You will recall that, after learning where the tracks led, at about 10:30
p.m. on the night Azaria died, Roff and Constable Morris organized a
search party which sent the people north, south, and east—but not west,
where the Cawood house was located.
Although Roff was twice present when a group of trackers arrived at
Cawood's house about 1:15 a.m that night and present again when two other
aboriginal trackers followed tracts to Cawood's house at 7 a.m. the next
morning—he testified that the aborigines believed the dingo carrying
Azaria went south into the wilderness.
Joy Kuhl was a botanist, said to be a forensic expert. At the trial, she
claimed to have found fetal blood in the Chamberlain car. Thirty-one top
Australian scientists disagreed with her findings. At the time of the
trial, she was employed in forensic laboratories in Sydney. But when the
trial was over, she was given a high-paying, permanent job with the
Northern Territory police.
Sally Lowe testified in court that she heard the baby cry after the time
that the government alleged that Lindy had killed the baby. Prior to
taking the stand in the trial, Sally was given an extensive grilling by
Northern Territory police, who asked her to change her evidence. They
wanted her to say that what she heard was a bird call.
On Friday, October 29, 1982, the jury found Lindy guilty of murder; and
she was sentenced to life imprisonment. When the foreman of the jury
announced, Guilty as charged, her whole being almost collapsed.
Lindy was imprisoned in the Berrimah Jail in Darwin, the capital of the
Northern Territory. She was pregnant at the time she was sent to prison;
and her next baby was taken from her 30 minutes after she gave birth to it
in jail.
Michael Chamberlain was found guilty as an accessory to murder. But the
judge did not agree with the jury's verdict on this; so he only gave
Michael a $300 good behavior bond. Normally, in Australia, accessory to
murder would carry a sentence almost as severe as murder itself.
By the time the trial and the appeals began, the church had financed much
of the cost for the Chamberlain case—so far, well-over $500,000;
individual church members raised about half of it .
Phil Ward had known Lindy and Michael back at Avondale College, before
they were married. Within two-and-a-half days after Lindy was convicted
and sentenced to life imprisonment, Ward formed a three-man team to
investigate. A massive cover-up had been perpetrated; and he was
determined to set her free.
The second team member was Don McNicol, a Seventh-day Adventist and former
policeman; he volunteered to help solve the Chamberlain case. He spent the
next 18 months in virtually full-time work on the case.
The third man to join the team was Arthur Hawken. He was a former builder
who had to retire early because of a back injury. For a number of years,
he traveled once a year to central Australia, to collect semi-precious
stones. While doing this, he became close friends of leading aborigines.
He was made an honorary member of the Central Australian Aboriginal tribe.
Hawken had earlier been personally asked, by Lindys parents (Pastor and
Mrs. Cliff Murchison), to find out if the aborigines knew anything about
Azaria's death. His work proved invaluable in helping to solve the mystery
surrounding the disappearance of the baby. Whereas hardly anyone else knew
how to effectively do so, Hawken had learned how to talk to the
aborigines.
Hawken was a patient, careful researcher, and just what the team needed.
He had already collected hours of taped interviews with the aborigines.
Ward provided travel and lodging funds for Hawken to work more
efficiently.
The next day (only four days after the court verdict), Ward booked a
flight for Hawken to central Australia. As soon as he left that day, the
other two flew to Alice Springs. Knocking on the door of the first
coroner, Denis Barritt, they asked if they could speak with him and he
agreed. When they told him about Nipper Winmatti's conclusion, that the
dingo had gone to Cawood's house,
for the first time Barritt suddenly
realized what had happened.
Barritt told them that the first person in Ayers Rock they should see
would be Chief Ranger Derek Roff. He added the strange remark, Its very
interesting. His evidence gets better with the passing of time.
Ward and McNicol decided to fly north to Darwin, the capital of the
Northern Territory, and talk to Lindy Chamberlain at the Berrimah Jail. It
was the size of a large house, with only a wire cyclone fence around it.
But nothing was accomplished during their brief conversation.
Although Lindy had been sentenced to hard labour for life, she was never
made to do any. Recognizing that the sentence could be enforced, she
feared to cooperate with private investigators.
Early in their investigations, the team had a radio microphone stolen;
and, soon after, McNicol's luggage. It was only later that they
discovered, from a high-placed contact, that the Northern Territory police
were responsible for the thefts.
The investigations of the three men continued for a year-and-a-half. A
major problem they encountered was opposition from other pro-Chamberlain
groups. Although friends of the Chamberlains, they could not decide
whether or not humans had intervened with the dingo and Azaria, after the
animal initially ran off with the infant.
Another problem was Stuart Tipple. He was a young country lawyer who had
been hired by the South Pacific Division (formerly Australasian Division)
in Wahroonga, to defend the Chamberlains. Yet while he did no
investigating himself, he consistently opposed all efforts by others to
figure out what had happened, so Lindy could be freed. The Chamberlain
case was his first criminal case in private practice; and he seemed to
have no idea what to do. So he did nothing and opposed what others tried
to do. The only thing he seemed good at was continually counseling with
leaders in the Division office as to what his next move should be.
The teams other main opposition came from the leaders of the Seventh-day
Adventist Church in Australia. Both they and Tipple came up with the
theory that any investigations would jeopardize Lindys chances of being
released. It is very possible that pressure may have been placed on them
by the government. At any rate, church leaders consistently opposed the
teams work.
Eventually, in order to stop the investigation, church leaders went so far
as to contact the Queensland police and ask them to arrest Wards fellow
investigator, Arthur Hawken! Although the police turned down the church's
request as foolish, Ward, a Seventh-day Adventist himself, was deeply
shaken that his own church leaders would try to have part of his staff
arrested.
Keep in mind that, by the early 1980s, the leadership of the Seventh-day
Adventist Church, in Australia, was solidly new theology in belief.
Lowered standards and modified teachings prevailed in conference churches
and at Avondale College. The Sabbath was lightly regarded and worldliness
prevailed in the churches. Unfortunately, many faithful believers had
found it necessary, because of harassment, to separate into independent
groups.
Before he realized the full extent of the animosity by church leadership
to their investigation, Ward made the mistake of acceding to a request by
Pastor Ron Craig and Stuart Tipple to meet with them. During the
conversation, he told them part of what they had so far discovered.
Immediately afterward, all that he told them was forwarded to Northern
Territory police. From then on, Territory police began harassing the team.
If new theology church leaders, to protect themselves from problems with
the government, are willing now to abandon faithful church members to
imprisonment, what would they do later, when an extreme National Sunday
Law is enacted?
When Ward flew to Ayers Rock, he interviewed Chief Ranger Derek Roff at
his office. Roff was very friendly and agreed that a dingo might have
taken the infant and killed it. Several new and important points came out
of the two-hour taped interview. One was that, if the body had been
buried, a dingo would have dug it up shortly afterward. Another was the
first news to Ward: about a special dingo at Ayers Rock, called Ding,
which had been partly tamed by the Cawood's and fed by them, although he
also got food from other staff homes. But, Roff added that he had been
told that Ding had been shot by Cawood eight weeks before Azaria
disappeared. Roff also said that Ian Cawood was the only one among the
staff with a high-power rifle and that he was an excellent marksman.
Then came a very special discovery. Roff casually mentioned that, at the
time Azaria disappeared, it was the one time in the year when all the
brush was green. He gave Ward the exact figures from his rainfall chart,
establishing that the vegetation was especially green on September 17,
1980.
Roff also penciled a map, showing Ward exactly where everything was
located in the park and where everyone lived. For the first time, Ward
realized that the Cawood home was west of the campground, not south.
That evening, after leaving Roff's office, Ward walked through the brush
near the campground and discovered that none of it tore at his clothing.
When everything was green, there would be even less possibility of damage.
So Ward bought a terrycloth jumpsuit of the same make as was on the
infant; and, on a return trip to the Rock when everything was green, he
wrapped it on his leg and walked through the brush for an hour. Not a
stitch or loop was pulled, nor the slightest damage occurred.
Yet the prosecution had said that, because the jumpsuit was undamaged, the
infant could not have been carried off that night by a dingo.
On a second taped visit to Roff, Ward asked about what the dingoes in the
park were like before the feeding ban was imposed. Here is a portion of
the tape:
Ward: Dingoes go into tents though?
Roff: They do at the Rock.
Ward: Do they go near houses?
Roff: Yes.
Ward: Do they eat at houses?
Roff: Oh yes, they did. But everybody, at that time, was feeding them.
The motels were. Drivers were inducing them to walk up the aisles of their
buses. They would be fed biscuits. People were encouraging them into their
houses . . That is the trouble, you see. We get them used to this thing.
Then, of course, the more you feed them, the more they are used to and the
more they want. And that is where the problem is. That is why I feel very
sure that it could certainly have been a dingo [that took Azaria].
As the trial had progressed, and Roff realized that Lindy was going to
prison when he knew she was innocent, he began telling facts in the
courtroom. Although resolutely declaring that no one at the park had any
involvement, Roff said a dingo probably took the infant. That is why he
could say so much to Ward on these interviews.
Denis Barritt was right when he previously told Ward, Its very
interesting. His evidence gets better with the passing of time.
Later in this second taped interview, Roff said this:
You know, Ding was a very handsome dog. A very quiet dog. It is
unbelievable that he attacked that child. Yet I'm stuck with the idea that
he must have. There was a history of four kids attacked up to the time
that I came back from a trip.
It had been Derek Roff who had issued the order in the summer of 1980,
that no one should feed the dingoes anymore food.
After returning to Sydney, Ward learned that Division officers, determined
to stop his investigations, had ordered Michael Chamberlain not to speak
to his team anymore. Running low on funds, Ward mortgaged his home in
order to raise money to keep the investigation going.
On a later trip to central Australia, Ward and McNicol stopped in to visit
Iain Marshall and his wife Anna. He had been a ranger at Ayers Rock in the
summer of 1980.
He told the investigators that it had been extremely cold that night; and,
yes, there had been many dingo attacks in the preceding months. In
addition, it was not customary to shoot troublesome dingoes. But one,
named Ding, had been a special problem. Upon inquiry, Marshall said that,
to his knowledge, the only dingo which had attacked children was Ding. He
explained that this was due to the fact that Ding was the only dingo which
had been tamed; and this made him unafraid to attack humans.
Anna then showed them color photos of Ding, which she said were taken
about the time when Azaria was borneight weeks before the infants death.
She added that it was only a few days later that Ding attacked Amanda
Cranwell, pulling her out of the car. Ward was shocked to see how thin the
animal appeared.
It was not until after leaving them that night that Ward realized that it
was the feeding ban, imposed a couple months earlier, which had caused the
dingoes in the area to starve. They had become used to handouts; and there
were just too many dingoes in the area and not enough wild game. This was
why Ding was attacking people.
The next morning, they returned to the Marshall home and took pictures of
the photo. Mr. Marshall told them that the public was ordered not to feed
the dingoes anymore; so this instruction was not only given to the staff.
Signs had been posted for weeks all over the area.
The next person they visited was Ranger Rohan Dalgleish, who by this time
was living in Alice Springs. Because he had only arrived at Ayers Rock six
weeks before Azarias death, he had a crystal sharp memory of what
happened and when. He explained that nothing was ever done to stop dingoes
from attacking people! None were ever shot. And, before Azaria was taken,
Ding had not been shot either, but taken to a slaughterhouse at a
distance.
Over a period of many months, much more information was collected; and the
totality of it was devastating. Earlier in this report, you will read it
and more besides. Ward believed he now had enough evidence to get Lindy
Chamberlain out of prison. It had not been easy to obtain. He had received
two threatening phone calls and had equipment stolen. Twice, team members
had caught policemen snooping on them. One was tailing their car so
obviously, that McNicol stopped his car and told him that he, McNicol,
would drive more steadily, so as not to lose him.
But now they had the evidence! Surely church leaders and their hired
lawyer, young Stuart Tipple, would be thrilled to open up the case again
and exonerate Lindy!
But, unbelievably, Tipple refused to even see Ward. He absolutely refused.
But he did say that there was one way to get the information to him. Put
it all in writing and mail it to me, Tipple said.
There seemed no other way to get the matter before the court; so Ward and
McNicol sat down and laboriously spent two full days typing up all the
data. It was prepared in the form of a set of legal statements, called
affidavits; and then it was personally mailed to Tipple. They also sent
copies to Denis Barritt, who had become their friend. He received his copy
on January 26, 1983; and he replied that there was enough evidence here to
definitely get Lindy out of prison.
Ward and his team were thrilled. The church would be vindicated, Lindys
name would be cleared, and she would be set free.
But Ward still did not grasp the fact that church leaders would rather
leave one of their members in prison than to do anything which might cause
discomfort to the government.
On Friday, the 28th, Ward still had not been contacted by Tipple. Yet the
first appeal case was only one week away. That Friday afternoon, Ward
phoned Tipple, who was not there. At 4:40, Tipple called back-and told
Ward he wasn't going to use any of the affidavit material for the appeal.
He did not say whether he had read it, or what he thought of it, or why he
refused to use it. He just said he wasn't going to use it!
Ward had thought his work was done. Now Chamberlains attorney could carry
it on to victory.
Ward felt crushed.
When Ward later phoned Barritt, a veteran police detective, he was once
again assured that there was enough evidence in the affidavit to free
Lindy.
Three days later, a car hit Ward; and he almost died from broken bones. He
wondered, afterward, whether it had been an accident.
Months later, when he finally recovered, Ward contacted his own attorney,
Trevor Nyman, who told him there was a way he could pursue his own private
prosecution of the people who were at Ayers Rock on the night Azaria died.
That would bring the entire matter out in the open and, in the process,
clear Lindy.
This charge would be conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, by
concealing the identity of the dingo which took Azaria Chamberlain from
her tent.
But, checking with contacts he had made on various levels (many of them
high-placed), Ward and Nyman learned that there was one individual who
would prevent their case from going through.
He was the only person Ward did not dare to name, a man very far up in the
Northern Territory government. According to what Wards contacts told him,
this government leader had considerable influence over Chief Minister Paul
Everingham, Solicitor General Brian Martin, Attorney General Jim
Robertson, and senior people in the police and Crown law departments.
Knowing that there was not enough evidence to convict Lindy Chamberlain,
it was arranged for evidence and the judicial process to be rigged. If
Wards evidence was presented to the Appeals Court, Ayers Rock Park would
lose millions of dollars and what the Northern Territory government had
done would be exposed.—Ward was told that, after Denis Barritt, the coroner in the first inquest,
severely reproved the Northern Territory police, it was arranged that a
second inquest would be held—this one under the supervision of a different
coroner.
Further forensic examination had found a small adult handprint on the
jumpsuit (Val Cawood was a small adult); but, at the second inquest, it
was charged that the handprint belonged to Lindy. Fetal blood was
supposedly found in Lindys car. A man from Darwin was selected as coroner
for the second inquest; he had already been told what his decision should
be. Witnesses were instructed, in secret signals which they should follow
in the courtroom, telling them when to say yes, no, or when to stop
speaking—even in mid- sentence.
But no evidence about dingoes was provided to the court; since none of it
was good.
After the second inquest, the government also suppressed new evidence
about another baby that had afterward been killed within the Northern
Territory! Once again, it was a pet dingo; this one near Tennant Creek.
The dingo took an aborigines baby. Three men saw it; and one of them,
named Green, shot at the dingo, wounding it as it dropped the baby.
Running to it, they found the baby already dead.
When Lindy was charged with murder, two of those men told the police that
they would testify at the trial. But police were sent to Tennant Creek and
threatened them. They were told that if they did, they would be charged
with failure to report the death when it occurred. So Green and Rodgers
kept quiet.
As the court trial date neared, one forensic expert found he had made a
mistake. The trial was delayed while he was told to give the faulty
evidence as though it were true.
After a guilty verdict had been handed down against Lindy, thirty-one top
scientists signed a document, disagreeing with the forensic blood tests
about fetal blood having been in Lindys car. (In reality, there was no
blood of any kind in the vehicle.)
The government immediately contacted all the jury members and told them to
state, in writing, that the blood evidence had not been significant in
their decision. Although only one member of the jury did so, that one
statement was widely published in the Australian news media. As long as
the public was kept in the dark, officials in the Northern Territory and
Ayers Rock were winning.
How is it in our own nation? How much of what we are told is really true?
At this juncture, Phil Ward decided to go to press with a book disclosing
his findings. The small, 192-page book, Azaria! What the Jury Were Not
Told, was published in August 1984. It contained 54 pieces of evidence not
presented to the trial jury. All of that information, plus more, is
presented in this present report.
As soon as the book was printed, Ward mailed a copy to every second house
in the Northern Territory; so its citizens could learn what was being
done. It is remarkable what a free press can do.
One columnist, Malcolm Brown of the Sydney Morning Herald, had strongly
defended the Chamberlains throughout the entire controversy. In response,
they often received 100 letters a day from readers (Alan Gill, Sidney
Morning Herald, September 16, 1988).
That same year, the next major event occurred. A nationwide television
network phoned Ward and asked him to appear the next day on Good Morning,
Australia. He did not realize that it was a trap.
Ward was quite used to public speaking and radio and television
appearances; but, awakening at 2 a.m. the next morning, he was impressed
to kneel by his bed and pray for help in what the day would bring.
Arriving at the station, he was ushered into the studio. Less than a
minute into the interview, a thought flashed to mind; and Ward raised the
subject of libel writs. Not expecting him to say that, the interviewer was
quite surprised. What would you say if writs were served on you? he
asked.
That would be fantastic, replied Ward. It would give me a chance to
prove everything I say in court!
There was a rustling sound at the other end of the studio as a man
suddenly walked in. Well, announced the interviewer, there's a man who
has seven writs he wants to serve on you.
With glee, Ward replied, That's the best thing to happen in the
Chamberlain case in months!
Here is the background on this:
Ward had given that affidavit to Tipple, the Chamberlains attorney, only
two weeks before the first of the Chamberlains two Appeals Court
hearings. But Tipple refused to use the evidence supplied him by Ward.
Ward was later to learn that, under Australian law, if evidence is
provided to an attorney in a case, and he does not use it, that evidence
cannot be used in another case originated by the one who searched out the
evidence. This meant that, although he wanted to, Phil Ward could not
initiate a lawsuit to get Lindy out of jail.
But he knew that if he was sued, he could use that evidence! And now the
suit had been filed.
Those suing Ward are the seven people residing at Ayers Rock National Park
at the time of Azaria's death. They include the police officer in charge
of the Ayers Rock Police station, two rangers, the wives of these park
officials, and the adult daughter of one official.
After reading the preceding part of this report, you know that this would
consist of the Morris, Cawood, and Beasey families.
If those people were guilty, why would they risk taking legal action? The
answer is the nature of Australian libel laws. In Australia, the right to
a fair trial is legally more important than freedom of the press. Once
charges are made against someone, the media cannot comment on the case,
lest they prejudice a jury. Because of these legal facts, those who are
guilty sometimes sue the media for libel to stop the media from reporting
on their activities. After the media interest dies down, the suit is
usually withdrawn.
But this plan backfired because a new legal precedent had just been
enacted, that the people taking out libel writ cannot withdraw it without
the approval of the person they are suing.
Ward had determined that he would not grant that approval. He wanted to
bring all the data out into public, in court.
Just before the writs were served on Ward, lawyers for the seven demanded
that he place a retraction of his book in every major newspaper in the
nation. Because he refused to do this may be another reason the writs were
served—to force him to print those retractions. Ward estimated his libel
suit would cost him $250; but he had many friends, including Adventists,
who were raising money to help him.
However, future developments in the case changed the whole picture.
The third major event of 1985 was the publication of John Bryson's
560-page Evil Angels,—which (when a U.S. publishing house printed the
book) spread the news of the scandal to America.
Although not an Adventist, Bryson had grown up in Melbourne next to an
Adventist family that had befriended him as a youth. In his book, Bryson
(an attorney and writer) vividly portrayed how everything went wrong by
the police, the media, the second inquest, the court trial, and the two
appeals. He inferred that the police were like evil angels, trying to
destroy an innocent woman. They bungled the initial investigation of the
missing child. The press exploited insignificant details, as though they
meant something important. Experts, called in to test evidence, proved
incompetent. The prosecution pieced together an explanation for its murder
charge—that not even on-site television crews (trying to reenact what
happened at the camp) could make convincing.
Yet, in spite of all this, Lindy had still been convicted of slitting her
infant daughters throat with a pair of scissors.
By the end of 1985, both court appeals by the Chamberlains had been lost;
and there was no further right to appeal. The situation appeared hopeless.
Yet the evidence collected by Ward and his two associates had been given
to Stuart Tipple, the Chamberlains lawyer, two weeks before the first of
those two appeals. The evidence which could have freed Lindy had sat
unused on his desk.
Tipple, apparently a rather spineless individual, was working for the
South Pacific Division of Seventh-day Adventists, headquartered at
Wahroonga. It was rather obvious that his studied opposition, to Wards
investigations, found its origin in the Division office.
Church leaders were legally obligated, under the Trustee Act, to exercise
due diligence in seeing that the $250,000, given by church members to
clear the Chamberlains, was spent in the best possible way. Rejecting
Wards evidence outright was not due diligence.
By late 1985, leaders of the several laity groups who had given money to
the church, to defend Lindy, were angry with Division leaders for refusing
to use the evidence discovered by Phil Wards team. In order to protect
themselves, those Division leaders did two things: First, they placed a
clause in the Divisions constitution, protecting themselves from legal
action and requiring the Division to pay their legal costs for any
criminal or civil action against them. Second, they made sure that they
retired on or before the 1985 General Conference Session.
Unfortunately, the leaders who took their place continued to oppose Wards
efforts to free Lindy. They and their predecessors had earlier worked
closely with Desmond Ford, in pushing the new theology into every
conference office and local church in Australia and New Zealand. When men
are ruled by a belief in lowered standards and behavior does not
count,—their personal standards and behavior can get pretty bad.
Throughout the two inquiries and the court trial, Lindy Chamberlain had
maintained that, before laying Azaria in her carry bed, she had placed a
terrycloth jumpsuit on her and, then, a matinee jacket over that. The
terrycloth suit had been found by a tourist, Wally Goodwin, near Ayers
Rock seven days after Azaria disappeared; yet there were problems with it:
First, it was in relatively good condition; and, because it had no dingo
saliva on it, the inference was made that no dingo had carried the child
off. This was considered evidence against her.
After publication of the two books (Wards and Brysons), public
indignation over the imprisonment of Lindy Chamberlain steadily increased.
The Christmas 1985 issue of the Australian edition of People magazine
published its latest yearly vote by the people of the nation, as to the
Australian I would most like to meet. The nations prime minister could
only make second place. The public declared that they would most like to
talk to Lindy Chamberlain. Sympathy for the mother kept increasing.
To make matters worse for the government, the libel suit against Phil Ward
was steadily nearing. The evidence he could present in court would stun
the nation. Yet the government could not stop the suit from progressing.
But a sudden development changed the whole picture.
On Saturday, February 2, 1986, while searching for the body of a tourist
who had fallen from Ayers Rock, one of the tourists in the search party
found that missing matinee jacket! It had dingo saliva on it in exactly
the area where the body would have been carried.
At this juncture, under pressure from the entire nation, the Northern
Territory caved in. Six days later, Lindy was released from prison in
Darwin, by an official pardon from the Northern Territory Judiciary. The
date was Friday, February 8, 1986. But, unwilling to travel on the
Sabbath, she waited till Sunday to return home to the Avondale College
campus—and to her family. All through those years, Michael had continued
to work there.
To welcome her arrival, yellow ribbons were displayed all over the campus
and on the homes.
Although her life sentence had been remitted, she remained convicted of
having murdered her child. So groups, which had previously supported her,
now joined in demanding an overturning of the previous conviction.
At the same time she was granted a pardon, the Northern Territory
Judiciary announced that a formal inquiry would be made into the case,
that they would be willing to allow someone outside the Territory to be in
charge of the case, and that fresh evidence gathered by Territory police
would be considered—along with other possible evidence.
Even though pardoned, Lindy was not exonerated. According to the court
record, she was still a criminal. When interviewed shortly afterward by
Sixty Minutes (the Australian version), and asked, Why don't you just let
the whole thing drop, now that you are out of jail? She replied that she
had to fight to clear her name.
Finally, on Thursday, September 15, 1988, during a brief hearing, three
judges of the Northern Territory Court of Criminal Appeal unanimously
ruled that their convictions over the death of their child, Azaria, were
rendered null and void.
For the first time in eight years, Lindys jaw quivered; and she wept and
wept. Beside her stood her blond husband, Michael, who was also close to
tears.
But their legal dispute with the government was not over. They wanted the
Northern Territory to repay them for their years of suffering. If payment
was not forthcoming, they said they would consider civil action.
Unfortunately, even though they had been fully (fully!) vindicated, the
Division president refused to rehire Michael Chamberlain as a
denominational pastor in any capacity. For the sake of the church's
public image, they told him to find a job somewhere else. Michael was
crushed.
In November 1988, the first major motion picture ever made about
Adventists was released: The $8 million A Cry in the Dark, featured Meryl
Streep and Sam Neill. It was based on Brysons book; and it created a
sensation, as several continents learned of the scandal Australians hoped
to keep to themselves.
Still later, Lindy was awarded a very large sum of money by the government
for what she had suffered. She took the money, divorced Michael, and
married someone named Creighton.
On the day after Lindys conviction was squashed (September 16, 1988), the
Northern Territory Australian made this statement:
The mystery surrounding the disappearance of Azaria Chamberlain remains
as baffling today as it did eight years ago. Probably the full story about
what happened at Ayers Rock will never be revealed.
Because of the findings of Phil Ward and John Bryson, part of the mystery
had been solved. Yet there remained several unanswered questions:
One question is Why did Val stand out in the cold for hours that night? I
will suggest that she was guarding the buried child until her husband
returned from the search. Cawood probably told his wife to bury the body
and remain by it through the night until he returned.
While both were at the Chalet bar, the Cawood's were alerted to what had
happened. Both immediately drove home in separate cars—and found Ding in
the backyard. Only Mr. Cawood, who was the one chiefly responsible for
feeding the dog, would have dared to take the infant from him without
being bitten. Then they drove Ding off.
Everyone who later came upon Val in that backyard found her standing
there, not doing anything. For example, between 2-3 a.m. Peter Elston
found all three women, as he put it, huddled around a spot in the back
corner of the yard; and Val had a shovel in her hand. Perhaps she
intended to use it to hit any dingo that came near.
Another question is concerning how the infants clothes were later found
at a distant location. Cawood had lived at Ayers Rock most of his
life—longer than anyone else there—and knew that Ding or another dingo
would eventually take the buried body. (You will recall that Roff told an
investigator that if the body had been buried, a dingo would have dug it
up shortly afterward.) So, after the search parties were disbanded for the
night, it may be that Cawood did not spend the rest of the night
searching known dingo lairs, as he later testified in court; but he may
have returned home, carefully exhumed the body—and placed it out in the
desert.
Another question is How were the clothes removed so neatly from the
infant? Another important one: Who used a tool to neatly cut the buttons
off the terrycloth jumpsuit? The fact that it was done was used in court
to help convict Lindy. Everyone, especially the accusing prosecution
attorneys, knew a dingo could not have done it.
This last part of the puzzle was solved in the early summer of 2004. The
infant, with all its clothes still on, was found by a man between two and
six days before Wally Goodwin found the jacket, seven days after Azaria
was taken from the tent.
Here is this new disclosure in its entirety:
My Azaria Secret: Man Claims He Shot Dingo that Had the Baby. Sydney
(Australia) Sunday Telegraph, July 4, 2004.
An elderly Melbourne man says he shot the dingo that killed Azaria
Chamberlain and then retrieved her body from its jaws. [Note: He did not
shoot Ding, the actual killer of Azaria, but a dingo who afterward found
the body—either in Cawood's backyard or where they had carried it to the
base of Ayers Rock. In the presence of two witnesses, Frank Morris shot
Ding in the head, a few days after the Azaria attack.]
Frank Cole claims [that after he found Azaria] the toddlers body may
have been buried in a Melbourne backyard by one of his mates [friends.
Mr. Cole, 78, told Melbourne's Sunday Herald Sun he wanted to unburden
himself of the secret.
Over the past 25 years, Ive had nightmares and many sleepless nights
over the whole affair, Mr. Cole said. But I may not have long left, and
if anything happened to me, nobody would know the truth.
A spokesman for Northern Territory police said last night they would
investigate the matter.
Mr. Cole said he had fled the NT [Northern Territory] after finding
Azaria, fearing he might face jail for using a firearm in a national park.
He also claimed he had informed Azaria's mother, now Lindy
Chamberlain-Creighton after remarrying, and [also] the producers of an $8
million tele-movie about the saga.
Azaria disappeared from Uluru campsite on August 17, 1980; but her body
was never discovered. After two inquests and a trial, her mother, Lindy
Chamberlain, was jailed in 1982 for murder, only to be freed in 1986.
Mr. Cole said he was camping with three mates near Uluru when he went to
find food for their dog. He said he shot what he thought was a rabbit, but
discovered on closer inspection it was a male dingo.
As I approached it, I saw that it had a baby in its mouth, Mr. Cole
continued. He said he placed the baby on the front seat of his ute [an
Australian vehicle] and drove back to the campsite.
We were shocked. We realized what had happened and we were in tears,
he said. The baby had four puncture holes in its head and one of its ears
was missing. Otherwise, it didn't seem to have been harmed, but it had
obviously been dead some time.
We were crying, two of us were, when we saw the state the little bub
was in, all covered in blood. We decided wed try and clean it up, so we
got some water boiling, and started to take its clothes off. One of my
mates started cutting the clothing with a knife, but another one said to
undo the buttons. We had some trouble with the buttons on the jacket [the
terrycloth jumpsuit, not the matinee jacket over it, which would have been
rather easy to slip off], so I took a pair of small tin snips out of my
tool box and cut the buttons off.
The original coroners inquest, headed by former Melbourne detective
Denis Barritt, found 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.
Azaria's bloodstained jumpsuit was found by Melbourne tourist Wallace
Goodwin seven days after her disappearance. Her jacket was found nearby,
close to the body of a tourist who fell from the rock in February 1986.
Mr. Cole said that, fearing they might face serious consequences for
having discharged a gun and having a dog in a national park—and as one of
them had served time in prison—the panic-stricken men decided not to tell
police right away.
Instead, they had planned that Mr. Cole would flee back to Melbourne with
one mate and the gun, and the other two would later tell police they had
hit the dingo on the road and discovered the baby.
We left on the understanding the other blokes would go the authorities
and report finding the dingo and the baby; but they never did what they
promised, Mr. Cole said.
The other two members had since died, he said.
Mr. Cole said he had felt pretty lousy and guilty, when Mrs.
Chamberlain was jailed. How do you think I felt? he said. It was on my
conscience, of course it was, but I couldn't do anything by then. He said
he had promised his mates he would stay silent.
Tony Cavanaugh, producer of the tele-movie, confirmed Mr. Cole had made
approaches.
That concludes the July 4, 2004, Sunday Telegraph news report. In summary,
Frank Cole camped with three friends near—but not at—the Uluru campground,
where the Chamberlains had camped only a few days earlier. The men chose
to avoid being near tourists; apparently they had heard nothing about
Azaria's disappearance.
In order to find fresh game, Cole drove his vehicle to a distant location;
so the sound of gunfire would not be heard. There he found a dingo holding
fully clothed Azaria. Having shot the animal, he drove back to camp with
the baby in his car.
If you will look at the map on page 6 of tract 2 of this tract set, the
area where the clothes were later found was distant, isolated, yet close
to the road—where a car could quickly stop and run over close to that
isolated part of the Rock. Arriving back at camp, he probably told the
others where he found the infant, and the remaining two may have placed
the naked infant there, along with the clothes; from which the jumpsuit
buttons had been removed. It is very possible that Cawood had only
recently placed the body in that same general area, which was so
accessible by car, yet so isolated. But there is also the possibility that
the other two men buried the body of the child in a Melbourne backyard, as
previously agreed upon.
In the story of Lindy Chamberlain, an Adventist in Australia, we see a dim
reflection of what will be our own experience when, after the National
Sunday Law is enacted by nation after nation, an enraged world, goaded on
by Satan, turns against Sabbathkeepers, tells wild stories about how evil
they are, and works to wipe them from the face of the earth. vf
