 Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Michael Chamberlain was wrongly convicted in the death of his baby daughter, Azaria, in 1980 
 
 Michael Chamberlain, who fought for years to clear his family's name after his baby daughter Azaria was killed by a dingo, has died at the age of 72. Michael Chamberlain's longtime friend and former lawyer, Stuart Tipple, told Australia's Fairfax Media that Michael died on Monday night as a result of complications from leukemia. Instead, prosecutors argued that Lindy had slit her daughter's throat and buried her in the desert. Michael was convicted as an accessory after the fact - until a chance discovery in 1986 overturned both verdicts. Speaking in 2012, when the Northern Territory coroner finally ruled that Azaria had been taken by a dingo, Mr Chamberlain said that the battle to get to the legal truth had taken too long. The was what the first inquest, back in early 1981, had also concluded, and what the Chamberlains had steadfastly said since Lindy yelled the famous words: “That dingo’s got my baby.” 
 
 After the 2012 verdict Michael Chamberlain stood on the courtroom steps in Darwin and said: “I am here to tell you that you can get justice even when you think that all is lost.” 
 
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 But he said he still had plenty of questions he wanted authorities to answer. Actor Sam Neill, who portrayed Michael in the film A Cry in the Dark, said: "Throughout their cruel ordeal and the years of injustice, Michael Chamberlain maintained that quiet unassuming dignity - an impressive man. “I have peace and gratitude in my heart that Azaria’s spirit now lies rested, and I have gratitude and peace in my heart because justice has been done for us,” he said in 2012 on the release of his book Heart of Stone: Justice for Azaria. Michael, a pastor in the Seventh-Day Adventist church, and his wife Lindy were put under the spotlight when their nine-week-old daughter Azaria was snatched from a tent during a family holiday at Uluru in August, 1980. The mystery surrounding Azaria's disappearance was the most divisive and sensational legal drama in Australian history. The prosecution alleged that Lindy Chamberlain had cut Azaria’s throat in the front seat of the family car and hidden the baby’s body in a large camera case. Chemical evidence of infant blood in the family car - which would later be widely discredited - was a key part of the prosecution. But in 1982, Lindy was nonetheless convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. Michael was charged with being an accessory after the fact and received an 18-month suspended sentence. How did Lindy and Michael prove their innocence? In 1986, the chance discovery of Azaria’s matinee jacket – an item of clothing her mother had always said her baby had been wearing at the time of the attack – reopened the case. A Royal Commission, the highest form of investigation in Australia, later debunked much of the forensic evidence used at trial and the Chamberlains' convictions were overturned. Their religion, as Seventh Day Adventists, was not widely understood, leading to suspicion and even accusations of cult-like activity. Image copyright Twitter / @twopaddocks Image caption The injustice of the Chamberlain case brought the family many admirers 
 
 Outside Australia, the story would find worldwide fame when turned into a film, A Cry in the Dark, starring Meryl Streep as Lindy and Sam Neill as Michael. Lindy and Michael divorced a few years after they were exonerated in the late 1980s, and Lindy began a campaign to have dingoes acknowledged as dangerous to humans.
– It's a phrase synonymous with "the dog ate my homework." But for years, Michael Chamberlain tried to convince the world that it was true, that in the reported words of his former wife, "the dingo took my baby." He died Monday at age 72 of complications from leukemia decades after finally establishing the truth. He and his then-wife Lindy had been camping with their 9-week-old daughter Azaria during a trip to Uluru in the Australian Outback in 1980 when the infant disappeared, per the AP. The couple claimed wild dogs took her, but authorities accused Lindy Chamberlain of slitting Azaria's throat and burying her body, which was never found, based on forensic evidence suggesting Azaria's blood was in the family's car, per the BBC. Lindy Chamberlain was sentenced to life in prison for murder in 1982, while Michael Chamberlain was found to be an accessory after the fact and given an 18-month suspended sentence. However, both convictions were overturned when Azaria's jacket was found near dingo dens in 1984; the forensic evidence was eventually discredited. "You can get justice even when you think that all is lost," Michael Chamberlain, who split from his wife in 1991 and went on to write several books on the case, said in 2012 after a coroner ruled Azaria had been snatched by a dingo, reports the AAP. On Twitter, actor Sam Neill, who portrayed Chamberlain in the 1988 film A Cry in the Dark opposite Meryl Streep's Lindy, described him as "an impressive man" with a "quiet unassuming dignity," who was "terribly, cruelly wronged."