Peter Madsen, Danish Submarine Killer of Journalist Kim Wall, Breaks Out of Prison With Fake Bomb

The Danish millionaire who captured headlines after he killed a journalist on his DIY submarine broke out of prison Tuesday, threatening guards by claiming he was carrying a bomb—and was swiftly recaptured a few hundred yards from the prison in Albertslund in suburban Copenhagen. Peter Madsen was sentenced to life in prison in 2018 for the murder of journalist Kim Wall. Her mutilated body was found in August 2017 after she boarded his home-made sub to research an article about the inventor. Madsen claimed Wall had been suffocated by an accidental gas leak, but forensic tests found that she had either been strangled or had her throat cut and had been mutilated with a knife or screwdriver. Police said at the time that images of women being strangled and decapitated, “which we presumed to be real,” had been found on Madsen’s computer.

Denmark’s Ekstra Bladet released footage that showed police and a presumed K-9 officer at a grassy scene surrounding a man that appeared to be Madsen sitting up against a fence.