Danish inventor denies killing former SCMP reporter Kim Wall but once claimed his home-made submarine was ‘cursed’
Known for his foul temper and fallouts with former colleagues, Madsen, who describes himself as an “inventepreneur” on his website, is to undergo a psychiatric evaluation
An eccentric Danish inventor who is being held over the grisly death of a Swedish reporter whose headless torso was found at sea has denied killing her and mutilating her body, police said on Friday.
“The suspect denies homicide and desecration of a human body,” Copenhagen police said in a statement, referring to Peter Madsen, 46, who is being held on suspicion of killing 30-year-old Kim Wall, a former South China Morning Post journalist.
Madsen, held in formal custody since August 12 on suspicion of “negligent manslaughter”, claims Wall died in an accident on board a submarine he built, claiming that he subsequently dumped her body in the sea south of Copenhagen. And he denies cutting off her legs and limbs.
Investigators say Wall’s body was “deliberately” mutilated and weighed down with a metal object to try and avoid detection.
She was last seen on board Madsen’s 60-foot (18-metre) Nautilus submarine on August 10 when she went to interview him. Investigators found traces of her blood inside the vessel.