Well, this is… interesting. A Danish inventor stands accused of killing a missing journalist who boarded his submarine for an interview the night before it mysteriously sank, and he is currently in custody while police investigate.
Freelance journo Kim Wall, 30, was writing up a feature about Peter Madsen, an inventor who built a private 40-tonne submarine named the UC3 Nautilus, largely using crowdfunded money. This photo depicts Wall as she boarded the vessel around 7pm on Thursday, at a harbour in Copenhagen.
Wall was reported missing by her boyfriend at approximately 2am on Friday morning – around seven hours after she boarded the submarine.
On Friday afternoon, Madsen was rescued from a bay off Copenhagen after the Nautilus sank. He told authorities that the submarine had sunk due to technical difficulties, though police now believe that it was sunk deliberately. Soon after the sinking, Madsen told reporters that he had been “out on a rehearsal trip, tinkering with different things in the submarine.”
He went on:
Then a defect happened with a ballast tank which wasn’t that serious — until I tried to repair it — then it suddenly became very serious. After that it took 30 seconds for Nautilus to sink. I couldn’t close the hatch or anything. But that might be OK, as I would still be down there then.
The husk of the Nautilus was salvaged from the seabed in Koge Bay, but authorities were unable to find Wall’s body. It has not been revealed whether there was any other evidence inside the vessel.
“The sub was spotted at 10:30 south of Copenhagen and then 20 minutes later it sank. That’s why police said it was basically scuttled,” said Danish TV reporter Trine Maria Ilsoe.
Madsen initially claimed that he dropped Wall off prior to the sinking at a restaurant named Halvandet. CCTV footage from the restaurant was given to police. It is unknown what it showed, but police have confirmed that Madsen has changed his story since that point.
Details beyond that are pretty scarce at this point – either because they are not known, or because the Danish authorities are suppressing them. Nonetheless, Madsen has been charged with negligent manslaughter.
For the record, the extreme secrecy surrounding this case is not unusual in Denmark. It means that even Madsen’s lawyer is not permitted to discuss the accusations or evidence at hand with journalists.
Overall…. very, very odd. We’ll keep you updated on this one.
