In Australia, there was a celebrated case some 20 years ago where a dingo allegedly ran off with a baby at Ayers Rock (there was a movie made about it starring Meryl Streep).
Fast forward to today, and some 78 year old guy has made claims about shooting the dingo and removing the babies body. There are a lot of inconsistencies, and the mother (Lindy Chamberlain) has stated that she doesn’t believe it.
However, the guy apparantly passed some polygraph test last night. I know they are unreliable, but the question I have is this- would the polygraph react if you believed what you were saying was correct. For instance, if I believed I was Napoleon and I was asked that question during a polygraph test, I would answer ‘Yes’ believing it to be correct. The polygraph should not react- is that true?
That’s pretty much it, since the polygraph isn’t measuring the objective truthfulness of what you’re saying - it’s only measuring your own reaction to what you’re saying. In the words of George Costanza, “If you believe it, it’s not a lie.”
Of course, that brings up the irony of the polygraph. The type of person best able to “beat” the machine is the pathological liar, the person who has absolutely no moral qualms about telling whoppers. Since he doesn’t feel bad about lying, he doesn’t react in any physical way when he’s doing so. So, the person most likely to be lying is the person least likely to be detected by a polygraph.
I am extremely sceptical about the claims. I can’t buy that someone would shoot a dingo, find a baby in it’s mouth and then not report it because they are afraid of prosecution- they would be applauded as heroes for shooting a man eating dingo.
I also can’t see why they would take the body back to Melbourne- a trip of several thousand miles -to bury it. Apart from decomposition, they are literally in the middle of the outback- there is just unbelievable amounts of space. They could easily of disposed of the body there and it would never be found. :dubious:
In the interview I saw, he states that he doesn’t know whether they took the baby to Melbourne or buried it at The Rock. He wasn’t involved in the body disposal.
He also, when asked directly if the baby was buried in Melbourne, said that he didn’t know if it was buried there or at Uluru. He believes it to be buried in Melbourne, but he doesn’t know.
He says that he mates were going to make it look like the dingo had been hit by their car, so they cut it’s leg and roughed it up a bit in order to make that story more plausible (don’t know how they intended to explain the bullet in it’s skull; perhaps that’s why they eventually abandoned the plan?).
As the jumpsuit was found where they apparently left it only a week later, I would like to know what happened to the dingo’s body. If it had been left nearby it would have been found in the search for clues in that area. Is it reasonable to assume that if their story is true, then they must have disposed of the dingo’s carcass at the same time? That would make it even more unlikely that they took the baby’s body back to Melbourne and buried it in the backyard.
If their story is true, and they really let an innocent, pregnant, grieving mother go to prison to avoid a couple of thousand dollars in fines, then his friends must be waiting for him to join them in their own special little corner of Hell. What a bunch of low-lives.