British husband of the Thai ‘Lady of the Hills’ bailed - video

[snoop1130]

Picture courtesy of The Daily Mail

 

By Bob Scott

 

The British husband suspected of murdering his Thai wife over two decades ago has been released on bail.

 

The mystery surrounding the tragic case of Lamduan Armitage, whose body was discovered in the picturesque Yorkshire Dales, deepens as police make urgent appeals for information.

 

Lamduan, known as the “Lady of the Hills,” was found lifeless in a stream near the scenic Pen-y-ghent in September 2004.

 

While her identity remained a mystery for over 15 years, her family eventually stepped forward after recognising her in a BBC News report.

 

David Armitage, Lamduan’s husband, was arrested on suspicion of her murder upon his return to the UK.

 

Having lived in Thailand since her death, his return was prompted by the revocation of his resident visa by Thai immigration. However, North Yorkshire Police have since released him on conditional bail.

 

Officers are now actively seeking out anyone who may have known the couple during their time living in Sprotborough, South Yorkshire, and Preston, Lancashire, between March and October 2004. The investigation hinges on piecing together their lives before Lamduan’s untimely demise.

 

 

In the shadowy years following the discovery of her body, Lamduan remained nameless, sparking a nationwide quest to uncover her identity.

 

Although a post-mortem examination narrowed her death to a period of one to three weeks before her discovery, the precise cause remained elusive.

 

With no signs of violence and hypothermia ruled out, detectives were left scratching their heads.

 

It wasn’t until a cold case review launched in 2016 that hope resurfaced. With scientific advancements, investigators managed to piece together crucial details, suggesting Lamduan had been killed.

 

The case’s breakthrough came three years later when a Thai family spotted the case’s media coverage and suspected Lamduan could be their missing daughter.

 

Subsequent DNA tests confirmed their fears, painting a picture of a woman who had left her native Thailand in 1991 to start a new life in England with Armitage after their marriage. The couple had settled in northern England, a place that would become Lamduan’s final resting ground.

 

The intrigue surrounding the “Lady of the Hills” continues to captivate the nation, as police strive to solve a decades-old mystery shrouded in heartbreak and uncertainty.

 

 

 

 

 

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Source: The Thaiger

-- 2025-02-05

 

 

[Homburg]

Guilty by accusation?  What if this guy is innocent?  His life has already been destroyed without a trial. 

[bogozy]

32 minutes ago, Homburg said:

Guilty by accusation?  What if this guy is innocent?  His life has already been destroyed without a trial. 

Are you serious? 

His wife was missed.

He need report to the police, and start a search.

He did not done. 

He is innocent? 

 

[rocketboy2]

 

Out on bail.

So they have nothing on him then.

 

[Mickboy]

Did he completely develop amnesia and forget his wife existed while Yorkshire police were scratching their heads by the stream and just move to thailand to start a new life hmm ? 

 

Must have been trying to piece it all back together with the cops before getting bail because it was all so foggy at the time ?.

[hotchilli]

35 minutes ago, rocketboy2 said:

 

Out on bail.

So they have nothing on him then.

 

Yet

[rocketboy2]

22 minutes ago, hotchilli said:

Yet

 

Time will tell.

Do they know the actual cause of her death ?

[kuzmabruk]

1 hour ago, bogozy said:

Are you serious? 

His wife was missed.

He need report to the police, and start a search.

He did not done. 

He is innocent? 

 

Maybe she was working the streets of the UK and they were not a happy couple.   Many possibilities in life. 

[rocketboy2]

45 minutes ago, Mickboy said:

Did he completely develop amnesia and forget his wife existed while Yorkshire police were scratching their heads by the stream and just move to thailand to start a new life hmm ? 

 

Must have been trying to piece it all back together with the cops before getting bail because it was all so foggy at the time ?.

 

Well was she with him in the last days, weeks, months of her life ?
I know two Thai ladies who just, went off with a different guys, once they got there uk passport.

what do we know about this lady ?

Where is all the evidence against this guy ?

[Theforgotten1]

If your wife was sleeping around and then run off one day would you worry about her , maybe that’s what he thought . The only news I look at these days is on here so I don’t see much of what’s going on , maybe he looked less 

[thesetat]

3 minutes ago, rocketboy2 said:

 

Well was she with him in the last days, weeks, months of her life ?
I know two Thai ladies who just, went off with a different guys, once they got there uk passport.

what do we know about this lady ?

Where is all the evidence against this guy ?

Exactly, They arrest him for the womans murder yet have no evidence to prove it. Just because the man did not report her missing does not make him guilty of murdering her. 

It does raise enough suspicion that he knew she was dead though simply because he never filed for divorce after all that time as well as returning to Thailand and living there after. The difficult part will be for the prosecutors to prove undeniably he actually killed her though. 

[Mickboy]

12 minutes ago, rocketboy2 said:

 

Well was she with him in the last days, weeks, months of her life ?
I know two Thai ladies who just, went off with a different guys, once they got there uk passport.

what do we know about this lady ?

Where is all the evidence against this guy ?

I just can't get over how he never ever connected with it and they had two children.

[Briggsy]

1 hour ago, rocketboy2 said:

 

Out on bail.

So they have nothing on him then.

 

That is not the case. There are a myriad of reasons the police put off charging. They may have an awful lot but still have some lines of investigation to conclude.

 

If they "had nothing on him", he would have been "released with no further action" i.e. without bail.

 

The bail will come with conditions, a time period and likely a report date.

 

He is by no means out of the woods yet.

 

 

[rocketboy2]

3 minutes ago, Briggsy said:

That is not the case. There are a myriad of reasons the police put off charging. They may have an awful lot but still have some lines of investigation to conclude.

 

If they "had nothing on him", he would have been "released with no further action" i.e. without bail.

 

The bail will come with conditions, a time period and likely a report date.

 

He is by no means out of the woods yet.

 

 

 

They still have FA on him.

or he would have been charged.

 

Ps, think it is more about stopping him from leaving the uk.

whilst they try and find some evidence against him.

 

 

 

[Briggsy]

Just now, rocketboy2 said:

 

They still have FA on him.

or he would have been charged.

 

I am afraid we will have to disagree on this one.

 

The police may well have very little or they may have a lot. "Released on bail" at the very least tells us they have some incriminating evidence but it may not be enough to charge or they may have enough to charge but are still waiting for further information. Or there may be others involved in any crime they are seeking to incriminate before charging David Armitage (unlikely but theoretically possible). The point is they have chosen to use bail rather than just release him.

 

This case is absolutely still live and under investigation. Bail can be extended for up to 12 months as investigations continue. And then he can be rearrested.

[MicroB]

Some background in a documentary

 

 

 

The combination of no identification and that the body had been moved changed it from unexplained death to suspicious death.

 

 

 

[Chongalulu]

28 minutes ago, Briggsy said:

I am afraid we will have to disagree on this one.

 

The police may well have very little or they may have a lot. "Released on bail" at the very least tells us they have some incriminating evidence but it may not be enough to charge or they may have enough to charge but are still waiting for further information. Or there may be others involved in any crime they are seeking to incriminate before charging David Armitage (unlikely but theoretically possible). The point is they have chosen to use bail rather than just release him.

 

This case is absolutely still live and under investigation. Bail can be extended for up to 12 months as investigations continue. And then he can be rearrested.

My assessment is that he was arrested so he could be interviewed under caution. They clearly have very little,if anything against him otherwise they would have sought to have him remanded in custody.

He was not hiding in Thailand but living openly under his own name but clearly police in UK had insufficient to have him extradited. I understand he arrived in UK of his own volition? 

Unless they can get him to incriminate himself I reckon they'll not have enough to secure a successful prosecution 

[Old Croc]

2 hours ago, Homburg said:

Guilty by accusation?  What if this guy is innocent?  His life has already been destroyed without a trial. 

What a weird post!

The whole system of crime and punishment begins well before the trial ptocess. Evidence is discovered, investigated and suspects identified, before charges are laid. Then comes the trial where guilt or innocence is legally decided. The sympathy for the accused at this point is strange.

The one who was a victim of domestic abuse and murder had her life literally destroyed. If found not guilty at trial the accused can rebuild his life and reputation. She is gone forever and her nationality  doesn't lessen her value as a human being.

Your sympathies appear bigoted.

[BritManToo]

They're still not even sure she was murdered!

"Although a post-mortem examination narrowed her death to a period of one to three weeks before her discovery, the precise cause remained elusive."

[Briggsy]

51 minutes ago, Chongalulu said:

My assessment is that he was arrested so he could be interviewed under caution. They clearly have very little,if anything against him otherwise they would have sought to have him remanded in custody.

Very possible. He probably "no commented" or used a prepared statement.

 

52 minutes ago, Chongalulu said:

He was not hiding in Thailand but living openly under his own name but clearly police in UK had insufficient to have him extradited. I understand he arrived in UK of his own volition? 

Actually the UK used an Interpol Blue Notice. This led Thailand to revoke his permission to stay. This led to his detention in the IDC. This led to his return to the UK. It was not of his own volition.

 

54 minutes ago, Chongalulu said:

Unless they can get him to incriminate himself I reckon they'll not have enough to secure a successful prosecution

Quite possible. Given the deterioration of the evidence, both scientific and non-scientific over time, a successful prosecution may be impossible. We will see. If so, they may be able to charge him with something else, perhaps a failing to report offence of some kind, I do not know.

[PomPolo]

16 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

police make urgent appeals for information

If they haven't got any in 20 years it's highly unlikely they will get anything new, I hope they haven't just arrested him for no reason and they do actually already have credible evidence and information, it sounds like they can;t even prove she was murdered never mind that he did it.

[PomPolo]

2 hours ago, kuzmabruk said:

Maybe she was working the streets of the UK and they were not a happy couple.   Many possibilities in life. 

This is completely true and has definitely happened before when I took my x-wife back to England I caught her sleeping around I didn't bury her in the hills though I just left and went back to Thailand and left her in England, I never spoke to her after that, by the sound of things exactly what he did!

 

My x is however alive and kicking in Thailand now one of my friends told me that did stay in touch with her.

 

I would prefer to wait and see what they actually have on him before condemning the guy.

[Tropicalevo]

16 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

North Yorkshire Police have since released him on conditional bail.

 

Does conditional bail include withholding his passport?

[PomPolo]

3 minutes ago, Tropicalevo said:

 

Does conditional bail include withholding his passport?

It's a fair point the article doesn't say but I would imagine with his connection to Thailand that would have been part of the bail conditions.

[MalcolmB]

Farang apologists out in force this morning. If it was a Thai who killed a farang young woman they same apologists would be out for blood.

 

He is guilty as, they just don’t have the evidence for the courts.

Legal technicalities 

[rocketboy2]

3 minutes ago, MalcolmB said:

Farang apologists out in force this morning. If it was a Thai who killed a farang young woman they same apologists would be out for blood.

 

He is guilty as, they just don’t have the evidence for the courts.

Legal technicalities 

 

His innocent until proven guilty.

But not in your book.

It's a good job people like you are not in charge.

 

[Briggsy]

13 minutes ago, PomPolo said:

It's a fair point the article doesn't say but I would imagine with his connection to Thailand that would have been part of the bail conditions.

Thailand revoked his permission to stay and stuck him in the IDC so he won't be entering Thailand any time soon.

 

He will have to report to a North Yorkshire police station probably in 28 days. He probably will have been strongly advised to remain where the police can contact him.

 

I don't understand why you think the police would have withheld his passport. The UK is not Thailand. Do you have expertise in the field as a duty solicitor perhaps? It would be very unusual for such a move for pre-charge bail.

[WorriedNoodle]

4 hours ago, bogozy said:

Are you serious? 

His wife was missed.

He need report to the police, and start a search.

He did not done. 

He is innocent? 

How come you know so much about it? Were you part of the investigative team? Full disclosure and all that.

[sambum]

3 hours ago, rocketboy2 said:

 

Time will tell.

Do they know the actual cause of her death ?

 

"It wasn’t until a cold case review launched in 2016 that hope resurfaced. With scientific advancements, investigators managed to piece together crucial details, suggesting Lamduan had been killed."

 

Maybe keeping it under their hats in the hope that the perpetrator might trip himself up somehow by revealing facts that nobody else knows?

 

[PomPolo]

20 minutes ago, Briggsy said:

Thailand revoked his permission to stay and stuck him in the IDC so he won't be entering Thailand any time soon.

 

He will have to report to a North Yorkshire police station probably in 28 days. He probably will have been strongly advised to remain where the police can contact him.

 

I don't understand why you think the police would have withheld his passport. The UK is not Thailand. Do you have expertise in the field as a duty solicitor perhaps? It would be very unusual for such a move for pre-charge bail.

Oohh someone got out of the wrong side of the bed this morning.  No I am not or ever have been a duty solicitor, but I can actually read! Bail conditions can be set pre-charge and often are so you are incorrect there.

Given he has another relationship and work here it would not be beyond the realm of possibility he might want to leave sounds like they have nothing on him he may want to go to Laos that has less favourable extradition with the UK so wondering if the passport is in his bail conditions is valid I would say