Headless torso of missing reporter found in waters
The headless torso of a woman found at sea was identified yesterday as a Swedish journalist who likely died aboard a Danish inventor’s homemade submarine. In a grisly case that has gripped the nation and drawn parallels with Nordic Noir detective fiction, Danish police confirmed they had made a positive identification of the body, which was found on Monday.
“The DNA of the torso matches that of Kim Wall,” Copenhagen police announced on Twitter. Danish inventor Peter Madsen has been accused of the negligent manslaughter of the 30-year-old reporter who went to interview him aboard his 60-foot submarine on August 10. She has not been seen since. The torso, whose head and limbs were deliberately cut off, was found on in Koge Bay, some 50 kilometers south of Copenhagen, police say.
It also bore injuries which appeared to suggest that air had been forced out of it, Copenhagen homicide chief Jens Moller Jensen told a news conference. He also said the torso had been attached to a metal object which was likely intended to weigh it down. The cause of death remains unknown and police are still searching for the remaining body parts, Jensen said.
Blood in the sub
Madsen, who has been in custody since August 12, has changed his story several times, with police saying they believe the 46-year-old “deliberately” sank the sub. Inside the submarine they found traces of Wall’s blood. “We secured a hairbrush and a toothbrush to confirm her DNA. We found blood in the submarine and it was a match,” Jensen said. But it would take two to three weeks before police could confirm if there were blood stains on the clothes Madsen was wearing at the time.
Wall, a freelance journalist who had reported for The Guardian and The New York Times, has not been seen since she was observed on board the sub with Madsen on August 10. Her boyfriend reported her missing a day later. The same day, Madsen was rescued from waters between Denmark and Sweden shortly before his submarine sank. Madsen, whose website describes him as an “inventepreneur”, initially told authorities he dropped Wall off on an island late on the evening of August 10. But he changed his story several days later when he appeared in court, saying Wall had died in an accident on board and that he dumped the body in the water at an undefined location in Koge Bay.