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Danish Police Recover Some Missing Body Parts of the Journalist Kim Wall Danish Police Recover Missing Body Parts of the Journalist Kim Wall
(about 5 hours later)
STOCKHOLM — The Danish police said on Saturday that divers had recovered the severed head and legs of the Swedish journalist Kim Wall, along with a knife and pieces of her clothing, in a bay southwest of Copenhagen. STOCKHOLM — The Danish police said on Saturday that divers had recovered the severed head and legs of the Swedish journalist Kim Wall in a bay, as well as crucial evidence that is inconsistent with a Danish inventor’s explanation of how she had died on his submarine.
The items were found on Friday in Koge Bay, less than a mile from where her torso was recovered on Aug. 21. They were in bags that contained pieces of metal, which the police said might have been used to weigh down the bags at the bottom of the seabed. Jens Moller, the chief investigator in the case, said at a news conference outside Police Headquarters in Copenhagen that the divers had found plastic bags containing body parts and clothing belonging to Ms. Wall in Koge Bay, southwest of Copenhagen, on Friday.
Ms. Wall disappeared after meeting Peter Madsen, a Danish amateur space rocket and submarine builder, for an interview on Aug. 10. “We have found the head and two legs, but we have not found her arms,” Mr. Moller said.
Her torso was found on a beach on Amager Island, near Copenhagen, 11 days after she took a trip on Mr. Madsen’s homemade submarine. Ms. Wall disappeared after meeting Peter Madsen, 46, an amateur space rocket and submarine builder, for an interview on Aug. 10 and a trip on his homemade submarine. Her torso was found on a beach on Amager Island, near Copenhagen, 11 days later. He was later charged with manslaughter, which in Danish law is the equivalent of murder.
He was later charged with manslaughter, which in Danish law is the legal equivalent of murder. Medical examiners inspected the new evidence on Friday night, Mr. Moller said, adding that the head, identified with dental records, did not show any damage to the cranium.
Ms. Wall’s head, which has been identified through dental records, did not show any damage to the cranium, the police said. That appeared to contradict Mr. Madsen’s explanation that she had been accidentally killed when a roughly 150-pound hatch on the submarine hit her on the head. “I don’t want to speculate about what happened,” the chief investigator said. “I can only say that there are no fractures or other injuries to the cranium.”
He said he had tossed her body overboard. That contradicts Mr. Madsen’s account, in which he said Ms. Wall, 30, had died after a heavy hatch on the submarine’s tower collapsed on her head.
The announcement at Police Headquarters in Copenhagen on Saturday came days after a prosecutor told a district court that an autopsy had revealed Ms. Wall was stabbed more than 14 times in her genitals and other parts of her body, her limbs had been removed with a saw, and the police had found video footage of other slain women on a hard drive owned by Mr. Madsen. The divers, who were assisted by Swedish dogs trained to work in water, discovered the head and clothes in bags. Later, her legs were found attached to pieces of metal similar to ones found with her torso on Aug. 21, Mr. Moller said.
Mr. Madsen had said the computer was not his and was used by everyone in the laboratory. Police officers have speculated that the metal may have been used to weigh down the body parts at sea.
The team also found a plastic bag containing an orange sweater and stockings belonging to Ms. Wall, as well as a knife. Mr. Moller did not say if investigators had linked the knife to the stab wounds found on the victim’s torso.
Mr. Madsen, who has been in police custody since Aug. 11, was informed of the latest findings, Mr. Moller said. The suspect’s lawyer, Betina Hald Engmark, did not respond to calls for comment on Saturday.
Ms. Wall’s boyfriend reported the Swedish journalist missing in the early hours of Aug. 11, after she did not return from her interview. The same day, Mr. Madsen was rescued from his sinking submarine.
The suspect initially said that Ms. Wall had gone ashore the evening of her visit. When officers found her blood in the recovered submarine and later retrieved her torso, however, Mr. Madsen altered his explanation, saying he had panicked and dumped her intact body at sea after she died.
During a pretrial detention review last week, the prosecutor, Jakob Buch-Jepsen, presented an autopsy report showing that Ms. Wall’s legs had been removed with a saw and that she had been stabbed multiple times. Ms. Wall’s DNA was found on Mr. Madsen’s hand, nostrils and neck.
The prosecutor also told the court that officers had found videos showing the torture and killing of women on a hard drive owned by Mr. Madsen. The videos did not appear to have been made by the inventor, but they indicated “an interest in fetish, torture and murder,” he said.
Ms. Wall, a freelance journalist, grew up in Trelleborg, in southern Sweden, and studied at the London School of Economics and at Columbia University.
Vishakha Desai, a professor at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia, said by telephone that Ms. Wall had been driven by empathy and a “curiosity to learn about people who might not be considered the mainstream.”
A memorial service is to be held at Columbia University on Wednesday. And the court is scheduled to re-examine Mr. Madsen’s pretrial detention on Oct. 31.