COPENHAGEN: Danish police said Saturday divers had recovered the decapitated head and the legs of Swedish journalist Kim Wall, who vanished in August while interviewing a Danish inventor aboard his homemade submarine.
In a grisly case worthy of a Nordic noir thriller, Copenhagen police inspector Jens Moller Jensen told reporters divers had found bags containing her missing clothes, her head and legs in Koge Bay, south of the Danish capital.
“Last night our forensic dentist confirmed that it was Kim Wall’s head,” he said.
Her headless torso was found floating in waters off Copenhagen on August 21, 11 days after she went missing.
Self-taught engineer and inventor Peter Madsen, 46, has been accused of Wall’s death, with prosecutors saying he dismembered her body before throwing it overboard.
Madsen, who is married and has been in custody since August 11, claims the 30-year-old Wall died when a 70-kilogram (154-pound) hatch door fell on her head, and in a panic, he threw her body overboard.
He has insisted her body was intact at the time.
But Jensen said the decapitated head contradicted Madsen’s version of events.
There is “no sign of fracture on the skull and there isn’t any sign of other blunt violence to the skull,” he said, citing an autopsy carried out overnight.
Locating Wall’s head has been a priority for investigators, as the final autopsy on the torso was not able to establish the cause of death.
However, it did show multiple mutilation wounds to Wall’s genitals.
Prosecutors believe Madsen killed Wall as part of a sexual fantasy, then dismembered and mutilated her body.
Earlier this week, Prosecutor Jakob Buch-Jepsen told a court custody hearing that a hard disk found in Madsen’s workshop contained fetish films in which real women were tortured, decapitated and burned.
“This hard drive doesn’t belong to me,” Madsen insisted, saying numerous people had access to his workshop.
Madsen has insisted there was no sexual relationship between him and Wall, and their contacts had been purely professional.
Jensen said the divers on Friday found the body parts and clothes in bags weighed down with metal pieces. Her torso had also been weighed down when it was found, also in Koge Bay.
“Yesterday morning we found a bag within which we found Kim Wall’s clothes, underwear, stockings, and shoes. In the same bag laid a knife, and there were some lead pipes to weigh the bag down,” he said.
“Around dinnertime we found one leg, and then another leg. And then we found a head that also laid in a bag, and was weighed down with multiple metal pieces.”
Wall worked as a freelance journalist based in New York and China, and her articles were published in The Guardian, The New York Times and others.
At the time of her disappearance, Wall was believed to be working on a feature story about Madsen, an eccentric, well-known figure in Denmark.
Madsen has successfully launched rockets with the aim of developing private space travel.
His homemade submarine Nautilus, launched in 2008, was the biggest private sub ever made when he built it with help from a group of volunteers.
But the group became engaged in a long-running dispute over the Nautilus, before members of the board decided to transfer the vessel’s ownership to Madsen, according to the sub’s website.
In 2015, Madsen sent a text message to two members of the board claiming: “There is a curse on Nautilus.”
“That curse is me. There will never be peace on Nautilus as long as I exist,” Madsen wrote, according to the volunteers.
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Danish police find decapitated head of Swedish journalist
Danish police find decapitated head of Swedish journalist
Trump renews push to annex Greenland
- President Donald Trump doubled down Sunday on his claim that Greenland should become part of the United States, despite calls by Denmark’s prime minister to stop “threatening” the territory
COPENHAGEN: President Donald Trump doubled down Sunday on his claim that Greenland should become part of the United States, despite calls by Denmark’s prime minister to stop “threatening” the territory.
Washington’s military intervention in Venezuela has reignited fears for Greenland, which Trump has repeatedly said he wants to annex, given its strategic location in the Arctic.
While aboard Air Force One en route to Washington, Trump reiterated the goal.
“We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” he said in response to a reporter’s question.
“We’ll worry about Greenland in about two months... let’s talk about Greenland in 20 days.”
Over the weekend, the Danish prime minister called on Washington to stop “threatening its historical ally.”
“I have to say this very clearly to the United States: it is absolutely absurd to say that the United States should take control of Greenland,” Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in a statement.
She also noted that Denmark, “and thus Greenland,” was a NATO member protected by the agreement’s security guarantees.
’Disrespectful’
Trump rattled European leaders by attacking Caracas and grabbing Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, who is now being detained in New York.
Trump has said the United States will now “run” Venezuela indefinitely and tap its huge oil reserves.
Asked in a telephone interview with The Atlantic about the implications of the Venezuela military operation for mineral-rich Greenland, Trump said it was up to others to decide.
“They are going to have to view it themselves. I really don’t know,” Trump was quoted as saying.
He added: “But we do need Greenland, absolutely. We need it for defense.”
Hours later, former aide Katie Miller, the wife of Trump’s most influential adviser, drew ire by posting an image of Greenland in the colors of the US flag, captioning it “SOON.”
Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen called Miller’s post “disrespectful.”
“Relations between nations and peoples are built on mutual respect and international law — not on symbolic gestures that disregard our status and our rights,” he wrote on X.
But he also said “there is neither reason for panic nor for concern. Our country is not for sale, and our future is not decided by social media posts.”
Allies?
Stephen Miller is widely seen as the architect of much of Trump’s policies, guiding the president on his hard-line immigration policies and domestic agenda.
Denmark’s ambassador to the United States, Jesper Moeller Soerensen, offered a pointed “friendly reminder” in response to Katie Miller’s post that his country has “significantly boosted its Arctic security efforts” and worked together with Washington on that.
“We are close allies and should continue to work together as such,” Soerensen wrote.
Katie Miller was deputy press secretary under Trump at the Department of Homeland Security during his first term.
She later worked as communications director for then-vice president Mike Pence and also acted as his press secretary.
Washington’s military intervention in Venezuela has reignited fears for Greenland, which Trump has repeatedly said he wants to annex, given its strategic location in the Arctic.
While aboard Air Force One en route to Washington, Trump reiterated the goal.
“We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” he said in response to a reporter’s question.
“We’ll worry about Greenland in about two months... let’s talk about Greenland in 20 days.”
Over the weekend, the Danish prime minister called on Washington to stop “threatening its historical ally.”
“I have to say this very clearly to the United States: it is absolutely absurd to say that the United States should take control of Greenland,” Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in a statement.
She also noted that Denmark, “and thus Greenland,” was a NATO member protected by the agreement’s security guarantees.
’Disrespectful’
Trump rattled European leaders by attacking Caracas and grabbing Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, who is now being detained in New York.
Trump has said the United States will now “run” Venezuela indefinitely and tap its huge oil reserves.
Asked in a telephone interview with The Atlantic about the implications of the Venezuela military operation for mineral-rich Greenland, Trump said it was up to others to decide.
“They are going to have to view it themselves. I really don’t know,” Trump was quoted as saying.
He added: “But we do need Greenland, absolutely. We need it for defense.”
Hours later, former aide Katie Miller, the wife of Trump’s most influential adviser, drew ire by posting an image of Greenland in the colors of the US flag, captioning it “SOON.”
Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen called Miller’s post “disrespectful.”
“Relations between nations and peoples are built on mutual respect and international law — not on symbolic gestures that disregard our status and our rights,” he wrote on X.
But he also said “there is neither reason for panic nor for concern. Our country is not for sale, and our future is not decided by social media posts.”
Allies?
Stephen Miller is widely seen as the architect of much of Trump’s policies, guiding the president on his hard-line immigration policies and domestic agenda.
Denmark’s ambassador to the United States, Jesper Moeller Soerensen, offered a pointed “friendly reminder” in response to Katie Miller’s post that his country has “significantly boosted its Arctic security efforts” and worked together with Washington on that.
“We are close allies and should continue to work together as such,” Soerensen wrote.
Katie Miller was deputy press secretary under Trump at the Department of Homeland Security during his first term.
She later worked as communications director for then-vice president Mike Pence and also acted as his press secretary.
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