Submarine death police examine links to killing of female tourist 30 years ago
DANISH police are investigating a possible link between the eccentric inventor held over the death of a Swedish reporter and the unsolved murder of a Japanese student in 1986.
The dismembered body of Kim Wall, an award-winning freelance journalist, was found at sea after she disappeared while on board the submarine of Danish businessman Peter Madsen, 46.
Police in Copenhagen said the findings have led them to re-open the case of Kazuko Toyonaga, a 22-year-old Japanese tourist, in case the killings are linked. Her remains were found in separate locations in waters off the Danish capital a month after she disappeared.
Investigators say Ms Wall’s body was “deliberately” mutilated and weighed down with a metal object to try to avoid detection. Mr Madsen denies killing the journalist and says he dumped her body in the sea south of Copenhagen after she died in an accident.
He also denies cutting off her limbs. He has been held in formal custody since Aug 12 on suspicion of “negligent manslaughter”.
Ms Wall was last seen on board Mr Madsen’s 60ft Nautilus submarine on Aug 10 when she went to interview him. Investigators found traces of her blood inside the vessel. Danish prosecutors are seeking to charge him with murder and have until Sept 5 to request an extension of his custody.
Mr Madsen, who describes himself as an “inventepreneur” on his website, is to undergo a psychiatric evaluation.
Ms Wall was a freelance journalist who had reported for the New York Times and The Guardian. Her boyfriend reported her missing a day after the interview with Mr Madsen. That same day, Mr Madsen was rescued from waters between Denmark and Sweden shortly before his submarine sank. Investigators recovered and searched the sunken vessel, which police believe Mr Madsen sank intentionally.
Nautilus was the biggest private submarine ever made when Mr Madsen built it in 2008 with help from a group of volunteers.
The volunteers were engaged in a dispute over Nautilus between 2014 and 2015 before members of the board decided to transfer the vessel’s ownership to Mr Madsen.
According to a post written by the volunteers in Danish on their website, Mr Madsen sent a text message to two members of the board in 2105 saying: “There is a curse on Nautilus. That curse is me. There will never be peace on Nautilus as long as I exist.”
Danish police are still searching for the clothes Ms Wall wore on the submarine: an orange fleece, a skirt and white sneakers, said by Yan Cong, a close friend, to be of sentimental value.