Death of Azaria Chamberlain - Coroner's Inquests

Coroner's Inquests

The initial coronial inquest into the disappearance was opened in Alice Springs on 15 December 1980 before magistrate Denis Barritt. On 20 February 1981, in the first live telecast of Australian court proceedings, Barritt ruled that the likely cause was a dingo attack. In addition to this finding, Barritt also concluded that subsequent to the attack, "the body of Azaria was taken from the possession of the dingo, and disposed of by an unknown method, by a person or persons, name unknown".

The Northern Territory Police and prosecutors were dissatisfied with this finding. Investigations continued, leading to a second inquest in Darwin in September 1981. Based on ultraviolet photographs of Azaria's jumpsuit, James Cameron of the London Hospital Medical College alleged that "there was an incised wound around the neck of the jumpsuit – in other words, a cut throat" and that there was an imprint of the hand of a small adult on the jumpsuit, visible in the photographs. Following this and other findings, the Chamberlains were charged with Azaria's murder.

In 1995 a third inquest was conducted which failed to determine a cause of death, resulting in an "open" finding.

In December 2011 the Northern Territory coroner Elizabeth Morris announced that a fourth inquest would be held in February 2012. On 12 June 2012 at a fourth coronial inquest into the disappearance of Azaria Chamberlain, Coroner Elizabeth Morris ruled that a dingo was responsible for her death in 1980. Morris made the finding in the light of subsequent reports of dingo attacks on humans causing injury and death. She stated, "Azaria Chamberlain died at Uluru, then known as Ayers Rock, on 17 August 1980. The cause of her death was as a result of being attacked and taken by a dingo." Morris offered her condolences to the parents and brothers of Azaria Chamberlain "on the death of special and dearly loved daughter and sister" and stated that a death certificate with the cause of death had been registered.