SVN solovelanet

68 SVN Solovelanet Global Here below, Kim Wall, the 30-year-old journalist who disappeared after going to Copenhagen harbour to interview Peter Madsen Kim had decided to interview Peter Madsen because he was a peculiar figure, a brilliant and extravagant inventor, the ideal protagonist for one of her stories. Madsen, an aerospace engineer, had incorporated a company with the purpose of creating low-cost mis- siles to be sent to the edge of the atmosphere. But rather than on missiles, Kim wanted the interview to be focused on the submarine; it was that ship, very similar to a German U-Boot of the Second World War, that tickled her interest. In 2014, Madsen had resigned from the company he himself had incorpo- rated, and had started building private submarines. He had built three of them, the last being the UC3 Nautilus in which he was now living. Kim arrived on board the Nautilus at 07.00pm. The sun was still high in the sky. In fact, at that time of year in Denmark it was never night: the sun went down disappearing below the horizon, but not enough to make the darkness fall, therefore at any time of day and night there was always some light. Madsen had promised Kim that he would take her for a ride on the bottom of Køge bay, in the strait that separates Denmark from Sweden. When she arrived, Madsen warmly welco- med her and showed her his little gem. The submarine really looked like a miniature U-Boot, as she had heard it described by many.The inventor invited the journali- st to go up to the turret and someone, from a distance, took a photograph that showed Kim and Peter laughing. Then they left. About an hour later, at 08.30pm, another person, from a fer- ry, took a second photograph of the submarine sailing on the surface. From that moment on, nobody saw Kim Wall again. Her boyfriend called her se- veral times, but to no avail. He thought that there might not be cell phone recep- tion inside the submarine, but the next morning, when he saw that Kim had not yet returned home, he became very worried and went to the police. The search for the journalist began immediately. The police first went to the Nautilus pier, and there Peter Madsen declared that he had drop- ped the journalist on land the night before. But on the afternoon of that day, a private boat had rescued Madsen from the wreckage of his submarine.

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