In November 2015, an astonishing murder case was brought to light in Beddau, Wales. John Sabine’s skeleton was found wrapped in plastic in a garden and it is believed his wife Leigh Ann Sabine murdered him before she died in October 2015.
Leigh Ann, who was popularly know as “Mad Lee” locally, allegedly killed her husband and hid his body in various parts of their home for almost two decades while also abandoning her own five children.
An accountant aged 67 named John Sabine had disappeared from his house since 1997. She deceived people when she said that he abandoned her but she murdered the man with a frog-shaped stone. She then used shopping bags and plastic to wrap up his corpse and moved it between different hiding spots such as under bed or inside the shed until eventually placing it into her attic.
For almost twenty years Leigh Ann kept claiming John’s pension. However, it remained unknown to others until she died of brain cancer on October 30th 2015. Few weeks later one of her friends found out mummified remains of John in attic while sorting through belongings left behind by late Mad Lee. This led South Wales Police to search for murder weapon traces on some photos belonging to Leigh Ann.
A postmortem carried out by forensic pathologist Dr Richard Jones revealed blunt force trauma as the cause of death. While stating that “chemical mummification” led to good preservation of the body. The particular pattern formed by injuries on John’s head corresponded to projections on frog statue like ornaments. In fact, during investigations police discovered this item among other baubles which Leigh Ann had presented Michelle.
Several months prior to her demise, Sabine told her hairdresser: “People are going to talk about me after I have gone. I could be famous.” And when asked why, she added: “Because of the body in the bag.”
She was a highly intelligent, very confident and quite mad woman as described by photographer Juliet Eden. Whom she met a year before she died. She called everyone ‘darling’ while hiding her secrets behind an insane flamboyant demeanour that always baffled me; usually. When people have something they want to hide, they just keep quiet and stay in their own corner. But Lee was different, she hid right in front of us.
Juliet Eden also wrote “Frog Murderer,” which is about how she knew Leigh Ann Sabine.
In three parts documentary titled “The Body Next Door”, the tale of John Sabine’s murder and subsequent revelation of his wife’s dark secret has been document (The Sun). This series is one part of the most bizarre and shocking true crime stories over the last ten years.
