Lindy Chamberlain
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Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton (4 March 1948 - ) (born Alice Lynne Murchison) was at the center of one of Australia's most publicised murder trials, in which she was convicted of killing her baby daughter Azaria Chamberlain. The conviction was later overturned.
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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 clergyman 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.
Azaria Chamberlain's disappearance
Main article: Azaria Chamberlain 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 Uluru, 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.
Conviction, imprisonment and release
Main article: Azaria Chamberlain disappearance
Although the initial coronial inquiry supported Chamberlain's account of Azaria's disappearance, Chamberlain was prosecuted for the murder of her child on the basis of the finding of the baby's jumpsuit and of blood found in the Chamberlain's car. She was convicted of murder on October 29, 1982 and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Chamberlain began serving her sentence in Darwin Prison. 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 in February 1986 when several items of Azaria's clothing were found. On the basis of this evidence her life sentence was remitted by the Northern Territory Government and a Royal Commission began in 1987. Her conviction was overturned in September, 1988.
Subsequent life
In 1990, Chamberlain published Through My Eyes: an autobiography (ISBN 0855613319). She and Michael Chamberlain divorced in 1991. On December 20 1992, Ms Chamberlain married Rick Creighton. She and Creighton now live in Australia.
Film
In 1998 a film, called A Cry in the Dark was made about the case starring Meryl Streep as Lindy Chamberlain.
References
Harry M. Miller Group. Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton (http://www.harrymmiller.com.au/Lindy_Chamberlain.html)
External links
- Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton Papers (http://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn1441440) held by the National Library of Australia
- IMDB page for "A cry in the dark" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094924/)