An initial inquest held in Alice Springs in the supreme court supported the parents' claim and was highly critical of the police investigation.
Subsequently, after a further investigation and a second inquest held in Darwin, Lindy was tried for murder, convicted on 29 October 1982 and sentenced to life imprisonment.
After all legal options had been exhausted, the chance discovery in 1986 of Azaria's jacket in an area with numerous dingo lairs led to Lindy's release from prison.
[3] At a fourth inquest held on 12 June 2012, Coroner Elizabeth Morris delivered her findings that Azaria Chamberlain had been taken and killed by a dingo.
[3] The Crown alleged that Lindy Chamberlain had cut Azaria's throat in the front seat of the family car, hiding the baby's body in a large camera case.
She then, according to the proposed reconstruction of the crime, rejoined the group of campers around a campfire and fed one of her sons a can of baked beans, before going to the tent and raising the cry that a dingo had taken the baby.
[10] The key evidence supporting this allegation was the jumpsuit, discovered about a week after the baby's disappearance about 4 km from the tent, bloodstained about the neck, as well as a highly contentious forensic report claiming to have found evidence of foetal haemoglobin in stains on the front seat of the Chamberlains' 1977 Holden Torana hatchback.
Because of the vast size of the rock and the scrubby nature of the surrounding terrain, it was eight days before Brett's remains were discovered, lying below the bluff where he had lost his footing and in an area full of dingo lairs.
On 15 September 1988, the Northern Territory Court of Criminal Appeals unanimously overturned all convictions against Lindy and Michael Chamberlain.
[2] The questionable nature of the forensic evidence in the Chamberlain trial, and the weight given to it, raised concerns about such procedures and about expert testimony in criminal cases.
[22] Two years after they were exonerated, the Chamberlains were awarded $1.3 million in compensation for wrongful imprisonment, a sum that covered less than one third of their legal expenses.
"[3] In December 2011, Elizabeth Morris, then one of the Northern Territory coroners, announced that a fourth inquest would be held in February 2012, which was to be done "largely in relation to information provided by [the Chamberlains'] counsel about dingo attacks since the death of Azaria" as part of a campaign by the Chamberlains for a new inquest to establish that Azaria had been taken by a dingo.
[24] On 12 June 2012, at a fourth coronial inquest into the disappearance of Azaria Chamberlain, Morris ruled that a dingo was responsible for her death in 1980.
[4] Morris made the finding in the light of subsequent reports of dingo attacks on humans causing injury and even death.
[28] Much was made of the Chamberlains' Seventh-day Adventist religion, including allegations that the church was actually a cult that killed infants as part of bizarre religious ceremonies.
[34] For example, in April 1998, a 13-month-old girl was attacked by a dingo and dragged for about one metre (3 ft) from a picnic blanket at the Waddy Point camping area.
The John Bryson book Evil Angels was published in 1985, and subsequently adapted by Australian film director Fred Schepisi into a 1988 feature film of the same name (released as A Cry in the Dark outside of Australia and New Zealand),[44] starring Meryl Streep as Lindy Chamberlain and Sam Neill as Michael.
The event was transmuted from tragedy to morbid comedy material[52] for US television series such as Seinfeld,[53] Buffy the Vampire Slayer[54] and The Simpsons,[55] and 'became deeply embedded in American pop culture' with phrases such as 'a dingo's got my baby!'
In the 1998 animated film The Rugrats Movie, a reporter makes a reference to this case by saying, "Is it true a dingo ate your baby?".
Australian puppet-comedian Randy Feltface also referenced the event in his 2021 live show Purple Privilege, where he claimed he was "...born on the day Lindy Chamberlain's baby was eaten by a dingo.
"[57] Playwright Alana Valentine conceived a production in 2013, featuring criticism and outrage towards Lindy Chamberlain surrounding the events and aftermath of the death of Azaria.
[58] The production continues a decade later; in 2023 amateur theatre company Milton Follies starred Ashley Howes as Lindy.