Murder on Nautilus: Wired tells the story of journalist Kim Vall and inventor Peter Madsen

The case of journalist Kim Vall, who in August 2017 was killed on board the Danish home-made submarine "Nautilus", became one of the most high-profile crimes last year. On February 15, the Wired publication published a material written by a colleague and friend Vall, journalist May Jong, from whom new details of the biography of the murdered and her alleged killer - the inventor of Peter Madsen. "Medusa" tells about this material and resembles the main circumstances of the murder of Vall.

Kim Wall was born in a small Swedish town an hour from Copenhagen. She studied in London and Paris, and then moved to New York, from where she sometimes went to Denmark to her boyfriend, designer Ole Stobbe.

In journalism, Kim Vall was interested in the paradoxes of modern world order-she wrote about how a religious life in Haiti is arranged today, about how the battlefields of the Civil War on Sri Lanka are turned into tourist facilities, and how the underground network works in Cuba, delivering to people new American series on flash drives. In March 2017, she learned about the history of the Danish inventor Peter Madsen. Having created the Nautilus submarine, which was launched in 2008, he, together with the former NASA employee Christian von Bengtson, founded Copenhagen Suborbitals: their goal was to build from scratch and launch a space rocket managed by a person. These projects turned Madsen into a celebrity - two documentaries and a book were published about him, he began to earn money with public speeches. In 2014, the co -founders of Copenhagen Suborbitals quarreled, and Madsen created his own missile laboratory. Wall wanted to write material about friends-enlightening friends who became rivals.

May Jong, who wrote an article in Wired, was friends with Kim Vall-they met in New York and often worked in the same coffee shop. They sometimes discussed how to fight off harassment in their journalistic business trips; Wall said that she invented a nonexistent New York groom.

In the summer of 2017, Wall came to Copenhagen to boyfriend, but also collected material for a future article - however, she did not succeed in meeting Madsen. On August 10, 2017, Vall and Stobbe arranged a farewell party-the journalist went back to New York. After lunch, Wall received a message from Madsen - he was ready to meet her in his laboratory. Already there he invited her to ride on the Nautilus. Vall agreed and invited Stobbe to join - and he even thought to agree, but decided that he would be embarrassed in front of the guests gathered at the party. The party took place on the embankment, and at sunset, Nautilus sailed past them, from where Vall leaned out and waved to her boyfriend. This was the last time he saw her alive.

Peter Madsen was born and raised in a small town next to Copenhagen. His mother was 30 years younger than his father; By the time of their wedding, she already had three sons. When Madsen was six, his parents broke up. Peter stayed with his father; Mother took his brothers with her. It was his father who instilled in him the love of missiles and, in particular, told Madsen about the man who became his idol: Verner von Brauna, an engineer who worked for the Nazis in Germany, and then moved to America and helped to develop the Apollo space program.

The father died when Madsen was 18; He studied at several universities, but not one finished. He spent the next two decades, trying to build submarines and rockets. He often spent the night at his workplace; The work was his main passion. However, Madsen's acquaintances tell in the material of Wired that he often visited the fetish sex vests and was generally a womanizer. According to them, one of his typical seduction strategies included an invitation for a submarine walk.

Deep on the night of August 11, when Vall did not return home, Stobbe turned to the police. At 11 in the morning, one of the witnesses saw Madsen flooded the Nautilus near Copenhagen and swam over to the nearby motor boat. He said to reporters that the boat sank due to a malfunction. Madsen said that the Wall dropped on land, but they did not believe him - Madsen was arrested and accused of unintentional murder. The next day, Madsen said that Wall died on Nautilus - according to him, Luke's lid fell on her - after which he panicked and buried her body in the sea.

Several acquaintances of Madsen told the journalist Wired that his euphoria was often replaced by fury. When the inventor was angry, everyone knew that it was better to step aside-he began to throw hammers and screwdrivers. The laboratory joked a lot about the Nazis - especially Madsen and his colleagues loved a German film about the das boot submarine; Making immerses on the Nautilus, they often talked in German quotes from this picture. Madsen also loved to pretend to be a cruel Nazi and portray that he was beating his colleague, saying something like: "What if I pour batteries in your veins?"

Wired journalist also met with a girl who had sexual relations with Madsen; For several weeks that preceded the murder of Wall, they talked almost every day. The girl said that one day, when she could not finish one video project, in a telephone message asked Madsen to motivate her with a threat. Madsen wrote that he was ready to kill in a submarine: he was going to invite his girlfriend there, and then suddenly start cutting her into pieces. The Wired interlocutor emphasizes that their dialogue was jokingly, but she still handed over to the police.

On August 21, the cyclist found on one of the Danish islands a female body without a head, arms and legs. Experts confirmed that it belonged to Wall - and that she was inflicted on 15 blows with a knife in the genital area. A month later, they found her head and legs, as well as bags with the clothes of a journalist and knives. Madsen was charged with murder; He continued to insist that Wall died from an accident. The police searched his computer and found videos in which women were strangled and tortured, and also cut off their heads.

At the end of October, Madsen changed his version of events - he admitted that he was divided by Vall's body, but stated that she had died of carbon monoxide poisoning. Three weeks after that, the police found Bulla's severed hands in the bay of Kyoga.

Wired journalist wrote two letters to the prison. He answered in three. He did not say anything interesting in them: Madsen said that he was bored in prison, that he recently reviewed Terminator 2 and identifies himself with the heroine of Linda Hamilton - she played the mother of the main character, who is forcibly treated in a prison psychiatric clinic. Madsen also said that he was thinking about Vall every day and "feels her spirit."

In January, the police charged Madsen. According to investigators, he planned the murder, preparing a saw on board, knives, sharpened screwdrivers and ropes. Madsen tied it up, beat and hit the Wall with a knife, and then killed it - approved in the document. The trial of the inventor should begin on March 8.