‘Thai bride’ identified 15 years after body found in Yorkshire Dales

An artist's impression of the body of the woman, who has now been identified as Lamduan Armitage nee Seekanya.

Lamduan Armitage’s half-naked body was found in 2004 by walkers on the Pennine Way in North Yorkshire between Pen-y-Ghent and Horton-in-Ribblesdale.

In February, Lamduan’s parents came forward in north east Thailand, claiming the remains could be those of their missing daughter, who married an Englishman in the 1990s and had not been seen since 2004.

North Yorkshire Police said on Tuesday extensive enquiries and DNA testing with family members in Thailand led the force Major Investigation Team’s Cold Case Review Unit to conclude the woman is Lamduan Armitage, nee Sekanya.

Last year, before she was identified, the force said it believed she was a “Thai bride” who came to this country after marrying a local man.

In February, The Samui Times reported that Lamduan had met her future husband – an English teacher – in Chiang Mai and that the pair had two children in Britain, where she worked in a restaurant, sending money to her family in Thailand on a monthly basis.

A cause of death has never been established and a 2007 inquest recorded an open verdict, with a post-mortem examination indicating she had been dead between one and three weeks before her body was found.

In 2007 a funeral was held for Lamduan at a church a mile from where she was discovered, and a grave inscribed with ‘The Lady of the Hills’ was erected in Horton-in-Ribblesdale.

A spokesman for North Yorkshire Police said: “Police are working with the Crown Prosecution Service to obtain the legal authority to interview members of Lamduan’s family and conduct enquiries in Thailand with the co-operation and assistance of the Thai authorities, as well as conducting enquires in the UK.

“We are seeking information from anyone who knew Lamduan Armitage nee Seekanya or her family between 1991 and up to the time she died in September 2004.

“No matter how small or seemingly insignificant you think the information is, it could prove to be very important to help us establish details about Lamduan’s life and the circumstances surrounding her death.”