Xangsane
Election day ruined by a ninja turtle
- Joined
- Jun 11, 2021
- Posts
- 150,018
- Reputation
- 127,010
Lamduan Armitage's body was discovered in 2004 in a stream in a remote area of the Yorkshire Dales
Detectives investigating the death of a woman dubbed ‘The Lady of the Hills’ in the Yorkshire Dales almost 19 years ago have travelled to Thailand to speak to her husband.
Walkers discovered the half-naked body of Lamduan Armitage, nee Seekanya, in a stream near Pen-y-ghent in 2004.
For 15 years her identity was unknown until family members in Thailand came forward after reading a news article about the case.
Ms Armitage’s parents, who live in Udon Thani, in north east Thailand, contacted North Yorkshire Police believing the woman could be their daughter. DNA tests were subsequently carried out which confirmed their suspicions.
As well as speaking to her husband, David Armitage, who now lives in Thailand, police are also planning to meet with her parents.
Cold case officers from North Yorkshire Police, who arrived in Thailand on Sunday, said being in the country was the next step in their attempts to finally solve the case.
Adam Harland, manager of the major investigation team's cold case review unit, said: "To understand Lamduan's life we need to speak to the people who knew her.
"We can't move forward without understanding from Lamduan's family all the aspects about her life and particularly the last few months of her life."
Speaking to the BBC, he added: "We want to build up a picture of what Lamduan was like, what was going on in her life and try and find some explanation for why she ended up in a beautiful but remote spot on the Yorkshire Dales."
Following the DNA breakthrough it was established that Ms Armitage moved to the UK in 1991 with Mr Armitage after they were married in Thailand and they had been living in northern England before her death.
The investigation has been at a standstill for three years because attempts by police to travel to the country were delayed by the legal permissions needed and travel restrictions imposed due to Covid.
Mr Armitage has previously said he was not involved in the mother of three's death, The Sun reported in 2019.
The mystery began in 2004 after a group of ramblers came across the remains of a young woman wrapped around rocks in a stream above Horton in Ribblesdale, a remote part of the Yorkshire Dales.
Extensive tests and public appeals failed to establish the identity of the woman, with detectives only able to confirm that she was 4ft 11in tall and probably from south east Asia originally.
The remains were found in a river by walkers who had unwittingly been posing for photographs in front of it without realising what lay behind them.
Police later revealed that the woman, who was half naked, had no visible injuries, and may have died of hypothermia after becoming lost in the hills.
She was more than a mile from the nearest road and a post mortem examination suggested the woman had been dead for several weeks.
In 2007 a coroner recorded an open verdict, but in 2016, a cold case review suggested that foul play might have been involved and detectives began exploring the theory that the victim was a “Thai bride”.
The 'Lady of the Hills' was eventually laid to rest by villagers in Horton-in-Ribblesdale, with one local donating his reserved burial plot to the woman.
Last edited:
