After Leigh Ann Sabine died of cancer in 2015, her belongings were discarded behind her flat in Beddau, Pontypridd.
This discovery led to a murder investigation.
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.”
“The knife cut through the plastic but then hit cardboard and finally tin foil.”
“I started screaming, ‘it’s a body, a real body’.”
It wasn’t until after Michelle, a mother of three, was jailed for murder that the horrible discovery was made.
Michelle had intended to trick a neighbour.
At first glance, the corpse, dressed in pyjamas and tightly wrapped in 14 layers of plastic, appeared to be that of a man in his mid-40s.
The crime’s story was featured in a documentary series called The Body Next Door, which premiered on Sky and NOW this month.
Since the police were unable to identify the man due to unhelpful fingerprints, they had to think outside the box.
But they opened up a new line of investigation when someone close to Leigh revealed that, in a 1997 phone conversation, she had discussed hitting her late husband—who she claimed had passed away from illness—over the head with a frog ornament.
Examples of this evidence include the fact that his pyjamas were discontinued in 1999 and that the packaging contained used plastic bags from supermarkets.
John Sabine, Leigh’s late husband, whose corpse was in doubt, was identified by a relative.
After that, they located the murder weapon, whose unusual design matched John’s blunt trauma injuries.
Although she managed to keep him hidden for eighteen years, it appears that she was aware that she would eventually be caught.
When asked why, she replied: “Because of the body in the bag.”
Eden has also written a book about the case called The Frog Murderer.
