As part of an ongoing investigation into missing Swedish journalist Kim Wall, police say they have found evidence that a submarine the reporter had boarded prior to her disappearance had been deliberately sunk by its inventor, Peter Madsen.
According to The Guardian, Madsen has been taken into custody on preliminary manslaughter charges and is being held in detention for 24 days while investigations continue. Police spokesman Jens Møller Jensen says that the submarine, which sank Friday off the coast of Copenhagen, has been pulled to the surface and is being examined. Wall’s body, however, has not been found. Authorities are continuing their search for her, and Madsen’s attorneys say he maintains his innocence.
Wall has worked as a reporter for several outlets, including The New York Times and Vice. Madsen is a Danish inventor who crowdfunded the construction of the submarine, Nautilus, in 2008. When the submarine sank, Madsen blamed the incident on “a minor problem with a ballast tank” that “turned into a major issue.”
Police say that Wall had been on the submarine prior to the sinking, though they are still determining whether she was onboard when the incident took place. Madsen says that Wall had been on the submarine but disembarked the evening prior to the sinking. When asked why he did not respond to radio contact when the submarine went down, Madsen cited “technical problems.”