The family of the "Lady of the Hills," a Briton's Thai wife who died mysteriously in a small village in England 15 years ago, wants to retrieve her bones for a funeral in her home province of Udon Thani.
"We'll wait until she comes back," Chumsi Seekanya, 72, said of her daughter Lamduan, known by locals by that name after her body was found in Horton, Ribblesdale on Sept 20, 2004.
The corpse had been unidentified for years until British authorities confirmed her identity this week. Learning she was her daughter, Ms Chumsi yesterday asked Phen district chief Natthaphon Withi to start a procedure to bring back her bones.
The victim's remains were found by walkers near Horton-in-Ribblesdale in England in 2004. They said she had been buried at a cemetery there. While the body was unidentified for years, investigators suspected it belonged to a woman from Thailand or Southeast Asia.
Mr Natthaphon said officials are working on the family's request to send back the bones without it causing an impact on an investigation into her death.
It is still unclear whether she was murdered. North Yorkshire police, who earlier declined to reveal the result of an examination of the victim's fingerprints, eventually confirmed the body belonged to Lamduan.
The confirmation was announced yesterday by deputy permanent secretary for justice Tawatchai Thaikyo, one day after media reports cited a Thai investigation identifying the "Lady of the Hills" as 36-year-old Lamduan.
British police have worked closely with Thai authorities and sought help from justice officials in Udon Thani, the Department of Special Investigation and the Central Institute of Forensic Science.
"The DNA of Lamduan's parents was sent to North Yorkshire police to help with investigation," Mr Tawatchai said.
According to investigators, Lamduan was believed to have married David Armitage, a 55-year-old English teacher at Kanchanaburi Rajabhat University in Thailand. It was her second marriage. The couple have two children together.
Her relatives have made merit for Lamduan as a way to help relieve their grief. They held a ceremony again yesterday evening after learning of the progress in the case.
Before Lamduan lost contact with the family, "She phoned me, saying she had been injured by her husband," Ms Chumsi recalled.
"She really wanted to return home." That's a wish that has gone unfulfilled until now.
Ms Chumsi said her daughter went to England with Mr Armitage. She later learned the man had been working in Thailand for years but wondered why he had never contacted her.
"I'd like to ask him if he killed my daughter, and where was she dumped," Ms Chumsi said.
The victim's relatives have asked Thai authorities to act against her killer under Thai law.
However, in an earlier autopsy, pathologists ruled out the possibility the victim was stabbed, bludgeoned or shot, concluding that a possible cause of death was hypothermia.