Helen Archer | On 10, Sep 2024

In 2015, in the Welsh village of Beddau, police were called to investigate a gruesome package that had mysteriously appeared outside a small block of flats. Though rolled up in layer upon layer of plastic, it bore the unmistakeable shape of a body. While initially the general consensus was that it was some sort of practical joke – those who found it thought it was a medical skeleton – it soon transpired that it was, indeed, a human corpse.

Police were baffled. They didn’t know who the cadaver was, where it had come from, or how long it had been there. They began to probe the residents of the flats, though none fitted the profile of either victim or suspect. One inhabitant, Leigh Ann Sabine, did pique their interest, even though she had died of cancer some months before, and the body, they thought, was fairly “fresh” – it had, at least, been very well preserved. 

This is just the jumping-off point for a look back, over decades and continents, to the life of Sabine, and of the people she left in her destructive wake. Told over the course of three addictive episodes by director Gareth Johnson (The Child in the Box, The Puppet Master), it’s a series that is moreish but doesn’t outstay its welcome.

The less the audience knows about what they are about to view, the better. But suffice it to say that what emerges is the story of a narcissist, a character study of a woman thought by those in the Beddau to be a harmless eccentric, a theatrical and over-the-top character who stood out in the small village where she spent her latter years. But as the layers of her onion are slowly pulled back, it reveals the darkness of her heart, and the effect she had on those unfortunate enough to exist in her orbit.

There are some unresolved issues within the series – perhaps most importantly, who left the body there, how, and why. This can in part be explained by the first section of the series, as a local woman, known as a practical joker, who called in the discovery, was initially suspect in the case. She does not feature in the programme – perhaps refusing to take part – though her police interviews are aired, leaving us with more questions than answers. One of Sabine’s children is, too, noticeable by her absence in the series, her existence confirmed but not alluded to throughout. Again, one must assume she didn’t want to take part, though some clarity on this would be welcome.

But Sabine’s other children, who do take part, paint a very vivid picture of the woman herself and the hell she put them through. Their testimony is as brave as it is moving, as they seize the moment to speak their truth, for their stories to finally be heard and believed. And although Sabine was known to boast about being famous after her death, perhaps this is not quite the fame she was imagining – the subject of an investigation into a woman so monstrous that what she will be remembered for is the lasting effect such a malignant force can have.

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