And en-passant changes his story - again - because the head of the victim was recovered and did not have any fractures to support his previous story (that she was killed by the hatch) so now he's changed it to say that she died of carbon monoxide poisoning while he was outside on the deck of the sub.
I really wished he'd stop playing games but it seems to be Madsen's nature to believe that he can outsmart everybody else. They're also digging around in his past based on some snuff movies recovered from his devices.
What an incredible asshole. I really hope they use his playing games against him at sentencing time.
Indeed, what a needless, senseless waste of a human life, and what a loathsome human being. It's scary to think he may have been walking around with this motivation inside of him for years. Fingers crossed they lock him up and throw away the key. I'm all for rehabilitation but with this case I think retribution and public safety must come first.
Much like Hans Reiser telling increasingly implausible stories to explain all the really obvious evidence that he murdered his ex-wife, and then (against his lawyer's advice) testifying to those things in court.
No lawyer would let a murderer on the stand. It's almost always a disaster.
Regarding Madsens 'story' it's not clear that this wasn't the defence attorneys ideas all along. We're blaming Madsen based on 3rd party information but most lawyers will go down any avenue they can to try to find a more lenient sentence.
Judges do consider the murderers willingness to admit guilt and be honest during sentencing. But in the early stages of the case like this it's still pretty wide open... and he's going to be facing a murder charge regardless. There's no way he's getting off easier with a chopped up body.
I don't know about his country, but here in Canada a 2nd degree murder charge (where you didn't premeditate the murder) can still get you the equivalent of 1st degree (life), given the circumstances of the crime. And the circumstances are pretty bad here given he sawed her in half.
Given that he almost certainly knows that he's fucked, does he have any real incentive to? I would imagine this is a life-in-prison sort of scenario; there isn't much reason to not dissemble as much as possible here.
We seem to punish extreme violence with a similarly light touch in the UK also, but speak out online about a protected group and you'll be in clink in short order.
Murder in Denmark is never a life-in-prison sort of scenario. The average served sentence for a "life term" is 16 years and in modern times only one murderer has served much more than 16 years. That guy, Palle Sorensen, murdered four police officers and still got parole after 32 years!
I mean, the facts I offer are accurate. In modern times not a single person has served life without parole. It could happen, but it would be entirely new, so I couldn't predict either for or against its likelihood.
Sorry, I didn't mean to imply you were untruthful. I was instead asking if the same sentencing would apply to a case like this. I assume there's not much precedent for sentencing a case like this in Denmark. Honestly this seems worse than Palle Sorensen, who shot police officers during a chase, and didn't plot their deaths or torture them.
It's certainly the highest profile and perhaps worst case in recent memory but not by a country mile. Jorn Nielsen murdered a rival gangster and was paroled, killed another guy and was paroled again. The country seems intent on protecting its worst at the expense of law abiding citizens. The Danes put flowers on the grave of terrorists: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Copenhagen_shootings
* She died after a hatch fell on her head that I was holding up, but was too heavy; I dumped her body in the sea, but I did not dismember her
* She died from CO poisoning, I dismembered her and I dumped her body in the sea
At this point, he's a single step away in his story from admitting to the murder. After that there's one more step from admitting sexual assault (which the 14 stabs to the pubic area seem to suggest).
At this point the only way the truth will be established is by the expertise of the investigators and the technical experts.
Madsens mental status will be tested by professionals before the trial. If it "his nature" then it will be found. Random killing scares people and get a lot of media attention but the legal system is treating this professionally has so far been quite good at answering the question of how the death of kim wall happened. Media will publish answers to the question of why as soon the legal system comes to that point in the investigation and the trial begins.
I lived on Refshaleøen for 6 months, quite close to his workshop and I am friends with a bunch of people that he frequently lent electricity for outdoor events in the area. Apparently he was a very nice man, though a little bit eccentric.
My impression is that premeditated murders rarely occur in Denmark (outside of gang violence), and this case is garnering an enourmous amount of publicity. The rights for the movie have already been secured.
>My impression is that premeditated murders rarely occur in Denmark
I'm not sure this was premeditated. He might just have been having these fantasies for a while, and then just decided to do it when he had this lady in his submarine.
I think in much the same way the the Trump administration has satirists scratching their heads how to keep up with reality, this case has crime novelists wondering how reality managed to outdo them.
Yeah, it's unlikely that a guy with a hard drive full of videos of women's beheadings was planning anything when he invited a woman onto his private boat and then beheaded her.
What he had on his hard drive only shows that he would be the guy to enjoy to behead someone (at least as a fantasy) -- not that he was also so stupid as to plan to do it inside inside a small tube in the ocean where others knew he would be alone with the victim.
Why is this post even here? Isn't hn about technology? How is the news of a murder even remotely tech related? Quality of posts on hn is falling these days.
This story nevertheless doesn't really qualify as on-topic, but I assume this story is getting picked up here because it's a follow up to the initial story, which people found interesting due to the involvement of a DIY sub, rocketry groups, ...
Yes it would be but how are they particularly related to Madden? Musk and Bezos aren’t just inventors, they are CEOs and highly successful inventors whose companies have an ongoing and huge influence on HN’s world. Madsen is not particularly well known as an inventor — certainly his achievements in morbid crime have made him more famous than his submarine.
Same reason the murder of Hans Reiser's wife was noteworthy: because we like to think that one of "our own" is incapable of it, and we gawk like an OJ Simpson fan when shown otherwise.
On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.
38 comments
[ 5.0 ms ] story [ 44.6 ms ] threadI really wished he'd stop playing games but it seems to be Madsen's nature to believe that he can outsmart everybody else. They're also digging around in his past based on some snuff movies recovered from his devices.
What an incredible asshole. I really hope they use his playing games against him at sentencing time.
Regarding Madsens 'story' it's not clear that this wasn't the defence attorneys ideas all along. We're blaming Madsen based on 3rd party information but most lawyers will go down any avenue they can to try to find a more lenient sentence.
Judges do consider the murderers willingness to admit guilt and be honest during sentencing. But in the early stages of the case like this it's still pretty wide open... and he's going to be facing a murder charge regardless. There's no way he's getting off easier with a chopped up body.
I don't know about his country, but here in Canada a 2nd degree murder charge (where you didn't premeditate the murder) can still get you the equivalent of 1st degree (life), given the circumstances of the crime. And the circumstances are pretty bad here given he sawed her in half.
Given that he almost certainly knows that he's fucked, does he have any real incentive to? I would imagine this is a life-in-prison sort of scenario; there isn't much reason to not dissemble as much as possible here.
You'd be surprised. He could be out in 10 years or so, even if convicted.
* I dropped her off at the dock
* She died, I buried her at sea
* She died after a hatch fell on her head that I was holding up, but was too heavy; I dumped her body in the sea, but I did not dismember her
* She died from CO poisoning, I dismembered her and I dumped her body in the sea
At this point, he's a single step away in his story from admitting to the murder. After that there's one more step from admitting sexual assault (which the 14 stabs to the pubic area seem to suggest).
Madsens mental status will be tested by professionals before the trial. If it "his nature" then it will be found. Random killing scares people and get a lot of media attention but the legal system is treating this professionally has so far been quite good at answering the question of how the death of kim wall happened. Media will publish answers to the question of why as soon the legal system comes to that point in the investigation and the trial begins.
My impression is that premeditated murders rarely occur in Denmark (outside of gang violence), and this case is garnering an enourmous amount of publicity. The rights for the movie have already been secured.
From whom? This kind of thing really irks me. I hope no one is paying this ... person for the "rights" to tell his story.
I'm not sure this was premeditated. He might just have been having these fantasies for a while, and then just decided to do it when he had this lady in his submarine.
Who said it was premeditated?
If it was premeditated then a private submarine while others know you went on trip with the victim would be the very worst place to commit it.
What he had on his hard drive only shows that he would be the guy to enjoy to behead someone (at least as a fantasy) -- not that he was also so stupid as to plan to do it inside inside a small tube in the ocean where others knew he would be alone with the victim.
No. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
This story nevertheless doesn't really qualify as on-topic, but I assume this story is getting picked up here because it's a follow up to the initial story, which people found interesting due to the involvement of a DIY sub, rocketry groups, ...
No. Perhaps you haven't read the guidelines...
On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.
otherwise you'd just bring the submarine back to shore and call the authorities.