Sunk Submarine, Headless Body: Mystery of Kim Wall’s Death Deepens

The Swedish journalist’s death has sparked a debate about the safety of freelance reporters.

File handout photo portrait of the Swedish journalist Kim Wall, taken in Trelleborg, Sweden.

(Photo: AP)

Danish Police on Wednesday identified a headless female torso that washed up on the shores in Copenhagen as that of Swedish reporter Kim Wall, who they believe was killed by a Danish inventor on board his home-made submarine.

Wall, who was out doing research for a feature a story on inventor Peter Madsen, went missing after he took her out to sea in his 17-metre (56-foot) submarine on 10 August. Madsen, who has been charged with manslaughter, denies killing her, saying she died in an accident and that he “buried her at sea”.

But this is a marked deviation from his previous statement where he alleged that he dropped Wall off alive at Copenhagen on the very day she went missing. Traces of blood found inside the submarine also match Wall’s, reported the BBC.

The Danish police, who have been searching for Wall for 11 days, believe she was killed on the submarine.

Announcing the results of tests on the torso, which was discovered by a passing cyclist on Monday, police spokesperson Jens Moller said it had suffered damage suggesting “an attempt to make sure air and gas inside should leave the body so that it would not rise from the seabed”.

He added:

There was also some metal attached to the body, allegedly also to make sure the body would sink to the bottom.

The arms, legs and head had been sawn from the body. Analysis showed a match with Wall's DNA, which the police had gathered from a toothbrush and a hairbrush, and with blood found in the submarine, Moller said. Police still do not know the cause of death, and divers are searching for more body parts.

Hours after the search for Wall began on 11 August, after her boyfriend reported her missing, Madsen’s submarine reportedly sank. The inventor was rescued from the vessel, but police found nobody else on board. The police now suspect the submarine was deliberately sunk to destroy evidence.

Who Was Kim Wall?

Wall, 30, was a freelance journalist whose work had appeared in Harper's Magazine, The Guardian, The New York Times, Foreign Policy, the South China Morning Post, The Atlantic and TIME.

Originally from Sweden, she held degrees from New York's Columbia University and the London School of Economics and was based between New York and Beijing. She had written about topics ranging from gender and social justice to pop culture and foreign policy.

She had also received training in hostile environments and emergency first-aid, she said on her LinkedIn profile.

Her mother Ingrid Wall said she had uncovered stories all over the world. "She gave a voice to the weak, the vulnerable and marginalised people. That voice would have been needed for a long, long time. Now it won't be so."

Wall’s friends, family and colleagues are shocked and saddened by her death. Her mother took to Facebook to express her deep sorrow:

Since Wall went missing, her friend Sonia Paul has carried out a Facebook campaign for the safety of freelance journalists. When her body was identified on Wednesday, Paul was crushed. “At least we’re closer to finding out the truth,” she wrote, adding that she felt “rage at the man who tried to cover it all up.”

Another friend, Ye Ming has put together a dossier of Wall’s work for the world to see and appreciate its loss:

'Rocket Madsen'

Madsen was already well-known in Denmark as an entrepreneur and aerospace engineer, as well as for his submarines. He founded the association Copenhagen Suborbitals, with the goal of sending a person into space in a home-built rocket, and wrote a blog under the nickname 'Rocket Madsen'.

"He is not violent, he does not drink, does not do drugs," Thomas Djursing, who wrote a book about him, told Danish tabloid BT earlier this month. "On the other hand, he quarrels with everyone and I have argued with him too. But that is how it often is with people who are deeply driven by a passion."

(With inputs from Reuters.)

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