An accountant’s mummified body was found, still in his Marks & Spencer pyjamas, two decades after his wife killed him, an inquest heard on Thursday.
John Sabine had been beaten to death with an ornamental stone frog.
His wife Ann then wrapped the 67-year-old’s body in 41 layers of plastic and roofing felt - and kept it hidden for 18 years.
The former nurse continued to claim his pension until her death from brain cancer last year aged 74.
In 2014, knowing she was dying, she asked two male friends to move the body into the communal gardens from her flat in Beddau, near Pontypridd, South Wales.
They believed it was a carpet.
Mrs Sabine told neighbours the package, which was left on a patio next to her shed, contained a medical skeleton - she had often joked about having “a skeleton hanging in the attic”, Aberdare coroner’s court was told.
Two weeks after her death in October, neighbours opened the package, intending to use the skeleton to play a joke.
As they cut through the plastic wrapping, there was a terrible smell and they were horrified to see a human head.
DNA tests confirmed the body was Mr Sabine, who had not been seen since 1997.
On Thursday night Mr Sabine’s son from his first marriage, Christopher, 57, said of Mrs Sabine: “She was an evil woman. She told a pack of lies all her life. When I was told they had found my father’s body I couldn’t believe it. I hadn’t seen him for 27 years and we didn’t know if he was dead or alive. I tried to contact him many times but he never replied. Now we know why.”
The inquest was told that a post-mortem examination was unable to determine the date of Mr Sabine’s death but his skull had several fractures consistent with him having been hit by the 2lb ornamental frog that he and his wife had kept by their bed, pathologist Dr Richard Jones said.
A single blow would have been enough to kill him.
He had no other injuries.
Dr Jones said the body was wrapped in “many layers of heavy-duty material” such as roofing felt, shopping bags and bin bags.
It was tied together with green string.
He said: “The decomposed body was clad in Marks & Spencer pyjamas. It was relatively well-preserved because of a process known as “chemical mummification”, which occurs in certain circumstances. It can persist for years or even centuries.”
Detective Chief Inspector Gareth Morgan said there was nothing to suggest anyone other than Mrs Sabine knew of her husband’s death.
Mrs Sabine was described as a fantasist. Mr Sabine had left his first wife and two young children for her.
The couple emigrated to New Zealand in the Sixties but returned to Britain in the Eighties having abandoned their five children.
Their marriage was turbulent. A friend, Liz Chalkley, told how in 1997 she had joked with Mrs Sabine: “I thought you two would have killed each other by now.”
Later in the conversation, Mrs Sabine told her: “You know what you just said about killing him. I’ve killed him with a stone frog I kept by the side of the bed.”
Mrs Chalkley said: “The problem with Ann was you never knew if she was telling the truth or not.”
Mary West, executor of Mrs Sabine’s will, said that her friend “span a myth about her life”.
“She had stories of winning a modelling contract in Australia, a glamorous singing career and tales of her husband’s affairs,” she said.
Another friend, Lynne Williams, said she “felt fooled” by Mrs Sabine’s lies, adding: “She said her husband was abusive and a womaniser.”
A few months before Mrs Sabine died, she told her hairdresser: “People are going to talk about me after I have gone. I could be famous.”
When asked why, she said: “Because of the body in the bag.”
Glamorgan Valleys coroner Andrew Barkley recorded a verdict of unlawful killing.
He said: “These were terrible circumstances. Precisely what happened will never truly be known but it is without doubt that foul play was the cause of death.”
Daily Mail