Dingo snatch witness refuses to talk to police
An elderly man is refusing to talk to police about his sensational confession that he knew that a wild dog had stolen a baby from an Outback camp 24 years ago, in one of Australia’s most mysterious deaths.
Don Cole, 78, from Melbourne, sparked a furore three weeks ago when he told a Sunday newspaper that he shot a wild dog, known as a dingo, near the Ayers Rock tourist camp on the night that nine-week-old Azaria Chamberlain went missing from a tent. The dog still had the baby’s dead body in its jaws, he said.
If his claim is true, his failure at the time to tell police about his grisly discovery in August 1980 paved the way for one of Australia’s most notorious miscarriages of justice.
Lindy Chamberlain, Azaria’s mother, claimed a dingo took her baby but police did not believe her and, after a lengthy investigation and trial that divided the nation, she was convicted in 1982 of murdering her daughter. Her husband Michael was convicted as an accessory but given a non-custodial sentence.
Fresh evidence supporting her claim was later uncovered and she was released from prison after four years. Both parents’ convictions were pardoned.
The saga was made into the 1988 film, A Cry In The Dark, starring Meryl Streep.
Northern Territory police reopened the case on the strength of Cole’s claims.
But today, Assistant Commissioner Grahame Kelly said detectives had failed in their attempts to interview Cole either directly or through his lawyers. Cole refused to be interviewed on legal advice, he said.
“The Northern Territory Police urge Mr Cole to allow himself to be interviewed by police so his claims can be properly investigated,” Kelly said. “Police require direct and unimpeded access to Mr Cole.”
Kelly said it was inappropriate to speculate on the future of the investigation until Cole was interviewed.
Cole has said he and three companions who were camping near the rock, had not reported the find for fear they would be charged with illegal hunting. He said he decided to speak out after the last of his companions from that night died.
Azaria’s mother, who has remarried and now goes by the name Chamberlain-Creighton, has said she doubts Cole’s story but bears no grudge if it is true.
