The body next door: How a woman joked about having a prank skeleton in her garden… but it was actually her HUSBAND

A lame 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 apartment building where she lived that she had a medical plastic skeleton from her time as a nurse.

Before Leigh died of cancer in 2015, the skeleton and other belongings were dumped at the back of the flat.

Neighbor Michelle James, 45, thought she might enjoy wrapping the bones tightly in plastic wrap.

She then said, “Me and another neighbor wanted to take the skeleton and put it on a friend’s couch so he would get a shock when he got home.

‘We took two kitchen knives and went to the terrace, but we were surprised how well the thing was packed.

‘The knife cut through the plastic, but then hit the cardboard and finally the aluminum foil.

‘Suddenly a pool of black goo poured out, all over my hands and arms. And we were hit with the worst smell imaginable.

‘I started screaming, ‘it’s a body, a real body.’

Two police officers arrived at the scene and were taken ill when they examined the contents of the bag on the communal patio in the village of Beddau, Pontypridd.

Michelle, a mother of three, explained that she planned to prank a neighbor, but was arrested by police on suspicion of murder.

She kept saying that whoever was in the bag had a connection to Leigh, but they couldn’t verify that because she had just passed away.

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 bashed in.

Another photo showed a hand with a gold signet ring on one finger. Incredibly, the body was still dressed in blue Marks and Spencer pyjamas.

Three weeks later, DNA tests revealed the body was that of Leigh’s husband, John, who was last seen alive in 1998.

South Wales Police suspect that Leigh, a mother of five, bashed his head in with a blunt object, believed to be an ornamental frog, and then hid his body for years in her two-bedroom social housing unit in the village of Beddau.

When Leigh, 74, knew her days were numbered, she wanted to get rid of the evidence, so she hired two local men to get it down and onto the patio.

John Sabine, who was registered on the estate, had not been seen for 18 years before his body was discovered. It is still unknown exactly when he died.

Medically trained Leigh had his body embalmed and it is believed she kept it on a daybed in the spare bedroom of the home they once shared. An inquest in 2016 heard it had been preserved by ‘chemical mummification’.

Glamorgan Coroner Andrew Barkley has ruled that Mr Sabine was wrongfully killed – most likely by his late wife. The Coroner added: ‘What exactly happened and the circumstances will unfortunately never be fully known.’

But more and more details emerged about the mysterious ex-nurse who claimed to be a former comedian based on actress Greta Garbo.

Her real name was Ann – Leigh was her stage name. She sometimes boasted that she had once sung on stage with Sir Tom Jones.

She and John lived in Australia, where they were being investigated by police for abandoning their 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 of her death, Ann Sabine was estranged from her entire family, including her adult children, who now live in New Zealand. She and John emigrated there in the 1960s before leaving 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 openly stated: “I have no doubt my mother was capable of murder.”

When she visited a local hairdresser about her health, she boasted, “People will be talking about me long after I’m gone.” When asked why, she replied, “Because of the body in the bag.”

Eight years have passed and the story of the woman who kept her husband’s body mummified in her home – Norman Bates style – has bled to death in the village of Beddau, which ironically means graves in Welsh.

But on Sunday, Sky TV’s new three-part documentary, The Body Nextdoor, aired for the first time and Leigh Sabine’s name is back on everyone’s lips, just as she predicted.

Kelly Williams, 37, a mother of two, said: ‘I moved here around the same time they found the body. It’s really scary to think what happened here.

“What bothers me is that she embalmed him, so she must have planned to keep him home all those years. It gives me the creeps.”