An Australian coroner has made a final ruling that a dingo caused the death of Azaria Chamberlain in 1980. Read how the Guardian and the Observer have reported the case over the past three decades.
On the night of 17 August 1980, nine-week-old Azaria vanished from her parents' tent at a campsite near Uluru (then called Ayers Rock) in central Australia.
A few days later, Azaria's torn jumpsuit and clothes were found near the rock. In December 1980, an inquest found that a dingo had killed Azaria but someone unknown had later interfered with her clothes.
A second inquest started on 14 December 1981, and in February the next year Azaria's mother, Lindy, was committed to trial for murder while her father, Michael, was charged as an accessory after the facts. On 29 October 1982 Lindy Chamberlain was sentenced to life for Azaria's murder.
Hundreds of reporters covered the case and far from ending Australia's absorption in the case, the verdict increased it. However, on 2 February 1986, a tattered baby's jacket was found near Uluru which supported the Chamberlains' case that a dingo had killed Azaria. Lindy Chamberlain was released from prison.
Eight years after Azaria disappeared, the Northern Territory court of criminal appeal quashed the Chamberlains' convictions. In 1992, the government paid them compensation and legal costs.
A Cry in the Dark, a film about the case starring Meryl Streep, was released in 1989, and a couple of years later, Lindy Chamberlain told her side of the story in Through My Eyes.
A third inquest was held in 1995 but the coroner could not determine the cause of Azaria's death so an open finding was recorded.
In December 2011, it was announced that a fourth inquest was to be launched.
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