6 ms·

The article doesn't mention it, but the suspect Peter Madsen is the cofounder of Copenhagen Suborbitals. This is an absolutely crazy story which just gets more

by marvin 9y ago

The article doesn't mention it, but the suspect Peter Madsen is the cofounder of Copenhagen Suborbitals. This is an absolutely crazy story which just gets more insane by the day. Starting with a missing journalist and seemingly accidental sinking of a private submarine, getting more and more weird and inconsistent until now a decapitated, limbless corpse shows up. With the corpse cut in pieces, it's hard to reach any other conclusion than that this was a murder. Or just almost in the region of the semi-plausably concievable, an accident followed by a gruesome attempt to cover it up. The repeated change of stories certainly doesn't help his credibility, and the explanation doesn't stand to reason in any way.

colde 9y ago
Worth noting here that he haven't had anything to do with Copenhagen Suborbitals for a few years, as he split away to do his own thing (RML Spacelab).
jacquesm 9y ago
> Or just almost in the region of the semi-plausably concievable, an accident followed by a gruesome attempt to cover it up. The accident theory is being stretched beyond the breaking point by now, I find it hard to come up with even a remotely plausible theory of what kind of accident it would have to be to justify the subsequent events. Such an accident would have to look so suspiciously close to murder that he responded just as if it actually was a murder.
- marvin 9y ago
  My comment came out a little more ambiguously than intended, so just for the sake of clarity: I was pointing out that there is not much room for doubt here. There is certainly no reasonable probability that he's innocent with the evidence that's shown up by now.
  - londons_explore 9y ago
    Imagine for some reason the journalist died, but then he felt the need to hide the body to, for example, hide evidence of an affair.
    - jacquesm 9y ago
      That makes absolutely zero sense, he was seen going on board with her by many people and there are pictures in the media of it. Besides that, the guy was according to many accounts in an open relationship, on top of that the trip with the sub was going to be published.
- ladbye 9y ago
  One theory I've seen was that PM is a highly eccentric person, that's always had problems fitting in and dealing with other people - when working on co-projects. The submarine project was his own, and he was his own boss. If in fact it was an accident that happened down there, it could be hypothesised that PM was afraid that he would loose everything he cared about if the police did not believe it was an accident. Imagine that everything you hold dear is in risk of being taken away from you - that everything you've worked on for so many years may disappear due to something that wasn't your fault? If you have a derailed mindset and think your odds of not loosing everything will improve if you dispose of the body instead of contacting the police immediately? If you have no faith in other people and their judgements? I am not defending PM, as I think his reasoning and action in any case were completely psychotic in itself, but I can imagine a scenario that - with everything we know up until now - has not been disproven ... although I'm of the firm belief that he did kill that poor girl.
  - jacquesm 9y ago
    I'm sure that Madsen will do everything he can to make this sort of explanation for the facts (that is: until some new bit of evidence pops up). Being eccentric is fine, Howard Hughes was an eccentric and so are many writers and film makers. But butchering bodies (the result of an accident or a murder) goes substantially beyond merely being eccentric, it points to having a complete lack of empathy.
    - ladbye 9y ago
      I agree. So far we just haven't heard anything from PM's past that would indicate the lack of empathy ... until now. It's going to be interesting once the police starts talking more about the accident that should've happened. PM must have given a version of what happened, and to some extent a plausible one, since the prosecutor is still sticking to involuntary manslaughter (and most likely also improper interference with a corpse after today's identification and facts).
    - dmix 9y ago
      It still wasn't premeditated murder either. Which is an important distinction. Best case scenario was his desperation to protect his reputation given this was the first journalist to visit his submarine who proceeded to die within his care would destroy his reputation. He probably freaked out and made a series of bad choices. Worst case this was a crime of passion. A 10yr manslaughter sentence seems like an appropriate punishment here.
quickthrower2 9y ago
Yeah I can't see how a jury would not convict on murder unless there is some technicality or excluded evidence.
- rangibaby 9y ago
  There's always something. Look at the OJ Simpson case. Bizzare to say the least, especially the whole Mark Furhman saga.
- iClaudiusX 9y ago
  Robert Durst got away with killing and dismembering his victim because his defense claimed self-defense while shifting the jury's attention and anger toward the prosecutor for being an ambitious woman. If you haven't seen HBO's The Jinx it's well worth the time and absolutely terrifying to see how easily manipulated a jury can be.
  - Lewton 9y ago
    While that's fascinating and creepy I just want to point out that the Danish jury system have very little incommon with the American jury system Professional jury vs a jury system basically designed to ensure the least qualified people are in the jury
    - brusch64 9y ago
      Can you please elaborate the point "professional jury vs a jury system basically designed to ensure the least qualified people are in the jury" ?
      - Lewton 9y ago
        The way the "jury of your peers" is selected in the american justice system means that sometimes if a person actually has any knowledge in the field the case is about (say a computer scientist in a software patent infringement case) they will be filtered out in the jury selection process. On top of that, jury duty is seen as something to be avoided, so there's also the adage that juries only consist of people not smart enough to get out of jury duty. In contrast to Denmark, where in a lot of cases the jury is the three judges preceding over the case, or in cases where there's a real jury, they jurors have some form of law degree

by marvin 9y ago

colde 9y ago

Worth noting here that he haven't had anything to do with Copenhagen Suborbitals for a few years, as he split away to do his own thing (RML Spacelab).

jacquesm 9y ago

> Or just almost in the region of the semi-plausably concievable, an accident followed by a gruesome attempt to cover it up. The accident theory is being stretched beyond the breaking point by now, I find it hard to come up with even a remotely plausible theory of what kind of accident it would have to be to justify the subsequent events. Such an accident would have to look so suspiciously close to murder that he responded just as if it actually was a murder.

marvin 9y ago
My comment came out a little more ambiguously than intended, so just for the sake of clarity: I was pointing out that there is not much room for doubt here. There is certainly no reasonable probability that he's innocent with the evidence that's shown up by now.
- londons_explore 9y ago
  Imagine for some reason the journalist died, but then he felt the need to hide the body to, for example, hide evidence of an affair.
  - jacquesm 9y ago
    That makes absolutely zero sense, he was seen going on board with her by many people and there are pictures in the media of it. Besides that, the guy was according to many accounts in an open relationship, on top of that the trip with the sub was going to be published.
ladbye 9y ago
One theory I've seen was that PM is a highly eccentric person, that's always had problems fitting in and dealing with other people - when working on co-projects. The submarine project was his own, and he was his own boss. If in fact it was an accident that happened down there, it could be hypothesised that PM was afraid that he would loose everything he cared about if the police did not believe it was an accident. Imagine that everything you hold dear is in risk of being taken away from you - that everything you've worked on for so many years may disappear due to something that wasn't your fault? If you have a derailed mindset and think your odds of not loosing everything will improve if you dispose of the body instead of contacting the police immediately? If you have no faith in other people and their judgements? I am not defending PM, as I think his reasoning and action in any case were completely psychotic in itself, but I can imagine a scenario that - with everything we know up until now - has not been disproven ... although I'm of the firm belief that he did kill that poor girl.
- jacquesm 9y ago
  I'm sure that Madsen will do everything he can to make this sort of explanation for the facts (that is: until some new bit of evidence pops up). Being eccentric is fine, Howard Hughes was an eccentric and so are many writers and film makers. But butchering bodies (the result of an accident or a murder) goes substantially beyond merely being eccentric, it points to having a complete lack of empathy.
  - ladbye 9y ago
    I agree. So far we just haven't heard anything from PM's past that would indicate the lack of empathy ... until now. It's going to be interesting once the police starts talking more about the accident that should've happened. PM must have given a version of what happened, and to some extent a plausible one, since the prosecutor is still sticking to involuntary manslaughter (and most likely also improper interference with a corpse after today's identification and facts).
  - dmix 9y ago
    It still wasn't premeditated murder either. Which is an important distinction. Best case scenario was his desperation to protect his reputation given this was the first journalist to visit his submarine who proceeded to die within his care would destroy his reputation. He probably freaked out and made a series of bad choices. Worst case this was a crime of passion. A 10yr manslaughter sentence seems like an appropriate punishment here.

quickthrower2 9y ago

Yeah I can't see how a jury would not convict on murder unless there is some technicality or excluded evidence.

rangibaby 9y ago
There's always something. Look at the OJ Simpson case. Bizzare to say the least, especially the whole Mark Furhman saga.
iClaudiusX 9y ago
Robert Durst got away with killing and dismembering his victim because his defense claimed self-defense while shifting the jury's attention and anger toward the prosecutor for being an ambitious woman. If you haven't seen HBO's The Jinx it's well worth the time and absolutely terrifying to see how easily manipulated a jury can be.
- Lewton 9y ago
  While that's fascinating and creepy I just want to point out that the Danish jury system have very little incommon with the American jury system Professional jury vs a jury system basically designed to ensure the least qualified people are in the jury
  - brusch64 9y ago
    Can you please elaborate the point "professional jury vs a jury system basically designed to ensure the least qualified people are in the jury" ?
    - Lewton 9y ago
      The way the "jury of your peers" is selected in the american justice system means that sometimes if a person actually has any knowledge in the field the case is about (say a computer scientist in a software patent infringement case) they will be filtered out in the jury selection process. On top of that, jury duty is seen as something to be avoided, so there's also the adage that juries only consist of people not smart enough to get out of jury duty. In contrast to Denmark, where in a lot of cases the jury is the three judges preceding over the case, or in cases where there's a real jury, they jurors have some form of law degree