A Danish inventor, Peter Madsen, has been charged with murdering the Swedish journalist Kim Wall on his submarine, prosecutors announced Tuesday.
This photo shows allegedly Swedish journalist Kim Wall standing in the tower of the private submarine “UC3 Nautilus” on August 10, 2017 in Copenhagen Harbor. (Photo credit: ANDERS VALDSTED/AFP/Getty Images)
Madsen has been charged with premeditated murder in addition to dismemberment and “sexual relations other than intercourse of a particularly dangerous nature.”
Wall’s dismembered body was found in the sea off the Danish coast after Wall visited Madsen on his vessel in August last year to interview him.
Her headless torso washed up on August 21 on an island near Copenhagen. Her head and legs were found later. Madsen has previously denied killing her, saying her death was an accident.
The submarine was found on August 11, about 15 hours after it had departed Copenhagen. Madsen was rescued from the sinking vessel and brought ashore, where he was picked up by police, but there was no trace of the missing journalist.
Madsen was later arrested and held in custody on suspicion of killing Wall. The inventor originally claimed he had dropped Wall off on land on the night of August 10, according to a police statement.
Madsen, who is scheduled to go on trial on March 8, could face a sentence ranging from five years to life if found guilty. Prosecutors said they were seeking a life sentence.
Wall, a graduate of Columbia University and London School of Economics, was based between Beijing and New York. A talented writer, her work appeared in The New York Times, the Guardian and TIME, among publications.
Her mother, Ingrid Wall, said her daughter “gave a voice to weak, vulnerable and marginalized people. It’s a voice this world needed for years to come, but that has now been silenced.”
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