Ep 25: He Built a Submarine by Hand, Invited a Journalist Aboard, and Dismembered Her at Sea — The Peter Madsen and Kim Wall Case

Pre-dawn. Copenhagen. The sound of helicopter rotors cutting through dark water.The Danish Coast Guard had been searching since before midnight. Three Navy vessels, working a grid pattern across Køge Bay. They were looking for a sixty-foot submarine that had gone down the previous evening and not come back.A lighthouse keeper spotted it first. A shape on the grey chop. Radio contact was made.Standing on the hull with both arms raised above his head was a man. He gave his name when asked. He was the submarine's owner. Its builder — steel plate by steel plate, crowdfunded money and volunteer labour. By all accounts, the largest privately built submarine in history.His passenger's return to shore had been the last message she ever sent.Kim Wall was 30 years old. A Swedish freelance journalist who had written for TIME, Vice, The Guardian and the New York Times. Someone her colleagues described as genuinely curious, deeply principled, and utterly fearless in the field. She had boarded Peter Madsen's submarine UC3 Nautilus on the evening of August 10th, 2017, for what was supposed to be a short interview trip. She had texted her boyfriend that she was on the sub. She said she'd be home soon.What Peter Madsen did to Kim Wall on that submarine is one of the most disturbing things this podcast has ever covered. And the story of who he was before that night — the TED-talking, crowdfunded, charismatic inventor who convinced an entire city he was visionary — makes it worse.This week on You're Killing Me, Shawnee covers the murder of Kim Wall and the case of Peter Madsen — a story about a woman who deserved far better, and a man who was nothing like what he seemed.Topics: Peter Madsen | Kim Wall | Danish true crime | submarine murder | Copenhagen | Scandinavian true crime | journalist murder | UC3 Nautilus | 2017 | true crime Europe | YKMNew episodes every Monday. Follow so you never miss one.