Althouse: "The dingo really did take the baby."

June 12, 2012

"The dingo really did take the baby."

The 32-year-old case.

17 comments:

Scott M said...: Over the years, I have seen alt/punk bands with the names Dingo Baby, Baby Dingo, Dingo Took My Baby
and Dingo Baby In A White Wine Sauce.

That latter one was an English band, go figure.; 6/12/12, 8:51 AM
Kev said...: (the other kev)

Vindication for Elaine!; 6/12/12, 8:52 AM
Wince said...: I wonder what happened to my fiancé, I know he's here somewhere... have you seen my fiancé?. Are you going upstairs? ...tell my fiancé I'm looking for him, I have lost my fiancé, the poor baby.; 6/12/12, 8:54 AM
David said...: You gotta love the comments of the juror from the jury that convicted the mother. "I've always had my doubts."
Well, not always, since she voted for conviction. Or was she just in a hurry to get home and be done with this horrid jury dutying?; 6/12/12, 8:55 AM
Craig said...: The dingo should be grilled over the still glowing embers from the murder of JonBenet Ramsey.; 6/12/12, 9:10 AM
ndspinelli said...: I feels like I'm reading Drudge here. This must be summer mode.; 6/12/12, 9:11 AM
Petunia said...: I've read that the baby's bed jacket, which was found several years after her death, still had the top button buttoned (and tests showed it could NOT have been pulled over her head that way), and was neatly folded.

Who knew dingoes were so domestic?; 6/12/12, 9:20 AM
Aridog said...: "...a 9-week-old infant vanished from an Outback campsite..."

Emphasis mine ...and WTF!! Who takes a 9 week old infant camping in some Outback Wilderness?

Morons, that's who.; 6/12/12, 9:21 AM
Darrell said...: I've read that the baby's bed jacket, which was found several years after her death, still had the top button buttoned (and tests showed it could NOT have been pulled over her head that way), and was neatly folded.

There's always the possibility that someone ran across it over the years and buttoned the button, etc. Stranger things have happened.; 6/12/12, 9:52 AM
Geoff Matthews said...: How can a coroner make a ruling without a body?; 6/12/12, 10:42 AM
Curious George said...: Old news; 6/12/12, 10:51 AM
Kirk Parker said...: Aridog,

Huh? I lived with a 9-month-old infant in an "outback wilderness", lots of people do. Not all of us are morons.; 6/12/12, 10:53 AM
Aridog said...: @ Kirk Parker ... point taken. I may have erred in presuming the Chamberlains went "camping" ... e.g., went in to a wilderness temporarily from their otherwise city or town environment, which I think Mount Isa, their home at the time, is in fact.

I rather doubt they were wilderness pioneers or otherwise people who live in a wilderness environment every day. That said, I doubt a pioneering family would leave a 9 week old infant untended in a tent on the ground.

I see nouveau pioneers frequently in places like Yellowstone Park. They're the one's trying to feed the bears, coyotes, etc....or putting their infants on the back of bison for a cute photo.

Situational awareness is a primary element for survival in wilderness, or even in the military, which8 is my experience.; 6/12/12, 11:06 AM
Synova said...: I always thought that the Dingo took the baby.

The reasoning for doubting it was the coldness of the mother, which I thought was the most reasonable way to react to an unbelievable trauma, not an indication that she did away with the child herself.

If she did it herself, wouldn't she have emoted all over the place, sobbing and crying for the cameras?

If something like that happened to me, I'd shut down. And for that she's thought a murderer.; 6/12/12, 11:13 AM
Synova said...: "There's always the possibility that someone ran across it over the years and buttoned the button, etc. Stranger things have happened."

Or the baby's body was pulled through the hole instead of it's head. 9 weeks? Little noodle bodies at that age.; 6/12/12, 11:16 AM
Richard Dolan said...: This part of the story jumped out:
“'The dingo has done it. I’m absolutely thrilled to bits,' said Yvonne Cain, one of the 12 jurors in the 1982 trial that convicted a then-pregnant Chamberlain-Creighton of murder. 'I’d always had my doubts and have become certain she’s innocent.'”

If she voted to convict (I assume an Australian conviction requires a unanimous jury, as here), then she couldn't "always" have had such doubts.; 6/12/12, 11:19 AM
Joe said...: "The first inquest in 1981 had also blamed a dingo. But a second inquest a year later charged Chamberlain-Creighton with murder..."

Hmm, sounds familiar.; 6/12/12, 12:51 PM