The Body Next Door

Nestled in the heart of the Welsh Valleys lies Beddau, a sleepy former mining village known for its solidarity and resilience. It is located in the South Wales Valley, about four miles away from the town of Pontypridd.

It was the hometown of some of rugby union’s most notable players – including Michael Owen, Gethin Jenkins, and Gemma Hallet.

Home to some 7,000 residents, Beddau is also home to Beddau RFC, as well as its own football team, Cwm Welfare A.F.C.

Beddau is a place where locals know the postman by name, and everyone knows everyone’s business... or so they think.

The skeletal remains belonged to John Sabine, who went missing in 1997 and whose remains stayed undiscovered until November 2015.

John Sabine was an accountant and served in the Korean War. He married Lee Sabine in 1960, who had nursed him back to health after injuries sustained in the war.

Together, they relocated to Australia with their four children, later having a fifth child, before moving again to New Zealand.

They would later become estranged from their children, with social services in the country taking them in.

John and Lee would later attempt to reunite with their children in 1985, only to abandon them again shortly afterwards.

Little is known about what went on in Australia and New Zealand, apart from their involvement with show dogs, raising springer spaniels for the sport.

Their son, Steve, claims John told him they had fled from Australia to New Zealand after being caught ripping someone off in his accountancy firm.

He also described Lee as a “raging b***h” with a controlling nature, while John was “soft-natured” and “loved her to pieces”.

They arrived in Beddau in February 1997, with John disappearing shortly thereafter.

Lee spent the next 18 years tending to her garden, becoming well-known in the community for her barbecues.

She died of brain cancer in October 2015, at the age of 74.

On November 24, 2015, Michelle James – a neighbour who had looked after Lee during her final weeks of life – decided to play a prank on a friend.

Having been told by Lee that she had a medical skeleton from her days as a nurse kept in the garden, mum-of-three Michelle wanted to prop the skeleton in her home to shock her pal, with the joke being it would be introduced as her “new boyfriend”.

According to Michelle, Lee had told many people about the medical skeleton, but would refuse to let anyone use it for Halloween decorations.

Retrieving the “skeleton”, she unwrapped the 41 layers of plastic, tin foil, and cardboard to discover the very real dead body of John Sabine, still in his pyjamas.

She told WalesOnline: "The body was in a grey package in the garden. An old wooden frame and a baker’s tray had been dumped on top. Then I saw this sludge inside and there was a horrible smell.

“I just screamed: ‘There’s a dead body, a dead body’. I completely lost the plot. I was in meltdown.”

It was later described in the inquest that the body had gone through “chemical mummification”. It took a month for a formal identification to be made.

This fascinating series is available only on Sky Documentaries and NOW. It is not available to watch on other streaming sites such as Netflix or Amazon Prime Video.