Husband of ‘Lady of the Hills’ is released on bail after being quizzed over her murder – 21 years after body found

THE husband of the Lady of the Hills has been bailed by police after being quizzed over her murder for three days.

David Armitage, 61, was held at Heathrow airport at the weekend after flying back to the UK from Thailand.

He was arrested on suspicion of the murder of his wife Lamduan Armitage, 36, whose partially-clothed body was found in a stream in the Yorkshire Dales in 2004.

The retired lecturer was interviewed by cold case detectives before being released this afternoon pending further investigations.

Armitage has always denied any involvement in his wife’s death.

After he was bailed North Yorkshire Police made a further appeal for help from the public – specifically from anyone who may have known the couple while they were living in two locations in the months before she died.

Cops want to speak to people who knew them between March, 2004, up to September of that year when her body was found, when they lived in the village of Sprotborough, near Doncaster, South Yorkshire, and Preston, Lancashire.

Dad-of-two Armitage, who moved to Thailand with their children shortly after his wife went missing, was detained by Thai immigration police last month.

They acted after Interpol issued a Blue Notice against him – an international order to help cops gather info about a crime from witnesses and potential suspects living abroad.

His residency visa was revoked but he was not extradited to the UK and was free to go anywhere after he left Thailand.

But he told officials he planned to return home to clear his name and was said to have been persuaded to do so by his Thai girlfriend and his son.

A source told The Sun: “In reality he only has one option– back to Britain.

“He had the choice of appealing against the decision to revoke his visa within 48 hours but he did not take it.”

The intriguing murder mystery began in September 2004 when hikers doing the Three Peaks found a body near Pen-y-ghent.

Police were unable to identify her or establish a cause of death although she had not been shot, stabbed or bludgeoned to death and did not drown.

She was dubbed the Lady of the Hills in 2007 when she was buried in an anonymous grave in the nearby village of Horton-in-Ribblesdale in a funeral arranged by locals.

A cold case review finally led to her being identified in 2019.

The Sun tracked down dad-of-two Armitage to his remote home near Kanchanaburi where he worked as a lecturer.

When he asked if he had killed his wife he said: “Absolutely not…no…absolutely not.

“I know the inferences are there but I am just getting on with my life here.”

A North Yorkshire Police spokesperson said: “The 61-year-old man arrested on Saturday on suspicion of the murder of Lamduan Armitage in 2004 has been released on conditional bail while police enquiries continue.”