Following a prolonged investigation, Danish submarine owner Peter Madsen was charged Tuesday with assaulting and murdering journalist Kim Wall before dumping her dismembered body into the sea.
Madsen admitted that he dismembered Wall before throwing her in the ocean, but he says that he did not murder or sexually abuse her, according to Reuters. Madsen’s indictment also charges him with endangering the lives and health of others, given that he sailed into cruise and cargo ship lanes without permission and sank his submarine.
The charges follow months of speculation as to what might have happened to the missing journalist who disappeared in August 2017, after which divers discovered her dismembered body parts at the bottom of Denmark’s Koge Bay in October. They found multiple bags weighed down with metal weights containing her head and legs in the Danish bay near the city of Copenhagen, according to BBC News.
“We found a bag within which we found Kim Wall’s clothes, underwear, stockings, and shoes. In the same bag laid a knife, and there were some car pipes to weigh the bag down,” said police inspector Jens Moller Jensen.
Divers had already discovered Wall’s torso in a nearby location Aug. 21, 10 days after Wall got onto a submarine with Masden, its designer and owner, to write about his work. Examination of Wall’s torso revealed knife cuts to both her genitals and ribcage, believed to have caused her death.
After Wall’s boyfriend reported her missing to the police Aug. 11 when she did not return from her trip, police questioned Madsen, who said that he had dropped Wall off in Copenhagen after the trip. He later told police a different story — that Wall had hit her head on a hatch and subsequently died. Madsen added that he had buried Wall at sea and planned to commit suicide by sinking his submarine with himself in it. (RELATED: Divers Find Journalist’s Severed Head And Arms In Bay).
Hard drive with footage depicting a woman being tortured and decapitated alive was also found at Madsen’s residence after Wall’s disappearance, according to Danish prosecutor Jakob Buch-Jepsen.
The prosecution aims for a life sentence — typically 15 years without parole in Denmark — for Madsen. He will remain in custody until his trial starts March 8.
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