In the world of streaming true crime, few titles have shocked audiences this year like The Body Next Door. Currently available on BritBox, Sky Documentaries, TVNZ and Prime Video (Limited locations), this three-part 2024 docuseries has ignited a social media storm, with viewers posting bewildered reactions ranging from disbelief to outright horror.
The story begins in the small, peaceful village of Beddau in South Wales, where a bizarre discovery sets the stage for an unforgettable mystery. Neighbors stumble upon a body, tightly encased in more than 40 layers of plastic, buried in the garden between two modest flats. When questioned, the elderly woman living in the building, Leigh Sabine, casually explains the package is nothing more than a plastic medical skeleton.
But here’s where the story twists: Sabine herself is dead — and has been for weeks. Known for her flamboyant personality, bright red lipstick, fishnet tights, and her fondness for calling everyone “darling,” Sabine had once been a cabaret singer from New Zealand. Beneath her colorful exterior, however, lay a life shrouded in secrecy.
With no immediate clues — no identification, no dental records, and not even a missing persons report — investigators are left with a mystery that seems to have appeared out of thin air. Yet the deeper the series goes, the stranger it becomes. The narrative expands to reveal abandoned children, altered identities, and hidden connections that stretch across two continents.
Fans of The Perfect Neighbor might notice eerie similarities between its central figure and Sabine. Both women, in their own ways, lived double lives that left destruction in their wake. While The Body Next Door could arguably have been condensed into a single feature-length film, the episodic format allows the audience to immerse themselves in the lives of Sabine’s neighbors — the very people unknowingly living alongside this tangled web of secrets.
The result is a portrait of a woman who was as captivating as she was enigmatic — someone whose presence drew people in, yet whose past may have held devastating consequences for those around her.
If you’re looking for a true crime series that will leave you questioning everything you’ve just watched, The Body Next Door is streaming now on BritBox, TVNZ and also available on Sky Documentaries and in limited locations of streaming platform Prime Video. Just be prepared — you might find yourself echoing the internet’s collective sentiment: “What on earth did I just see?”
