Man says missing baby’s body was in jaws of dingo he shot dead

ONE of Australia’s most enduring mysteries, the fate of a baby killed by a dingo in the Outback 24 years ago, took another twist yesterday with an elderly man saying he retrieved the baby’s body from the jaws of a wild dog he shot.

The stunning claim was made by 78-year-old Frank Cole to the Sunday Herald Sun tabloid in Melbourne.

He told the paper he had photos of the night in August 1980 that Azaria Chamberlain went missing from a campsite near Ayers Rock, but said the photos did not include one of the baby’s bloody body.

Police initially did not believe the claim of Azaria’s mother, Lindy Chamberlain, that a dingo snatched the infant, and she was convicted of murder in 1982.

She was freed on appeal in 1986 and formally cleared of the murder two years later after fresh evidence - an item of Azaria’s clothing - backed her version of events.

The saga was made into the 1988 movie A Cry in the Dark, starring Meryl Streep and Sam Neill.

Cole told the newspaper he felt “pretty lousy and guilty” when Chamberlain was convicted.

“It was on my conscience, of course it was,” he said, “but I couldn’t do anything by then.”

He said he had shot the dingo thinking it was a rabbit to provide food for a dog while on a camping trip with three friends. He did not report what had happened to police because shooting a dingo in the national park surrounding Ayers Rock could have earned him a fine.

Cole said he had contacted Chamberlain and the makers of an Australian movie currently being filmed about Azaria’s disappearance.

He said he did not know what became of the baby’s body, but it possibly was buried in the garden of one of the three men he was camping with, all of whom have since died.

The police will now investigate his claims.