Nordic Noir, Series 2
Dramatis personae
Peter Madsen was undoubtedly some kind of genius. He had made quite a name for himself in his native Denmark. He was a self-taught engineer, and became an entrepreneur. He called himself an inventepreneur. He was charismatic enough not only to raise money for his many ventures, but to attract an army of volunteers to help him build midget submarines. He soon gathered the reputation of a genius and gained celebrity status, with appearances on television and features in the press. His submarines, he explained, were just stepping stones. He was aiming for space. A rocket he had been working on, the Alpha, was said to be on schedule for launching, and expected to reach 14 km into space.
Kim Wall was an exceptional freelance journalist. Born in Sweden, she was living in Copenhagen with her partner Ole. A high flier, she attended school in Malmö. She studied international relations and journalism, attending the London School of Economics and Columbia University. She contributed a number of diverse articles to, among others, The Guardian and The New York
Times. The German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung awarded her the Hansel Mieth Prize for Best Digital Reportage for “Exodus”, a multi-media report on climate change and nuclear weapons testing in the Marshall Islands. She was due to go live in Beijing with her partner, when she got a text from Madsen, who she had once contacted, asking for an interview, inviting her to come aboard his submarine the UC3 Nautilus.
The iconic series The Bridge opens with a dead body placed exactly in the middle of the Öresund Bridge, making it a Danish-Swedish investigation. The drama of the Nautilus, likewise evolves in the Öresund area. Prescient or what?
Ms Wall’s boyfriend, to whom she had said that the interview was going to be two hours long, began to worry when she did not turn up that evening. He called Madsen who assured him that he had dropped her ashore hours before. There will be no sign of her for ten days, when her mutilated torso will be seen. Other body parts were picked in October, many in the Nautilus.
Peter Madsen was an obvious suspect. His accounts were contradictory to a baffling extent. The first one was, as he had said to Ole, after cruising on the Öresund Strait Kim had left the sub safely. He then changed his story to the journalist having had her skull crushed accidentally on board and that he had thrown her body at sea. Yet another explanation was that there had been a leak of carbon monoxide and Kim had been poisoned.
It was obvious to the police investigating the death that Madsen was the only possible guilty one. It will be established in the court judging Madsen for the murder of Ms Wall, that he had contacted three women to join him on his sub, and they had all declined. He will also be unable to explain the presence on board of tools and weapons not usually used in the craft. Only hours before the disappearance of the journalist his computer will reveal that he had watched hard core films detailing violence against women, including beheading and dismemberment.
The prosecution produced evidence of premeditation to the crimes, which included Mr. Madsen’s history of researching murder and dismemberment, the fact that he brought onto the submarine the tools and weapons used to subdue a possible victim, and the fact that the journalist had been tied. A woman who knew the accused revealed that Madsen had once confided in her about his psychopathic tendencies, but had added that he was too kind a man to act upon them. The prosecutor showed text messages that Mr. Madsen had deleted, but that investigators were able to recover, telling another woman that she should be tied up and tortured aboard the sub, and telling a friend that he had planned the perfect murder, one that would be a “great pleasure.” One wonders about the planner of the perfect murder giving three versions of the killing!
The prosecution demanded the maximum penalty for premeditated murder. He conceded that Madsen had not planned in advance to murder Kim Wall, but any woman. For his perverse sexual gratification. Madsen admitted to the dismemberment, but to nothing else.
The judge, Ms Annette Burkö and two jurors found him guilty and awarded him a life sentence.
