Lady of the Hills: Thai woman identified as mystery body found in Pennines 15 years ago

A woman found dead in the Yorkshire Pennines 15 years ago who was dubbed the 'Lady of the Hills' has been identified in a long-running cold case investigation.

Authorities in Thailand have matched fingerprints to 36-year-old Lamduan Seekanya, who was married to British school teacher, David Armitage, 55.

The Thai woman’s remains were found by walkers near Horton-in-Ribblesdale in 2004.

The body was unidentified for years and the advanced decomposition meant pathologists could not formally establish a cause of death.

55-year-old Mr Armitage said he was aware of a whispering campaign against him in Thai media: “I know the inferences are there but I’m just getting on with my life. It’s been a long time,” he told the Sun.

There is no suggestion Mr Armitage is the subject of any police investigation.

The English teacher, who works at Kanchanaburi Rajabhat University, also added that the British Embassy advised him not to talk about the case.

North Yorkshire Police are investigating her marriage with Mr Armitage, who moved to Thailand after friends and family were told Ms Seekanya had ‘disappeared,' according to The Sun.

Police have not publicly revealed the results from the fingerprints, but Thai authorities confirmed them from Ms Seekanya’s records.

It is understood that Ms Seekanya, mother to Mr Armitage's two children, was killed up to three weeks before her body was found on September 20, 2004.

She was discovered face down in a stream, wearing socks, jeans and a ripped bra, which hung from her left arm.

A T-shirt was recovered nearby but her shoes were never found.

Pathologists ruled out that she was stabbed, bludgeoned or shot, concluding that a possible cause was hypothermia.

Medical experts determined that she was of south-eat Asian origin.

In 2007, a coroner returned an open verdict, and she was buried in an anonymous grave after locals paid for her funeral.

Her headstone reads: “The Lady of the Hills. Found 20^th Sept 2004. Name Not Known. Rest in Peace.”

Police, who made fresh appeals in October, believed the woman was a "Thai bride" who had moved to England to marry a local man.

Advances in technology yielded new leads with carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen levels in her hair, teeth and bones suggesting she lived in the south Cumbria-north Lancashire area.

In fact, Ms Seekanya had been living with David’s parents in Burton-in-Kendal, Cumbria, which is only 25 miles from where her body was found.

She was wearing a gold band on her wedding finger which was later traced to Bangkok, where the couple had married in 1991 before moving to England.

In 2003, they moved in with David’s parents in Rugby before she disappeared.

Ms Seekanya's family, from Udon Thani, in north-east Thailand, sent DNA samples to be tested in January after not hearing from their daughter since 2004.

Her mother Joomsri Seekanya, 73 previously told the BBC: “A part of me hopes that it’s not my daughter – I want her to come back alive.

“But if it’s really her, I can finally sleep at night.”

She also said that her daughter had made a phone call to her just before vanishing: “She said she had no money, not even a single penny. She said she missed home so much.

“It was a very short call. We’ve not heard from her since.”

Mrs Seekanya also said: “He’s British and Christian and were Thai and Buddhist.

“He is a teacher which has great status in Thailand and we are common village people. There were so many differences.”