Lady of the Hills: Police travel to Thailand to uncover mystery of Lamduan Armitage's death

A team of detectives have travelled to Thailand in the hopes of uncovering the mysterious death of a woman whose body was found 19 years ago.

Lamduan Armitage's body was found by walkers in a stream near Pen-y-ghent, above Horton in Ribblesdale in the Yorkshire Dales, in September 2004.

Her identity remained a mystery for nearly 15 years, known only as the Lady of the Hills, until a news article helped bring the case to the attention of Lamduan's parents in Udon Thani, in north east Thailand.

The family, whose surname is Seekanya, contacted North Yorkshire Police and DNA testing confirmed in 2019 that the woman was Lamduan - a married mum-of-three who would now be 55-years-old.

International travel restrictions due to Covid-19 meant that the investigation was put on hold for almost four years, but North Yorkshire Police's cold case team has now arrived in Thailand in the search for answers about Lamduan's unexplained death.

Adam Harland, manager of the Cold Case Review Unit, said that he was frustrated to have had to wait so long to be able to travel to Thailand, but that they will now be able to speak to her family and husband to gather more evidence.

He added: "The loss of any family member in circumstances of homicide is a terrible blow, bringing a misery and a sense of loss that so often lasts a lifetime.

"There is, in this case, the additional pain that for 14 years it was not even known that this had been Lamduan’s fate."

The cold case team is working with the Thai authorities and hope to bring Lamduan's body back to her family in Thailand.

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