A Swedish journalist last seen alive aboard a homemade submarine owned by a Danish inventor was bound and tortured before she was murdered, according to a newly released indictment in the case.
Kim Wall, a 30-year-old freelance journalist, went missing Aug. 10, 2017, after entrepreneur and aerospace engineer Peter Madsen took her out to sea on his Nautilus submarine. She’d been working on a story about the inventor at the time.
Authorities several weeks later identified a headless torso — weighted down with metal — that washed ashore in Copenhagen as belonging to Wall.Police in December said investigators found 14 interior and exterior stab wounds to Wall’s genitals.
The indictment released Tuesday alleged 46-year-old Madsen abused Wall by hitting and stabbing her while she was still alive, according to Reuters. Her cause of death has not yet been determined, but officials suspect either strangulation or the slitting of her throat.
Prosecutors also pointed to a saw and screwdrivers found aboard the submarine as evidence that Madsen planned the murder.
The inventor previously admitting to dismembering Wall and then dumping her body parts in the water, but has denied sexually assaulting her. His story of events has changed over time, though he maintains Wall’s death was an accident.
Madsen was charged earlier this month with murder, dismemberment and indecent handling of a corpse as well as sexual assault without intercourse of a particularly dangerous nature.
Prosecutors said in October they found what they suspect are real images of women being strangled and decapitated on the hard drive of Madsen’s computer. Investigators around the same time also discovered a saw they believe was used to dismember the journalist’s body.
Madsen additionally faces a charge of endangering others’ lives, mobility and health for sailing in the routes of a cruise ship, a cargo ship, and for purposefully sinking his submarine, Reuters reported.
Prosecutors intend to seek a life sentence and requested Madsen remain in custody until his trial — slated for March 8.
