The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Indictment: Inventor abused journalist before killing her
He admits cutting up her body but says she died in an accident.
COPENHAGEN — Inventor Peter Madsen is accused by Danish authorities of binding and abusing journalist Kim Wall on board his submarine before killing her, according to an indictment released in full Tuesday.
Madsen has given shifting explanations for what happened to Wall, 30, a prolific Swedish journalist who disappeared after boarding the vessel Aug. 10 in Copenhagen to interview him, and whose torso was found on a beach south of the city Aug. 21.
Most recently, he admitted to dismembering her body, but he said that she had died in an accident.
In the indictment, however, prosecutors say he brought a “saw, sharpened screwdrivers, straps, strips and pipes” to the submarine before the trip, arguing that these were part of a plan to kill Wall. He “abused her by hitting her, stabbed and cut her and he killed her after which he dismembered her body,” the indictment said.
The straps and pipes were tied to her torso and limbs to weigh them down after he threw them overboard. The police investigation has not been able to establish the exact cause of death, but investigators say she was either strangled or had her throat cut.
Madsen, 47, was formally charged last week with premeditated killing, a charge equivalent to murder; sexual assault; and improper handling of a body.
The indictment published Tuesday also says he deliberately sank his submarine, the Nautilus NC3, and it accuses him of endangering lives by forcing two vessels, a cargo ship and a cruise ship, to take evasive action because of the way he had navigated in the Oresund, the strait between Denmark and Sweden. The submarine was later found drifting in Koge Bay.
Madsen was rescued and brought to shore near Copenhagen on Aug. 11. He was arrested shortly afterward and has since been in police custody.
At one point, he said Wall had been killed by a blow to the head from a submarine hatch. When divers eventually recovered her head and limbs in plastic bags, however, no such injury was found.
“My client read the indictment, and we’re both puzzled,” Betina Hald Engmark, Madsen’s lawyer, said Tuesday. “It’s not quite what we expected, but we hope everything will come to light when the trial begins. The case should be prosecuted in court and not in the press. Some members of the press seem to forget that the prosecution hasn’t proved their case yet,” she said, declining to comment further.
The trial by jury is scheduled to start in Copenhagen on March 8. The verdict is expected April 25.
Wall was a successful writer and reporter who had work published internationally, including in The New York Times. A memorial fund to support a young female journalist is being raised in her name.