(Newser)
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The parents of Azaria Chamberlain have finally been exonerated 32 years after their 9-week-old baby vanished from a campsite in the Outback, sparking one of the most controversial investigations in Australian history. The evidence shows that a "dingo or dingoes entered the tent, attacked Azaria, and dragged or carried her from the area," a coroner has ruled, delivering what is expected to be the final word on the case, the Sydney Morning Herald reports. The new inquest, the fourth, was opened after new evidence surfaced of dingo attacks on humans.
The findings mirror those of the first inquest, but a second inquest led to mother Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton serving more than three years in jail for her baby's death, and a third could not determine a cause of death. In the years after the attack, public opinion was strongly against the mother, and some even spat on her and howled like dingoes outside her house, AP notes. "No longer will Australia be able to say that dingoes are not dangerous, and only attack if provoked," she said before leaving court with her ex-husband and their three surviving children to collect Azaria's new death certificate. "We live in a beautiful country, but it is dangerous, and we would ask all Australians to beware of this and take appropriate precautions."
