British Lecturer Detained in Thailand Over Cold Case Murder
A British lecturer at the center of a cold case murder mystery has been detained in Thailand—six years after he denied killing his wife.
David Armitage, 62, was held by immigration officials in the town of Kanchanaburi where he has been teaching at a university for nearly 20 years.
Credit: News Group Newspapers Ltd
He is now facing possible deportation from Thailand due to a probe into his visa.
If Armitage returns to the UK, police from North Yorkshire’s cold case unit plan to interview him regarding the 2004 murder of his Thai wife, Lamduan Seekanya.
Background on the Case
The development comes more than a year after he refused to meet investigators from North Yorkshire Police’s cold case unit who had traveled to Thailand in February 2023.
Lamduan’s body was found partially clothed in a mountain stream in the Yorkshire Dales in 2004 near the village of Horton-in-Ribblesdale. At the time, police treated her death as non-suspicious.
She was dubbed the Lady of the Hills by villagers who buried her in an anonymous grave in Horton in 2007.
Approximately a decade later, North Yorkshire Police’s cold case unit reclassified her death as murder and formally identified her as Lamduan following fresh police appeals.
The Descents into Mystery
Lamduan moved to the UK in 1991 after marrying Armitage in Bangkok. They settled initially in Portsmouth, where Armitage worked as a teacher, and Lamduan worked as a dishwasher in a Thai restaurant. They later moved to Rugby, Warwickshire.
Lamduan disappeared in the summer of 2004 without being reported missing.
Investigative journalists tracked Armitage to his rural home in Thailand in 2019 where he denied any involvement in his wife’s murder and claimed there had been a malicious campaign against him in the Thai media.
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Credit: Collect
Armitage’s detention in Thailand was announced on Thursday, capturing public and media attention once more.
The Family Perspective
Lamduan’s mother, Joomsri Seekanya, 73, previously expressed concern about her daughter’s marriage. She once said that Lamduan’s last call from 2004 was emotional, with Lamduan expressing her longing to return home.
