Headless Body of Missing Journalist Found In Copenhagen Bay

       

The headless female torso found in a Copenhagen bay has been identified as missing Swedish journalist Kim Wall, who police believe was killed on a submarine built by a Danish hobby inventor. 

Peter Madsen, 46, has admitted that the 30-year-old died on his vessel, but claims she died in an accident and that he then buried her at sea, before deliberately sinking the submarine he had spent years building.

Police revealed today that Miss Wall's limbs had been 'deliberately cut off' and the torso had weighed down with some form of metal before it was dumped in the sea

Police have found traces of Miss Wall's blood inside the submarine, despite having had to retrieve it from the bottom of a Copenhagen bay where it sank on August 11.

Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday morning, Jens Moeller Jensen said that they had been able to match both the blood and the torso to DNA retrieved from a toothbrush and a hairbrush belonging to Kim Wall.

He added that police had found that the torso had been subjected to some form of force, in order for air to be pushed out of the lungs so it would not float.

Police believe the metal found on the torso had the purpose of ensuring the body sunk and remained on the seabed. 

The torso was found by a passing cyclist at the water's edge in Køge Bay in Copenhagen, where Madsen had informed police that he had 'buried' Miss Wall's dead body.  

  

Miss Wall was a freelance journalist who graduated with a masters from Columbia University before going on to write about identity, gender, pop-culture, social justice and foreign policy.

She grew up in Sweden but spent time living in New York and Beijing. Her writing has appeared in Harpers, The Guardian, New York Times, Foreign Policy, Vice Magazine, Slate, South China Morning Post, The Atlantic, Roads & Kingdoms, and TIME.

 

The freelance reporter boarded the sub, which was built by Madsen, on the evening of Thursday 10th August in order to write a story about the inventor.

On Friday morning the Danish Navy were scrambled to help the stricken sub, before reporting it sunk at 10.45am.

   

Madsen claims he was the only one on board at the time, and that he dropped Miss Wall off at the mouth of the harbour shortly after 10pm the previous night.

But Danish police on Sunday said he has given them several conflicting accounts of what had happened, without elaborating further.

 

Around the time he claimed to have dropped Miss Wall off, Madsen sent a mysterious text to a friend saying she had left the vessel and cancelling a trip he was supposed to be taking on the submarine the following day, according to local reports.

He did not respond to questions from the friend about why he had dropped Miss Wall off or why the trip was being cancelled.

                                        

                                                           Peter Madsen

Madsen was arrested on manslaughter charges the following Saturday before a judge ordered that he be held in custody while investigations are carried out.

He is charged with having killed Miss Wall 'in an unknown  way and in an unknown place sometime after 5pm on Thursday.

Dailymail