WEBVTT
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Every story has a beginning, but not everyone has an ending.
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In the shadows of headlines and buried police reports lay
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the voices of the missing, the murdered, and the forgotten,
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waiting to be heard and have their stories told. This
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is The Book of the Dead, a true crime podcast
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where we remember forgotten victims of heinous crimes, reopen cold cases,
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re visit haunting disappearances, and uncover the truths buried beneath
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the years of silence. I'm your host, Courtney Liso, and
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every week we turn to another chapter, one victim, one mystery,
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one step closer to justice. Brought to you by Darkast
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Network in Deep Podcasts with the Twist. Hello, Hello, Welcome
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to the next chapter in the Book of the Dead.
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Anyone who knows me, whether you've picked up the svibe
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for me as a longtime listener or you know me
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in real life, knows that I have a thing for
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anything spooky, including the more twisted children's tales and poems.
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I have a small collection of books with this theme,
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and the thing that really started this love of strange
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stories was a book my grandmother had when I was
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a little girl. The book was called Matilda who told
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dreadful lies. And it was a children's poem written by
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Hilari ba Locke, which first appeared in his nineteen oh
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seven book Cautionary Tales for Children. As you can gather,
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this is a cautionary tale about a little girl named
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Matilda who lied about her house being on fire so
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often that when it finally did catch fire, she perished
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in the blaze because no one believed her when she
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called for help. This is reminiscent of the more popular
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story of the Boy who Cried Wolf. The reason I
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tell you about this particular story is because the case
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I have for you today involves someone with a pension
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for telling tall tales. In fact, they embellished their life
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and their accomplishments so much that when they confess to
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something truly terrible, the people in their lives simply brushed
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off the confession as just another fairy tale. Because of this,
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a missing man was never looked for, and by the
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time anyone realized what happened, the chance for justice had
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been dashed. This is the murder of John Sebeine. Before
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we jump into the case at hand, to preface this
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by saying two things. One, the bulk of this case
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happens in South Wales, so there will be places that
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I'll have to pronounce that I may not do the
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best job of. But you know, I try very hard
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to say things correctly. If I get anything incorrect. For
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any Welsh speakers out there, I apologize in advance and
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feel free to correct me in my Instagram DMS. The
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second thing is that the last name for this family
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is commonly pronounced as Sabine. However, the family pronounces it
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as Saybine, so I am going to go with that pronunciation.
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This case begins in a quiet village in Betha, which
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is in South Wales. The word Beta means graves in Welsh,
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and according to RC tour Heritage dot com, which is
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all about the Welsh country borough where Beta is called
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Ronta Kunantaff, there's two possibilities as to how Beta got
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its name. Say the village got its name for how
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important it was during the tribal wars, or it could
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be that on the eighteen thirty three Ordnance Survey map,
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four tracks met at what was called krois Heula Betha,
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which translates to Crossroads of the Graves. This was where
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felons were hanged and then buried. While having quite a
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morbid name, the tiny coal village had a slow start
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in development after eighteen sixty, with very few inhabitants outside
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of coal miners making their home there until after nineteen
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o nine. Nowadays, while still small, having a population of
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under seven thousand, Beta is considered a pleasant though rural
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place to live, with a strong sense of community and
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everyone knows everyone. That's not to say it's not without
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its hardships. According to Mary West, a pastor in Beta,
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after the mining factories closed, countless people were left without jobs,
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and many of them turned to drug use. On November
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twenty fourth, twenty fifteen, community officer Gareth Bishop received a
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strange phone call that a dead body had been found
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in the shared garden of Tremacoon Flats. Beda is one
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of those towns where things like this don't happen, So
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when the caller, according to the docuseries about this case,
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called the body next door, said that it was likely
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just some strange garbage, Gareth agreed and said he would
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come by to check it out some time later in
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the day. Now, Police Constable Joy Nichols did not agree.
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In fact, according to her interview, for this series. She said, quote, no,
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we can't just leave this until you have dinner. We
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might have a crime scene. We have to go now.
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It's a good thing they did, because this wasn't just
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a strange looking pile of rubbish. Tucked next to the
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wall of the flats was a roll of plastic and
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what was inside had horrified the women who had found it.
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You see, these two women who had made the discovery,
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Rhean Lee and Michelle James, were sitting in the garden
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over a cup of tea when they decided they would
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play a little prank on their neighbor. They knew that
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a friend of theirs who had recently passed, Leanne Sabine,
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had a medical skeleton that she spoke of all the time,
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and it was currently laying in a shed near a
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plotting table in the garden, wrapped up in plastic. According
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to the Guardian, the plan was to take the skeleton
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and place it on the settee. They would then knock
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to get the neighbor to come down and when they
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saw the skeleton they would be spooked. It was supposed
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to be a silly, little prank. Rhean and Michelle lifted
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the skeleton out of the shed and started to cut
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away the layers around it. Surprisingly, this prop wasn't just
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wrapped in plastic though, according to the Washington Post, it
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was also wrapped in layers of tinfoil, plastic bags, and
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roofing material. As more layers were removed, to their horror,
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a foul smelling liquid began to leak out of the wrapping. Nunciated,
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they pulled back the covering a bit more and revealed
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not a medical skeleton, but a partially decomposed body. Michelle
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told the BBC quote, all this sledge came out over
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my hands and I was screaming. I was shouting, it's
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a dead body. It's a dead body. When investigators arrive
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at the scene, they take stements from both women, and
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while Michelle is adamant that what they found was really
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a body, Rheon wasn't totally convinced, So Anne and Gareth
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weren't entirely sure what to make of the situation. So
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Gareth started cutting away the plastic to expose more of
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what this could be, and unbelievably, Michelle was right. There
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was in fact a dead body hidden in plain sight
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in the garden. But now they needed to figure out
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the identity of the decedent as well as what happened
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to them. Prime scene technicians as well as the coroner
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were called to the apartments to begin processing the scene. Now,
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as I said earlier, Beta is a small town and
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it's a safe one case in point, people rarely locked
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their doors. There was no need to. According to Detective
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Chief Inspector of the Major Crime Unit, Gareth Morgan, there
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hadn't up until this point been a murderer in Beta
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in twenty years. This was a huge deal and the
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community was immediately buzzing with rumors as to who the
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decedent was and what had happened to them. Besides identifying
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the victim, the police were trying to figure out how
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the body ended up in the garden. This was a
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communal area belonging to four of the flats and the
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only way to access it was through the communal entrance
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or via a pad bocked gate that you needed a
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key for. Whoever had left the body there likely lived
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in one of the apartments, but in going door to
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door none of the residents can provide any information. The
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body is transported to to the coroner's office and there
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really astounded as to the links someone had gone to
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in an attempt to conceal the body. According to DCI Morgan,
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the body had been wrapped in layers at least forty
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one times and the coroner had to cut through all
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of them to reach the body. Upon revealing him fully,
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the decedent was described as a white male, middle aged
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and around five foot six, with a receding hairline. On
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his hand was a signet ring, and he was wearing
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a pair of marks and spencer's pajamas. Surprisingly, the body
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was in remarkably good condition. The extensive care used to
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conceal the body had triggered a chemical mummification process and
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it had been fairly well preserved. There was no bug activity,
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and the coroner was even able to determine that the
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decedent had consumed a bit of alcohol before his death.
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According to an article for The Herald, it was estimated
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that the man had died a few weeks to a
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few months prior to being discovered, and the cause of
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death was blown forced trauma to the head, as fractures
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to the skull and i were discovered. The body in
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the garden was a homicide victim, as they're attempting to
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make an identification. Investigators take a look again at the
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residence in the four flats connected to this garden. In
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one flat lived a ninety three year old woman who
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rarely left the apartment due to mobility issues, so she
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was not suspected of any involvement. There was a man
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that lived in the second apartment that had moved in
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recently and had some impairments, so he was also quickly cleared.
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The third apartment had up until that October, been occupied
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by a woman in her eighties who had just passed
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of cancer. Since she had been so ill the last
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few months of her life, police had no reason to
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look more closely at her. Finally, the last flat belonged
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to Michelle James, the woman who had found the body.
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Of course, now that this was a homicide investigation, Major
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Crimes wanted to speak with her more formally. During the
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recorded interview which you can see in the Body next Door,
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Michelle is asked if she knew who placed the body
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in the garden and how she knew it was there.
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She says, Lee said that there was told me and
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Rheon that there was a medical skeleton at the back
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at the side Michelle went on to say that she
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had heard Lie speak about needing the skeleton moved up
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to the attic, and in fact, she was adamant about this,
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and she mentioned it several times before she had died.
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The Lie she was referring to was the woman who
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had lived in the flat above her, Lee Sabine, who
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had died in October after a battle with brain cancer.
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Now police needed to figure out who Lee was and
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if she had anything to do with her homicide. Victim
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investigators went around the town to try and get a
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sense of her, and everyone had stories to tell about
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Lee Sabine. She had shown up in Bethough when she
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was in her sixties, and she loved to be noticed.
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In fact, at her age, she was wearing shorts and
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fishnets with bright red lips that gone, and she loved
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to have her hair done, her makeup done, and her
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nails painted. The residents in the village described her as eccentric,
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larger than life, and very hippyish. Those that knew her
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said of how she'd go on and on about how
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she had been a cabaret singer and she thrived being
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on stage. Most people recalled her waving a cigarette about
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and referring to everyone as darling. She was like a caricature.
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As they asked around, they learned more about Lee's illness.
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She had been diagnosed with the brain cancer and had
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been very sick for about a year prior to her death,
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so investigators had some misgivings about Michelle's statement. Lee, especially
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being in her eighties with terminal cancer, certainly could not
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have been capable of bludgeoning someone to death, let alone
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disposing of the body. There were also parts of Michelle's
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statements that really hadn't made sense either, with her mentioning
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an ex of hers that investigators really didn't know what
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to make of. Because Michelle had made conflicting statements to
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police about when she had allegedly learned of the body,
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as well as making an ill perceived joke about cooking
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her ex and a stew they ultimately decided to arrest
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her on suspicion of murder. However, two days after her arrest,
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after completely searching her flat, going over a week's worth
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of CCTV, and tracking down her ex, who was alive
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and well, Michelle was released from police custody after nothing
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at all was found to connect her to the body.
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With Michelle being released, police really had nothing to go on.
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So these circles back to lie Saybine, as she was
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the one who had really taken charge of revitalizing the
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communal garden that had been so neglected when she had
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moved in almost twenty years prior. The only thing investigators
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could find out for sure about her was that, according
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to what she had said in a feature about the garden,
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she had moved to Betha from New Zealand. As investigators
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asked about Lee more and more, they kept getting different stories.
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Lee was a singer, she was a dancer, a nurse,
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a dog breeder. She had apparently been a substance abuse counselor.
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No one knew for sure what she had really done,
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and no one knew for sure where she was from.
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Her accent, according to neighbors, was so strange, like she
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was trying to speak very poorly with an accent that
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she didn't actually have. Then, in speaking with Rian and
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Lee's caretaker, Lynn Williams, they both told how Lee would
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constantly talk about this medical skeleton. She was always asking
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Lynn to move it and had even asked Rian's son
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to put it in the attic but no one ever did.
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According to BBC, at one point, Lynn said quote, we
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were sitting around the table having a cup of tea
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and she mentioned the skeleton again and I said, well,
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I hope it's not a bleeding real one, and she went,
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you never know. Lynn. Then Lynn mentioned the police that
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Lee had at one point mentioned an ex husband named
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John say Vine. Detective CID Matthew Phillips spoke with Mary West,
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00:15:25.320 --> 00:15:28.240
who had also known Lee and had been the one
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to register her death, and Mary said that she had
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found a passport for John Saybine and Lee's flat, but
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00:15:35.919 --> 00:15:38.919
no one in the area had really known him, nor
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00:15:39.039 --> 00:15:43.679
had they met him. In doing some digging, investigators found
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a tendency agreement dated February nineteenth, nineteen ninety seven, and
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it was signed by John and Anne Sabine. As police
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00:15:53.000 --> 00:15:56.000
started following what was appearing to be a strong lead,
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they started asking around about Lee's husband and neighbor and friends.
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All said that Lee said he had left her. Some
256
00:16:03.720 --> 00:16:06.200
said they had been told he cheated on her. Others
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00:16:06.240 --> 00:16:09.000
said that they had heard he was abusive, but the
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00:16:09.080 --> 00:16:12.879
general consensus was that Lee never seemed particularly torn up
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00:16:12.919 --> 00:16:17.440
about the breakdown of her marriage. Just when investigators believed
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00:16:17.440 --> 00:16:21.080
that the body in the garden maybe John Sabine, Mary
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00:16:21.120 --> 00:16:25.200
West found a death certificate for a John H. Sabine
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born in London in nineteen twenty nine, with his death
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00:16:28.919 --> 00:16:32.639
being listed as two thousand and one. Even though the
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00:16:32.679 --> 00:16:37.360
death certificate strongly suggested the body found was not John Sabine,
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Welsh police were still operating under the suspicion that it
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00:16:41.039 --> 00:16:44.879
could be. As it continued to look into Lee, forensic
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00:16:44.919 --> 00:16:48.080
analysts processed all fourteen layers that had been used to
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00:16:48.120 --> 00:16:50.679
wrap conceal the body in the hopes that they would
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find fingerprints or any other trace belonging to their killer.
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00:16:55.679 --> 00:16:59.759
They meticulously went over every inch of the wrappings over
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00:17:00.039 --> 00:17:05.920
and over again for weeks, cataloging everything. Finally, on a
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00:17:05.960 --> 00:17:08.640
piece of tape on one of the layers, they found
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00:17:08.680 --> 00:17:12.079
what was believed to be a fingerprint that was sent
274
00:17:12.079 --> 00:17:17.200
out for further analysis. Unfortunately, this turned out to not
275
00:17:17.240 --> 00:17:20.279
be a fingerprint at all, but rather a mix of
276
00:17:20.359 --> 00:17:24.079
fluid from the body and the adhesive from the tape.
277
00:17:24.240 --> 00:17:26.799
Though this was a dead end, the analysts were undeterred
278
00:17:26.799 --> 00:17:30.279
and went back to the wrappings, this time finding a
279
00:17:30.359 --> 00:17:35.279
strand of hair Upon testing, this hair was not a
280
00:17:35.359 --> 00:17:38.200
match to the victim, but now they had to find
281
00:17:38.200 --> 00:17:42.119
out who it belonged to. This hair was compared to
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00:17:42.160 --> 00:17:44.599
blood samples that had been saved from Lee's time in
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00:17:44.720 --> 00:17:49.359
palliative care, and it came back as a match. The
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00:17:49.359 --> 00:17:53.279
police had a suspect in Lise Mine, but they couldn't
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00:17:53.400 --> 00:17:56.839
question her. Not only did they now have a suspect
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00:17:56.880 --> 00:17:59.759
that had died two months prior, they still had an
287
00:17:59.799 --> 00:18:04.359
idea I unified the body. Investigators take a closer look
288
00:18:04.400 --> 00:18:06.960
at the evidence they have since a second look at
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00:18:06.960 --> 00:18:10.079
the apartment turned out nothing new. It had been thoroughly
290
00:18:10.160 --> 00:18:13.440
cleaned after Lee's death, and her belongings had been discarded
291
00:18:13.559 --> 00:18:17.519
or distributed amongst her friends. As the wrappings are once
292
00:18:17.559 --> 00:18:21.119
again examined, DC Ibrooks notices that one of the things
293
00:18:21.240 --> 00:18:24.119
used to conceal the body is a bag from Tesco.
294
00:18:25.400 --> 00:18:28.559
This particular bag had a barcode which dated it as
295
00:18:28.640 --> 00:18:34.599
being from nineteen ninety two. This is the first indication
296
00:18:34.839 --> 00:18:39.319
that maybe police had the timeline all wrong. While common
297
00:18:39.359 --> 00:18:42.240
for people to hold onto plastic shopping bags, the chances
298
00:18:42.279 --> 00:18:45.759
of one being kept for over twenty years is slim.
299
00:18:46.960 --> 00:18:50.319
The second indication that maybe this murder had happened a
300
00:18:50.440 --> 00:18:54.519
much greater time ago than originally thought. Was the pajamas
301
00:18:54.599 --> 00:18:58.640
the victim was wearing. In speaking with the company that
302
00:18:58.720 --> 00:19:02.839
manufactured them, Marks and Spencer, investigators are told that this
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00:19:02.960 --> 00:19:08.240
particular line was discontinued in the early nineties. Again, not
304
00:19:08.319 --> 00:19:10.759
unheard of for someone to hold on to and where
305
00:19:10.960 --> 00:19:14.480
clothing that old, But what could really be the chances?
306
00:19:15.799 --> 00:19:19.240
So police really start to dig into the life of
307
00:19:19.319 --> 00:19:25.720
Leanne Saybine and her husband John Lee. Sabine, according to
308
00:19:25.720 --> 00:19:30.599
her daughter Jane was a selfish, heartless bitch, and I
309
00:19:30.759 --> 00:19:34.359
think that's a fair assessment, as much as people seem
310
00:19:34.440 --> 00:19:37.240
to be rather fond of Lee and her eccentricities in
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00:19:37.240 --> 00:19:41.440
Betha in Auckland, where she was living prior, she was
312
00:19:41.480 --> 00:19:44.000
one half of a couple that had abandoned their five
313
00:19:44.079 --> 00:19:48.400
children to run off and become famous. Lee, whose real
314
00:19:48.480 --> 00:19:51.400
name was Anne Lee Evans, grew up in the mining
315
00:19:51.480 --> 00:19:54.920
valley of Rontha, and while very little is known about
316
00:19:54.960 --> 00:19:58.640
her childhood, it seems things were tumultuous for her, and
317
00:19:58.720 --> 00:20:00.640
she spent much of her early life years in the
318
00:20:00.720 --> 00:20:03.960
care of relatives. After being abandoned at the age of three.
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00:20:05.440 --> 00:20:08.400
It speculated that her upbringing contributed to her urge to
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00:20:08.440 --> 00:20:11.519
become famous, or at least pretend to be, so that
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00:20:11.559 --> 00:20:14.480
she could emulate the lives she wanted rather than the
322
00:20:14.480 --> 00:20:17.799
one that she had. Lee went on to become a nurse,
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00:20:17.839 --> 00:20:20.680
which is how she met a man named John Saybine.
324
00:20:21.160 --> 00:20:23.599
He had been injured in the Korean War and Lee
325
00:20:23.720 --> 00:20:26.319
was the one to take care of him. They fell
326
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in love. Lee was seventeen and John eleven years her senior,
327
00:20:30.880 --> 00:20:34.200
and according to an article for Wales Online, they got
328
00:20:34.240 --> 00:20:38.359
married in nineteen sixty and had four children, two boys
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00:20:38.400 --> 00:20:42.480
and two girls. The family, John and Lee and their children,
330
00:20:43.039 --> 00:20:46.240
the oldest daughter, Stephen, Martin and Jane then moved to
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00:20:46.279 --> 00:20:49.200
Australia where they had a fifth child, a daughter named
332
00:20:49.319 --> 00:20:53.440
Lee Anne, before later moving to New Zealand. At first,
333
00:20:53.519 --> 00:20:56.680
the Sabine children seemed to have a relatively normal childhood.
334
00:20:57.240 --> 00:21:00.680
Jane Sabine recalled going for walks with her father and Steve,
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00:21:00.799 --> 00:21:03.839
her brother, remembered growing up near creeks and being taught
336
00:21:03.880 --> 00:21:08.119
how to swim. He also remembered, though being only about six,
337
00:21:08.200 --> 00:21:11.799
when Lee desperately wanted to be a cabaret singer, and
338
00:21:11.839 --> 00:21:14.160
the Sabines would bring the children to a few of
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00:21:14.200 --> 00:21:17.680
the gigs she would book, sitting them backstage while she performed.
340
00:21:18.920 --> 00:21:21.680
While this was something that Lee desperately wanted to be
341
00:21:21.720 --> 00:21:25.039
a famous cabaret singer, one of the problems she would
342
00:21:25.119 --> 00:21:28.799
likely have faced was that, besides not being particularly good
343
00:21:28.799 --> 00:21:31.920
at singing, according to her son, was that in the
344
00:21:32.000 --> 00:21:36.559
nineteen sixties, cabaret was dying out. As music evolved and
345
00:21:36.599 --> 00:21:40.079
television became popular. Going out to hear live music was
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00:21:40.200 --> 00:21:43.920
just not something people were interested in doing, and many
347
00:21:44.000 --> 00:21:47.599
smaller club venues struggled to stay open as a result.
348
00:21:47.960 --> 00:21:51.200
While cabaret would have a resurgence in the seventies, it
349
00:21:51.240 --> 00:21:54.079
was different than the cabaret that those had experienced it
350
00:21:54.119 --> 00:21:57.799
in its prime were used to on. Deterred by the
351
00:21:57.799 --> 00:22:01.319
waivering cabaret scene, Lee was to hermans to make it big,
352
00:22:01.480 --> 00:22:04.559
and that led to a decision that the average person
353
00:22:04.599 --> 00:22:09.519
would find despicable. Steve recalled being six or seven years
354
00:22:09.559 --> 00:22:12.880
old in February of nineteen sixty nine when his parents
355
00:22:12.960 --> 00:22:16.799
packed up their children into a taxi. He told Wales
356
00:22:16.839 --> 00:22:19.720
Online quote they dropped us off somewhere and never came back.
357
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To pick us up. They said they were going to
358
00:22:21.880 --> 00:22:26.039
come back the next weekend. Lee and John Sabine had
359
00:22:26.079 --> 00:22:30.039
abandoned their children, aged just over a year to eleven,
360
00:22:30.279 --> 00:22:34.119
and vanished. According to the Body next Door, the Sabine
361
00:22:34.160 --> 00:22:36.519
had taken their children to a day care facility in
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00:22:36.599 --> 00:22:40.559
Auckland and Steve would look out the window every day
363
00:22:40.759 --> 00:22:43.839
watching for them to come back. But they never did
364
00:22:44.079 --> 00:22:45.880
and their children were left in the care of New
365
00:22:45.960 --> 00:22:49.960
Zealand Social Services, wondering why their parents had left them
366
00:22:50.319 --> 00:22:53.000
and what they had possibly done wrong to upset them
367
00:22:53.039 --> 00:22:58.559
so much. These children were heartbroken and authorities in New
368
00:22:58.680 --> 00:23:01.480
Zealand launched a man hunt to find Lee and John.
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00:23:02.240 --> 00:23:04.799
This was a case of child's abandonment that they had
370
00:23:04.839 --> 00:23:09.039
never quite seen before, and they spent months looking all
371
00:23:09.119 --> 00:23:14.279
over the country and in Australia to hold the couple accountable. Then,
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00:23:14.799 --> 00:23:18.720
eighteen months after leaving their children behind, a woman named
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00:23:18.839 --> 00:23:22.079
Lee Jones was found working in a nightclub in Perth,
374
00:23:22.680 --> 00:23:25.799
and she was identified as Lee Ane Sabine, who had
375
00:23:25.839 --> 00:23:31.079
been traveling around with her husband using different aliases. According
376
00:23:31.079 --> 00:23:34.000
to an article for Press, Lee and John claimed to
377
00:23:34.000 --> 00:23:36.759
have abandoned their children, who they had never even written
378
00:23:36.759 --> 00:23:41.319
to out of necessity. Lee said, quote, we haven't had
379
00:23:41.359 --> 00:23:44.039
a break since we left them. We came away to
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00:23:44.039 --> 00:23:46.240
save enough money to buy a house and give our
381
00:23:46.319 --> 00:23:49.319
kids a good life. But who in the lousy world
382
00:23:49.359 --> 00:23:53.079
is going to believe us now? I have regretted leaving
383
00:23:53.119 --> 00:23:56.319
them so many times. I even regret having started as
384
00:23:56.319 --> 00:24:00.480
a singer. John himself claimed that Lee never even wanted
385
00:24:00.519 --> 00:24:02.960
to work when they first moved to New Zealand, but
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00:24:03.119 --> 00:24:05.759
the moment people heard who was a singer, they just
387
00:24:05.960 --> 00:24:10.079
hounded her until she agreed. According to Lee, what was
388
00:24:10.119 --> 00:24:12.799
preventing them from returning home to their children was the
389
00:24:12.799 --> 00:24:15.799
fact that they owed two thousand dollars to the nursery
390
00:24:15.880 --> 00:24:19.279
in New Zealand. Quote, I just couldn't go home and
391
00:24:19.319 --> 00:24:21.359
be kept away from my kids because we didn't have
392
00:24:21.400 --> 00:24:24.720
the money to support them. While Lee and John may
393
00:24:24.759 --> 00:24:27.240
have insisted that they had been attempting to return to
394
00:24:27.279 --> 00:24:30.079
their children over the last eighteen months they had been gone,
395
00:24:30.400 --> 00:24:34.160
that really didn't seem to be the case. Parents that
396
00:24:34.279 --> 00:24:38.359
desperately missed their children don't travel around under assumed names
397
00:24:38.400 --> 00:24:40.960
for over a year trying to make it as a
398
00:24:40.960 --> 00:24:45.519
cabaret singer. They seemed more concerned with getting Lee's name
399
00:24:45.559 --> 00:24:49.000
in lights, though they weren't very successful, than they were
400
00:24:49.039 --> 00:24:51.200
with trying to take care of the five children they
401
00:24:51.200 --> 00:24:56.359
had callously left behind. In fact, though the Sabines insisted
402
00:24:56.400 --> 00:24:58.480
to the press that they were trying to get home,
403
00:24:58.880 --> 00:25:02.480
they didn't return and their children were bounced from home
404
00:25:02.519 --> 00:25:06.920
to home for years. The only sign of Lee and
405
00:25:07.000 --> 00:25:09.519
John came from a letter sent to the Auckland District
406
00:25:09.599 --> 00:25:13.440
Child Welfare officer kJ Flint two months after they had
407
00:25:13.480 --> 00:25:18.079
been found in Perth, but what the letter said is unknown.
408
00:25:18.640 --> 00:25:20.440
Leanne said that she had lost count of how many
409
00:25:20.480 --> 00:25:23.039
homes she had been to, and Steve told producers for
410
00:25:23.079 --> 00:25:25.839
The Body next Door that he recalled asking a foster
411
00:25:25.960 --> 00:25:28.119
parent when his parents would be coming to get him,
412
00:25:28.680 --> 00:25:31.960
and he, a child at the time, was cruelly told
413
00:25:32.119 --> 00:25:36.599
that his parents didn't want him. These poor children had
414
00:25:36.640 --> 00:25:40.400
to grow up without love and be subjected to abuse psychologically,
415
00:25:40.559 --> 00:25:44.119
physically and sexually at the hands of their foster parents.
416
00:25:46.200 --> 00:25:50.000
In nineteen eighty four, fifteen years after their parents left
417
00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:53.240
them behind, the stay by children were struggling to rebuild
418
00:25:53.240 --> 00:25:56.720
their lives after aging out of the system. This, of
419
00:25:56.759 --> 00:25:59.440
course meant that the siblings were separated a fair amount
420
00:25:59.480 --> 00:26:02.000
of time as they tried to navigate a world that
421
00:26:02.039 --> 00:26:05.279
they were ill equipped for. One of the siblings that
422
00:26:05.319 --> 00:26:08.839
seemed to struggle was Martin Sebeine. He just really seemed
423
00:26:08.839 --> 00:26:12.039
to grapple with the idea that he wasn't good, which
424
00:26:12.079 --> 00:26:14.839
stemmed from the terrible things he was subjected to and
425
00:26:14.920 --> 00:26:18.960
not actually rooted in reality. According to his girlfriend at
426
00:26:19.000 --> 00:26:22.279
the time, Jodine Harris, that year, Martin had received a
427
00:26:22.319 --> 00:26:25.440
call from Lee. Steve, who was living in a half
428
00:26:25.480 --> 00:26:28.000
way house at the time, also received a call, but
429
00:26:28.079 --> 00:26:31.440
from their father. The two told their sons how they
430
00:26:31.480 --> 00:26:34.000
were too scared of the public backlash in the media
431
00:26:34.039 --> 00:26:36.599
to return, but now they wanted to be a real
432
00:26:36.640 --> 00:26:40.480
family again. Lee and John had moved back to New
433
00:26:40.559 --> 00:26:42.759
Zealand and they invited their kids to come and live
434
00:26:42.799 --> 00:26:46.960
with them as well, first with Steve, then Martin, then
435
00:26:47.000 --> 00:26:50.799
the girls, and according to Jane, Martin was just so
436
00:26:51.000 --> 00:26:54.839
excited to have his family back together. He was really
437
00:26:55.039 --> 00:26:58.279
just over the moon, which really makes the whole situation
438
00:26:58.559 --> 00:27:03.039
after all the more harp. At first, things were great.
439
00:27:03.519 --> 00:27:06.559
Lee was an attentive mother, though very over the top,
440
00:27:06.759 --> 00:27:09.440
preparing home cooked meals with a cigarette in one hand
441
00:27:09.440 --> 00:27:12.519
and a wine glass in the other. But after a
442
00:27:12.559 --> 00:27:16.119
few short weeks things changed and the illusion of family
443
00:27:16.160 --> 00:27:21.240
coming back together to rebuild their relationship quickly shattered. As
444
00:27:21.240 --> 00:27:23.839
their children tried to explain the nightmares they had endured
445
00:27:23.920 --> 00:27:26.200
in the years Lee and John were gone and get
446
00:27:26.240 --> 00:27:28.319
answers as to why they had been abandoned in the
447
00:27:28.319 --> 00:27:32.599
first place. Lee and John really couldn't be bothered to listen,
448
00:27:33.559 --> 00:27:36.400
Jane said. Lee dismissed her completely and told her that
449
00:27:36.519 --> 00:27:41.119
she's did and oh her children an explanation. Jane, angry
450
00:27:41.319 --> 00:27:45.160
couldn't accept that rightfully so and when she pressed for answers,
451
00:27:45.160 --> 00:27:48.000
she was kicked out of the home, with her younger
452
00:27:48.039 --> 00:27:52.759
sister Lianne quickly following. So Jane went to the media
453
00:27:52.799 --> 00:27:55.920
and stirred up a storm. Film crews came out to
454
00:27:55.960 --> 00:27:59.640
the house with Leanne and Jane, and things escalated very quickly.
455
00:28:00.720 --> 00:28:03.480
Jane at some point during this confrontation with the media,
456
00:28:03.680 --> 00:28:07.400
punched her mother and was arrested for assault, though this
457
00:28:07.559 --> 00:28:13.359
charge was ultimately dropped. According to an Auckland's newspaper article, Jane,
458
00:28:13.480 --> 00:28:16.920
upon being released after her arrest, wrote a scathing letter
459
00:28:17.000 --> 00:28:20.079
to the press about her parents and how she and
460
00:28:20.119 --> 00:28:22.920
her siblings had been abandoned, calling for charges to be
461
00:28:22.960 --> 00:28:26.920
brought up against them for child abandonment. This angered Martin
462
00:28:26.960 --> 00:28:29.680
and Steve, who just wanted things to go back to normal,
463
00:28:30.200 --> 00:28:33.319
so they did an interview attempting to clear Lee in
464
00:28:33.400 --> 00:28:37.079
John's names, or at the very least explain how ashamed
465
00:28:37.119 --> 00:28:40.079
their parents were and how everyone just wanted to move
466
00:28:40.160 --> 00:28:43.880
forward with their lives. This interview in the letter from
467
00:28:43.960 --> 00:28:47.119
Jane initiated a circus from the press and the public
468
00:28:48.000 --> 00:28:50.839
somewhere out for blood, demanding Lee and John be charged,
469
00:28:50.960 --> 00:28:53.759
though they never would be and others thought they should
470
00:28:53.799 --> 00:28:59.079
be left alone. Furious, Lee publicly announced she was not
471
00:28:59.240 --> 00:29:02.880
the mother of the siblings, and she and John once
472
00:29:02.920 --> 00:29:07.319
again disappeared, leaving Steve and Martin, who had tried so
473
00:29:07.519 --> 00:29:11.559
hard to vouch for their parents behind. Lee was all
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00:29:11.599 --> 00:29:14.559
about self preservation and she was not about to have
475
00:29:14.640 --> 00:29:19.599
her reputation marred any further. His parents leaving him again, though,
476
00:29:19.720 --> 00:29:23.680
broke Martin's heart. He disappeared, presumably trying to find his
477
00:29:23.759 --> 00:29:26.880
parents again, and he would ultimately move in with them
478
00:29:26.920 --> 00:29:31.599
and his girlfriend, Jodine. In the UK. However, while things
479
00:29:31.599 --> 00:29:36.079
seemed great, Lee once again stirred the pot, this time
480
00:29:36.160 --> 00:29:40.039
kicking Al Martin and Jodine for presumably no other reason
481
00:29:40.119 --> 00:29:43.839
besides she felt like it, and Martin was never the
482
00:29:43.880 --> 00:29:47.359
same again. After seeing for himself how cruel his mother
483
00:29:47.480 --> 00:29:51.599
could be, Martin would take his own life in two thousand.
484
00:29:52.240 --> 00:29:55.079
While it's difficult to ascertain where the Sabines were after
485
00:29:55.160 --> 00:29:58.160
nineteen eighty four, they eventually showed up in Betha in
486
00:29:58.200 --> 00:30:02.319
February nineteen ninety seven. While a handful of people could
487
00:30:02.359 --> 00:30:05.160
confirm that they had briefly met Sean and a doctor
488
00:30:05.200 --> 00:30:07.799
had documented a visit with him in April of that year,
489
00:30:08.119 --> 00:30:12.039
after that, it was like he had just vanished. Lee,
490
00:30:12.240 --> 00:30:15.920
as mentioned earlier, seemed unperturbed by John's disappearance, and she
491
00:30:15.960 --> 00:30:19.319
had a different story to tell anyone that asked. And Betha,
492
00:30:19.400 --> 00:30:22.119
he abandoned her, He ran off with another woman. He
493
00:30:22.200 --> 00:30:25.920
left her after abusing her. To her daughters. She called
494
00:30:25.960 --> 00:30:29.240
Jane and said that he had died of various medical complications,
495
00:30:29.400 --> 00:30:32.799
but she never loved him anyway. Either way, John was
496
00:30:32.839 --> 00:30:36.920
gone and Lee really didn't seem to care. Now that
497
00:30:37.000 --> 00:30:40.480
investigators had managed to trace the Sabines movements prior to
498
00:30:40.519 --> 00:30:44.799
coming to Betha. They once again looked over everything they had,
499
00:30:44.920 --> 00:30:47.359
hoping that something would catch their eye that they may
500
00:30:47.400 --> 00:30:50.839
have missed the first time. One of the things they
501
00:30:50.880 --> 00:30:55.200
look into again is the death certificate found by Mary West.
502
00:30:55.920 --> 00:30:58.839
At first glance, it seems concrete that Lee's husband died
503
00:30:58.880 --> 00:31:01.400
in two thousand and one, but then they take a
504
00:31:01.440 --> 00:31:05.039
closer look and realized that this John Saybine, was born
505
00:31:05.119 --> 00:31:09.480
in nineteen twenty nine. Lee Saybeine's husband was born in
506
00:31:09.599 --> 00:31:14.119
nineteen thirty. This death certificate was for a different man
507
00:31:14.240 --> 00:31:17.799
that happened to have the same name as the man
508
00:31:17.880 --> 00:31:22.599
investigators were looking for. It was becoming more and more
509
00:31:22.680 --> 00:31:26.839
likely the body found in the garden was John Saybine. However,
510
00:31:27.039 --> 00:31:30.200
police still needed a way to identify the victim, so
511
00:31:30.279 --> 00:31:34.920
they reached out to Steve Saybein about obtaining his DNA. However,
512
00:31:35.079 --> 00:31:37.640
before he could provide it, police found that John had
513
00:31:37.680 --> 00:31:42.000
two children from a previous marriage, Chris and Teresa, whom
514
00:31:42.000 --> 00:31:45.359
he had apparently abandoned after leaving for the military when
515
00:31:45.400 --> 00:31:49.519
his children were under three. Chris told the body next
516
00:31:49.599 --> 00:31:51.839
door that his father's affair with Lee when she took
517
00:31:51.880 --> 00:31:54.079
care of him during the war, had resulted in a
518
00:31:54.119 --> 00:31:59.039
pregnancy and the collapse of his parents' marriage. Chris was
519
00:31:59.079 --> 00:32:01.960
living in Warwickshire and submitted a DNA sample to be
520
00:32:02.000 --> 00:32:06.759
compared with the victims, and they got a match. In
521
00:32:06.839 --> 00:32:09.960
December of twenty fifteen, according to the Glasgow edition of
522
00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:13.480
the Herald, South Wales, police confirmed that the body found
523
00:32:13.559 --> 00:32:16.920
in Baylo was John Sabine, who had disappeared in nineteen
524
00:32:17.000 --> 00:32:20.759
ninety seven and had likely been mortally assaulted. At that time,
525
00:32:21.799 --> 00:32:25.319
the prime suspect was announced as being his wife Lee.
526
00:32:26.559 --> 00:32:30.079
Dcibrooks appealed to the public asking for potential witnesses to
527
00:32:30.079 --> 00:32:33.640
come forward with any information that could assist in the investigation,
528
00:32:34.039 --> 00:32:36.839
as police, while they had a suspect and they had
529
00:32:36.839 --> 00:32:41.079
identified the victim, still needed to find out what had happened.
530
00:32:42.079 --> 00:32:44.559
The most telling tip they got was from a woman
531
00:32:44.680 --> 00:32:47.880
named Valerie Chalkley, who was a friend of the Sabines
532
00:32:47.880 --> 00:32:50.559
when they had lived in Reading back in nineteen eighty four.
533
00:32:51.839 --> 00:32:55.319
According to an interview Valerie gave to BBC in nineteen
534
00:32:55.400 --> 00:32:58.640
ninety seven, after not having spoken to Lee or John
535
00:32:58.720 --> 00:33:03.720
in over a decade, Lee calls her out of the blue. Valerie,
536
00:33:03.880 --> 00:33:06.200
as they're catching up, asks how John is doing, and
537
00:33:06.240 --> 00:33:09.519
Li says, quote, I've killed him. I battered him with
538
00:33:09.559 --> 00:33:13.839
the stone frog. He was getting on my nerves now
539
00:33:13.880 --> 00:33:17.799
because Lee was always telling exaggerated stories. Valerie brushed her off.
540
00:33:18.279 --> 00:33:22.559
But given the circumstances, maybe Lee hadn't been making it up.
541
00:33:23.039 --> 00:33:28.880
Maybe she really had bludgeoned her husband. Originally, investigators are
542
00:33:28.920 --> 00:33:31.400
concerned that the chances of finding the stone frog were
543
00:33:31.440 --> 00:33:34.920
slim since the murder had occurred so long ago, but
544
00:33:35.119 --> 00:33:39.079
in speaking again with friends and neighbors, community officer Gareth
545
00:33:39.079 --> 00:33:42.400
Brooks were called seeing a stone frog in Lee's flat
546
00:33:42.440 --> 00:33:45.559
being used as a door stop at one point, so
547
00:33:45.640 --> 00:33:48.640
he and another officer went to the flats on Tremoncoon
548
00:33:48.759 --> 00:33:52.640
to talk to the neighbors. The first person they talked
549
00:33:52.680 --> 00:33:55.799
to is Michelle James, who tells them that she had
550
00:33:55.880 --> 00:33:58.119
taken some things from the flat when they were clearing
551
00:33:58.160 --> 00:34:00.000
it out and had them in a box in the kids.
552
00:34:01.799 --> 00:34:07.599
In that box was an ornamental stone frog. In disbelief,
553
00:34:07.640 --> 00:34:10.519
the pathologists scanned in overlaid images of the frog and
554
00:34:10.559 --> 00:34:14.880
the skull fracture, ultimately concluding that the stone frog was
555
00:34:15.119 --> 00:34:19.559
likely the murder weapon. It matched the wound pattern completely.
556
00:34:21.000 --> 00:34:24.440
Lee Saybein had indeed bludgeoned her husband to death and
557
00:34:24.519 --> 00:34:30.239
concealed his body for eighteen years. Unfortunately, due to her death,
558
00:34:30.280 --> 00:34:32.519
the circumstances that led to the murder would never be
559
00:34:32.599 --> 00:34:36.960
discovered and she would never be brought to justice. Since
560
00:34:37.039 --> 00:34:39.719
no reports of domestic violence against Lee or John were
561
00:34:39.760 --> 00:34:42.039
ever made, it was unlikely that the murder was in
562
00:34:42.079 --> 00:34:46.760
self defense. Friends, family, and the police all had different
563
00:34:46.800 --> 00:34:50.719
theories as to what happened. John and Lee's children speculated
564
00:34:50.760 --> 00:34:53.719
that John felt guilty about abandoning them, based on how
565
00:34:53.719 --> 00:34:56.199
they had seen him cry when the media tobaccle happened.
566
00:34:57.119 --> 00:34:59.400
Jane had also recalled her father telling her when she
567
00:34:59.480 --> 00:35:02.639
was kicked out that he loved her. Chris and Theresa,
568
00:35:02.719 --> 00:35:05.360
when they had briefly reconnected with their father, said they
569
00:35:05.480 --> 00:35:07.840
recalled that John seemed to want to have a relationship
570
00:35:07.880 --> 00:35:11.519
with them, but constantly bent to what Lee wanted. She
571
00:35:11.800 --> 00:35:14.760
was in control and seemed furious when John tried to
572
00:35:14.760 --> 00:35:18.880
go against her wishes. Most people believed that John had
573
00:35:18.920 --> 00:35:21.360
angered her in some way and where she was sick
574
00:35:21.400 --> 00:35:24.039
of hearing him talk about wanting to reconnect with the children,
575
00:35:24.199 --> 00:35:27.679
and she killed him for it. Either way, Lee managed
576
00:35:27.719 --> 00:35:30.239
to get away with what she had done, spinning tales
577
00:35:30.280 --> 00:35:32.679
of a glamorous life and a husband who had left
578
00:35:32.679 --> 00:35:36.360
her getting exactly what she wanted. In the end, she
579
00:35:36.480 --> 00:35:38.639
told her friends in Betha that she'd be famous one
580
00:35:38.719 --> 00:35:41.679
day even if that happened after her death, and she
581
00:35:41.880 --> 00:35:45.480
got her wish. No one that knew her will ever
582
00:35:45.519 --> 00:35:48.079
forget her, but they won't remember her for how she
583
00:35:48.159 --> 00:35:51.760
wanted to be perceived as a star, but rather as
584
00:35:51.800 --> 00:35:55.920
a cruel, selfish woman who threw away anyone that did
585
00:35:56.039 --> 00:36:00.559
insurp their purpose to her. Thank you so much for
586
00:36:00.679 --> 00:36:04.400
listening to this episode, and as always, I hope you
587
00:36:04.559 --> 00:36:09.400
have a wonderful week and I will see you in
588
00:36:09.480 --> 00:36:13.519
the next chapter of the Book of the Dead. Bye, guys.
589
00:36:15.000 --> 00:36:20.039
Another page closed, But the story isn't over. For the
590
00:36:20.079 --> 00:36:23.800
families left behind. The pain doesn't end when the headline stayed.
591
00:36:24.480 --> 00:36:27.480
And for the victims, we owe them more than silence.
592
00:36:28.679 --> 00:36:32.159
For our on solved cases. If you have any information,
593
00:36:32.400 --> 00:36:35.159
please reach out to local authorities or visit our show
594
00:36:35.199 --> 00:36:39.960
notes for links and resources. Someone out there knows something,
595
00:36:40.880 --> 00:36:45.280
maybe it's you. Thank you for listening to the Book
596
00:36:45.280 --> 00:36:48.360
of the Dead. If this story moved or spoke to
597
00:36:48.360 --> 00:36:52.199
you in some way, talk about it, share it, keep
598
00:36:52.239 --> 00:37:00.000
their names alive. Until next time, I'm Courtney Liso. Stay safe,
599
00:37:00.679 --> 00:37:05.320
stay curious, and stay vigilant, and remember the dead may
600
00:37:05.360 --> 00:37:08.679
be gone, but their stories will not be forgotten.
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