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Limbs removed 'deliberately' from Copenhagen body: police

Michael Barrett
Michael Barrett - [email protected]
Limbs removed 'deliberately' from Copenhagen body: police
Lead investigator Jens Møller Jensen speaks to press on Monday evening. Photo: Jens Astrup/Scanpix

Police in Denmark have confirmed that a body that was found washed up on shores near Copenhagen on Monday had its arms, legs and head "deliberately" removed.

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In a video statement released to press via Twitter, lead investigator Jens Møller Jensen stressed that it is still uncertain whether the body is that of missing Swedish journalist Kim Wall.

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

“Current status is that there is a torso whereby the arms, legs and head have been removed by means of deliberate cutting,” Jensen said.

“The length of the torso means that there is nothing to suggest that it is not Kim Wall, but we do not yet know,” he said.

Samples taken for DNA testing would provide further information in the identification of the body by Wednesday morning, the investigator added.

“Material has been taken for DNA analysis. We will not have the results until tomorrow, and it must then be matched against DNA material from Kim Wall,” he said.

At a press briefing on Monday evening, Jensen confirmed that the female torso, without arms, legs or head, had been found in water off the island of Amager.

“We have recovered the body in the proper manner. It is the torso of a woman… The torso has been taken to the Department of Forensic Medicine [at the University of Copenhagen, ed.] where an inquest will be conducted,” he said.

“Clearly, the police, like the media and everyone else, are speculating as to whether [the body] is Kim Wall. It far, far too early to say anything about that. We simply do not know,” the lead investigator added.

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

Jensen also said during the Monday briefing that the body bore clear signs of having been submerged in the water for some time, with Jensen saying that the body had “certainly not fallen in the water today.”

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 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 yesterday.

Jensen also said in the press message released on Tuesday that police were continuing to search in the water near where the torso was discovered in an effort to find other remains.


Police divers on the shore of Amager on Tuesday. Photo: Liselotte Sabroe/Scanpix

READ ALSO: Danish submarine 'deliberately sunk' after journalist vanished

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