In November 2015, a chilling murder case made headlines around the world. Shockwaves rippled through the quiet town of Beddau, Wales after the skeletal remains of John Sabine were unearthed in a garden, wrapped in plastic. Police believe he was murdered by his wife Leigh Ann Sabine, who died in October 2015, BBC reported. Investigations revealed that Leigh Ann, known locally as ''Mad Lee'', murdered her husband and cleverly concealed his body within her own home for 18 years while abandoning her five children.
The woman's story is told in 'The Body Next Door', a three-part documentary series that explores one of the most bizarre and shocking true crime stories of the past decade.
The Murder Case
In 1997, 67-year-old accountant John Sabine vanished from his home in Beddau. His wife cunningly concealed his disappearance, claiming he had abandoned her of his own accord. However, in reality, she had brutally murdered John with a stone frog ornament, then meticulously wrapped his body in layers of plastic and shopping bags, effectively mummifying him, and hid him in a series of locations - under a bed, in a garden shed, and finally, in her attic.
For 18 years, Sabine collected John's pension. Her dark secret remained hidden until her death from brain cancer on October 30, 2015. A few weeks later, her friend stumbled upon a gruesome discovery in the attic while sorting through her belongings. She found a large package that had the mummified corpse of John Sabine.
Soon, detectives from South Wales Police arrived at her home to scour her photos for any trace of the murder weapon. A postmortem carried out by forensic pathologist Dr Richard Jones found the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head. Dr Jones said the way the body had been wrapped meant it was well preserved through ''chemical mummification.''
The autopsy also revealed that the unique pattern of wounds on the victim's head matched the protrusions on a frog-shaped ornament. Investigators later discovered the frog figurine in a box of trinkets that she had gifted to her friend Michelle.
A few months before she died, Sabine told a hairdresser, ''People are going to talk about me after I have gone. I could be famous.'' When the hairdresser asked why, she replied: "Because of the body in the bag.''
Photographer Juliet Eden who met Sabine a year before her death told Metro, ''Lee was highly intelligent, very confident and quite mad. She called everyone “darling” and hid her secrets behind a crazy, flamboyant demeanour. I always found that puzzling; if people have something they want to hide, usually they stay quiet and tuck themselves away in a corner. But Lee was the opposite, she hid in plain sight.''
Ms Eden has also written a book, Frog Murderer, which revisits her experience with Sabine.
