A private submarine builder is at the center of a saga that may plumb the depths of human depravity.
Danish submarine builder Peter Madsen, is reportedly under arrest on charges of involuntary manslaughter, in the disappearance and suspected death of journalist Kim Wall. She was apparently the only passenger aboard the UC3 Nautilus, the sub built and run by Madsen, on its last voyage from the port of Copenhagen before it sunk.
“It appears to be a deliberate act to sink the submarine,” Copenhagen police homicide inspector Jens Moller told reporters, according to The New York Times.
Wall, a 30-year-old Columbia University School of Journalism grad, was last seen on Thursday smiling from the submarine tower in a photograph taken by a passerby and posted by local news media.
After her boyfriend reported her missing the next morning and that she had been working on a story on the sub, a search party arrived to find the 26-foot submarine sinking. Only Masden, 46, emerged to swim to the rescuers.
He later told police that he dropped off Wall the previous night in a remote part of the port and was alone at the time of the sinking. But police said there were inconsistencies in his story.
No body was found aboard the vessel after authorities had it raised from the seafloor of the bay on Sunday.
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