The body next door: How a woman joked about having a prank skeleton in her garden... but it was actually her HUSBAND
A silly prank by neighbours in the South Wales valleys led to one of the most bizarre murder investigations in criminal history.
Eccentric Leigh Sabine told residents of the block of flats where she lived that she had a plastic medical skeleton from her days as a nurse.
Before Leigh died of cancer in 2015 the skeleton and other belongings were dumped at the rear of the flats.
Neighbour Michelle James, 45, thought she would have some fun with the bones tightly wrapped up in polythene sheeting.
She said at the time: 'Me and another neighbour wanted to get the skeleton and sit it on a friend's settee to give him a shock when he got home.
Eccentric Leigh Sabine told residents of the block of flats where she lived that she had a plastic medical skeleton from her days as a nurse
Before Leigh died of cancer in 2015 the skeleton and other belongings were dumped at the rear of the flats (stock)
'We took two kitchen knives and headed out to the patio but were surprised how well wrapped up the thing was.
'The knife cut through the plastic but then hit cardboard and finally tin foil.
'Suddenly a pool of black sludge poured out, all over my hands and arms. And we were hit by the worst smell you can imagine.
'I started screaming', it's a body, a real body.'
Two policemen turned up and were physically sick as they examined the contents of the bag on the shared patio in the village of Beddau, Pontypridd.
Mother-of-three Michelle explained she had planned to play a trick on a neighbour but the police arrested her on suspicion of murder.
She kept telling them that whoever was in the bag was connected to Leigh but they couldn't check because she had just died.
During her three days in custody Michelle was shown gruesome images of the contents of the rolled up bag. There was a skull with a dent where the head had been caved in.
Another picture showed a hand with a gold signet ring on one of the fingers. Incredibly the body was still dressed in blue Marks and Spencer pyjamas.
Three weeks later DNA tests showed the body was that of Leigh's husband John, last seen alive in 1998.
South Wales Police believe mother-of-five Leigh smashed his head in with a blunt instrument, thought to be an ornamental frog - then hid his body for years at her two-bedroomed council flat in the village of Beddau.
Three weeks later DNA tests showed the body was that of Leigh's husband John, last seen alive in 1998
South Wales Police believe mother-of-five Leigh smashed his head in with a blunt instrument, thought to be an ornamental frog (above) - then hid his body for years at her two-bedroomed council flat in the village of Beddau
When Leigh, 74, knew her days were numbered she wanted rid of the evidence and hired two local men to get it downstairs and onto the patio.
John Sabine, who had been registered to the property, had not been seen for 18 years before his body was discovered. It is still unknown exactly when he died.
Medically trained Leigh had embalmed his body and it's believed she kept it in a divan bed in the spare room of the home they had once shared. An inquest in 2016 heard it had been preserved by 'chemical mummification'.
Glamorgan Coroner Andrew Barkley recorded a verdict that Mr Sabine was unlawfully killed - most likely by his late wife. The Coroner added: 'Precisely what happened and the circumstances will sadly never totally be known.'
But more details crept out about the mysterious ex-nurse who claimed to be a former cabaret singer who modelled herself on the actress Greta Garbo.
Her real name was Ann - Leigh was her stage name. She used to boast about once having sung on stage with Sir Tom Jones.
She and John had lived in Australia where they had been investigated by police for abandoning their brood of five children - Susan, Steven, Martin, Jane and Lee-Ann.
Steve Sabine, the son of Leigh Ann and John Sabine. She and John had lived in Australia where they had been investigated by police for abandoning their brood of five children - Susan, Steven, Martin, Jane and Lee-Ann
According to reports in New Zealand, the pair went on the run after John Sabine was accused of fraud.
By the time she died, Ann Sabine was estranged from her entire family, including her grown-up children now living in New Zealand. She and John emigrated there in the Sixties before abandoning their two boys and three girls in a state-run nursery in Auckland and eventually returning to the UK without them.
The couple's second youngest daughter, Jane Sabine, has gone on the record to say: 'I have no doubt my mother was capable of murder.'
During a visit to a local hairdresser when her health was failing, she bragged: 'People will be talking about me long after I'm gone.' When they asked why, she replied: 'Because of the body in the bag.'
Eight years have passed and the story of the wife who kept her husband's body - Norman Bates-style - mummified at her home has died down in the village of Beddau, which ironically means Graves in Welsh.
But a new three-part Sky TV documentary - The Body Nextdoor - aired for the first time on Sunday and the name Leigh Sabine is on everyone's lips again, just as she predicted.
Mum-of-two Kelly Williams, 37, said: 'I moved here about the same time they found the body, it's very creepy to think what happened here.
'What gets me is that she embalmed him so she must have intended to keep him at home all those years. It gives me the shivers.'
