BANGKOK, Thailand – Officials from the Immigration Bureau and the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) successfully apprehended 62-year-old British national David Stuart Armitage, on January 25, who is suspected of murdering Thai woman Lamduan Seekanya in the UK over 20 years ago. Lamduan’s death, which had remained unsolved for years, was recently connected to Armitage after an extensive investigation.
Armitage had fled the UK after the murder and had been residing in Kanchanaburi, Thailand, where he was eventually located. After receiving a tip-off, authorities traced his whereabouts to a house in the area. Armitage had been living in Thailand for an extended period, and upon investigation, officials found that his stay violated immigration laws, leading to the revocation of his residency permit.
The case of Lamduan Seekanya, which had remained a mystery for years, was first investigated in 2004 when her body was found by hikers on September 20 in a stream near Pennyghent Hill in Yorkshire Dales National Park in the UK. At the time, her identity could not be determined, and she was buried in an unmarked grave, later known as “The Woman of the Mountains.” However, in 2019, UK authorities reopened the investigation, and DNA testing confirmed her identity as Lamduan, a Thai woman from Udon Thani.
Lamduan had married Armitage in 1991 and moved to the UK, but her family lost contact with her in 2004, the same year her body was discovered. Authorities are now in the process of extraditing Armitage back to the UK for further prosecution.
