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Body found near Copenhagen is Kim Wall: police

Michael Barrett
Michael Barrett - [email protected]
Body found near Copenhagen is Kim Wall: police
Kim Wall. Photo: Tom Wall/Scanpix Denmark/Helsingborgs Dagblad

Copenhagen Police confirmed Wednesday morning that a torso washed up near Copenhagen is that of missing Swedish journalist Kim Wall.

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“DNA match between torso and Kim Wall,” police wrote early on Wednesday in a tweet confirming the DNA match.

Lead investigator Jens Møller Jensen said at a press briefing at Copenhagen’s Politigården police headquarters on Wednesday morning that DNA from muscle taken from the torso and blood found in the submarine had been matched to samples from some of Kim Wall’s belongings.

“There’s a connection that tells us it is one and the same person… we have an identical DNA match from a hair brush and a toothbrush belonging to Kim Wall, from blood in the submarine, and from the torso on which we conducted autopsy yesterday,” he said.

The lead inspector also told media that it appeared Wall's body had been tampered with to make it sink.

“With regard to the autopsy, I can add that there are some injuries to the torso that appear to have been caused deliberately in an attempt to ensure that air leaves the body to prevent it from floating or leaving the sea bed.”

“Similarly, metal was attached to the body, ostensibly to make sure that it sank to the bottom,” Jensen said.

The inspector added that he considered the DNA match to be a “relatively big breakthrough” in the investigation of Wall’s death.

The discovery of the torso and Wall’s disappearance could now be treated as one and the same case, he said.

The torso was found near the shore on the island of Amager on Monday afternoon.

On Tuesday, police said that the body’s arms, legs and head had been ‘deliberately’ removed.

“Current status is that there is a torso whereby the arms, legs and head have been removed by means of deliberate cutting,” lead investigator Jens Møller Jensen said in a video statement released to press via Twitter on Tuesday.

Freelance journalist Wall went missing after having boarded the 18-metre UC3 Nautilus sub on the evening of August 10th, apparently as part of her work on a feature story about its owner, inventor and entrepreneur Peter Madsen.

Madsen was brought back alone to a harbour on Copenhagen on Friday August 11th after the vessel sank in waters near Køge Bay.

The submarine owner initially claimed that he had brought Wall back to land at around 10.30pm on the night of her disappearance.

On Monday August 14th, police said that they believed the Nautilus to have been sunk deliberately, after the vessel was raised and brought to land for forensic examination.

Copenhagen Police confirmed on Monday morning that Madsen told Copenhagen City Court on August 12th that he had buried Wall at sea after she died on board due to an “accident”.

That information was kept behind closed doors by the court until Monday.

Madsen’s lawyer Betina Hald Engmark told the BT tabloid on Wednesday morning that the DNA match does not change the explanation given by her client for Wall’s death.

“The DNA match does not change my client’s explanation that there was an accident,” Engmark told the newspaper.

“We consider it to be a positive thing that she [Wall, ed.] has now been found,” she added.

Police will continue searching in waters off Copenhagen for the remaining parts of the body, Jensen confirmed on Wednesday.

A call by police for any witnesses who may have seen the submarine on the night of Wall’s disappearance or following morning still stands, he added.

The investigation will proceed with further forensic testing as well as ongoing collection of witness statements.

READ ALSO: Kim Wall died in accident on board submarine: Peter Madsen

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