Case file · Witch trials
Azaria Chamberlain and the 'sacrifice' rumours
On 17 August 1980 baby Azaria Chamberlain was taken from a tent near Uluru. Rumours that her Seventh-day Adventist parents had made a ritual sacrifice helped convict her mother Lindy in 1982.
1980 CE · -25.35, 131.03 · status: explained
The account
False claims spread that 'Azaria' meant 'sacrifice in the wilderness'. Lindy Chamberlain was released in 1986 when Azaria's jacket was found near a dingo lair, exonerated in 1988, and a 2012 inquest found a dingo took the baby. It is a modern case of religious prejudice shaping a criminal trial.
The sceptical view
The ritual-murder story had no basis; it was a moral panic.