Danish submarine builder says falling hatch door killed journalist

A Danish inventor accused of killing a journalist aboard his homemade submarine said Tuesday that she died when a hatch door fell on her head, but prosecutors insisted he murdered her. Wearing army fatigues, black Converse sneakers, and a blank expression on his face, Peter Madsen appeared in a Copenhagen district court for a custody hearing over the grisly case that has gripped global audiences.
At the end of the four-hour hearing, the judge ordered Madsen held in custody suspected of murder until October 3. Journalist Kim Wall, 30, vanished after interviewing Madsen aboard his homemade submarine on August 10. Her headless torso was found floating in waters off Copenhagen on August 21.
Madsen told the court the pair had sailed out of the Copenhagen port in the early evening, with the vessel resurfacing after a two-hour dive. He told how he climbed out of the sub's tower, holding the 70-kilogramme (154-pound) hatch door for Wall, who was following him out of the tower. But he slipped and lost his grip on the door, which fell on her head, killing her instantly and causing her to bleed from the head.
"I saw a closed hatch. I heard a bump. I didn't hear a scream," he told the court, saying he found no pulse when he checked her body. In a panic, he threw her overboard, he said, insisting the body was intact. "In the shock I was in, it was the right thing to do," Madsen told the court, adding that he had even contemplated taking his own life.
Asked why he didn't contact authorities, he replied: "I knew the world I lived in... had died. There was nothing left for me." The 46-year-old has been held in custody since August 12 suspected of "negligent manslaughter". But Danish prosecutors on Tuesday insisted the suspicion be changed to murder and desecration of a corpse.
Prosecutor Jakob Buch-Jepsen accused Madsen of "having killed Kim Wall in an undetermined fashion, then he dismembered the body, he cut the torso and tied pipes to it with the intention of sinking it to the seabed." Buch-Jepsen said the pipes could be traced back to Madsen's submarine workshop, though the defence argued there was no proof of that. Madsen admitted Tuesday to tossing the body overboard, but denied having mutilated it. The judge ordered Madsen to undergo a psychiatric evaluation. Authorities are still searching for the rest of Wall's remains, which they hope will provide clues about the cause of death.