Danish police find severed head, legs of Swedish journalist

Copenhagen Police Chief Investigator Jens Moller Jensen gives a press briefing in connection with new findings in the case against submarine captain Peter Madsen, October 7, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

Police in Denmark say their divers have recovered body parts and the severed head of a female Swedish journalist who died on board of a submarine, whose Danish owner and inventor had been scheduled to be interviewed by the ill-fated Swede last month.

Jens Moller, the chief investigator in the case, announced the news at a press conference at police headquarters in the capital Copenhagen on Saturday, saying their frogmen had found the body parts and clothing belonging to freelance journalist Kim Wall in separate plastic bags with “heavy metal pieces” to make them sink in Koge Bay, southwest of the capital, a day earlier.

“We have found the head and two legs, but we have not found her arms,” he said, adding that according to medical examiners, the head, which was identified with dental records, did not show any damage to the skull.

“I don’t want to speculate about what happened. I can only say that there are no fractures or other injuries to the cranium,” Moller said.

This file family handout released on December 28, 2015 shows Swedish journalist Kim Wall, who was allegedly on board a submarine south of Copenhagen before it sank on August 11, 2017. (Via AFP)

On August 10, 30-year-old Wall went to the bay to conduct an interview with 46-year-old Peter Madsen, an amateur space rocket and submarine builder, whose privately-built midget submarine, called UC3 Nautilus, was reportedly the main focus of the interview.

The submarine sank under suspicious circumstances on the morning of the next day and Madsen was rescued shortly afterwards, initially saying that he had dropped Wall off safely in Copenhagen.

However, he later altered his account and claimed that Kim had died in an accident on board his vessel and that he had “buried her at sea,” almost a week after police stated that the submarine sank due to an intentional act.

On August 21, the torso of a woman washed up on a beach in the southwest of Amager. Two days later, police announced that the torso was determined to be that of Wall, saying it had been “deliberately mutilated.”

Members of the Danish Emergency Management Agency (DEMA) assist police at Kalvebod Faelled in Copenhagen on August 23, 2017, in search of missing body parts of journalist Kim Wall close to the site where her torso was found on August 21. (Photo by AFP)

On Saturday, Moller said Wall’s legs were recovered attached to pieces of metal similar to the ones found with her torso over two weeks ago.

Last week, in a pretrial detention review, prosecutor Jakob Buch-Jepsen cited an autopsy report showing that Wall’s legs had been severed with a saw and that the journalist had been stabbed multiple times. He also said Wall’s DNA was detected on Madsen’s hand, nostrils and neck.

Peter Madsen, the builder of the private submarine “UC3 Nautilus,” is pictured in Dragoer Harbor, south of Copenhagen, on August 11, 2017, following a rescue operation that saved him. (Photo by AFP)

Furthermore, Buch-Jepsen said at the court that police had also discovered some videos showing the torture and killing of women on a hard drive owned by the Danish inventor. He also said footage did not seem to have been made by Madsen, but they indicated “an interest in fetish, torture and murder.”

Madsen is scheduled to appear in court again on October 31.