Peter Madsen, the Danish man convicted of murdering and dismembering Swedish journalist Kim Wall aboard his homemade submarine in 2017, was captured by police on Tuesday after a brief escape from prison.
The New York Times reports Madsen fashioned a fake explosive belt and a mock handgun inside Copenhagen’s Herstedvester Prison, using the “gunlike object” to take a prison psychologist hostage.
Guards alerted a nearby police patrol as Madsen fled the facility and attempted to conceal himself in a nearby van.
Police officers were able to apprehend Madsen and handcuff him to a fence before explosives experts determined the belt was a fake.
He was arrested and returned to a different prison facility. No physical injuries were reported during the incident.
Madsen is serving a life sentence for the murder of Wall, who embarked on a submarine voyage with the inventor after he promised to provide an interview.
The submarine sank a day after departure, but Madsen was rescued. Wall was reported missing.
Madsen claimed to have dropped off Wall at a restaurant on the shoreline the night before, but her dismembered body parts washed ashore days later.
Madsen gave conflicting statements about what had actually occurred on the vessel, saying that she died after a heavy submarine hatch hit her head, before claiming that she lost her life due to carbon monoxide poisoning.
These conflicting statements ultimately led to his conviction in 2018, with Madsen found guilty of premeditated killing, sexual assault, and the indecent handling of a corpse. He was sentenced to life in prison.
He only pleaded guilty to dismembering her body, and appeared to maintain his innocence in Wall’s death until September this year.
In The Secret Recordings with Peter Madsen, documentary based on phone interviews conducted from prison, Madsen appeared to confess to Wall’s killing for the first time, saying, “It’s my fault because I committed the crime. It’s all my fault… There is only one who is guilty, and that is me.”
