New twist emerges in journalist’s death
The body of a woman has been found in the Baltic Sea near where a missing Swedish woman journalist is believed to have died on a privately built submarine, Danish police said late Monday.
Copenhagen police tweeted that the body was discovered hours after the Danish owner of the vessel, 46-year-old Peter Madsen, told authorities that 30-year-old Kim Wall died onboard in an accident and that he buried her at sea at an unspecified location.
Madsen was arrested in connection with Wall’s disappearance after his submarine sank off Denmark’s eastern coast, an event police said they suspected the inventor had caused on purpose.
He denied any wrongdoing and initially told authorities he had dropped the reporter off on a redeveloped island in Copenhagen’s harbor about 3 hours into a nighttime trip on Aug. 10.
Madsen will continue to be held on preliminary manslaughter charges, police said. They declined to provide further details about the new information he had provided.
The Danish inventor was known for financing his submarine project through crowdfunding. The first launch of his 40-ton, nearly 60-foot-long UC3 Nautilus in 2008 made international headlines.
Wall’s family earlier told The Associated Press that Kim worked in many dangerous places as a journalist, but it was unimaginable that “something could happen ... just a few miles from the childhood home.”
Before his arrest, Madsen appeared on Danish television to discuss the submarine’s sinking and his rescue. It was the journalist’s boyfriend who alerted authorities that the sub had not returned from a test run, police said.
The New York Times reported that the submarine was found 22 feet below sea level and was brought ashore shortly after it sank.