The incriminating evidence that caught a woman joking that there was a joke skeleton in her garden that was actually her husband

Here is the incriminating piece of evidence that allowed police to link Leigh Ann Sabine to her husband's murder.

For decades, it seemed as if retired nurse Leigh had committed the perfect crime. But a gruesome discovery after her death in 2015 revealed that she had been keeping a gruesome secret for many years.

Leigh had often joked to her neighbours in the Welsh village of Beddau that she had a medical skeleton in her flat, a memento of her time as a nurse, which was eventually discarded in the building's communal garden after she died of cancer.

Michelle James and a roommate remembered Leigh's frequent jokes about the skeleton and decided to use it in a prank, pranking one of their neighbors.

However, their prank would soon become a crime scene.

Leigh Ann Sabine hid a dark secret in her house. (Juliet Eden)

The discovery of a corpse

Review of the events in the new three-part Sky documentary The corpse next door, Michelle explained that she and the other neighbor cut through the plastic sheeting that they thought the skeleton was in – and found only a decomposing corpse inside.

“We took two kitchen knives and went out onto the patio, but were surprised at how well the thing was packaged,” she said.

“Suddenly a puddle of black mud poured over my hands and arms. And we were hit by the worst stench you can imagine.

“I started screaming: 'It's a corpse, a real corpse.'”

Police initially arrested Michelle on suspicion of murder, repeatedly telling them to investigate Leigh.

Leigh's problematic past

However, after Leigh's death, authorities had to investigate her past and found that she had led quite an eventful life.

They discovered that she was married to a man named John Sabine. The couple moved to Australia and had five children together, but later left their children in New Zealand and returned to the UK.

A DNA test later proved that the body was John's. (Juliet Eden)

Leigh later claimed that John died of an illness. The police even found a death certificate in her possession, which allowed them to rule out John as a possible victim.

Authorities were confused as to who the body might belong to until a DNA test proved it was indeed John.

How Leigh was exposed as John's murderer

After a body was found in Leigh's possession, the police now had to find out whether she was responsible for his death or not.

The items of clothing found on the body were M&S pyjamas, which were discontinued in 1999, suggesting that the crime had taken place earlier.

And his skull showed signs of blunt force trauma.

However, since the police still could not prove that Leigh was the murderer, they decided to ask the public to come forward with evidence.

Then a friend of the Sabines got in touch and told details of a phone conversation that, as it turned out, provided the missing piece of the puzzle.

Leigh kept her husband's body in her apartment until her death in 2015. (Juliet Eden)

The woman recalled the disturbing phone call between her and Leigh in 1997, saying the former nurse claimed she “hit” John with a stone frog because he was “getting on her nerves”.

Until the body was discovered, the woman had not thought much about the conversation, because the call was enough to link Leigh to her husband's murder.

The police later confiscated the ornament and found Leigh's fingerprints as well as traces of John's blood.

As for motive, police believed Leigh had developed a grudge against John because he regretted abandoning her children so many years ago.

Can we, as in the Tyla stories, name Juliet Eden as the author of the images of the woman and add at the end:

Juliet Eden interviewed and photographed Leigh Ann Sabine a year before her death. The author also wrote a book about the case, The Frog Murderer, which you can find here. can be found here.

Watch The Body Next Door on Sky Documentaries and NOW.