Murdered man lived locally

Leigh Sabine is thought to have murdered her husband. Photo / Supplied

A man murdered years ago and hidden on a Welsh property - and whose body was only recently found - once lived in Wairarapa, where he worked as an accountant and showed dogs as a hobby.

The skeletal remains of John Sabine were found last month wrapped in plastic in a secluded alleyway of a property in Beddau, near Pontypridd, in South Wales.

He had lived in an apartment there with his wife Leigh but disappeared without trace in 1997.

Murder victim John Sabine once worked in Masterton.

Leigh Sabine, 74, died of cancer a few weeks before the remains were found and from the time her husband had disappeared was considered by Welsh police to have killed him.

Although police are still investigating the case - in light of the man's skeleton being found - they have reiterated Leigh Sabine remains the prime suspect in her husband's murder.

In Masterton John and Leigh Sabine lived in a house on Borthwick-owned land east of the town, being known then as John and Leigh Martin.

Under that name John Sabine worked in 1975 for Philip Morris in Masterton, an American cigarette and tobacco company which established a factory in Herewini St which ran for about eight years, having been established at a time when large interest-free suspensory loans with a life of six years were available from the government.

Leigh Martin also worked at the cigarette factory. The couple are little remembered in Masterton now due to the passage of time and their relatively short tenure in Wairarapa.

Graham Chandler, who succeeded John Martin as accountant at the factory, said all he could recall was that the couple both worked for Philip Morris and that he had taken over from the man he had been told was John Martin, in January 1976. Likewise the now retired New Zealand manager of Philip Morris, Michael Rouse, said he had only vague memories of the two, although it was possible he had hired him.

The accountant loved dogs and was involved with showing them during his time in Wairarapa. Christine Dornan, who was showing dogs at that time, remembers him as being "very personable, almost charismatic". She said he mingled socially with the other dog owners and had success with springer spaniels he imported from Australia.

Long after their departure from Masterton the Sabines made international headlines when it was revealed they had abandoned five children, the youngest aged two, in Auckland back in the 1960s and had taken off to Australia, living in Perth where Leigh Sabine worked as a cabaret singer.

Many years later the abandonment of their children was revealed and the Sabines launched a self-pitying campaign to explain what had happened, claiming they had never intended to leave the children behind for long but had run into financial problems and could not return to claim the children who had all been put into foster care.

They staged a family reunion in 1984 but that quickly went cold and there were reports at the time the parents had evicted at least some of the now older children from the home they had in Auckland. Soon afterwards John and Leigh Sabine fled for a second time and disappeared into thin air, having tried to fudge their whereabouts by telling neighbours they were going on holiday in Northland. By the late 1980s the two were reported to be back living in Britain, firstly in England and then in 1997 in South Wales.

Leigh Sabine kept up a pretence when her husband disappeared and his name remained on the electoral roll for Beddau right up until the time she died and his remains were found.