day that she was taken.

Seven days after the infants death, on Sunday, August 24, a tourist named Wally Goodwin was walking around Maggie Springs,—when he found part of Azaria's clothing. It was the jumpsuit. He quickly sent someone in his group to contact the police.

Senior Constable Frank Morris immediately sprang into action. He set up road blocks, to keep all tourists away. Then he brought in John Beasey, Derek Roff, Ian Cawood, and Constable Gordon Noble—and had them walk throughout the entire area, obliterating all tracks. When that was done, Winmatti was told to go to the area and search it for tracks.

Meanwhile, the press was having a field day. Wild theories and accusations continually increased. Adventists all over Australia were looked upon with suspicion. People were beginning to think that all the people in the church might be as evil-minded as Lindy.

All this came at a time of theological upheaval in Australia. The Standish brothers and a number of older, retired Adventist ministers had opposed Desmond Fords influence in the schools and churches of Australia in the 1970s. By 1980, when I began writing about the theological crisis in Australia and how it had entered the U.S., the situation was rapidly worsening. For about fifteen years, Ford had converted the Avondale faculty and Division staff to new theology concepts: only believe salvation—regardless of conduct, standards, beliefs, and practices. He left Australia in the late 1970s. As the leading Bible teacher at Pacific Union College for several years, Ford had, by the early 1980s, indoctrinated a majority of the faculty and many of the students at that California school with his liberal views. The 1980 Glacier View meetings revealed that many other Bible teachers in the church already partially shared his errors. That was understandable; for all our men who had obtained doctoral degrees in areas of religion in outside universities—had been molded to one extent or another, by their professors, in down with the law antinomianism.

It was only one month after the Glacier View meetings in Colorado ended, that Azaria was killed in Australia and the wrath of the nation fell on our people there.

Two government inquests were held and, then, a lengthy trial. Excitement was at a fever pitch throughout the nation. Nearly everyone wanted Lindy imprisoned.

Coroner Denis Barritt, a former Melbourne detective, held the first inquest. The location was Alice Springs, in the south central part of the Northern Territory. A number of people, including Nipper Winmatti, were questioned. Winmatti's testimony was extremely important; yet, because of his cautious ways and poor English, the significance of what he had to say was not properly understood. In addition, aborigines do not trust whites; so they do not give information unless specifically asked.

Another problem was that an officer at the park had brought him a case of free liquor the night before. It had its intended effect; and Winmatti was still partially drunk the next day, when he testified in court.

Half a dozen times, Winmatti said the tracks went west; but his words were always overruled as though he had said south. He also said that the dingo which did go south was not the one with Azaria.
Here is just one example of the confusion during Winmatti's testimony:
In an attempt to get Winmatti to say he had not tracked the dingo that first night, the questioner, Mr. Macknay, asked this confusing question: You did not track in the night time, only daytime? Winmatti answered, No. From that, it was declared by the prosecution that he had not tracked that night, but only on some later day when tracks had been ruined.

When asked how many of the dogs paws he could see in the sand, Winmatti replied, Four. Immediately someone spoke up, to explain that aborigines could only count up to five; so his statement about four was meaningless.

After the inquest, Tom Loftus of the Sydney Daily Mirror decided to figure out what Winmatti was really saying. After talking to him at the Rock, Loftus, in a July 1983 article, wrote:

He trailed them [the paw marks] to a roadway, where they had proceeded west to the house, then occupied by Ranger Ian Cawood . . Mr. Winmatti escorted the Mirror team along the route he had tracked and showed where he had lost the tracks at a crossroad beside the rangers residence.

The government could just as easily have obtained this information themselves; but they did not want it.

Coroner Barritt concluded his official findings with this astounding statement:

The body of Azaria was taken from the possession of the dingo and disposed of by an unknown method, by a person or persons, name unknown.

He also wrote that a dingo took the child while it slept in the family tent; but that a person or persons, using a pair of scissors, disposed of the body.

Two points here: (1) The body had been taken by a dingo, not a person. (2) A person got hold of the body later.

Why did Mr. Barritt come to those conclusions?

It was because of the terrycloth jumpsuit (which at the time was frequently, but improperly, referred to as a jacket). You will recall that it was found near the base of the Rock by Wally Goodwin seven days after the infant disappeared.

The problem was that this jumpsuit had obviously later been removed from the infant by human hands—because the buttons had been carefully cut off of it; then the jumpsuit had been carefully removed from the infant. An animal would have torn through it all in the process of devouring the dead child.

(In addition, there was no dingo saliva on the jumpsuit. It was therefore concluded, by the prosecution in the court trial, that no dingo had ever touched the body.)

Of course, if Winmatti's testimony had been properly understood, a far different conclusion would have been reached at the later trial jury.

But the jury was never told about this or any discoveries by the three different trackers that night or early the next morning: Murray Haby, Nipper Winmatti, and Nui Menigerie, all of whom arrived at the same conclusion: A dingo had carried the body to the backyard of the Cawood home. If they had been permitted to tell their stories, all three would have led the jury to the Cawood home and to the real killer: Ding.
But, instead, in order to protect the tourist dollars, flowing into Ayers Rock, and avoid a terrific scandal about permitting starving dingoes to remain in the park after children had been savagely attacked, a trumped-up charge against Lindy was pushed through the court.
It is highly significant that Mr. Barritt exonerated the Chamberlains, at the conclusion of the inquest, and extended his sympathy. Consider his words:

You have not only suffered the loss of your beloved child in the most tragic circumstances; but you have all been subjected to months of innuendos, suspicion, and probably the most malicious gossip ever witnessed in this country.

Barritt also severely castigated the Northern Territory police forensic unit that investigated the incident; and his comments were carried live on national television—which greatly embarrassed the police. As a result, they determined to pursue their investigation until they came up with more evidence; so a regular trial on murder charges against Lindy could be held.

During the actual jury trial, Roberta Downs, the camp nurse, testified that she was a passenger for three hours in the Chamberlains car, shortly after Azaria was killed; yet there was no smell of blood in the car.

(It is significant that everyone who got to know the Chamberlains recognized their solid characters and quickly sided with them. This included not only Roberta, but also the Whittakers, Lowes, and others. After providing the Chamberlains with lodging at the motel, Roberta rode in the car with them to Avondale, to help minister to them in their grief; afterward she returned to Ayers Rock, where she was the park nurse.)

Before testifying at the Chamberlain trial, Murray Haby, the schoolteacher from Melbourne, was told not to mention that he had followed the dingo's tracks that night—or that they led him to the backyard of the Cawood home. But he told the truth anyway.

Derek Roff had been the chief ranger at Ayers Rock National Park for 15 years before Azaria's death. On the night of Azaria's death (before he understood the significance of what had happened), he asked Nipper Winmatti to come and track. But, in court, he denied having asked him or that Winmatti did any tracking that night—even though Roff accompanied him.

  CONTINUE