Inventor Charged with Killing Journalist Kim Wall Aboard Submarine

In the latest update of what local investigators have deemed an "extremely disturbing" case, inventor Peter Madsen has been charged with killing journalist Kim Wall, the Associated Press reports. Her dismembered body was found at sea after she took a trip aboard Madsen's submarine last August.

Madsen, 47, who's provided conflicting explanations as to how Wall's torso, head, and legs wound up in the sea off the coast of Copenhagen after his submarine sank, has officially been charged with murder, dismemberment, indecent handling of a corpse, and having sexual relations of a "particularly dangerous nature" with her. After finding her dismembered torso, investigators say Wall, 30, was stabbed multiple times "around or shortly after her death." According to the AP, prosecutors believe Madsen strangled or cut Wall's throat, killing her.

Madsen's lawyer told the AP that her client still claims he didn't murder the journalist, though he admitted to dismembering her body last October. After Madsen was arrested following the fateful submarine trip, he claimed Wall died after hitting her head on the boat's hatch, and then changed his story, saying she suffered carbon monoxide poisoning. Danish investigators also found disturbing videos of women being beheaded or strangled on Madsen's lab computer that they "presume to be real," Reuters reports.

"There is much technical evidence but I won't go into details right now," prosecutor Jakob Buch-Jepsen said at a news conference Tuesday. "Evidence must be presented in court and not in the media."

According to CNN, Madsen could face between five years and life in prison or end up in a mental health facility. His trial is scheduled for March 8.

Wall, who was working on a story about Madsen at the time she boarded his submarine, was a celebrated journalist who contributed to the New York Times, the Atlantic, Harper's, and VICE. Since her death, her family and friends have launched a memorial fund in her name to help support a female reporter cover "the undercurrents of rebellion."

"Kim wanted more women to be out in the world, brushing up against life," the website states, "and we would like to help bend the world in her vision."