On September 20th, 2004, hikers walking near Pen-y-ghent in the Yorkshire Dales stumbled across the body of a woman lying wrapped around the rocks in a stream. She was half nude, clad only in socks and a pair of green jeans. She had a gold wedding ring on her left hand.
The woman, unidentified for many years and known only as The Lady of the Hills, was believed to be between twenty-five and thirty-five years old, and likely a so-called “Thai bride,” who had married a British man and immigrated to the UK.
It was further determined that she had probably been living in south Cumbria or north Lancashire.
Though her cause of death could not be determined, the circumstances in which her remains were found suggested she’d been murdered. Authorities surmised that she had been killed elsewhere and her body was then brought to the site in a 4×4.
The case languished for more than a decade. In 2016, police launched a cold case review, and three years later, a couple in Udon Thani, Thailand, Buasa and Joomsri Seekanya, came forward after hearing about the investigation, wondering if the victim could be their daughter Lamduan, who they had not heard from since 2004. A DNA test was performed, and the identification was confirmed in March of 2019.
Lamduan had married a man named David Armitage in 1991 and moved with him to the UK. Over the years, the couple had lived in Portsmouth, Rugby, and Preston. In 2004, Lamduan had gone back to Thailand to visit family, but after returning to England, she failed to make any further contact with them.
Investigators stated that Lamduan’s husband David had been eliminated as a suspect.
Though the identity of The Lady of the Hills was finally restored, there have been no further developments since then, and the killer and motive behind the crime are still a mystery.
Crime Immemorial 